n, who had crawled after me,
whispered he was sure it was too short. And when I had let it down
to its full length and drawn it up again, as yard after yard it
came dry through my fingers I began to fear that the bosun was
right. But at last the rope left a slimy wetness upon my hands, and
I rejoiced to find that two or three yards of it had fallen into
the water.

Our next step was to draw the rope wholly into the dormitory and
fasten its wet end to the bass viol. On the top of this, it will be
remembered, there were two S-shaped openings which we had cut to
make it serviceable as a sound board. These Joe had now covered
over with the broken skin of the drum, to make the box water tight.
We pushed it through the tunnel, and I let it down into the moat,
very slowly, so that it might not strike the wall and draw the
sentry's attention. When the rope was paid out to its full length I
wrapped a coil of bast about my shoulders, and, having suspended
from my neck a short plank from the head of the bed, I bade the men
in a whisper to remember the further plan we had arranged, and made
my way down the rope--a feat that offered no difficulty to a seaman
even so little practiced as I.

Coming safely to our musical raft, I was not long in discovering it
to be a very cranky thing, so that I had to keep my hold of the
rope in order to maintain my balance. But in a short time I was
able to defeat the raft's attempts to turn turtle, and then,
kneeling on it, still gripping the rope, I looked anxiously for
signs that the attention of the sentry on the battlements had been
awakened. But I heard his footsteps approach and recede at the same
measured pace; 'twas clear he suspected nothing; and without more
delay I began to work the raft towards the far side of the moat,
using the short plank I had brought with me as a paddle. So that no
sound of splashing might rise to betray us, at every stroke I dug
the paddle into the mud, which, as I had suspected, came to within
a little of the surface; indeed, the depth of water was barely
sufficient to float the raft, with my weight on it.

A most unsavory odor resulted from the stirring of the mud; but a
greater inconvenience was the tendency of the raft to lurch.
Holding on to the rope with one hand, I instinctively pulled upon
it to maintain my equilibrium when I felt myself toppling, with the
result that the raft moved backward, and I had to begin my punting
again. Fortunately, the width