soon as he raised her a few feet from the deck. This done, he hauled
away on his tackle till the tiny motor-boat swung free. Then he made
fast his tackle on a belaying-pin and gently paid out the restraining
rope he had fastened round the mast till the launch swung at the end
of the boom suspended twenty feet in the air. It was then an easy task
to lower her with the block and tackle till she floated on the water.

Bill swarmed out on the boom and cut loose the tackles, and soon had
the launch snuggled alongside the Eleanor Jones. He then proceeded to
stock her with food and water he had made ready, and in addition
strapped round his waist the captain's revolver which he had found in
the cabin. These preparations concluded he was ready to cast off. His
eye had taken in, during the brief period he had been in the Sargasso,
that while it appeared to be at a casual glance simply a wide expanse
of weed, in reality there were "water-lanes" in it which were clear of
the entanglement. Bill resolved to follow these passages wherever
practicable.

"The longest way round may be the shortest way out," he told himself.

He soon had the small three-horse engine going, following to the
letter the instructions set forth in the book of directions he had
found.

It was with a light heart that he steered his tiny craft from the side
of the imprisoned Eleanor Jones,

"Good-bye, old ship," he exclaimed, as he headed his craft toward the
west--the direction in which the gallinazo had flown and in which he
judged land must lie.