Anyhow, a sloop, say of fifteen or twenty tons, would be very useful.

You might take a sail with your lady now and again, and explore the coast.

Yawl has been both ship's carpenter and bo'son--he'll boss the job; and I'm a very fair amateur cabinet-maker.

If you want anything in that line doing at your house, sir, I shall be glad to do it for you." The project pleased me; an occasional cruise would be an agreeable diversion, and I assented to Kidd's proposal without hesitation.

There was as much wreckage lying on the cliff as would build a man-of-war, and a small cove at the foot of the oasis where the sloop could lie safely at anchor.
So the work was taken in hand, some of my own people helping, and after several months' labor the Angela, as I proposed to call her, was launched.
She had a comfortable little cabin and so soon as she was masted and rigged would be ready for sea.
In the mean time I asked Kidd to superintend some alterations I was making at Alta Vista, and among other things construct larger cabinets for my mineral and entomological specimens.