Jim's plans began to shape themselves and we saw what our new craft was to be like. His design was far superior to what we had planned. The groundwork was three of the longest and largest logs.
The bow was three feet across, the end of the logs being trimmed and shaped together. The stern was made by the spread of the logs and was at least six feet across. This end was also shaped up so as to offer as little surface to the current as possible.
The logs were held together by heavy planking that we had recovered from the drift. These were spiked to the logs. Before this was done Jim had fixed his heavy keel to the middle log.
He had hollowed it to the shape of the log so that it fitted to it and made it as much like a boat keel as possible. It was pretty well water soaked and half as heavy as iron.
"How are you ever going to launch this craft?" I inquired. "She will be sure to weigh a ton."
"We will come to that in a couple of days," replied Jim.
The crucial time came and we went to work to get the raft into the stream. We were aided by the fact that it had been purposely put together near a steep slope into the river.
By means of the leverage of long poles and blocks we raised it up, and with smaller logs placed underneath we rolled it down into the stream.
"Hurrah!" yelled Jim. "She floats like a duck."
It was a jubilant moment for us. We had worked hard and carefully, and it was worth while.