“Now, lads, we will launch her,” cried Tom.
By means of the rollers placed under her keel, this was done without much difficulty, and all hands jumped on board. Ballast was then placed in her, and she was found not to make a drop of water.
“For my part,” exclaimed Tom, anxious to encourage the rest, “I should be ready to sail right across the Pacific in her.”
“And so should I,” cried Billy and Desmond in chorus.
“Pardon me for saying it, sir; there are two things we cannot carry enough of to do that—water and fresh provisions,” said Jerry Bird, the oldest seaman of the party. “If we did not meet with a hurricane or too heavy a gale for the boat, we might of course get across. Such voyages have been performed before now, but no man would willingly undertake one if it could be avoided.”
These observations of Jerry set Tom thinking. “We must calculate the quantity of water we can carry, and go on an allowance from the first,” he said to Desmond. “We must do the same also with regard to our yams and all our other provisions, or, after all the pains we have taken, we might run short, which would not be pleasant.”
“I should think not,” remarked Billy. “I don’t mind how long we remain in the boat, but I should not like to be on short commons.”
The weather promising to be fine, the boat was anchored close in shore, being also secured by an additional warp fastened to a stake driven into the ground. Their intention was to carry their provisions and stores on board the next morning and immediately sail. With the writing materials he had found on board the schooner, Tom wrote a short account of their adventures, and their intentions as to their future proceedings, and corked the paper up in a bottle. This they lashed carefully to a stake close to the flag-staff, which they felt sure would be visited should any vessel come off the island.
“At all events, our friends will some day or other learn what has become of us if we are lost,” said Desmond.
“Oh, pray don’t talk about that,” cried Billy; “I can’t bear to think about, anything so dreadful.”