As the time went by I marvelled that I was still alive.

I had no sensation whatever in my lower limbs, while a chilling numbness was wrapping about my heart and creeping into it.

Small waves, with spiteful foaming crests, continually broke over me and into my mouth, sending me off into more strangling paroxysms.
The noises grew indistinct, though I heard a final and despairing chorus of screams in the distance, and knew that the _Martinez_ had gone down.
Later,--how much later I have no knowledge,--I came to myself with a start of fear.

I was alone.

I could hear no calls or cries--only the sound of the waves, made weirdly hollow and reverberant by the fog.