rs.

But to my intense disappointment, when we entered the bay there was the
schooner still high and dry upon the stocks, with Chips, the boatswain,
and Cunningham all busily engaged in turning over the small pile of
lumber that still remained from the dismembered wreck of the _Martha_.
Presently one of them looked up, saw us coming, and apparently reported
the fact to the others, for Cunningham at once straightened himself up
and came down to the water's edge to meet us.

"Well, Temple," he exclaimed, as the catamaran grounded and I stepped
ashore, "how have things gone with you? Have you managed to beat off
our friends the enemy?"

"I have not," I answered, just a trifle sourly, I am afraid. "A hundred
or more of them have landed round there in North Bay; and we may
confidently expect a visit from them within the next half-hour. But
what the mischief have you fellows been up to all this time? I fully
expected to find the schooner afloat, under way, and only awaiting our
return to be off! What have you been doing? Playing poker, or what?"

"Now, my dear chap, don't you go and turn rusty as well as the rest of
us, or there's no knowing what may happen; for, let me tell you, we're
all just as savage as bears with sore heads," remonstrated Cunningham.
"No," he continued, "we've not been playing poker, or hunt the slipper,
or even kiss in the ring; to put it plainly, we've been trying to do the
impossible. The long and the short of it is, Temple, that we have used
up our last scrap of available timber, and there still remains a good
half-hour's work to be done on the cradle before we dare start to wedge
up. We have been nailing and plugging bits together, and working them
in to the best of our ability, until our last nail is expended; and now
we seem to be at a standstill. I'll be shot if I know how we're going
to get over the difficulty."

"What! do you mean to tell me that after getting as far as that we are
brought to a standstill for the sake of a few pieces of timber?" I
demanded. "How much do you require?"

"Oh, very little," was the answer. "A few feet--ten or fifteen feet of
three-inch stuff would serve--but the mischief of it is that we haven't
got it. Even the remains of the wreck will not yield us another inch."

"Then," said I, "all that remains is to break into the catamaran, and
take out of her as much as is required. She has served her turn; we
shall not require her any more if we can ge