The site for this house or fort--for when finished it really was strong
enough to merit the latter appellation--was finally fixed so as to
include within its limits a spring of pure fresh-water--an adjunct of
the utmost importance if it should ever fall to the lot of the occupants
to be placed in a state of siege, and it possessed the further advantage
of completely commanding both the land and water approaches to the
proposed ship-yard. It was built in the form of a hollow square,
enclosing a small court-yard (which the ladies determined to convert
into a garden at the earliest opportunity) with the spring in its
centre. One side of the house was set apart for the purpose of a
general living-room; the two contiguous sides were divided unequally--
the larger divisions forming respectively the doctor's and the
engineer's sleeping-rooms, whilst the smaller divisions served as
kitchen and larder; and the fourth side afforded ample sleeping
accommodation for the remainder of the party, with a store-room in one
angle of the building, and the magazine and armoury in the other. The
windows all looked outward, but were small, and strongly defended with
stout iron bars built into the masonry, and with massive wood shutters
inside, loop-holed for rifle firing. The doors giving access to the
rooms all opened upon the court-yard, and were as high and wide as they
could be made, so as to let in plenty of light and air. For still
further security there was no doorway whatever in the exterior face of
the building, egress and ingress being possible only by means of a
staircase in the court-yard leading up on to the flat roof, and thence
down on the outside by means of a light bamboo ladder which could be
hauled up on the roof in case of need. The roof, or roofs rather, had
only a very gentle slope or fall inward, just sufficient to allow of the
rain flowing off, and afforded a fighting platform at a height of about
fourteen feet from the ground, the defenders being sheltered by the
exterior walls, which were carried up some five feet higher and were
also loop-holed. It seemed at first sight a great waste of labour to
build so strong a place as this for what they hoped would be a
comparatively brief sojourn; but, as Gaunt pointed out to them, there
was no knowing precisely how long their stay on the island might be
protracted, and if they were going to construct a defence at all, it was
as well, whilst they were about it, to con