"Here we are," said Plunkett, "and here we are likely to be, unless we go over without the gun. It won't swim over there."
"Of course it won't," I replied, impatiently; "but we are going to take it over there. Now we must make a raft."
"A raft!" exclaimed the croaker. "The lieutenant ought to have sent a whole section over here."
"That's the idea! We can make a raft in less than an hour. There is no end of logs here," added Morgan, glancing along the shore, where there were plenty of sticks of timber, of all sorts and sizes.
Plunkett growled; but he assisted Morgan, who went to work in earnest. While they were rolling the logs to a convenient position in the water, I went back to the house. Mr. Gracewood had a wheelbarrow. I broke up some large boxes, and wheeled the boards, with a supply of nails, down to the river. By this time the soldiers had placed half a dozen logs, from fifteen to twenty feet long, in the water, side by side. They had been obliged to use the axes a little, but generally the sticks had been deprived of their branches by being tossed about on the shore. The boards I had brought were nailed across them, so as to hold them together.
Above this foundation shorter and dryer sticks, from the woods, were placed crosswise, and while my companions were laying them down I returned to the house with the wheelbarrow. I could take only a small portion of the ammunition at a load, and I repeated the journey several times before the raft was finished. I did not bring the whole of it, but I thought I had enough to kill all the Indians within twenty miles of the Castle.
The raft was built up a foot above the water, so as to furnish the necessary floating power, and the parts were securely bound together with board battens. We rolled the gun upon the structure, and were delighted to find that everything was a perfect success. We placed logs on each side of the wheels, and lashed the carriage down to the raft. Loading the ammunition, which I had put into several boxes in order to trim the raft, we pushed it off from the shore.
"Now we are all ready," said Morgan, as he leaped into the boat, with the rope attached to the raft in his hand.
"What is to be done with that Indian up by the house?" asked Plunkett.
"Nothing," replied Morgan.