After repeating his usual story, he sauntered down to the water’s edge.  There were several boats hauled up, and a hundred yards out two or three larger craft were lying at anchor.  He entered into conversation with some of the fishermen, and his questions as to the boats led them to believe him altogether ignorant of the sea.  The craft were, they told him, used sometimes for fishing, but they often made voyages to towns along the coast with dates and other produce.  Each boat carried a single short mast, to the top of which was attached a long tapering spar, on which the sail was furled.

Gervaise knew that these small feluccas were generally fast sailors and fair sea boats, and resolved to seize one of them, trusting that when once the sail was shaken out he would be able to manage it single handed.  Accustomed to boats, he picked out that which he thought would be the fastest, and then walked away for half a mile, and lay down to sleep until the village was silent for the night.  He had with him some oaten cakes he had bought there, a string of fish he had purchased from the boatmen, and with these and the dates he thought he could manage for four or five days at least.  As to water, he could only hope that he should find a supply on board the boat.  When he judged it to be about ten o’clock he went down to the shore again, took off his clothes and made them into a bundle; then, wading out into the water to within fifty yards of the felucca, swam off to it, towing the bundle behind him.

He had no difficulty in climbing on board, and after dressing himself in the clothes he had worn at Tripoli, and had kept on underneath the Arab attire, he pulled the head rope until the craft was nearly over the anchor.  He then loosened the line that brailed up the sail, got the stone that served as an anchor on board, hauled the sheet aft, and took his place at the tiller.  The wind had dropped a good deal with the sun, but there was still sufficient air to send the light craft fast through the water.  He steered out for a time, and then, when he thought himself a good mile from the shore, headed east.  By the appearance of the water as it glanced past, he thought that he must be making from five to six miles an hour, and when the sun rose at five o’clock, believed that he was nearly forty miles on his way.  He now fastened the tiller with a rope and proceeded to overhaul the craft.

It was decked over forward only, and he crept into the cabin, which was little more than three feet high.  The first thing his eye lit on was a bulky object hanging against the side, and covered with a thick black blanket of Arab manufacture.  Lifting this, he saw, as he expected, that the object beneath it was a large waterskin well filled; the blanket had evidently been placed over it to keep it cool when the sun streamed down on the deck above it.  There was also a large bag of dates, and another of flat cakes, and he guessed that these had all been put on board the evening before, in readiness for a start in the morning.  This relieved him of his chief anxiety, for he had been unable to think of any plan for replenishing his supply, or to concoct a likely tale that, were he obliged to go on shore, would account for his being alone in a craft of that size.