"Ay; what is it?" Reuben asked carelessly as he leaped over the gunwale into the water to aid in carrying the dory beyond reach of the tide.
"It's a notice sayin' that the 'Sally D.' will be sold at auction as she lays, this day week," Uncle Ben replied with yet more show of excitement, and Mr. Rowe said curiously:
"Sold at auction, eh? So that's what Eliakim came over here for so early, eh? Sellin' her as she lays! Does that mean he believes she can't be floated?"
"I dunno; he wouldn't make any talk to me 'bout it. After you left I tried to be neighborly—asked him to come inter the shanty an' have a cup of coffee; but I might jest as well have invited a ragin' hyena. He made a good deal of rough talk, mixin' in some threats, an' after a spell tacked up that paper. Sold as she lays this day week! I'm allowin' he couldn't raise the money to hire a tug, an' kinder figgered that the season wouldn't 'mount to much, now that he had lost his crew an' the cook, so he's countin' on goin' outer the business. How much do you reckon she'll fetch, Reuben?"
"Wa'al, the 'Sally' ain't any slouch of a schooner," Mr. Rowe said slowly and thoughtfully, as if giving due weight to the subject; "but neither is she so very young, an' it'll need a power of fixin' to put her inter what you might call first-class shape, for I'm doubtin' if Eliakim has spent a dollar on her these last five years. Then ag'in, she'll be mighty deep in the sand by this day week, an' the tides won't be runnin' so high. Take it all in all, Eliakim will come out mighty well if he gets four hundred dollars, though if I had twice as much ag'in, an' lived here on the island, I'd allow it would be a good bargain to offer it."
"How much will it cost for a tug to pull her off?"
"Wa'al, that's as may be. It ain't any ways certain it could be done in two days, or even four, an' I allow there ain't a man 'round here who'd take the job less'n a couple of hundred, with the chances of not finishin' it even then. But it wouldn't be any steamer for me, if I owned the schooner an' lived here."
"How would you go about it?" Uncle Ben asked quickly, and with no slight show of eagerness.
"First an' foremost, I'd get out five or six of the biggest trees on this 'ere island, an' peel off the bark so's they'd answer for ways. Then I'd start in when the tide was goin', an' dig along one side till I'd made sich a slope that she'd reg'larly fall inter it—after I had the timbers fixed jest right. Then it would be more of a job to get her shored up on the other side; but it could be done if time didn't count for too much.";
"I dunno as I jest catch your meanin', Reuben," Uncle Ben said in perplexity, and Mr. Rowe replied with a laugh: