ained in the persons of
Lance, Rex, Brooke, and Kit. The three first were quite in their
element when it came to the designing and erecting of the various
buildings and of the battery, which was at the same time commenced,
whilst Kit displayed an amount of intelligence in the carrying out of
their instructions which was beyond all praise. Johnson chuckled with
inward satisfaction and made certain secret resolves; but he said
nothing.

Meanwhile the _Albatross_ had been careened, her copper stripped off
where necessary, and replaced after caulking the planking underneath;
the copper had been scoured all over, down to the very keel, until it
shone like gold; the top-sides had been caulked; then the deck; the hull
repainted inside and out; and when the buildings at the new dockyard
were about being begun, the spars, sails, and rigging of the brig were
in process of undergoing a thorough overhaul. It looked very much as
though the _Albatross_ would be ready for sea in another fortnight at
the outside; while Lance estimated that, with the strength then at his
command, it would be at least a month before the keel of the schooner
could possibly be laid. Now Johnson had set his heart upon seeing this
done before he sailed; when therefore he found that it would be
impossible unless he strongly augmented Lance's working party, he took
half the men working upon the brig and turned them over to the dockyard
gang, with the result that the work on the brig was retarded while that
at the shipyard was expedited so greatly as to ensure the gratification
of his wish. So eager was he to hasten on the building of the schooner
that he even proposed the abandonment of the old settlement at the
bottom of the bay, and the establishment of a new one on the rock
itself. This, however, by no means suited Lance's views. It would be
manifestly impossible to launch and make off with the schooner if they
were to be environed by a gang of men every one of whom would be sure to
regard the new-comers with more or less of suspicion and distrust; so
Lance threw out a few mysterious hints about secret passages and hidden
chambers beneath the battery and in the heart of the rocks, which for
Johnson's own individual sake it would be wise to keep from the
knowledge of all but those actually engaged in constructing them; and by
this means he managed to avert the threatened transfer. The thought
occurred to him that possibly the _Galatea_ party might be