"I see a better way than that," said Ned.
"Very well. What is it?"
"Let's throw her forward first; then I'll show you."
Resting, as the boat was, almost upon her gunwale, it was easy to push her forward, and when that was done she was a little more than half-way over.
"Now," said Ned, "instead of lowering that upper gunwale, let's lift the lower one with the levers, and block it up. We needn't raise it more than a foot; then she'll show her whole under-side to us just as well as if she lay flat on her face."
"Yes," said Jack, after studying the matter, "and it will be all the easier to turn her back again."
"Have we got to turn her back again?" asked Charley, whose arms and back had been pretty severely taxed in the effort to reverse the position of the boat.
"Well, no," said Ned, "not if we can make up our minds to launch her, bottom upward, and to ride back to Bluffton on her keel. Otherwise we must turn her right side up before we launch her."
"It won't be hard to turn her back, Charley," said Jack. "She'll be nearly on edge, you see, and it won't require lifting—only a little pushing. But come, let's raise this gunwale. Six inches will do, I think."
One more application of the levers served the purpose, and the work of applying the pitch was resumed.