ve burnt the
craft we may find that her tanks have been destroyed by the fire."

"I should think not, sir," dissented Nicholls. "They will have been
stowed right down in the bottom of her, perhaps; and if that's the case
the fire won't have had a chance to get at 'em."

"I really do not know whether they were stowed in her bottom or not,"
answered Leslie; "but we will go off to-morrow, and have a look at the
wreck. One thing is quite certain: we _must_ have a boiler of some
sort, or we shall never be able to get those planks into position--
especially those about the head of the stern-post--without splitting
them. And I would take a good deal of trouble to avoid such a
misfortune as that."

The following day found Nicholls and Simpson so far recovered that they
both declared themselves quite strong enough to turn-to, and accordingly
Leslie--who, since the raid of the savages, was more feverishly eager
than ever to get away from the island--took the catamaran; and the three
men went off together to the wreck of the brig.

They found her burnt practically down to the water's edge, and
everything not of metal that was in her also consumed down to that
level. Below the surface, however, everything was of course untouched.
But all the gear--sheer-legs, tackles, and the rest of it--that had been
of such immense value to Dick in getting the various matters out of the
brig, had been destroyed with her; and if any very serious amount of
turning over of the cargo under water should prove to be necessary, he
would be obliged to provide and rig up a complete fresh set of
apparatus. Moreover, there was no longer the convenient platform of the
deck to work from, instead of which they had to wade about on a confused
mass of cargo beneath the surface of the water, affording them a most
awkward and irregular platform with, in some spots, only a few inches of
water over it, while elsewhere there was a depth of as many feet. A
careful examination of the whole of the visible cargo failed to reveal
the whereabouts of the water tanks, or of anything else that would serve
the purpose of a boiler; and at length they were reluctantly driven to
the conclusion that before the search could be further prosecuted it
would be necessary to procure and rig up another set of sheer-legs, and
to replace the lost gear with such blocks, etcetera, as they could find
among the heterogeneous collection of stuff already salved from the
brig.

To be