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"Good idea. But I would like to know how we are going to get up?"

"Wasn't that a silly trick, to be so careless about our boat. What will the Professor say?"

At last, after repeated trials, they found a way which led them up the craggy sides, to the object they had seen.

"It is our life-boat," was Harry's excited cry. "That is, what is left of it."

We have previously detailed how, when they struck the rock, on that eventful day, months before, the boat had apparently been broken in two, and they saw only the stern of the boat held within a saddle of the rock; and how, at the next great wave, even that portion had disappeared. Here was the battered and broken-up part that remained.

"Do you think this part would float?"

"I suppose it would, but how can we get it down?"

They sat down, not discouraged, but annoyed at their own stupidity and carelessness. Night was approaching, and sitting down would not remedy matters. It was low tide, and the waters had receded, so that the wrecked boat was now fully twenty-five feet from the water. It was held within a wedge in the rocks, tilted up, and it was too heavy for them to lift. If they could possibly dislodge it, so as to push it over the edge, it would probably be crushed to pieces in tumbling down.

Even such a calamity would be better than remaining there, and it was decided to be the only course now available. Every vestige of the locker, or seats, or other appendages of the boat were swept away. The bare shell of the stern portion remained.

It was now growing dark, and when the wreck was finally dislodged and fell down with a crash the boys made their way down the sides very cautiously. It was now but the work of moments to get afloat. The boat originally had water-tight compartments, but these were now utterly useless as a means of sustaining the vessel; nevertheless, it was a means by which they might reach land, as they felt sure it would not sink. Here was another difficulty. They had neither oar nor other means of propelling it to shore. After considerable effort a portion of the side of the boat was broken off, and tired and worn with the effort and excitement they steered the craft shoreward. To do so was not an easy task, as the wind had increased, and the waves beat stronger, but this had no terror for them after all their previous experiences.

When the shore was reached Harry had one positive observation to make: "I am going to see that this boat is so fixed that it won't get away."

George looked around, and in spite of their trials, could not help laughing at Harry. "I should like to know how you are going to do it. I don't see any ropes around here, and trying to pull it up this steep beach wall will not be an easy job."

"Then we have got to take it where we can pull it up. I am tired of losing things in this way. We'll have a nice story to tell the Professor."

The Professor was by this time thoroughly alarmed, as well he might be, for it was past eight o'clock that evening when, going down from Observation Hill, he heard voices in the distance, and recognized the boys. He called to them, and you may be sure that their answering voices were joyful sounds.

When the boys appeared both began excitedly to detail their experiences, getting details of the story involved without any sequence just as we might expect an exciting, mixed-up recital of this kind to be under the circumstances.

"You lost your boat and found the other one. You are having enough experiences to fill a book."

Chapter X

The Birthday Party; And The Surprise

You may be sure that the interesting topic of conversation that night had relation to the events of the day. All previous experiences were insignificant now in comparison. Every phase of the question was discussed, and a solution sought.

The Professor did not attempt to conceal his doubts. "I have a theory that we are or may be near some other island, possibly inhabited by white or civilized people. It is likely that people from those islands may visit this place at intervals, and that the boat which we left at the falls was really washed down to the sea and found by some of them."

"If that is the case, why should it be washed up on shore, as it was? They, no doubt, used the boat, as the oars and rope showed. But I can't possibly make out the meaning of its being in the driftwood."

"That boat we made is a hoodoo," was Harry's conclusion. "Twice lost is enough for me."

"Well, I would take a sail in it the next day if we could only find it."

"I am interested in it," observed the Professor, "not so much for the purposes of its use, as to enable us to find out something more about it, and how it came to be there. If it had occurred to me that we should lose it so soon you may be sure I should have made a more careful examination of it when we had it. But it is too late now."

Harry's solution was the one most acceptable. "Let us make another boat, and with that we can carry on our investigations more satisfactorily."

"Harry is right. A good vessel will be a measure of safety, in the event we should be attacked by savages, and it will at least enable us to visit the shore line of our continent."

The sanitary arrangements of their kitchen had been for some time very unsatisfactory, and somewhat cramped, and the Professor thought it would be wise, for their comfort and health, to cleanse it thoroughly.

"I am inclined to think that Harry's sickness was caused by the condition of the kitchen. We are apt to overlook these things in the multiplicity of our work."

"What is the best way to clean it, by washing?"

"That is necessary, of course, but it is impossible, even by a liberal use of hot water and soap, to remove many of the poisonous germs. Some good disinfectant should be used."

"Have we anything which could be used for the purpose?"

"There is nothing better than charcoal. Common wood charcoal has the capacity of purifying and rendering odorless almost all impurities."

"In what way does charcoal do this?"

"When charcoal is crushed up finely its remarkable porosity enables it to absorb an enormous quantity of gases, and when so absorbed it condenses them, in which condition they are harmless, or they are retained in the charcoal."

"But how about the impure liquids?"

"Its affinity for sour and stinking liquids is so great that two tablespoonfuls of charcoal will purify a pint of the foulest sewage; it will also, in that quantity, absorb 100 cubic inches of gaseous ammonia."

"Have we anything else that can be used?"

"The sulphur that is in the samples of copper ore, if burned, will make a sulphurous acid gas, and while it must be carefully used, on account of its noxious and offensive odor, is a most powerful germicide. Or if we take some of the green acid of the copper, and make a liquid of it, and then pour this over common salt we are making what is known as muriatic acid. The vapor of this acid will destroy all germs. The objection to this, however, is, that it has an odor which is worse than the impure or unhealthful gases. In the last samples of ore we brought home, you may have noticed a very black lot of stuff. That was manganese. If we take the muriatic acid, which I have just referred to, and pour it over the manganese, we can make the most powerful agent of all, namely, chlorine."

"Chlorine is used for bleaching, isn't it?"

"That is its great use in the arts; but as a purifier it has no equal. It will decompose every gaseous compound and evil-smelling gas which escapes from decayed animal or vegetable matter."

Harry did not let the Professor forget the matter of the primary electric battery which he had been making preparations for, and after they had gone over the sanitary features of their kitchen, he was anxious to make a start. George was equally insistent, because the question of a better light was ever uppermost in his mind.

"Then here goes for the primary battery. We haven't any glass, nor have we found any rubber lying around, so we can make cells out of them, so what shall we use?" was the Professor's first inquiry.

"Why not use some of these iron pots we made?"

"I am afraid iron would not last very long, with sulphuric acid in them. We should use some non-conductor of electricity."

"What do you mean by non-conductor?"

"That quality in a material which will not allow electricity to pass."

"Then why can't we use clay? Will that conduct electricity?"

"That is just the thing. Isn't it wonderful what a friend common clay has been to us since we have been on this island!"