Part 47 (2/2)

It took us three hours of whacking and slashi+ng and tearing to pull the fish to pieces, but orked with a purpose and a will When we had finished, this is e had to show: A long strip of bone, four inches thick and twelve feet long, and tough as hickory, froht angles They were about an inch in thickness and two inches apart The lower end of the backbone, near the tail, we had broken off

We examined it and lifted it and bent it half double

”Absolutely perfect!” Harry cried in jubilation ”Three more like this and we'll sail down the coast to Callao”

”If we can get 'ele”

Harry looked at enius But would it be big enough to hold us?”

We discussed that question on our way back to caether with some of the meat Then, after a hearty meal, we slept After seven hours of the hardest kind of ere ready for it

That was our program for the time that followed--time that stretched into many weary hours, for, once started, orked feverishly, so ili to try to build a raft, on which ere going to try to e to try to find our way out of the mountain The prospect made us positively hilarious, so slender is the thread by which hope jerks us about

The first part of our task was the most strenuous We waited and waded round ot away from us Another atteht

The second one was even larger than the first

The next tere too small to be of use in the raft, but we saved the search, lasting many hours, we ran into half a dozen of them at once

By that ti discovered their vulnerable spot--the throat, just forward froills To this day I don't knohether or not they wereas those of any shark; but they never closed on us

Thus we had four of the large backbones and two s, and for that purpose we visited the remains of the reptile which had first led us into the cavern

Its hide was half an inch thick and tough as the toughest leather

There was no difficulty in loosening it, for by that time the flesh was so decayed and sunken that it literally fell off That job was the worst of all

Ti aith the points of our spears--our only tools--until we could stand it no longer, we staggered off to the streaht and smell of the mess

But that, too, came to an end, and finally we marched off to the ca after us a piece of the hide about thirty feet long and half as wide It was not as heavy as we had thought, which made it all the better for our purpose

The reh tedious, was not unpleasant

We first er bones, which were to serve as the bea off the ends of the longer ones with rough bits of granite I have said it was tedious Then we filed off each of the s froth

They extended on either side about ten inches, which, allowing four inches for the width of the larger bone and one inch for the covering, would htly over a foot in depth

To id, we bound each of the vertebrae to the one in direct juxtaposition on either side firmly with strips of hide, several hundred feet of which we had prepared

This gave us four beaht and true, without any play in either direction, with only a slight flexibility resulting froes within the center cord