se, for the wheels
of the truck got set continually between the logs.

Once, I went head over heels backward into the water; and once Jake
tripped over a cleat and did likewise.

"All we need, Jake," I remarked, "is about one hundred and fifty pounds
more leverage."

Miss Grant heard and jumped out of her boat.

"Mr.--Mr. Bremner,--could I lend you that extra hundred and fifty
pounds or so?"

I looked at her. She was all willingness and meekness; the latter a
mood which I, even with my scant knowledge of her, did not altogether
believe in.

"Sure, miss," put in Jake. "Come on, if you ain't skeered o' soilin'
your glad rags."

She waited for my word.

"I am sure your help would be valuable, Miss Grant," I said. "It might
just turn the trick in our favour."

She scrambled up the rock and returned in half a minute with a pair of
stout leather gloves on her hands. She jumped up on to the raft and
lent her leverage, as Jake and I got our shoulders under the lift.

Bravo! It lifted as easily as if it had been a toy. All it had
required was that little extra aid.

We three ran it clear of the raft, down on to the beach, over the
pebbles and right under the rocks.

I knew, in the ordinary course, that our troubles would only be
beginning, but I had figured out that the only possible way to get over
this difficulty of the rocks was to erect a block and tackle to the
solid branch of a tree which, fortunately, overhung the face of the
cliffs.

In half an hour, we had all secure and ready for the attempt.

I worked the gear, while Jake did the guiding from below.

When we had the piano safely swung, it took our combined strength and
weight to bring it in on top of the rocks. After that, it was simply a
matter of hard work.

So, in three hours after receiving it from the steamer _Siwash_, the
piano was out of its casing and set safely, without a scratch on it, in
a corner of Miss Grant's parlour.

Jake and I never could have done it ourselves. Both of us knew that.
It was Miss Grant's untiring assistance that pulled the matter to a
successful conclusion.

She thanked us without ostentation, as she would have thanked a
piano-mover or the woodman in the city.

It nettled me not a little, for, to say truth, I was half dead from the
need of a cup of good strong tea and my appetite gnawed over the odour
of home-made scones that the elderly, rotund lady was baking on Miss
Grant's kitchen stove. All day