Page:The Swiss Family Robinson (Kingston).djvu/184

144 is won! we shall be able to launch her easily after all. Come, boys, let us see if she has suffered from the explosion, which has set her free.”

The boys gazed at me for a moment, and then guessing my secret, “You planned it yourself, you clever, cunning father! Oh, that machine we helped to make, was on purpose to blow it up!” cried they; and eagerly they followed me into the shattered opening, where, to my intense satisfaction, I found everything as I could wish, and the captive in no way a sufferer from the violent measures I had adopted for her deliverance.

The boys were deeply interested in examining the effects of the explosion, and in the explanation I gave them, of the principle, and proper way to manage a petard.

It was evident that the launch could now be effected without much trouble; I had been careful to place rollers beneath the keel, so that by means of levers and pulleys we might, with our united strength, move her forward towards the water. A rope was attached by which to regulate the speed of the descent, and then, all hands putting their shoulders to the work, the pinnace began to slide from the stocks, and finally slipped gently and steadily into the water, where she floated as if conscious it was her native element; while we, wild with excitement, cheered and waved enthusiastically. We then only remained long enough to secure our prize carefully at the most sheltered point, and went back to Tentholm, where we accounted for the explosion; saying that having blown away one side of the ship, we should be able to obtain the rest of its contents with a very few more days' work.

These days were devoted to completing the rigging, the mounting of her two little brass guns, and all necessary arrangements about the pinnace. It was wonderful, what martial ardour was awakened by the possession of a vessel armed with two real guns. The boys chattered incessantly about savages, fleets of canoes, attack, defence, and final annihilation of the invaders.