rust. Down one of these poured a steady stream of cement, from
the other a torrent of small grit, while an unceasing cataract of salt
water rushed down from the pumps of the steamer.

"In this awful mess of cement, water, and small stones the men wallowed
and struggled, mixing the concrete and packing it down hard into place.
Wet to the skin, covered with cement dust, it was all that they could do
to keep from turning into concrete statues, and the foreman was
continually advising the men to put hands and faces directly under the
stream of water and not to give the cement dust a chance to harden on
their faces. For two hours they slaved, working in a frenzy of haste.

"Then, when everything was proceeding so well and so rapidly, a black
storm-cloud came up out of the sea to the southeast, and the waves began
to roll in. The whistle for recall blew shrilly. Up from the cylinder
poured the shovelers, covered with concrete and looking like gray images
of men. There was a wild flight for the steamer. One of the barges
snapped a hawser and it was only by the herculean efforts of the smaller
tug that she was kept from collision with the cylinder. Had that tug,
loaded down with building material, ever canted against the cylinder,
the whole effort would have been in vain.

"One of the lifeboats, containing sixteen men, was picked up by a wave
and thrown against the iron rim as a child throws a ball. The boat went
into matchwood and every one of the sixteen men was thrown into the
water. But Father had taken the precaution of not engaging any man who
was not a good swimmer, and the other tug had received instructions to
follow each boatload of workmen every trip they took. Accordingly, when
the men were thrown into the sea, the tug was not twenty yards away and
every one was picked up without injury.

"The next morning, to the horror of every man in the fleet, the cylinder
was seen to be inclining four feet from the perpendicular. Although the
waves were running high, a gang was sent on one of the stone barges and
another two hundred tons of stone were thrown off on the side to which
the cylinder was inclining."

"Why?" asked Eric. "I should have thought that it ought to be on the
other side."

"Not at all," his friend rejoined. "The reason that the cylinder had
listed was because there had been some scouring away of the sand in
spite of the stones. If, therefore, the stones were put on the side from
which the sand had alr