first day he loafed about, smoking cigarettes and
pretending to fish in the troubled water over the side.

When, however, on the second day, seeing that I needed help, his mother
and sister came to my assistance, the sight of them working while he
idled was too much for even his spoiled and selfish temper; and with
many grumblings and mutterings below his breath he ordered his mother
away and took her place. But so intractable was he, so unwilling to
receive the slightest suggestion or hint from a "darned Britisher", and
so determined to do things his own way or not at all, that eventually I
had to tell him plainly he must consent to do as he was told, or drop
work altogether. Finally he gave in, mainly in consequence of his
sister's outspoken comments upon his behaviour, but it was with a very
bad grace.

Having made the living quarters of the ship once more habitable and safe
against bad weather, the next task undertaken was the salving of the
sails and as many of the spars and as much of the rigging as possible.
This was a lengthy and heavy job, in the performance of which it became
necessary for me to be frequently over the side, in the water, cutting
the sails from the yards and stays, clearing and unreeving rigging, and
so on. It would have been exceedingly dangerous had the sharks which I
had seen during the first few days remained in the lagoon; but they
seemed to have gone again, for I saw nothing of them.

Although their absence enabled me to work with the utmost freedom, I
could not make very rapid headway, single-handed, in the water; while
the hoisting inboard of the heavier spars and sails, assisted though we
were with such appliances as a derrick, tackles, snatch-blocks, and the
winch, taxed our energies to the very utmost. It was done at last,
however, and most thankful was I when the last spar it was possible for
us to secure came up over the side; for not only had we saved a
considerable quantity of material that might possibly prove of the
utmost value to us, but we had also rid ourselves of the menace of
having the ship holed by the wreckage bumping alongside.

This big task was completed exactly six weeks from the day upon which
the wreck had occurred, all of us working strenuously from dawn to dark
day after day, excepting Sundays, which Mrs Vansittart insisted should
be observed as days of rest, during which she conducted a service,
morning and evening, in the drawing-room. Christmas Day,