t the schooner into the
water; and--"

"Kick me; kick me hard!" shouted Cunningham in an ecstasy of delight, as
he smote me a blow between the shoulders that made me stagger. "The
catamaran!" he continued. "Of course. Oh, what a lot of fools we were
not to have thought of that before! But," suddenly bethinking himself,
"if we had, it would have been of no use, for you had her. She is
available now, however, and in ten minutes we'll rip enough stuff out of
her to finish our job. I know exactly where to find the kind of stuff
we want. Chips ahoy! bring your tools down to the catamaran, my son;
we're going to break her up!"

The carpenter flung his hand aloft in joyous intimation that he
understood, and at once made a dash for his tools, while Simpson and I
wended our way to the schooner, to see how things looked in that
direction, and also to forage for a morsel of food, for we had eaten
nothing since breakfast, and were feeling pretty hungry.

A single glance at the cradle, which, when wedged up, would lift the
schooner off the keel blocks and throw her weight upon the launching
ways, sufficed to reveal the pitiful straits to which Chips had latterly
been reduced; for worked into it there were scraps of wood less than a
foot in length, fastened to other pieces of similar size with nails or
plugs, and presenting a most flimsy and unsatisfactory appearance. But
when I came to look more closely I saw that the only unsatisfactory part
of the work was its appearance; it was not nearly so flimsy as at first
sight it had appeared to be. Chips had evidently fully realised his
responsibility, and had taken care that, let the material be what it
might, there should be nothing faulty about his workmanship. And I saw
also that, given the necessary amount of material, he would be able to
finish his work in a very short time.

The boatswain routed out some food for us, and while Simpson and I sat
down to eat and drink, Murdock, upon my instructions, went down to the
catamaran--which the carpenter and Cunningham had already attacked--and
brought away from her the two guns and the ammunition that remained from
our engagement with the savages. And when he had performed this errand
I bade him get aboard the schooner, rout out a few extra guns and a
further supply of ammunition, load the weapons, and then station himself
in the bows as a lookout, with special instructions to keep a wary eye
upon the neighbouring cliffs and r