Among the wreckage he found a coil of stout rope and a pulley.

He instantly conceived the idea of constructing an aerial line to ferry the chest of tea across the channel he had forded.
He threaded the pulley with the rope and climbed the tree, adding a touch of artistic completeness to the ruin of his trousers by the operation.

He had fastened the pulley high up the trunk before he realized how much more simple it would be to break open the chest where it lay and transport its contents in small parcels.
He laughed lightly.

"I am becoming addleheaded," he said to himself.
"Anyhow, now the job is done I may as well make use of it." Recoiling the rope-ends, he cast them across to the reef.

In such small ways do men throw invisible dice with death.