Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 20, 1896 - Travels and excursion, Volume III

THE EBB-TIDE
thing was, he did not falter. He who had proved
his incapacity in so many fields, being now falsely
placed amid duties which he did not understand,
without help, and it might be said without counten-
ance, had hitherto surpassed expectation ; and even
the shameful misconduct and shocking disclosures
of that night seemed but to nerve and strengthen
him. He had sold his honour ; he vowed it should
not be in vain ; • It shall be no fault of mine if this
miscarry,' he repeated. And in his heart he wondered
at himself. Living rage no doubt supported him ;
no doubt also, the sense of the last cast, of the ships
burned, of all doors closed but one, which is so
strong a tonic to the merely weak, and so deadly a
depressent to the merely cowardly.
For some time the voyage went otherwise well.
They weathered Fakarava with one board ; and the
wind holding well to the southward, and blowing
fresh, they passed between Kanaka and Ratiu, and
ran some days north-east by east-half-east under the
lee of Takume and Honden, neither of which they
made. In about 14° south, and between 134° and
135° west, it fell a dead calm, with rather a heavy
sea. The captain refused to take in sail, the helm
was lashed, no watch was set, and the Farallone
rolled and banged for three days, according to ob-
servation, in almost the same place. The fourth
morning, a little before day, a breeze sprang up and
rapidly freshened. The captain had drunk hard the
night before ; he was far from sober when he was
roused; and when he came on deck for the first
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