ed with
our several labours, commencing work each day the moment that there was
light enough to see what we were about, and working steadily on until we
could see no longer, encouraged by the thought that although our
calculations seemed to indicate the possibility of attack within about a
fortnight of the flight of the two natives, the force of circumstances
might perhaps afford us a still longer time in which to complete our
task.

And with the passage of the days we began to realise that, work as hard
as we might, we should need nearly double the time which we believed we
had at our disposal if we were to finish our work as it ought to be
finished. For while the schooner's hull was complete her deck was only
partially laid, and that task had to be completed, together with all
deck fittings, such as the companion way and fore scuttle; the seams
must be properly caulked and paid, the masts stepped and rigged, the
sails finished and bent, the interior fittings, such as bunks, lockers,
shelves, and so on, fixed, the water casks stowed and filled, the
ballast stowed, provisions collected and put on board, and the little
craft generally completed in readiness for sea. True, many of the jobs
were trivial and did not need much time to attend to them, but in the
aggregate they presented quite a formidable appearance; and lastly, and
most formidable of all, there remained the launching ways to finish, the
cradle to build, and the wedging up to be done. Taken altogether, the
task seemed to be an impossible one, and our only hope lay in the chance
that our savage neighbours would so far resemble Mokalua and Vati in
character that they would proceed with their preparations for the
invasion which we regarded as inevitable with the same placid
deliberation and absence of haste that had been such strongly marked
characteristics of the two fugitives.

Yet it would not do to count upon this; therefore as soon as we fully
realised the impossibility of completing the schooner and getting away
in her within the fortnight, we so far modified our plans as to devote a
certain amount of time to the putting of our cavern into a condition of
defence. Fortunately for us, this was a very simple matter; for the
savages knew of only one entrance to the cavern, namely, that in North
Bay, and that was so exceedingly small that it might easily be blocked
from the inside with a few large stones. And, as luck would have it,
stones admirably adap