d ploughshares as willing
beasts of burden, to wield the hoe and spade, and to watch for the
cherished sprout that was to glorify their deeds.

The ring of the ax resounded in the forest; the clangour of hammer and
nail, the rasp of the saw, the clatter of timber went on from dawn to
dusk,--for there was no eight-hour law in this smiling land, nor
was there any other union save that of staunch endeavour, no other
Brotherhood except that of Man. There was never a question of wage,
never a dispute as to hours, never a thought of strike. Every labourer
was worthy of his hire,--and his hire was food!

The Doraine was gradually being dismantled. She was being stripped of
every bit of material that could be used in constructing and furnishing
the huts. The new camp lay not more than a mile and a half from the
basin. A road had been cleared through the wood from the small, hastily
constructed dock and runway on the eastern side of the basin to the open
territory beyond.

Material, supplies, equipment were carried through the densely shaded
avenue, and later on, after the warehouses and granaries had been built,
the leafy lane witnessed the transportation of ton upon ton of stores,
patiently borne in hundredweight lots, in bushel bags, in clumsy
parcels, by men whose work seemed endless; wheat, barley, oats, sugar,
coffee and other commodities entrusted to the steamship company for
delivery in the United States. Tobacco, canned and refrigerated meats,
olives, flour, figs and dates in large quantities were included in the
vast cargo, to say nothing of the enormous supply of canned fruits and
vegetables. Washed wool, tanned leather, homespun cotton and woollen
cloth, silks, hides, furs, rugs, laces, linseed oil, blankets,--all
these came ashore in course of time, but of the sinister treasure that
had inspired the destruction of the ship, i.e., the manganese,
the rubber, the nitrates, the copper bars, and the stacks of high
explosives, not a pound was moved. All this was left for another and
more leisurely day.

In the end, the once luxurious liner was to be reduced to "skin and
bones," to employ a trite but eminently appropriate phrase. Ultimately
she became a black, unlovely skeleton, bereft of every vestige of her
former opulence. Her decks were torn up and the timbers hauled away to
make floors in the huts; the doors, mirrors, stairways, windows, rails,
carpets, pipes, bathtubs, toilets, lamps, every foot of woodwork from