Part 9 (2/2)

We'll have our lark out and then go back home in time for school--say about three weeks or a month hence, keeping Ned's appointment with Maum Sally.”

”But how on earth are we to get back?” asked Charley.

”In a boat, to be sure; we can't walk twelve miles on the water,”

answered Jack, ”particularly now that we're barefooted. We'd get our feet wet, without a doubt.”

”Where are we to get a boat?”

”Well, that is what I've been thinking about,” said Jack, ”and I think I've worked the problem out.”

”All right, what's the answer?” asked Ned.

”Why, that we must rebuild the _Red Bird_.”

”How can we? She is mashed into kindling wood,” said Charley.

”No, not quite,” answered Jack. ”She is badly mashed, certainly, but it's simply mas.h.i.+ng. I have been to look at her. She lies there as flat as if a steam-s.h.i.+p had sat down upon her, but I have carefully examined every stick of her timber, and while the _Red Bird_ is no more a boat than a lumber pile is a house, still she is a pretty good pile of lumber. Comparatively few of her planks are badly split or broken, while her ribs seem to be broken only in one or two places each. After examining her very carefully I am satisfied that her timbers will furnish us enough material for a new boat. We must build a smaller boat out of her bones--particularly a shorter boat. She was twenty-four feet long, and by shortening her in the middle--that is, by leaving out the middle ribs--we shall have enough planking to make a new boat. Patching up the ribs will be the most difficult job, but I think we can manage it. Most of the planks are broken in two, but we can join the ends on ribs, and, if we are patient, we can make a pretty good boat. Patience is the one thing needful, especially for inexperienced workmen with a scanty supply of tools. We must make good joints if we have to work a week over the joining of two boards.”

”What are we to do for nails?” asked Ned; ”we haven't more than a pound or two here.”

”We haven't a single nail,” said Jack; ”the wild animal, whatever it was, that robbed us, seems to have had a very miscellaneous appet.i.te. It not only took our flour and bacon, our salt and our coffee and sugar; it seems to have had an appet.i.te for nails and blankets too. At any rate, it stole them all, but luckily it didn't find the tools, because you had the hatchet with you, and I had the axe.”

”The mischief!” exclaimed Ned.

”Yes, it's mischief enough for that matter, but it might have been worse. I suppose some rascals landed here while we were away and robbed us. Of course it couldn't have been an animal, although that was my first thought when I found the provisions gone. Whoever it was he isn't likely to come again, but we must watch our camp now, and particularly we must take care of our tools.”

”But you haven't answered my question about nails,” said Ned.

”We must make them of the _Red Bird's_ copper bolts,” answered Jack; ”and if we run short we can use wooden pins; but I think there is an abundance of the copper. Luckily the anchor came ash.o.r.e entangled in the wreck, and that will serve us for an anvil. We can hammer the bolts into nails, using the hatchet for a hammer. It will be slow work, because while the hatchet is in use making nails we can't use it in building the boat.”

”I'll tell you what,” said Charley, whose spirits began now to revive; ”we'll work hard of nights making nails, and have them ready for the next day.”

”Yes, and we shan't want any nails for a day or two, while we're making preparations to begin, and so we can get a good supply in advance.”

”That's so,” said Ned; ”but do you know we're wasting precious time? It is nearly sundown, and we have a lot to do before we go to bed. We haven't thought of dinner yet, and we can't now till after our work is done. We must bring the wreck around here to-night. The fellow that robbed our camp was probably some negro squatter from some of the islands around us, and if he got sight of the wreck on his way back, he is sure to come over and carry away all that is valuable of the _Red Bird's_ bones to-night. We must get ahead of him, and bring the wreck around to the camp the first thing we do.”

This suggestion commended itself to Ned's companions, and the boys set off at once, taking the axe and hatchet with them.

When they arrived at the wreck the tide was very nearly full, so that there was not much difficulty in getting the remains of the _Red Bird_ afloat. It was a mere raft of plank and timbers, of course, which must be dragged through the water along the sh.o.r.e by means of the anchor rope and some wild vines cut in the woods. For a time the still incoming tide was in their favor, and they travelled the first half mile pretty rapidly. When the tide turned, however, the labor became very severe, and it was ten o'clock at night when the wreck of the _Red Bird_ was safely landed at the camp. The boys were exhausted with work, and very hungry. Ned stirred up the fire and put on a kettle of salt water, into which, as soon as it boiled, he poured a quart or two of shrimps.

”We'll make a shrimp dinner to-night,” he said, ”and that will leave us the mullets and wild grapes for breakfast.”

”All right,” answered Jack; ”I'm hungry enough not to care for variety to-night; speed is the word just now.”

Dinner over, the boys had still to collect a large ma.s.s of the long gray moss to serve instead of the stolen blankets, so that it was quite midnight when they finally got to sleep.

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