The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 221: what you’re looking at

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

THE CRUISE OF Foster had his ax in his hand. He swung it with great force and drove it into a log. He then stood upright and mopped the perspiration from his face. “We'll go,” he said. “It’s the raft.” “ Oh, a rolling log on a rolling sea,” began Ross, to a tune neither he nor any of the rest of us knew. “ A rolling log and a long, long sail, far to the setting sun.” “That'll do,” said Foster with em- phasis. “ You keep that up and vou won’t get passage on the raft.” “In that case I would be the sole in- habitant of this place, and will elect myself governor and appoint myself quarantine commissioner. I will refuse to give you a clean bill of health. You can’t leave, by jiminy, unless you take me.” “It would be a miserable voyage without you, Mr. Ross,” said Mary. Ross bowed with a flourish. This was the most direct approach to anything like familiarity the girl had displayed. I wondered if she had learned to pre- fer Ross. He was a handsome fellow, much more intelligent than his light talk would indicate, and any girl might well like him. But I felt a twinge all the same, for [ knew then that Mary Don- aldson had become a fixed star in my firmament, and almost wished I had not entered into that absurd agreement not to speak of love on the island. “The next thing to decide upon,” said the professor, “is what kind of a bark to build. Is it to be something in the way of a ship, or do you really mean to build a raft?” “Any old thing in a gale of wind,” said Ross. “Scarcely, sir,” returned the pro- fessor. “ The reason I asked was that I have been among many islanders of the more ignorant class, and yet these make good mariners. Their vessels are con- structed peculiarly, and never, except under extreme conditions, upset. They are called catamarans.” “A catamaran, as I understand it,” said Mr. Donaldson, “is constructed of a main piece with an outrigger to pre- vent capsizing.” “That is the method of construc- THE HANDICAP. 217 tion in use among the natives of many islands,” replied the professor. ‘ In England there are racing catamarans that have two equal-bodies, with the floor or deck, as they call it, across the two. This makes a very safe boat, but provides no shelter.” “ We must use logs,” said Donaldson. “T can’t see how we are to cut enough timbers for a vessel, or how we could bend them if we had them.” “IT have an idea,” I said. Ross immediately rapped on a log to call the assembly to order. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “most of you who have been with us these past two weeks may have become of the opinion that my colleague from New York never had an idea. He is modest and reticent, and though reallv brilhant, he hides his light under a hushel—or « his hat, when the wind blows. “ Now the gentleman has made hold enough to utter the fact that he has an idea. Let us listen, that he may bring it forth and put it in words so that the earth and all that is thercin may be gladdened and made brighter.” “Shut up, Ross,” broke in Foster. “This is not a settlement of lunatics.” “(yo on,” said Mr. Donaldson, smi- ling. “ My idea is,” I said, “that our bet- ter plan will be to construct a gigantic raft. We have here plenty of “trees a hundred feet high. It is not so much labor to cut them down. We want, of course, the lighter ones. We ‘could adopt a sort of compromise between the catamaran idea and the raft. ““We can make two rows of these long trunks, sav three or four of them well lashed together. Then add, well fastened, of course, a flooring of split boards. This will give us a platform high and dry, for the logs are so large that I am sure the platform will be at least a foot out of water. And we can experiment until we accomplish that re- sult. “Then upon that platform, or deck if you wish to call it that, we can build a house of the lightest bamboo. It must be light, for we do not wish to burden the catamaran with lumber that adds weight but not buovancy. CONMUC AOOIK (GO) awa