rst sea which swept over us. We required
something large enough to carry us both, and a stock of provisions in
addition, so that should it be necessary to abandon the _Water Lily_, we
might hope to reach land, or fall in with a ship. We also wanted
something that should be essentially a _life-boat_, whilst she should
also be very fast. How to obtain all these desiderata, and at the same
time overcome the difficulty in respect to room, we knew not. But,
resolved not to be baffled, we set our wits to work, and at length
schemed out a design of an exceedingly novel character, which proved in
all respects a most brilliant success.

Two hollow steel cylinders, of very thin metal, twenty-six feet long and
one foot diameter in the centre, tapering gradually away to nothing at
each end, were constructed in thirteen lengths of two feet each. These
lengths, being of different diameters, stowed one within the other, thus
taking up very little room indeed. In either end of each length was
inserted a narrow band of metal thick enough to allow of a worm and
screw, so that all the lengths of each cylinder could be screwed
together perfectly water-tight. A light steel framework of simple
arrangement connected the two cylinders together, at a distance of six
feet apart, with their centre lines parallel, and supported, at a height
of two feet above the top of the cylinders, a light stage ten feet long
and six feet wide. On the top of the stage, and connected with the
framework, was a step for a mast, and a gammon-iron for a bowsprit, and
underneath the stage was a centre-board which we could lower or raise at
pleasure. A broad rudder, fixed to the after-part of the stage,
completed the design.

We spent a fortnight in London, and, having witnessed the laying of the
_Water Lily's_ keel, and inspected some of the timber which the builder
proposed to use in her construction, I saw Ada safe home again, leaving
Bob in London to look out for a ship, which, when I rejoined him a
couple of days afterwards, he had found.

We shipped in her for a voyage to Constantinople and Trebizond, which
occupied us for eight months, and when we returned to London, on the
termination of this voyage, we found the _Water Lily_ completed, with
the exception of a few finishing touches, which the workmen were then
giving her.

CHAPTER FOUR.

OUR TRIAL TRIP.

Mr Wood, the shipbuilder, took us into his office, and there laid
before us a sail drau