“Here! Stow that kind of talk,” said his mate quickly. “We’ve got a captain who’ll navigate us anywhere we want to go.”
“I only wish I could,” spoke Tom. “The next thing to think of is making some better kind of a shelter. Can we do it out of the wood we have at hand?”
“I don’t see why not,” said Abe. “Joe here used to be a sort of carpenter, and I’ve worked at the trade too. We have only an axe, but that’s better than nothing.”
“Then let’s make a sort of deck house,” suggested Tom. “That canvas awning won’t be much good in a storm.”
“Right, captain!” exclaimed Abe. “What next?”
“That’s all for the present. And I guess that’s enough.”
They first put the food and water in a safe place, on the highest part of the derelict, lashing it fast with ropes found in the lifeboat, so that it would not wash away. Mr. Skeel wanted to help in the work, but at the first knot he tied Abe exclaimed:
“That’s too land-lubbery for me! It would fetch away at the first roll of the derelict. You’d better take the axe and see if you can get out some planks.”
It was hard work, but to the credit of the former teacher be it said that he did manage to chop out some of the planks. He worked through a hole in what had been the deck of the lumber vessel, for she had been laden with planks in all her holds.
Soon quite a number of planks were at the service of the sailors, who had finished securing the food. Jackie was still cutting away at the toy soldiers, producing a vast quantity of shavings but not much else.