HOW I FELL INTO THE _RED HAND_ I must have fallen into a stupor, as the effect of the terrible strain on mind and body of all I had gone through.

For I remember nothing of that first night on the spar, and only came slowly back to sense of sodden pain and hunger when the sun was up.

Some sailorly instinct, of which I have no recollection whatever, had taken a turn of the rope under my arms and round the yard, and so kept me from slipping away.

But I woke up to agonies of cold--a sodden deadness of the limbs which set me wondering numbly if I had any legs left--and a gnawing hunger and emptiness.

I felt no thirst; perhaps because my body was so soaked with water.