overtook it, and then quietly returned to the deep sea."

"Oh! what stupids we were!" cried Neb.

"That is precisely what I had the honour of telling you before!"
returned the sailor.

Cyrus Harding had given this explanation, which, no doubt, was
admissible. But was he himself convinced of the accuracy of this
explanation? It cannot be said that he was.

CHAPTER II

First Trial of the Canoe -- A Wreck on the Coast -- Towing --
Flotsam Point -- Inventory of the Case: Tools, Weapons,
Instruments, Clothes, Books, Utensils -- What Pencroft misses
-- The Gospel -- A Verse from the Sacred Book.

On the 9th of October the bark canoe was entirely finished. Pencroft
had kept his promise, and a light boat, the shell of which was joined
together by the flexible twigs of the crejimba, had been constructed
in five days. A seat in the stern, a second seat in the middle to
preserve the equilibrium, a third seat in the bows, rowlocks for the
two oars, a scull to steer with, completed the little craft, which was
twelve feet long, and did not weigh more than 200 pounds.

The operation of launching it was extremely simple. The canoe was
carried to the beach and laid on the sand before Granite House, and
the rising tide floated it. Pencroft, who leapt in directly,
manoeuvred it with the scull and declared it to be just the thing for
the purpose to which they wished to put it.

"Hurrah!" cried the sailor, who did not disdain to celebrate thus his
own triumph. "With this we could go round--"

"The world?" asked Gideon Spilett.

"No, the island. Some stones for ballast, a mast, and a sail, which
the captain will make for us some day, and we shall go splendidly!
Well, captain--and you, Mr. Spilett; and you, Herbert; and you,
Neb--aren't you coming to try our new vessel? Come along! we must see
if it will carry all five of us!"

This was certainly a trial which ought to be made. Pencroft soon
brought the canoe to the shore by a narrow passage among the rocks,
and it was agreed that they should make a trial of the boat that day
by following the shore as far as the first point at which the rocks of
the south ended.

As they embarked, Neb cried,--

"But your boat leaks rather, Pencroft."

"That's nothing, Neb," replied the sailor; "the wood will get
seasoned. In two days there won't be a single leak, and our boat will
have no more water in her than there is in the stomach of a drunkard.
Jump in!"

They