Eden on the
following day.

But when I looked from the skeleton of the cutter to the small quantity
of material available for her completion, my heart sank within me, and I
felt utterly discouraged, for what I had was ridiculously inadequate.
It was not enough even to complete the shell of the craft; and where on
earth was I to get more? There were, of course, thousands of trees on
the group, and I had an axe with which to fell them; but when they were
felled, how was I to convert them into plank and scantling? It was a
problem which I puzzled over during the whole day succeeding my return
to Eden, seeking in vain for a solution, until at last it seemed that we
were really doomed to remain where we were until taken off by a ship,
even though we should grow old while awaiting her arrival.

Such a conclusion would doubtless have been terribly discouraging to
many people, but after the first shock its effect upon me was, on the
contrary, so provocative that I resumed work upon the cutter with more
resolution than ever, if that were possible, until, some six weeks
later, I had used up all my available material, and my work was perforce
brought to a standstill. But when this happened I had made such
progress that the cutter was planked up to the gunwale with the first
thickness of planking; and so thoroughly satisfied was I with my work
that I was determined _nothing_ should prevent its completion, even
though, to provide the necessary material, I should be compelled to pull
down the bungalow and break up our sailing boat. Such forcible measures
as those, however, demanded the most careful consideration before
adoption.

Meanwhile the rank luxuriance of tropical plant-growth had already
changed the fire-blackened areas of Apes' and West Islands to varying
tints of delicate green, the several varieties of new vegetation seeming
to find congenial conditions in the thick coat of ashes resulting from
the fire. But I learned from Bowata, whose people had been maintaining
a close watch upon both islands, that thus far no signs of animal life
had been detected upon either of them, although the chief agreed with me
that, whatever might be the case with Apes' Island, West Island--or at
least the unburnt part of it--must be simply swarming with living
creatures. And the conviction that this was so was causing him and his
people so much uneasiness that a permanent watch had been established at
the western end of Cliff Island,