"We have plenty of time to do the job, for I don't think it will take us a great while. Have you seen anything of the Chesterfields this evening?"
"Not one of them has been near the point, so far as I know, and I don't expect to see any of them. I suppose they are dreaming of the fun they will have in pitching the cottage into the lake to-morrow afternoon," added Paul, with a cheerful smile. "But I don't see how you are going to move the building, Dory."
"If you keep your eye on us sharp for an hour or so you will see," replied the leader of the enterprise, as he turned his attention to the business before him.
After half an hour's hard work, the lumber, blocks, and rigging on the deck of the scow were landed on the beach. With thirty pairs of hands the work was not very hard, and they tossed the large sticks about as though they had been nothing but chips. By this time they understood what was to be done, and the students were full of enthusiasm. They were required to work in silence; for though the Chesterfield school was all of half a mile from Sandy Point, Dory was very anxious lest their operations should be disturbed by the institute people.
Two heavy timbers were placed under the cottage; the jack-screws were put in position under them, and the building raised from the posts which supported it. A plankway was laid on the smooth sand, the posts were removed, and the cottage set on rollers. The plankway was continued to the water.
There was a considerable descent from the site of the cottage to the water. Two heavy ropes were attached to the building, and passed around a couple of large trees in the rear of it. The plankway was an inclined plane, and it required but little force to start the cottage on its journey. With a couple of turns around the trees, the hands stationed at the check-lines easily controlled its movements, and slacked off only as the captain gave the word.
In a few minutes the building was rolled down almost to the water. The gundalow was aground on the shore end. Two heavy timbers were extended from the deck to the beach and supported by blocks so that they would bear the weight of the structure. These beams lay nearly level when they were in position, and just reached the end of the plankway on shore. The check-lines were eased off again when smooth bearings for the rollers had been prepared.
When the cottage was about half on the timber-ways the force of gravity was no longer available, and the building refused to budge another inch. While Captain Dornwood was on the front of the structure, some twenty of the students in the rear tried to push it toward the gundalow; but they could not start it.
"Enough of that!" called Dory, as soon as he saw what they were doing. "You are acting without orders, and wasting your strength for nothing."