I now diligently proceeded to seek the reply.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

A SUSPICIOUS SAIL HEAVES IN SIGHT.

As I have already hinted, I was no boat builder. I knew a good boat
when I saw her, and I had a very fair notion of the correct proportions
of such a craft; but when it came to the point of draughting a vessel's
lines, I very soon discovered, upon making the attempt, that I was all
at sea. Nor could Mrs Vansittart help me. As a matter of fact, we
quickly came to the conclusion that we knew just enough of the subject
to be painfully conscious of our own ignorance. Of course I might have
laid a keel, attached to it a stem and stern post, and then, with the
help of a few moulds, roughed out something resembling a boat; but when
in imagination I had got thus far, I found myself face to face with the
mystery of properly shaping the planks, and, when this was done, of
bending them to the correct curves. Then I realised that the job was
too much for me.

It was clear that a boat of the usual form was out of the question, so
something very much simpler must be thought out--something that should
be all straight lines, or if there were any curves they must be of such
a character as to be producible without such special apparatus as, for
instance, a steaming trunk.

Then Mrs Vansittart and I began to overhaul our memories in search of
the most simple form of floating craft that we had ever seen, and it was
not long before we decided that the Thames punt "filled the bill". That
craft, so familiar to frequenters of the reaches of the Thames, and
examples of which may be seen in Boulter's Lock any Sunday in summer,
is, as everybody knows, a thing of straight lines, flat-bottomed,
flat-sided--in fact, an open box, with its two ends sloping instead of
perpendicular; and we quickly decided that anyone with enough of the
carpenter's skill to knock a box together ought to be able to build a
punt. Later on we discovered that we were not quite right in this
assumption, but it was sufficiently encouraging to form a basis upon
which to make a start.

Now, a sea voyage in an open boat is something to be attempted only as a
last resource. A trip of a few hours' duration in suitable weather is
all very well; it is, indeed, a very enjoyable experience. But in a
gale, when one is exposed hour after hour to the fury of the elements,
is in momentary danger of being capsized, and has to bale for dear life!

Well, those who have be