tern ready for towing, and then proceeded to wash down the decks,
Cunningham and I took the gig, and, carefully depositing our scarecrow
in the sternsheets, pulled ashore and set up the figure, the birds
taking to the air with loud, plaintive cries the moment that we stepped
ashore. Then, having set up the figure, which represented a man
carrying a gun, we returned to the schooner, observing with
satisfaction, as we did so, that the birds seemed indisposed to settle
again, but, after wheeling in the air over the island for some time,
winged their way out to sea.

By the time that we got back to the schooner breakfast was ready, and
all hands were at once piped to the meal, regardless of the hour, the
word at the same time being passed that everybody would be expected on
deck again within twenty minutes. But no such warning was needed, for
the forecastle hands by this time knew as well as the afterguard what we
had come to this lonesome spot for, and were as eager as ourselves not
only to see how the adventure would "pan out"--to use their own
expression--but also to gain the utmost possible advantage over the
_Kingfisher_ and her people, whom they regarded as would-be lawless
poachers upon our own private property; therefore when we of the cabin
returned to the deck after a hasty meal, which we had bolted in less
than a quarter of an hour, all hands were on deck, ready and waiting for
orders. Accordingly no sooner did the skipper poke his head out of the
companion and bellow the order to loose all fore-and-aft canvas than the
group on the forecastle split itself up into sections, one section
actually running aft to cast loose the mainsail, while a second attacked
the foresail, a third laid out to loose the jibs, and the fourth and
last proceeded to fix the levers of the patent windlass and to heave in
the slack of the cable.

A quarter of an hour sufficed us to get the canvas set and the anchor
broken out of the sand; and then, as the schooner paid off and filled,
Cunningham proceeded to get his diving gear on deck and to make ready
for the great experiment, while I sprang into the fore rigging and made
my way aloft to the topsail-yard, from which to con the schooner out
through the reef in the first place, and afterwards to look out for the
oyster bed. We could not possibly have had a finer day for the
beginning of our operations, for the sky was a clear, rich, deep blue,
dappled here and there at intervals with s