noon
I decided to at least take a hundred pounds out of the station cash -- less than a third of the amount due to me . This , with the two hundred dollars I had received from old Kaibuka , would make seven hundred dollars -- something better than poor little Mrs. Krause 's twenty , I thought with a smile . And I meant that she -- if we succeeded in reaching Guam -- should land there with five hundred American dollars , not Chili or Bolivian half-iron rubbish , but good honest silver . At noon Mrs. Krause arrived in my old whaleboat , which I had borrowed from the new owners , and sent away at daylight , and whilst she and Niâbon set to work at copying the books , I , with Tepi , began cutting out the new suit of sails from a bolt of light but very strong American twill -- just the very stuff for boat sails , as strong as No. 1 canvas and four times lighter . That was the first of eight or ten very pleasant days we spent together , it taking us all that time to complete our preparations ; for after the sails were finished I had to rig the boat anew , caulk her decks , and make a proper cabin amidships for the two women . This would have taken me more than another week had it not been for a couple of native boatbuilders , whom old Kaibuka had sent to me . They were good workmen , though neither had ever handled such a thing as a plane or saw in his life -- everything was done either with a hatchet or a _ toki _ -- a plane-iron or a broad chisel lashed to a wooden handle in such a manner that it was used as an adze .