rted about getting her to sea,
and it has made me slow over the finishing. But after the way you
gentlemen have buckled to, it goes as easy as can be."

"How long do you reckon we shall be?" asked Drew.

"Getting her down, sir? Well, I used to say to myself, if we can manage
it in two months I shall be satisfied, but I'm beginning to think about
one now."

"Why, we shall do it in a week," cried Oliver.

"A week?" cried the others.

"Well, why not? If we go on as steadily this afternoon and evening as
we have this morning, we shall manage to get her along a quarter of a
mile, and that's an eighth part of the distance."

"We shall see," said the mate. "We have had all plain sailing so far."

"Yes, but the men get every time more accustomed to the work," said
Drew, "and we ought to do more some days."

"Of course," said Panton. "My anxiety is about the blacks."

Work was resumed then, and by dark they all had the satisfaction of
feeling that fully five hundred yards of the long portage had been got
over, and, as Oliver said, there was no reason whatever why they should
not get on quite as far day by day.

There were plenty of rejoicings there that night--"high jinks," Smith
called them--but by daylight next morning every man was in his place,
and the lugger began to move again.

And so matters went on day after day, in a regular, uneventful way.
There were tremblings of the earth beneath them, and now and then a
sharp cracking, tearing sound, as if some portion of the rocky bed below
was splitting suddenly open.

At times, too, a heavy report was heard from the direction of the
mountain, generally followed by the flight of birds, making in alarm for
the south, or the appearance of some little herd of deer, but these
matters, like the lurid glow which shone nightly in the clouds above the
volcano, had grown so familiar that they ceased to command much
attention, and the work went steadily on.

It had to be checked, though, from time to time, for there were
occasions when difficulties arose as to the proper fixing of the capstan
from the want of hold in the rock, or the failing of blocks to which
ropes could be secured, necessitating the driving down of crowbars into
some crack in the stone.

At these times, when Mr Rimmer knew almost at a glance that some hours
must elapse before the half-dozen for whom there was room to work would
complete their task, advantage was taken of the opportunity for a
hunt