Then the fresh air blew in my face and I inhaled it with avidity.
Finally they took their hands from off me, and I found myself free.

I immediately tore the cloth off my head and gazed about me.
I am on board a schooner which is ripping through the water at a great rate and leaving a long white trail behind her.
I had to clutch at one of the stays for support, dazzled as I was by the light after my forty-eight hours' imprisonment in complete obscurity.
On the deck a dozen men with rough, weather-beaten faces come and go--very dissimilar types of men, to whom it would be impossible to attribute any particular nationality.

They scarcely take any notice of me.
As to the schooner, I estimate that she registers from two hundred and fifty to three hundred tons.

She has a fairly wide beam, her masts are strong and lofty, and her large spread of canvas must carry her along at a spanking rate in a good breeze.
Aft, a grizzly-faced man is at the wheel, and he is keeping her head to the sea that is running pretty high.
I try to find out the name of the vessel, but it is not to be seen anywhere, even on the life-buoys.
I walk up to one of the sailors and inquire: "What is the name of this ship ?" No answer, and I fancy the man does not understand me.
"Where is the captain ?" I continue.
But the sailor pays no more heed to this than he did to the previous question.
I turn on my heel and go forward.
Above the forward hatchway a bell is suspended.

Maybe the name of the schooner is engraved upon it.