CHAPTER XLV.
JANUARY 16th .-- If the crew of any passing vessel had caught sight of us as we lay still and inanimate upon our sail-cloth, they would scarcely, at first sight, have hesitated to pronounce us dead.
My sufferings were terrible; tongue, lips, and throat were so parched and swollen that if food had been at hand I question whether I could have swallowed it.

So exasperated were the feelings of us all, however, that we glanced at each other with looks as savage as though we were about to slaughter and without delay eat up one another.
The heat was aggravated by the atmosphere being somewhat stormy.

Heavy vapours gathered on the horizon, and there was a look as if it were raining all around.

Longing eyes and gasping mouths turned involuntarily towards the clouds, and M.Letourneur, on bended knee, was raising his hands, as it might be in supplication to the relentless skies.
It was eleven o'clock in the morning.

I listened for distant rumblings which might announce an approaching storm, but although the vapours had obstructed the sun's rays, they no longer presented the appearance of being charged with electricity.