The upper side
was tied to the head, and the two corners to the wrists, while the lower
portion was tied to the ankles. This converted him into a huge
white-winged bat. Bill had to try it at once, even though the rest of the
sails were not finished, and a very comical spectacle he made as he
flapped his wings in his endeavors to tack. When the wind was too strong
for him he had merely to drop his arms and thus lower sail. At length he
became tired of holding his arms out at full length, and I got him a stick
to put over his shoulders and rest his arms on. But that stick was Bill's
undoing, for coming around a sudden bend in the canal he caught the full
force of the wind, which knocked him flat on his back before he could
disentangle himself from the stick and lower sail. It took us some time to
bring him back to consciousness, and a very scared lot of boys we were for
a while. However, the lesson was a good one, for after that we were very
cautious in experimenting with sails that had to be tied on, such as the
Danish rig and the lanteen rig, before Reddy invented the mast step.
It was not until the day after Christmas that the sails were all
completed, but then there was scarcely any wind blowing and we could not
attempt the expedition to the island.
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