"To be sure I do." "I'm willing to do my part. You can be the pilot, and the other fellow can be the engineer." "And we can both of us have the privilege of obeying your orders," laughed Lawry. "Well, I shouldn't be likely to interfere with you; your place would be in the wheel-house." "And yours in the cabin, Captain Wilford. I can't stop to talk about this now. There comes Ethan with the cask." "You might as well stop this foolish work first as last," sneered the would-be captain of the _Woodville_. "I was going to tell you how to raise her." "Go on; we'll hear you, and work at the same time," said Ethan. "I should get two of those canal-boats, having about eight feet depth of hold," continued Ben. "Where would you get them?" demanded Lawry. "Get them? Hire them, of course. You can get plenty of them at Port Henry." "Have you any money in your pocket?" "They wouldn't cost more than a hundred dollars." "I haven't got even fifty dollars," said Lawry. "They would trust you on the security of your steamer." "I don't want to be trusted for any such purpose. What would you do with your canal-boats when you had got them?" asked Lawry. "I would moor one on each side of the steamer, put a couple of timbers across them, pass a chain under the bow and stern of the sunken hull, and make fast to the timbers. Then I would let the water into the canal-boats, and sink them down to the rails. When I got them down as deep as I could, I would tighten the chains, till they bore taut on the timbers. Do you understand it, Lawry?" "Certainly; I know all about the plan," replied the young pilot, with a smile. "I don't believe you do," said Ben incredulously. "What would you do next?" "Pump the water out of the two canal-boats, which would take about two days' time." "You could rig extra pumps." "Three of us, with three pumps, couldn't pump them out in two days." "Well, the job is done when you have pumped them out." "When you get the water out of the boats, you will have raised the steamer but three or four feet at most." "Six feet, at least, for the canal-boats will come up where they were before." "No; they won't; the weight of the steamer will press them down two or three feet." An excited discussion followed upon this question; but Lawry and Ethan carried their point. It was plain that the buoyant powers of the two boats, as the water was pumped but of them, would raise the steamer three or four feet, leaving her suspended half-way between the surface and the bottom of the lake. Lawry wanted the aspirant for the captaincy of the _Woodville_ to tell him what he would do next, for she could not be repaired while she was under water; but Ben was "nonplussed" and unable to answer. "I can finish that job for you," said Lawry. "She could be moored on the ways, and then hauled up."