"What is to be done next?"
"We must get her up a little farther out of the water. We can easily get some more casks under her now; but let us have some dinner first."
They sat down on a timber on the raft, and ate the dinner they had brought with them. They could not keep their eyes off the steamer during the meal, and they continued to discuss the means of completing the work they had begun.
After dinner the labor was renewed with redoubled energy. Four more casks were attached to the bow, and four removed from the stern; the effect of which was to lift the bow out of the water, while the deck at the after part was again submerged. This was Lawry's plan for ascertaining the extent of the injury which the hull had received. It now appeared that, when the Woodville struck the Goblins, she had slid upon a flat rock, while a sharp projection from the reef had stove a hole, not quite three feet in diameter, just above her keel.
"Now we must stop this hole," said Lawry; "and we may as well do it here as anywhere."
"That's just my idea," responded Ethan. "There's a painted floor-cloth in the kitchen, which will just cover it. I will get it."
"Have you any small nails on board?"
"Plenty of them."
The kitchen and the engineer's storeroom were now out of water, so that Ethan had no difficulty in procuring the articles needed in stopping up the hole. A couple of slats were placed over the aperture to prevent the floor-cloth from being forced in by the pressure of the water. Both of the boys then went to work nailing on the carpet, which was new and very heavy. The nails were put very close together, and most of them being carpet-tacks, with broad heads, they pressed the oilcloth closely down to the wood-work. It was not expected entirely to exclude the water; but the leakage could be easily controlled by the pumps.
Several of the casks were now removed from the bow to the stern, until the hull sat even on the water. All the heavy articles on deck, including the contents of the "chain-box," were transferred to the raft, and the laborers were ready to commence the long and trying operation of pumping her out. It was now six o'clock, and it was plain that this job could not be finished that night. The wind was beginning to freshen, and there were indications of bad Weather. Lawry had at first intended to move the Woodville up to the ferry-landing as soon as she floated; but Ethan, for certain reasons, which were satisfactory to his fellow laborer, wished to pump her out where she was; and it was found to be a very difficult thing to tow her up to the ferry in her water-logged condition.