urse that priceless treasure, the carpenter's chest.

As I stood looking contemplatively at the planks it occurred to me that
three of them, say, placed edge to edge, and reared upright on the
boat's deck, would catch quite an appreciable amount of wind, and no
sooner had the idea suggested itself to me than I got to work. My first
act was to take one of the planks and saw off an end two feet six inches
in length. This piece I next sawed into six equal strips, or battens, a
task which occupied me much longer than I had anticipated, chiefly on
account of the limited space in which I was obliged to work, and because
I had nothing but the boat's gunwale to steady the plank against. But I
got my six battens at last, and four of them I nailed at equal intervals
of about two feet three inches across three planks laid close together
side by side, while I nailed a fifth athwartships on the deck at the
point where I intended to rear my planks. The length of the battens
being three inches more than the combined width of the three planks, the
projecting ends of the top batten afforded me a very convenient shoulder
for the support of my shrouds and stay, which I cut from my coil of
line.

Having got these all fixed and seized, I reared my structure on end
against the deck batten, with the assistance of Julius and the two
stewardesses, set up the shrouds and stay, nailed another batten in
front of the contraption, to keep it in place, and behold! I had a mast
and sail in one, twelve feet long and two feet three inches wide,
capable of catching and holding quite an appreciable amount of wind.
That this was actually the case at once became apparent, the boat's
speed quickly rising to about three knots, while she did not now lose
way when she sank into the trough of the sea.

I was so pleased with the success of my experiment that I immediately
began to elaborate the original idea. My new scheme was to saw one of
the planks into very thin veneer-like sheets, nail them together at the
edges, and make veritable sails out of them; but an hour's work sufficed
to convince me that to saw a three-inch plank into even quarter-inch
boards with an ordinary handsaw demanded far more skill in carpentry
than I possessed.

The afternoon and night passed quietly; and shortly after sunrise the
feminine members of the party made their appearance. Upon enquiry I was
informed that they had all passed a comfortable night and slept well.
They we