my missile, I saw that the
slime covered pool, which lay near, was all a-quiver, or so it seemed.
Yet the next instant I was just as full of doubt; for, even as I watched
it, I perceived that it was quite still. And after that, for some time, I
kept a very strict gaze into the valley; yet could nowhere discover aught
to prove my suspicions, and, at last, I ceased from watching it; for I
feared to grow fanciful, and so wandered to that part of the hill which
overlooked the weed.

Presently, when I had been relieved, I returned to sleep, and so till the
morning. Then, when we had made each of us a hasty breakfast--for all
were grown mightily keen to see the great bow completed--we set-to upon
it, each at our appointed task. Thus, the bo'sun and I made it our work
to make the twelve grooves athwart the flat end of the stock, into which
I proposed to fit and lash the bows, and this we accomplished by means of
the iron futtock-shroud, which we heated in its middle part, and then,
each taking an end (protecting our hands with canvas), we went one on
each side and applied the iron until at length we had the grooves burnt
out very nicely and accurately. This work occupied us all the morning;
for the grooves had to be deeply burnt; and in the meantime the men had
completed near enough sennit for the stringing of the bows; yet those who
were at work on the line which the arrow was to carry, had scarce made
more than half, so that I called off one man from the sennit to turn-to,
and give them a hand with the making of the line.

When dinner was ended, the bo'sun and I set-to about fitting the bows
into their places, which we did, and lashed them to twenty-four bolts,
twelve a side, driven into the timber of the stock, about twelve inches
in from the end. After this, we bent and strung the bows, taking very
great care to have each bent exactly as the one below it; for we started
at the bottom. And so, before sunset, we had that part of our work ended.

Now, because the two fires which we had lit on the previous night had
exhausted our fuel, the bo'sun deemed it prudent to cease work, and go
down all of us to bring up a fresh supply of the dry seaweed and some
bundles of the reeds. This we did, making an end of our journeyings just
as the dusk came over the island. Then, having made a second fire, as on
the preceding night, we had first our supper, and after that another
spell of work, all the men turning to upon the line which th