It was well I did, for it covered the boat fully a third of the way aft, and three times, in the next several hours, it flung off the bulk of the down-rushing water when the bow shoved under the seas.
Maud's condition was pitiable.

She sat crouched in the bottom of the boat, her lips blue, her face grey and plainly showing the pain she suffered.

But ever her eyes looked bravely at me, and ever her lips uttered brave words.
The worst of the storm must have blown that night, though little I noticed it.

I had succumbed and slept where I sat in the stern-sheets.
The morning of the fourth day found the wind diminished to a gentle whisper, the sea dying down and the sun shining upon us.

Oh, the blessed sun! How we bathed our poor bodies in its delicious warmth, reviving like bugs and crawling things after a storm.