"We shall soon see," added Lawry, as he placed a couple of skids
across the "well." "Now we must place the sinker on those skids."

By the aid of the derrick, which was provided with a rude windlass,
constructed by Ethan, the stone post was hoisted up, and then dropped
down on the skids. The sinker had been rigged with slings, and the
hogshead was attached to it by a contrivance of Lawry, upon which the
success of the operation wholly depended, and which it will be very
difficult to describe with words. The sinker would carry the cask to
the bottom of the lake, where its buoyancy was to assist in bringing
the steamer to the surface of the water; but it was necessary, after
the cask had been sunk and fastened to the hull, to detach it from
the sinker; and this had been a problem of no little difficulty to
Lawry, who managed the nautical part of the enterprise.

Fastened to the slings on the sinker was a rope ten fathoms in
length. A loop was formed in this line, close to the sinker, and the
bight passed through the slings on the hogshead. The loop was then
laid over the two ropes, one of which was fast to the sinker, and the
other was the unattached end of the line, and "toggled" on with a
marline-spike. If the young reader does not quite understand the
process, let him take a string, with one end fastened to a flatiron;
double it, and pass the loop--which sailors call a _bight_--
upward between the thumb and forefinger; bring the loop down to meet
the two parts of the string on the palm of the hand; then take the
two lines into the loop, and put a pencil under the two parts drawn
through the loop. The flatiron will correspond to the stone sinker,
and the thumb to the slings on the hogshead. Lift up the flatiron, so
that the weight will bear on the thumb; then pull out the pencil, and
the iron will drop.