tly; for upon it
depended much of the true flight of the arrow. Then I went back to my own
work; for I had not yet finished notching the bows. Presently, when I
had made an end of this, I called for a length of the sennit, and, with
the aid of another man, contrived to string one of the bows. This, when I
had finished, I found to be very springy, and so stiff to bend that I had
all that I could manage to do so, and at this I felt very satisfied.

Presently, it occurred to me that I should do well to set some of the men
to work upon the line which the arrow was to carry; for I had determined
that this should be made also from the white hemp yarns, and, for the
sake of lightness, I conceived that one thickness of yarn would be
sufficient; but so that it might compass enough of strength, I bid them
split the yarns and lay the two halves up together, and in this manner
they made me a very light and sound line; though it must not be supposed
that it was finished at once; for I needed over half a mile of it, and
thus it was later finished than the bow itself.

Having now gotten all things in train, I set me down to work upon one of
the arrows; for I was anxious to see what sort of a fist I should make of
them, knowing how much would depend upon the balance and truth of the
missile. In the end, I made a very fair one, feathering it with its own
leaves, and truing and smoothing it with my knife; after which I inserted
a small bolt in the forrard end, to act as a head, and, as I conceived,
give it balance; though whether I was right in this latter, I am unable
to say. Yet, before I had finished my arrow, the bo'sun had made the
groove, and called me over to him, that I might admire it, the which I
did; for it was done with a wonderful neatness.

Now I have been so busy with my description of how we made the great bow,
that I have omitted to tell of the flight of time, and how we had eaten
our dinner this long while since, and how that the people in the hulk had
waved to us, and we had returned their signals, and then written upon a
length of the canvas the one word, "WAIT." And, besides all this, some
had gathered our fuel for the coming night.

And so, presently, the evening came upon us; but we ceased not to work;
for the bo'sun bade the men to light a second great fire, beside our
former one, and by the light of this we worked another long spell;
though it seemed short enough, by reason of the interest of the work.
Yet, at