midday
Mrs. Vickers being no better , Dawes went to see her , and seemed to have made friends again with Sylvia , for he came out of the hut with the child 's hand in his . Frere , who was cutting the meat in long strips to dry in the sun , saw this , and it added fresh fuel to the fire in his unreasonable envy and jealousy . However , he said nothing , for his enemy had not yet shown him how the boat was to be made . Before midday , however , he was a partner in the secret , which , after all , was a very simple one . Rufus Dawes took two of the straightest and most tapered of the celery-top pines which Frere had cut on the previous day , and lashed them tightly together , with the butts outwards . He thus produced a spliced stick about twelve feet long . About two feet from either end he notched the young tree until he could bend the extremities upwards ; and having so bent them , he secured the bent portions in their places by means of lashings of raw hide .