The two lads stood watching the departing barge, with the skipper by the
President's side, and then turned to go aft to the cabin.

"This is rather a bother," said Fitz. "I should have liked to have gone
ashore and seen the banquet, and gone up the country. I am getting
rather sick of being a prisoner, and always set to work. But--hullo,
Chips!"

"Just one moment, sir; and you too, Mr Poole."

"Yes; what is it?"

"That's rather a large order, gentlemen, aren't it? That there Don will
be wanting to make me his chief naval constructor, perhaps. But that
wouldn't do. I say, though, Mr Burnett, sir, can you give a poor
fellow a tip or two?"

"What about?" said Fitz.

"What about, sir? Oh, I say, come! I like that! How am I going to get
off that there gunboat? She's a harmoured vessel, you know."

"Oh, you'll do it, Chips. You could always do anything, even when you
hadn't got any stuff. What about pulling up the hacienda floor?"

"To make fortifications, sir? Yes, we did work that to rights. But
iron's iron, and wood's wood. You can drive one into t'other, but you
can't drive t'other into one."

"No, Chips," said Fitz, laughing. "But there are more ways of killing a
cat than hanging."

"So there are, sir; toe be sure. Making up your mind to do a thing is
half the battle. I should like to have the help of you two young gents,
though, all the same. A word from a young officer as knows how to
disable a Armstrong gun, and from another who thinks nothing of tying a
screw-propeller up in a knot, is worth having."

"Oh, I'll help you," said Fitz. "But I am afraid my help won't be of
much use."

"The same here," said Poole. "Ditto and ditto."

"Then I shall do it, sir," cried the carpenter confidently. "Of
course," cried Fitz. "But that gunboat must be very heavy. How shall
you go to work?"

The carpenter gave a sharp look round, and then said in a low
confidential tone--

"A deal too heavy, sir, for us to lift her. The only way to do is to
make her lift herself."

"How?"

"Taking out of her everything that can be moved; guns first, then shot
and shell, and laying them overboard outside upon the rocks, ready for
hoisting in again at low water when she's afloat. Next thing I should
do would be to find out whether she's got any holes in her, and if she
hasn't--and I don't believe she has, for there's been no storm to bump
her on the rocks--then I shall pump her dry, have her fires go