nly two men in her? And
warn't I," continued he, "nineteen days _alone_ in an open boat in the
South Atlantic; and didn't I make a v'y'ge of a thousand miles in her
afore I struck soundings at Saint Helena?"

This last question referred to an adventure which had befallen Bob in
his younger days, on an occasion when he had been cruelly deserted in a
sinking ship by the rest of the crew, and had made his escape, as
described by himself, after enduring unheard-of suffering.

"Then," questioned I, "you seriously entertain the belief that the
scheme you have suggested is practicable?"

"With ease and comfort," replied Bob. "Now look here, Harry. You can
afford to build a craft such as I have described, and fit her out for
the v'y'ge, and still leave money enough at home to keep sauce-box
here," (indicating Ada, who was to him as the apple of his eye)
"comfortable and happy like till we come back. You've a rare eye for a
sea-boat, and mine ain't bad, for that matter; let's draught her out
ourselves, since it's our own lives as we are going to trust in her; and
if we don't turn out, between us, as pretty a sea-boat as ever floated,
why, turn to and lay me up in ordinary for the rest of my days for a
useless old hulk, that's all. A boat thirty feet long, decked all over,
and carefully designed, _can't_ sink, boy, because we can easily arrange
matters so as to keep her dry inside; she'll ride as light as a gull and
as dry as a bone when big ships is making bad weather of it, and as for
the matter of capsizing, bein' run down, or cast away, why they're
dangers as we are liable to in any ship, and must be guarded against in
every craft, large or small; and our little barkie would carry
comfortable all we should want for the v'y'ge, for we could touch here
and there out and home to make good deficiencies, and we two are men
enough to handle her in all weathers. Rig her as a cutter, boy. I was
once't aboard a cutter yacht in a trip up the Mediterranean, and you've
no idea what a handy rig it is, once you're used to it. And the way
them cutters 'll hug the wind--why 't would make a difference of nigh on
a couple of thousand miles, out and home, in the length of the passage."

I began to be infected with Bob's enthusiasm. The scheme, which had at
first appeared to me as the very acme of fool-hardiness, now, under the
influence of Bob's eloquence, gradually assumed an appearance of
reasonableness, and a promising prospect o