“How would you go to work?”
“In the first place I’d carry both anchors as far as the cables would run, make them fast to the capstan, and, aided by the tide, haul in until she was pulled up on her keel.”
“Should you swim out with the anchors?” Vance asked with just a tinge of sarcasm perceptible in his tones.
“How long would it take to build a raft?”
“If you were going to do that it would be best to make one large enough to carry us to the mainland.”
“We haven’t the materials for that. A small one would answer our purpose in floating her, and I can rig up such a craft alone. Say, suppose you two dig for the treasure and leave me to get ready? I won’t ask you to help me more than an hour the first day, and then when I call on you for regular work you may decide whether my plan can be carried out.”
Ned was so deeply in earnest his companions could not but be impressed, and Vance, realizing that by agreeing to this proposition he would be able to get at the treasure-seeking just so much the sooner, replied:
“I’m willing if Roy is.”
“And I shouldn’t be surprised if Ned was correct in what he says,” the cook added thoughtfully. “A few men have moved a large ship before now, and I don’t see why, with so much in the way of material for working, the Zoe could not be gotten into deep water.”
“She can!” Ned exclaimed, rendered even more excited than before by his partial success in convincing his companions. “What will be the difference between floating her and finding silver dollars? She is worth three such lots of coin as I dug up, and even if there is more treasure in the hulk, the chances are that there isn’t as much as would pay for her.”