'I guess they 're fixing something,' replied Hoole. 'In my country there 's a good deal of clack when we elect a new president. It's a new chief here, you know.'
'Which it means a coronation, p'r'aps, or a beano of some sort, sir. Well, we 'll see, if we live long enough. Good night, sir.'
Hoole had taken the precaution to have the seaplane placed near the hut. In the morning, as soon as it was light, he made a more thorough examination of the machine than had been possible before.
'What precisely is wrong with it?' asked Trentham.
'Luckily not much,' said Hoole. 'These Huns are no sports or they 'd have risked the few miles back to the cove. A couple of flying wires are broken--that 's nothing--but see here, the water jacket round this cylinder is cracked; the water (for cooling purposes, of course) will all run out, and cause the engine to overheat. That's why they came down, though, as I said, I 'd have risked it; all the same, it wouldn't be safe to risk a flight of any length, and the thing must be repaired. The mischief is, we 've got no solder, and you can't mend a crack in metal without that, or something equivalent.'
'But you said, when you first saw it, that it could be repaired.'
'Well, yes, I did; forgetting for the moment where we are. You haven't seen anything in the shape of a forge anywhere around, have you?'
'No, but I suppose they must have one, or they couldn't make their spears. I 'll ask the interpreter.'
But the word forge was unknown to the interpreter, and Trentham's effort to explain in pantomime, by blowing an imaginary pair of bellows, proved fruitless.
'Well, I 'll go and look around,' said Hoole. 'And meanwhile, old son, don't you think you 'd better persuade the chief to send out some scouts? If the Germans do have a notion to attack us, five minutes' warning would give us time to get every one inside the wall.'