Thereupon I detailed my proposed scheme, so far as it was formulated in my mind, confessing that I had as yet thought of no practical method of making an air-pump. “Still,” said I, “there is no doubt in my mind that some method of supplying that deficiency will occur to me.”
“Well, Mr. Morgan, let me think this over for a little while. There is no hurry required of me in making up my mind, for I should not like to leave the island for a week or so anyhow. Give me, say three days; but during this time there is no reason why you should be idle. If in the mean time some practicable method of completing the apparatus should occur to you I am free to say that fact would have great weight in determining my course of action.”
After breakfast we all went out on the porch and sat down, Duke lying in the sun at the old man’s feet. We discussed at great length the whole art and mystery of wrecking and diving, and the apparatus for such work.
In this discussion Alice Millward took an active part. She seemed so anxious to learn and know all about it that I went over, for her benefit, all the book knowledge I had pertaining to the subject. While this was not very extensive, the brief descriptions of apparatus familiar to me helped us all wonderfully to get a clearer idea of the problem before us. There was one method of raising sunken vessels about which I had read somewhere that was specially interesting and suggestive. This method is to attach to the hull barges partly filled with water, and pump the water out of the barges little by little, until by reason of their rise in the water the hull is lifted clear of the ground. Then barges and hull are towed into shallower water and the operation is repeated until finally the shore is reached. But this operation would require diving-apparatus for attaching the hawsers or ropes to the sunken hulk, and it brought us, therefore, no nearer a complete solution of the problem.
The talk was interesting and animated, and was kept up until the old man gave signs of weariness. Finally, in the midst of a discussion as to the best method of making an air-tube, he dropped to sleep. The practical benefit which I derived from this conversation was the familiarity obtained by holding up before the mind all the conditions and necessities of the problem, in the effort to make others understand these requirements. It is by steady and continuous thought that all problems are solved, and the first requisite of every solution is this very faculty of holding all the conditions without effort simultaneously in the mind. By continued effort mental process becomes finally so far a matter of mere habit, in any particular case, that the mind is left wholly free to act. It is a familiar saying with regard to mathematics, that a problem clearly stated is already half solved. This is true with regard to everything depending upon human thought. But problems are not solved by a mere effort of the will. The mind of man does not so operate. One must jostle various thoughts about in the brain, until finally by an unconscious process of selection the fitting thought is found, and its fitness perceived. One thing suggests another and that a third, link by link in a continuous chain, until the mind finally sees in the procession the needed thing, and immediately seizing upon it ignores all else.
I wanted to be alone that I might, by revolving the riddle over and over, finally seize the key and unlock it.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ABANDONED PLANTATION.
CALLING Duke I took my lasso and the axe, and started out for a long tramp to the woods, where I might think undisturbed.
That the walk might not be wholly aimless, I decided to go up the beach to the north a little way, and then strike over to that part of the creek which ran down parallel with the beach and follow it up to its head-waters. Poor Duke thought this was a hunting expedition pure and simple. His delight was extravagant to witness. For each foot I travelled he went at least six. Forward and back, ranging to and fro into every nook and corner, with his sensitive nose investigating everything, he made the most of his holiday. The gulls were out as usual, but Duke ignored them completely. Ne had already learned that this fowl was not game, and as he measured all things by that single standard, these birds had sunk to a point in his estimation that was beneath the contempt of a well-bred dog. We routed up an armadillo just after we crossed the creek, and captured it. Being so near home, I carried it back and instructed Miss Alice how to bake it in the oven, in the afternoon, for supper, and filled the oven with wood for her to light at the proper time. Then telling her I might not return much before nightfall, I started anew.
After we had crossed the creek again and had walked about a mile, we came on about a half-dozen pigs on the beach, most probably varying their diet with a few clams. When they saw us the little herd dashed across the sands and into the tangled jungle. Following them I found they had here a beaten path, which showed that this was one of their regular run-ways. I conjectured that this path would lead to the stream at some point, and so took advantage of it. In and out it went, well defined, through the thicket and the jungle; here through dense brakes of fern, there under great trees, until finally the stream was reached at a point higher up than I had ever before ascended. All about were great numbers of calabash trees full of gourds, literally thousands of them in all stages of growth, some fallen to the ground from over-ripeness. The inhabitants of this island need never want for such utensils as could be made of this vegetable product. What greatly surprised me was the size of the stream at this point. It had not seemingly diminished either in depth or width, though I had naturally expected it would be considerably less; for we were over three miles by its winding course from the mouth.