l as sundry other articles which they
thought it necessary to take with them for the success of their
expedition.

Why, such a procedure would be like handicapping themselves heavily for
the race!

What was to be done?

Eric, the "inventive genius," very soon solved this difficulty.

"I tell you what we'll do, brother," he said; "let us put our blankets,
with the kettle and rifle and the other things we require, in one of the
oil casks. We can then push this before us as we swim along, the cask
serving us for a life buoy to rest upon when we are tired, besides
carrying our traps, eh?"

"Himmel, Eric, you're a genius!" exclaimed Fritz, clapping him on the
back. "I never knew such a fellow for thinking of things like you,
laddie; you beat Bismark and Von Moltke both rolled into one!"

"Ah, the idea only just flashed across my mind," said the other,
somewhat shamefaced at his brother's eulogy and almost blushing. "It
came just on the spur of the moment, you know!"

"But, how are we going to get the needle-gun into the barrel?" asked
Fritz suddenly, taking up the weapon and seeing that its muzzle would
project considerably beyond the mouth of the said article, even when the
butt end was resting on the bottom.

"Why, by unscrewing the breech, of course," said Eric promptly.

Fritz gazed at him admiringly.

"The lad is never conquered by anything!" he cried out, as if speaking
to a third person. "He's the wonder of Lubeck, that's what he is!"

"The `wonder of Lubeck' then requests you'll lose no time in getting the
gun ready," retorted Eric, in answer to this chaff. "While we're
talking and thus wasting time, we may lose the very opportunity we wish
for our swim out of the bay!"

This observation made Fritz set to work: and the two had shortly placed
all their little property in one of the stoutest of the oil casks, which
they then proceeded to cooper up firmly, binding their old bed tarpaulin
round it as an additional precaution for keeping out the salt water when
it should be immersed in the sea.

Rolling the cask down to the beach, they tried it, to see how it
floated; and this it did admirably, although it was pretty well loaded
with their blankets wrapped round the needle-gun and other things. It
still rose, indeed, quite half out of the water.

Eric then plaited a rope round it, with beckets for them to hold on by;
and so, everything being ready, they only waited for a calm day to make
the ventur