ance be of the slightest value
to us, while Billy, having developed an ambition to lay out a
considerable expanse of the slope in front of the house as a garden, put
in his time in the realisation of that ambition. After a time I was
able to lend a hand at this job; and I finished up by setting on end, in
front of the house, the brigantine's spare main topmast, which made a
fine flagstaff, upon which I proposed to hoist the ship's ensign, union-
down, if ever a ship should heave in sight.

CHAPTER TEN.

A SPIDER'S WEB!

My next task was one which I felt I had already neglected too long,
namely, the provision of weapons to supplement our firearms, and so save
our ammunition for cases of extreme emergency. This I proposed to do by
the manufacture of bows and arrows, if I could find materials suitable
for the purpose. So far as the arrows were concerned, I had already
found perfect material for the shafts in the bundle of rushes I had cut
in the Shark Bay swamp, and which had by this time dried and hardened in
the air until they had become all that I could wish for. But I still
required wood from which to make bows, and I spent a whole day
unsuccessfully searching the woods of Eden for suitable trees. But it
did not follow that because there were no suitable trees on our own
islet, there were none on any of the other islands of the group;
therefore on a certain evening I announced my intention of starting next
morning upon a further voyage of exploration and discovery.

In pursuance of this intention, immediately after breakfast on the
following morning, I put two rifles in the boat, with an ample supply of
cartridges, while we each carried a brace of revolvers in a belt
strapped round our waists; in addition to which I took along with me a
ship's cutlass to serve instead of an axe with which to cut any suitable
boughs we might chance to find.

For prospecting purposes I chose the western island of the group, not
only because it was the largest and most densely wooded but also because
I seemed to remember vaguely having seen, when sailing past it on my way
to and from the wreck, certain trees resembling yews, than which, of
course, nothing could be better for my purpose. We got under way with a
fine fair wind, and headed for East Channel, entering which we ran close
in under the precipitous cliffs that formed the northern coast-line of
the island inhabited by the natives. Thence we passed into North Island