The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 1 — page 123: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE MUTINY ON THE FLYING CLOUD. | 123 to sea; but in every case the channels, if, indeed, they were worthy of the name, were so natrow and tortuous that Grant had no fancy for attempting them unless as a last resource. They next tried the northern side of the bay, and here they were more successful, for just where the reef seemed to join the land there was a channel of about one hundred feet in width, nearly straight, and trending in a north- westerly direction, with so much water in it that the sea only broke in one or two places throughout its entire length. ‘This channel was all that they could desire ; for as the prevailing wind seemed to be about southwest, they were enabled to pass in and out of the bay with the sheet slightly eased off. Standing through this channel, which was only about a quarter of a mile long, they soon found themselves in the open sea, with a considerable amount of swell, over which the raft rode with a buoyancy which was most satis- factory to her designer. | If Grant had any doubt whatever about the strength of any portion of his novel construction, 1t was in the transverse bracing which connected the bot- toms of his two pontoons, and he was therefore rather anxious for the first ten minutes or quarter of afi hour aiter he found himself fairly in the open sea. But the bracing was found amply sufficient to give the required rigidity, and this fact once demonstrated he kept away before the wind, and coasted along the northern shore of the island, keeping at a sufficient distance from the tremendously lofty cliffs to prevent his being becalmed. With the wind over her quarter the raft traveled remarkably fast, and within an hour of the time when she passed out through the channel she was abreast of the entrance to the river—which, by the way, was so effectually masked that Grant actually ran past it, and arrived off a point which they had séen from their original landing place before he became aware of the fact. Retracing his way, the engineer, after a careful search, found the opening and passed into the river. Their course for the first two miles was dead to windward ; but the raft sailed remarkably near the wind, and held-her own even better than her designer had believed to be possible—the long, flat sides of the two pontoons seeming to act the parts of leeboards, preventing her from making any perceptible leeway. They reached the lake, sailed round the islet, landed there, and procured a liberal supply of fruits of various descriptions, which seemed to grow more luxuriantly and of finer flavor there than on the mainland, and then embark- ing once more made the best of their way back to the bay, where they anchored the raft and proceeded on shore in a small boat, which had been built as a sort of tender to the larger craft. They found Henderson still busy with his examination of the cargo, and Grant was highly delighted with its multifarious character. There were many articles which he foresaw would be of the utmost use to them in the construction of their little ship, but perhaps the find which delighted him most was a large cifcular saw. When his eye fell upon this, his vivid imagination at once pictured it as in operation in a mill erected upon a spot which he had already recognized as (E(0)