Besides the gun there was the Indian bow, scooped out inside in a
curious way, and covered with strange designs or coloured hieroglyphics:
it had been brought home by one of our people years before. There was
but one man in the place who could bend that bow effectually; so that
though we valued it highly we could not use it. By it lay another of
briar, which was pliable enough and had brought down more than one bird.

Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury,
and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn
out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead;
you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill. Ikey
the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture
of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft. It was really a
dangerous weapon. He had also made us a small anchor according to plan;
nor did he dip too deeply into our pocket-money.

Then the mast and square-sail, fitted out of a window-blind, took up a
considerable space; for although it was perfectly calm, a breeze might
arise. And what with these and the pole for punting occasionally, the
deck of the vessel was in that approved state of confusion which always
characterises a ship on the point of departure. Nor must Orion's
fishing-rod and gear be forgotten, nor the cigar-box at the stern (a
present from the landlady at the inn) which contained a chart of the
mere and a compass.

With a 'yeo--heave-ho!' we levered her an inch at a time, and then
loosened her by working her from side to side, and so, panting and
struggling, shoved the punt towards the deep. Slowly a course was shaped
out of the creek--past the bar and then along the edge of the thick