we stretched on the wire guy lines, drawing
them as tight as possible, with the eye bolts held in place by a turn or
two of the nuts, after which we screwed up the nuts as far as we could,
thus drawing up the wire until it was very taut. This done the second
nut was threaded onto each bolt against the first so as to lock it in
place and prevent it from jarring loose.

STEPPING THE MAST.

[Illustration: Fig. 218 The Frame with Wire Braces.]

Our next task was to step the mast. We found in the shed an old
flagstaff 15 feet long and 3 inches in diameter. The lower end of this,
for about a foot, we whittled down to a diameter of 2 inches, and drove
it into a hole in the backbone 12 inches from the forward end. The mast
was stayed by a wire stretched from the head to an eye bolt at the fore
end of the backbone. The end of the mast which projected below the
backbone was stayed with wire running forward to an eye bolt and aft to
a screw eye on the backbone, and also with a pair of wires running to
screw eyes threaded into the crosspiece near the ends. We couldn't very
well use eye bolts on these wires except at the fore end, but we
stretched the wires as tight as possible before the screw eyes were
screwed all the way in, and then, as we turned the screw eyes, the wire
was wound up on them and drawn fairly taut. Fig. 219 shows a side view
of the frame, and wires marked 1 and 2 are the same as illustrated in
Fig. 218, which is a top or plan view of the frame.

MOUNTING THE FRAME ON BICYCLE WHEELS.

[Illustration: Fig. 219. Bracing the Mast.]

We were now ready to mount the frame on the bicycle wheels. We used only
the front wheels of the bicycles with the forks in which they were
journaled. The shanks at the top of the forks were firmly driven into
holes in the crosspiece near the ends. For the steering wheel Bill took
the front fork and wheel of his new bicycle, letting the shank into a
hole at the stern end of the backbone.

THE TILLER.

[Illustration: Fig. 220. The Tiller.]

[Illustration: Fig. 221. The Seat.]

For a tiller we used a piece of an old rake handle. A small hole was
first drilled into the handle and the end of the stick was then split
through the hole, permitting the projecting shank of the fork to be
driven tightly into the hole. The split wood was now tightly closed onto
the shank by means of a bolt (see Fig. 220). In the rubbish heap we
found an old chair. The legs were sawed off and the sea