o finish your forge; and we must trust to you to keep up
the fire, so that, should a ship appear off the coast, her attention may
be attracted."

"I'll undertake to do that, sir," answered Tillard; "but as I shall want
help, I shall be obliged if some one will remain with me. I would
rather have one of the young gentlemen; they will understand what I want
better than either Popo or Tamaku. Mr Rayner, will you stay by me?"

"I was going to offer to do so," I answered; "although I should have
liked making an exploring expedition across the island."

I was anxious to be of use; and besides wishing to oblige Dick, I was
curious to see how he would proceed. He thanked me very much; and the
rest of the party wishing us good-bye, set off with their thick sticks
as arms, and a supply of ducks and eggs, wild-fowl, and cocoa-nuts for
provisions, leaving us as much as we could require for a couple of days.

As soon as they were gone, Tillard and I set to work on the forge. He
had already nearly manufactured a pair of bellows with the aid of the
bottom boards of the boat,--fortunately of considerable width,--and some
of the spare canvas which had remained in the boat's bows. It was a
very rough-looking machine, but still was likely to answer its purpose.
We also found several pieces of iron about the boat which could be
removed without impairing its strength; and these we managed to wrench
off, with the help of a sharp piece of coral.

At length the fire was kindled in the forge, and on working the bellows
a strong flame was produced. All our tools were composed of coral; two
long pieces served as tongs, and another as a hammer. Having heated the
iron, Dick knocked it out into a long thin bar, and then placing it on
the mass of coral which served as an anvil, cut it with successive sharp
blows of his knife into small pieces. Each of these had to be
re-heated, and taken up and dropped into a small hole with a blow from
the hammer, when the head was produced by another sharp blow. In this
way he formed a number of small nails with large heads, which, if not
very well-shaped, were at least likely to answer the purpose.

We had found a gum issuing from some pine-trees, which did not dissolve
in water; and by mixing it with some grease which we happily found in
the after-locker, a thick paste was formed with which we payed over the
canvas. The boat had been hauled up sufficiently to enable us to get at
both leaks during l