At the dead of night we paddled back to Willow Clump Island, crept past the slumbering intruders and waded out to the old water wheel.  After a good deal of exertion we managed to dislodge the smaller tower, letting the wheel drop into the river and float away.  Then we made for the cantilever bridge.  It didn’t take us very long to cut away the wire bindings, unhook the frames and drop them into the lagoon.  But the task was quite a perilous one, as the night was pitch black.  Finally, nothing remained of the bridge but the two towers, which were left as monuments to mark the spot where our last piece of engineering on the island was done.

Farewell to Willow Clump Island.

We spent several days on Kite Island, knowing that we were safe from intrusion, because the Gill crowd had but one boat, and that was on the Jersey side of the island.  We felt confident that they would not take the trouble of wading around Point Lookout with their boats, as we had done; nevertheless, to prevent a surprise, we kept a sentry posted on the Lake Placid side of the island and gathered a pile of stones for ammunition.  But our fun was spoiled, and we finally decided to break camp and bid farewell forever to Willow Clump Island and its vicinity.  Our goods were ferried over to Jim Halliday’s farm, where we were given shelter.  The windmill, as I have already stated, was sold to a farmer at Lumberville, and we were kept busy for several days carting it over and setting it up in place.  When everything had been done we stole back to Kite Island and set fire to the log cabin.  The next day Mr. Schreiner took us home in a couple of his wagons.  Thus ended our “investigation, exploration and exploitation of Willow Clump Island.”  The work of two summers was practically all destroyed in a few days.

Reddy’s Cantilever Bridge.

I believe I have given a careful account of everything that was recorded in the chronicles of the society.  We were too discouraged to undertake anything new in the two weeks before school opened.  I presume I might mention here Reddy’s cantilever bridge, which, however, had really nothing to do with the S. S. I. E. E. of W. C. I., because our society was formally disbanded the day before Bill and I returned to school.  About a month after leaving home I received a letter from Reddy inclosing three interesting photographs, which are reproduced herewith.  Reddy certainly had the bridge fever, because soon after we had left he started to work, with the rest of the boys, on a cantilever bridge across Cedar Brook.  The brook was entirely unsuited to such a structure, because the banks were very low; but he made the towers quite short and built an inclined roadway leading up to the top of them.  The legs of the towers were driven firmly into the bank, making them so solid that he thought it would be perfectly safe to build the frames out over the brook without building them at the same time on the shore side.  But he had