of the new excitement, soon joined him. By this time Melick had
finished his paper boats. There were four of them, and they were made
of different colors, namely, red, green, yellow, and white.

"I'll put these in the water," said Melick, "and then we can lay our
bets on them as we choose. But first let us see if there is anything
that can be taken as a point of arrival. If there isn't anything, I
can pitch out a bit of wood, in any direction which may seem best."

Saying this, he went to the side, followed by the others, and all
looked out carefully over the water.

"There's a black speck out there," said Oxenden.

"So there is," said Featherstone. "That'll do. I wonder what it is?"

"Oh, a bit of timber," said Melick. "Probably the spar of some ship."

"It don't look like a spar," said the doctor; "it's only a round spot,
like the float of some net."

"Oh, it's a spar," said Melick. "It's one end of it, the rest is under
water."

The spot thus chosen was a dark, circular object, about a hundred
yards away, and certainly did look very much like the extremity of
some spar, the rest of which was under water. Whatever it was,
however, it served well enough for their present purpose, and no one
took any further interest in it, except as the point toward which the
paper boats should run in their eventful race.