rdage they
could find.

"We might live on here for months, lads," said Mr Scoones, "but should
another gale spring up somewhat rougher than the last, we may all be
swept away; so depend upon it, the sooner we get off this sand-bank the
better. Where there's a will there's a way; and as we have no other
tools we must do the best we can with our knives. It will be a long
business, and we must take care not to break them. The first thing we
have to do is to stop the leaks in the boat; we must then form some oars
from the spars we have got and the staves of the casks. They won't be
very shapely, but they will serve to move the boat along, and the ends
of the ropes will afford us oakum. We have cotton enough to make a suit
of sails, although they might not be fit to stand a strong wind. We
have also spars for masts and yards."

The mate having got over his drunken fit, was now completely himself
again, and, although he was occasionally surly and overhearing, Owen was
thankful that he had been saved. He was certainly better able to carry
out the proposed plans than any one else.

Owen suggested that while they were repairing the boat they should not
lose the chance of being seen by any passing vessel. The flagstaff was
therefore again erected near where it had before stood, and the drift
wood collected to dry in the sun in order that it might serve to form a
beacon-fire at night. The first thing to be done was to caulk the boat.
Mr Scoones and the carpenter's mate undertook to do this and to nail
such planks as had been started, which was no easy matter, as not a
stone could be found, and they had only the handles of their knives.
But patience and perseverance had overcome greater difficulties than
theirs. The carpenter's mate looked grave as he surveyed the boat.

"If it keeps calm she will swim, sir; but if it comes on to blow,
heavily loaded as she will be, my idea is that she will swamp to a
certainty. Had we the tools, I should have raised her a streak all
round and put a bit of a deck on her fore and aft."

"No use to talk about that," said Mr Scoones, with a sigh; "it is
beyond our power."

While they were thus employed Nat's voice was heard in the distance, and
he was seen running from the direction of the old camp. He was holding
aloft what they soon discovered to be a saw.

"Hurrah! I have found this and many things more," he exclaimed, as he
drew near.

On coming up to the party, he explained