ered
consciousness under the ministering hands of his gentle friends in the
cabin, upon which, though his head ached most violently, he lost no time
in returning to duty.

Lance now made a second careful inspection of the cradle; and upon the
completion of his round he pronounced that, though the structure was a
somewhat rough-and-ready affair, it would do; that is to say, it would
bear the weight of the schooner during the short time she was sliding
off the ways, and that was all they wanted.

"And now comes the wedging-up, I s'pose, sir?" remarked Poole
interrogatively.

"Wedging-up?" returned Lance with a joyous laugh. "No, thank you,
Poole; we'll manage without that. Do you see these two pieces of wood
here in each keel-block? Well, they are wedges. You have only to draw
them out and the top of the block will be lowered sufficiently to allow
the schooner to rest entirely in the cradle. Get a maul, Poole, and you
and I will start forward, whilst you, Kit, with another hand, commence
aft. Knock out the wedges on both sides as you come to them, and work
your way forward until you meet us. The rest of you had better go on
board and see that everything is clear and ready for launching."

"When you're quite ready to launch, let me know, if you please, Mr
Evelin, and I'll go and light the fuse that's to blow up the battery,"
said Bob.

"Ah! to be sure," answered Lance, "I had forgotten that. You may go up
now if you like, Bob, and I'll give you a call when we're ready."

Bob thereupon set off on his mission of destruction, while Lance and
Poole with a couple of mauls began to knock out the wedges which Evelin,
foreseeing from the very inception of the work some such emergency as
the present, had introduced in the construction of the keel-blocks.

In a few minutes both parties met near the middle of the vessel, and the
last pair of wedges were knocked out.

"That's a good job well over," exclaimed Poole; "and precious glad I am
now that I thought of soaping them ways this morning. I _knowed_ this
here business must come afore long, and I detarmined to get as far ahead
with the work as possible. Now I s'pose, sir, we're all ready?"

"Yes, I think so," answered Lance, "but I'll just go forward and take a
look along the keel to see that she is clear everywhere."

He accordingly did so, and had the gratification of seeing by the still
brilliant light of the fires that the keel was a good six inches clear
o