Let him rest." "Aye," said Captain Miles; "but, how's Gottlieb going on--are you better, my man ?" But, there was no answer to the captain's question; and Jackson, bending over the German sailor, found his heart had ceased to beat, his body already becoming cold.
"Golly, Mass' Cap'en," called out Jake, "him 'peak de trute dat time, suah, him dead as door-nail!" This news made everyone silent, each man thinking how soon his own time might come; and we anxiously awaited the morning.
During the sad episode that had occurred the wind had risen, beginning to blow pretty strongly from the westwards.

The sea, too, had got up, for short choppy waves were dashing against the stern of the ship and throwing their broken wash over us.

This made our situation less comfortable than it had been previously, our worn-out bodies and hunger- stricken frames not being able to stand the exposure so well now as at first.
The masts, also, were grinding against the bulwarks and making a horrible din, the crunching of the timber work and splintering noise of the planks almost deadening the noise of the sea and preventing us from hearing each other speak.

Not that we felt much inclined for conversation, answering for myself; for, I was chilled to the bone from the cool evening air penetrating my wet clothes, which got more and more saturated as the waves came over the poop, while I was faint with hunger and exhausted from want of sleep.
Thus the weary night passed, the sky being clouded over so that even the lights of heaven could not shine down to cheer us up; and, to add to the bitterness of our unhappy plight, our hearts were full of the untimely end of poor Gottlieb, the German sailor who had passed away so suddenly from amongst us, and the shocking disclosure he had made just before his tired spirit sought eternal rest, of the treachery of Davis--whose terrible fate, in front of our very eyes, seemed a just judgment for his murder of Hermann and foiled vengeance on Jackson, the latter of whom had evidently only escaped with his life through the wretched man's mistake.
At last, when it seemed as if we could hold out no longer, a faint gleam appeared in the east lighting up the horizon, and morning dawned gloomily upon us; but, a heavy mist hung over the sea and it took the rays of the rising sun a long time to pierce through this, albeit there was light enough for us to survey the scene around.
The ocean now, instead of rising and falling with the sullen swell that had given motion to it the day before, was covered with short broken waves that rolled up from the westwards with the wind, dashing against the partly-submerged vessel and throwing clouds of spray over those portions of the hull above the surface of the water, a large share of which we also came in for.
This motion of the sea, we could perceive, had considerably altered the position of the masts that had been cut away, for they were rolling over and grinding down the starboard bulwarks, the inboard ends working themselves gradually fore and aft the ship, the lee side of which had risen quite a couple of feet higher out of the water during the night.
"Another good wave or two will send all that hamper adrift," said Captain Miles, looking round and calculating our chances.
"Yes," replied Mr Marline, "they are coming from the right direction too, for if they broke over us abeam, then the foremast could not free itself.

Now it possibly may, from the leverage it has against the fo'c's'le." "You're right," said the captain; "and here comes a good-sized roller that may finish the job.