Page:Silver Shoal Light.djvu/194

174 "A thirty-five foot sloop," Garth explained modestly.

"A thirty-five foot wash-tub!" Jim corrected mildly. "Look here, old man, if that's your base-line, will you kindly tell me what the draft of the beast is?"

"Five feet," Garth proposed.

"Not to the base-line, surely!" Jim objected in horror. "Oh, well, I see; that's better. But in that case there seems to be something very strange about the proportion. Here, let's have the pencil a second."

It changed hands, and the two heads bent over the paper very close together. The pencil stayed in Jim's possession for much longer than a second, and the only remarks which reached Joan and Elspeth were of a very technical nature. Jim's pipe, which he had laid down upon the table, went out peacefully.

"There!" said Jim presently. "We've saved all her good points and added a few. She'll sail now and hold her own. Did you try her sail-plan?"

"I got mixed up," the designer confessed, "but I made her cabin-plan."

Jim relighted his pipe and contemplated the cabin-plan.