hould be
carried out, only occasionally giving the lad a few hints. Invested
thus with such great responsibility, and with such important duties to
execute, Roger naturally needed a lieutenant, and he selected Harry for
the post, dividing his men into two parties, one of which he placed
under the command of his friend.

This arranged, he sent Harry away into the woods with his men, armed
with axes and bush knives, to cut timber for the stockade, while he
himself, with his own party, remained on the beach, digging holes in
which to deposit the uprights when they were cut, and also digging a
ditch round where the palisade was to be, in order to drain off any
water that might accumulate, and thus prevent the interior of their
small fort from being flooded.

Harry and his gang soon returned with a load of stout stakes, plenty of
suitable trees for the purpose being found close at hand. Depositing
these on the beach, he then returned into the woods for more material,
Roger and his men meanwhile proceeding to plant the main posts in a ring
round the guns.

It was not long ere they had driven a row of posts deep and firm into
the sand, starting from the margin of the beach nearest the water's
edge.

This brought them, in the direction in which they were going, fairly
close up to where the woods ceased at their junction with the beach.

Roger was watching the men drive in the next post with heavy wooden
mallets, procured from the ship, when he observed that, although they
were hammering hard at the stump, it did not seem to be going down as
quickly as it should; indeed, upon closer inspection, it did not appear
to be moving downwards at all. And, further, the mallets, instead of
giving out a dull sound, as they had done whilst driving through sand,
now gave out a sharper and quite different sound as the top of the post
was struck.

One of the men engaged stepped up to Roger and touched his hat. "It
seems to me, sir," said he, "as though something was stopping of this
here post from going down any furder. I expects as how there is a stone
or summat in the sand under the point. Do you think that ere stump is
down fur enough as it is, or shall us pull un up and put un in
somewheres else?"

Roger stepped up and shook the post, and, finding it quite loose,
decided that it would have to be driven deeper in order to be secure.
Nevertheless it was necessary to space the posts at equal intervals one
from another, if his