"And him?" Remi asked, nodding to Yaotl.

"We'd better move him inside. Don't want him getting broken, do we?"

ONCE YAOTL WAS SECURE in the cabin, they raised anchor and crossed the lagoon to where they'd hidden the bell raft. After towing it closer to the beach, Sam jumped over the side and maneuvered it until the bell was floating a foot off the bottom.

"Leverage . . ." Sam muttered to himself. "Remi, I need the hatchet from the toolbox."

She collected it and handed it down. Sam then waded ashore and disappeared into the trees with a flashlight. Remi listened as he moved about in the darkness: twigs breaking, the thunk of wood striking wood, a few hushed curses, then a few minutes of chopping. Five minutes later he returned carrying a pair of palm saplings, each eight feet long and four inches across. Into each end he had chopped a notch. He handed the poles to Remi, then climbed aboard.

"Care to share your plan?" she asked.

Sam gave her a wink. "Don't want to spoil the fun. We're going to need daylight, though."

The wait was short. Ten minutes after they watched the first yellow-orange tinges of sunrise over to the east, they went into action. Sam untied the raft, jumped into the water, and rotated the raft so the side with the three protruding logs were facing the beach. He straddled the outer log, causing it to sink six inches, and called, "All back slow!"

"All back slow," Remi replied.

The engines rumbled to life. The Andreyale backed up until the transom bumped into the raft. "Keep coming!" Sam called. Between his weight and the Andreyale's horsepower, the protruding logs dipped beneath the surface and began burrowing into the sand. The water beneath the Andreyale's stern turned to froth. When the logs were embedded a foot into the sand, Sam called, "All stop!"

Remi throttled down and walked to the stern. Sam ducked under the raft and emerged in its center beneath the transom. "I'm going to push up on this crossbeam, and you're going to pull," he said.

"Got it."

Working together they manhandled the log onto the gunwale with the protruding ends jutting over the afterdeck.

Remi stood back and wiped her hands. "I think I see where you're going with this." She recited, "'Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it--'"

"'--and I shall move the world,'" Sam finished. "Archimedes."

Using the hatchet, Sam chopped a notch into each end of log resting on the gunwale. Next he picked up one of the saplings, handed it to Remi, then grabbed his own.

"Now the trick part," Sam said.

Each of them placed the notched tip of a sapling into the corresponding notch on the log, then braced the other end against the port and starboard cleats respectively.

"Care to do the honors?" Sam asked.

"Where are you going to be?"