noon
This , however , I was not surprised at , for -- as nearly as I could judge -- the felucca showed barely nine inches of freeboard ! Still the little hooker seemed surprisingly buoyant , considering her water-logged condition , and now that the seas no longer broke over her , there seemed to be no reason why , given enough time , I should not be able to pump her dry , and resume my voyage to Barbadoes . So I rigged the pump and went to work , hoping that , as the gale had now abated and the sea had gone down , the straining of the hull and the opening of the seams had ceased , and that consequently the felucca was no longer in a leaky condition . I toiled on throughout the whole of that roasting morning , with the sun beating mercilessly down upon me , while the water swirled athwart the deck and about my legs , until noon , and then , utterly exhausted with my labour , my skin burning with fever and my hands raw and bleeding , I was fain to cry `` spell ho ! '' and give up for a time , while I sought somewhat to eat and drink . I had worked with a good will , sanguinely hoping that when I felt myself compelled to knock off I should discover that I had sensibly diminished the amount of water in the felucca 's interior ; but this hope was cruelly disappointed , for when I reached the companion , on my way below , I found that there was no perceptible difference in the height of the water in the cabin from what it had been before I turned to ; indeed the water seemed to have _ risen _ rather than diminished , a sure indication that the hull was still leaking , and that by no effort of mine could I hope to keep the craft much longer afloat . And now , as I descended to the cabin , and noted the violence with which the water surged hither and thither with the rolling and pitching of the little vessel , a wild fear seized upon me that I might find all the provisions in the pantry spoiled .