The Breath of the Southern Seas 93 



fish all day without a fear, and if a storm 

 struck us, she came scurrying home over 

 miles of coaming seas like a gull. She cost 

 me $700, and I sold her for more than she 

 cost, to build a larger and more powerful 

 auxiliary craft on the same model. Then 

 I made the important discovery that a boat 

 has a soul, and that a fool could not build 

 one. This boat cost me $1,850, and five 

 minutes after she was launched I wished to 

 sell her. I had placed in her a 10 H.-P. gaso- 

 lene engine of the explosive type. 



I worked on that engine two hours every 

 morning before starting, and never went out 

 of harbour knowing when I would get back. 

 She had the devil in her from the start. 

 She wouldn't sail, she wouldn't run under 

 her engine, she wouldn't keep still at her 

 anchor in harbour, and she would lie down 

 in a half sea like a balky horse. 



At last I found a man who was looking for 

 that particular kind of engine in a boat of 



