potentiality. We knew not what to expect of him next, what fearful
thing, rising above the flesh, he might break out and do. Our experience
warranted this state of mind, and we went about our work with anxiety
always upon us.

I had solved the problem which had arisen through the shortness of the
shears. By means of the watch-tackle (I had made a new one), I heaved
the butt of the foremast across the rail and then lowered it to the deck.
Next, by means of the shears, I hoisted the main boom on board. Its
forty feet of length would supply the height necessary properly to swing
the mast. By means of a secondary tackle I had attached to the shears, I
swung the boom to a nearly perpendicular position, then lowered the butt
to the deck, where, to prevent slipping, I spiked great cleats around it.
The single block of my original shears-tackle I had attached to the end
of the boom. Thus, by carrying this tackle to the windlass, I could
raise and lower the end of the boom at will, the butt always remaining
stationary, and, by means of guys, I could swing the boom from side to
side. To the end of the boom I had likewise rigged a hoisting tackle;
and when the whole arrangement was completed I could not but be startled
by the power and latitude it gave me.

Of course, two days' work was required for the accomplishment of this
part of my task, and it was not till the morning of the third day that I
swung the foremast from the deck and proceeded to square its butt to fit
the step. Here I was especially awkward. I sawed and chopped and
chiselled the weathered wood till it had the appearance of having been
gnawed by some gigantic mouse. But it fitted.

"It will work, I know it will work," I cried.

"Do you know Dr. Jordan's final test of truth?" Maud asked.

I shook my head and paused in the act of dislodging the shavings which
had drifted down my neck.

"Can we make it work? Can we trust our lives to it? is the test."

"He is a favourite of yours," I said.

"When I dismantled my old Pantheon and cast out Napoleon and Caesar and
their fellows, I straightway erected a new Pantheon," she answered
gravely, "and the first I installed as Dr. Jordan."

"A modern hero."

"And a greater because modern," she added. "How can the Old World heroes
compare with ours?"

I shook my head. We were too much alike in many things for argument.
Our points of view and outlook on life at least were very alike.

"For a pair of cr