CHAPTER 20

A night at sea—Shark Gulf—Confidences—Preparations for winter— Forwardness of the bad season—Severe cold—Work in the interior —In six months—A photographic negative—Unexpected incident. Things happened as Pencroft had predicted, he being seldom mistaken in his prognostications. The wind rose, and from a fresh breeze it soon increased to a regular gale; that is to say, it acquired a speed of from forty to forty-five miles an hour, before which a ship in the open sea would have run under close-reefed topsai…