"Friend Ned, I do not despair of this stout Nautilus, as you do; and in four days we shall know what to hold to on the Pacific tides. Besides, flight might be possible if we were in sight of the English or Provencal coast; but on the Papuan shores, it is another thing; and it will be time enough to come to that extremity if the Nautilus does not recover itself again, which I look upon as a grave event."
"Well, friend Ned, we will wait patiently for the tide on the 9th instant; for it appears that the moon will have the goodness to put it off again."
I knew of old the power of the suck which developed when the
tide swung around the end of Dead Man's Island and drove straight for the wharf.
Wheresoever the strong
tide met with an impediment, his gaze paused for an instant.
The
tide ran strong, I took care to lose none of it, and our steady stroke carried us on thoroughly well.
We rigged up a single short mast and light sail, fastened planking down over the ballast to form a deck, worked her out into midstream with a couple of sweeps, and dropped our primitive stone anchor to await the turn of the
tide that would bear us out to sea.
"I am quite ready, and I will not leave you now." So D'Artagnan saw the fishermen haul their barks to meet the
tide with a windlass.
The
tide was getting lower, and he had difficulty in escaping the mud-banks.
I had three encouragements - 1st, a smooth, calm sea; 2ndly, the
tide rising, and setting in to the shore; 3rdly, what little wind there was blew me towards the land.
We'll have happy times, for I don't suffer much, and I think the
tide will go out easily, if you help me."
I couldn't see the rising
tide. As in the vision of a dream, the poor lost creature came back before me.
For this purpose, return all to your posts; within an hour, we shall have the ebb of the
tide. To your posts, gentlemen!
A wide plain, where the broadening Floss hurries on between its green banks to the sea, and the loving
tide, rushing to meet it, checks its passage with an impetuous embrace.
I tried and found by experiment that the
tide kept sweeping us westward until I had laid her head due east, or just about right angles to the way we ought to go.
What was more important, the shell-fish on which I lived grew there in great plenty; when the
tide was out I could gather a peck at a time: and this was doubtless a convenience.