“Oh, I know this channel like a book,” said Harvey, and demonstrated his assertion by bringing the _Viking_ to, close up under the lee of the submerged yacht, in deep water. The yacht _Surprise_, sunken where it had been in collision with the very yacht that had now come to its rescue, lay hung upon a shelving reef, with its bow nearer to the surface than its stern. The tide was at the last of its ebb, and it was clear that by another hour there would be only about two feet of water over the forward part of the boat and about five feet over the stern. “We are in luck,” cried Harvey. “She has worked up higher on the reef, somehow, since last year, either by the tides, or perhaps some ice formed here in the winter and forced her up. She was deep under water when I last saw her.” “But it’s a wonder the mast did not go,” he added. “The bobstay went when we smashed into the _Viking_; and the mast wasn’t any too firm when we last saw it. It wouldn’t have stood after we struck if we hadn’t let the mainsail go on the run.” Evening was coming on, but the boys lost no time in going to work. Getting into the dory that they had hired for the season as a tender, Henry Burns and Harvey stepped out carefully on to the reef, and made their way down its slippery sides to the bow of the _Surprise_. Then, with trousers rolled up and divested of jackets and shirts, they proceeded, as soon as the tide had fallen, to nail some strips of canvas over the hole smashed in the bow. They fastened it with battens, putting several layers on, one over another. “It isn’t a handsome job,” said Henry Burns, finally; “but the water will not run in there as fast as we can pump it out. It’s a fair start.” The yacht _Spray_ came in now and brought up alongside the _Viking_. “What are you going to do?” inquired George Warren. “Why, everybody has got to go in for a swim,” answered Henry Burns, setting the example by throwing off his remaining garments. The others, willing enough at all times for that, followed. Henry Burns next brought forth several coils of rope, which he had busied himself with, on the voyage down, knotting it at regular intervals into loops. “There,” said he, “the _Surprise_ lies, luckily, on these irregular rocks. We have got to duck under and pass these ropes underneath the keel, wherever there is a chance. Then we’ll bring the ends up on either side and make them fast aboard, wherever there is a thing to hitch to. Then we’ll attach the kegs to the loops. See?” “Good for you, Henry!” cried Harvey, enthusiastically. “You always have some scheme in your head, don’t you?” “Wait and see if it works,” said Henry Burns, modestly. “Ouch!” cried young Joe, as the boys splashed overboard. “This water is like ice.” “Oh, shut up, Joe!” said Arthur Warren. “Just think of that hot coffee we are going to have for supper.”