A rope of six fathoms in length was selected from the mass of
rigging on the raft, and a stone just heavy enough to sink the line
attached to the middle of it. Lawry took it in the wherry, sculled to
the stern of the sunken steamer, and dropped it into the water. He
then carried one end to Ethan, on the raft, while he returned with
the other in his boat, which he moored to the opposite side of the
_Woodville_. The middle of the rope was kept on the bottom of
the lake by the stone, while the two ends were carried forward by the
boys until the bight was drawn under the keel of the steamer, as far
as her position on the rocks would permit it to go. Lawry's end was
made fast around the smokestack, and Ethan's to the raft.

One of the hogsheads was next floated out of the boom enclosure, and
hauled upon the raft, Lawry adjusted the hogshead slings to the cask.
In the middle of the raft an aperture had been left, large enough for
a hogshead to pass through, over which a small derrick had been
built. A stone post, about the length of the casks, and just heavy
enough to sink one of them, had been brought down on the bateau. This
"sinker," as the young engineers called it, had been weighed, and it
exactly conformed to the requirement of Ethan's figures; it was just
sufficient to overcome the flotage power of the cask.

"Now, keep cool, Ethan, and we shall find out whether your figures
are correct, or not," said Lawry.

"Figures won't lie," replied Ethan; "I know they are correct, and
that hogshead will go to the bottom as quick as though it were made
of lead."