However, I escaped its sound when I lay down to sleep at night by a very simple plan.

As I was stone-deaf in the right ear I always slept on the left side.
Seven weary months had passed away, when one morning, on scanning the horizon, I suddenly leaped into the air and screamed: "My God! A sail! A sail!" I nearly became delirious with excitement, but, alas! the ship was too far out to sea to notice my frantic signals.

My island lay very low, and all that I could make out of the vessel in the distance was her sails.

She must have been fully five miles away, yet, in my excitement, I ran up and down the miserable beach, shouting in a frenzy and waving my arms in the hope of attracting the attention of some one on board; but it was all in vain.

The ship, which I concluded was a pearler, kept steadily on her way, and eventually disappeared below the horizon.
Never can I hope to describe the gnawing pain at my heart as, hoarse and half mad, I sank exhausted on the sand, watching the last vestige of the ship disappearing.