After a long walk they reached the top of the hill, climbed the rocky outcrop which crowned it and had their worst fears confirmed. They had been on the end of a peninsula which had reached out some considerable distance into the ocean, and the land curved back from it in both directions for as far as they could see.
‘We shall have to find some means of making a Floater of some description if we want to carry on in the direction indicated.’ Moss mumbled, almost to himself, but the others heard it and felt the same dismay as he did.
‘It looks as if there are some more remains of the giant’s work over there.’ Kel pointed to a collection of rocky stumps which protruded from the otherwise smooth undulating downland which lay between them and the beach.
‘Well it’s worth a look at, there’s nothing much for us up here and who knows what we might find.’ Moss seemed to have brightened up a little, having something positive to do.
The stubby remains of the old farm complex was far bigger than it had appeared from the hilltop, and the trio were soon lost in a labyrinth of decaying concrete walls, which to them seemed massive.
‘The giants must have been very big indeed if these are the remains of their hutts.’ Kel commented, standing on one of the walls and surveying the outline of the building.
Later, a piece of glass caused a great deal of excitement, as they had seen nothing like it before.
‘It looks like the hard water which used to sometimes fall from the sky,’ Kel remarked, ‘except that was always round, and this is flat, and it isn’t cold like the hard water was.’
‘It must be something the giants have made,’ Moss added, ‘let’s see if there’s any more.’
They spent some time looking for more glass, but found none, but Jay stubbed her toe on the slightly protruding end of a buried stainless steel feeding trough, and that more than made up for the lack of glass.
They dug the end of the trough free from the ground which had imprisoned it for so long with the aid of their staves, using the blunt end rather than risk breaking the precious cutting blades. It was only when the entire end of the trough was made visible that Moss gave a cry of excitement and said, ‘If the other end is like this, we may have our bot.’
All three dug with renewed vigour as they now had a real purpose in mind, and the trough slowly came to light.
‘Do you think it a giant’s bot?’ asked Jay, panting a little from the exertion.
‘I don’t know, we may have a better idea when we have all of it revealed.’ answered Moss, now a quarter the way along its length, although he didn’t know it.
As the light began to fade, they called a halt to the digging operation, deciding that a good rest was called for as there was little need to rush the excavation. The next day would reveal the trough, or so they hoped.
During the meal, Moss outlined his plan for using the trough as a floating carrier to take them over the sea, but the one thing they couldn’t resolve was the means of propelling it.
The idea of using their hands as paddles was put forward, but was soon dropped as it could have meant having them bitten off by what ever took a fancy to them as a tasty morsel, and they had no doubts there would be lots of takers for that option.
Moss knew what he wanted, a flat piece of material to put on the end of the staves to act as a paddle, but there wasn’t anything around which would serve that purpose.
Despite the fact that they hadn’t found a means of propelling the boat they were so sure of recovering from the ground, they found it difficult to sleep that night as the excitement level grew the more they talked about the forthcoming journey over the water.
Early daylight saw them up and about, fed, watered and ready to continue the digging, and although it was quite cool in the early morning light, they were soon sweating profusely as the earth flew in all directions from their stabbing staves, and more of the feeding trough came to light.
By midday the whole trough was exposed, and they had managed to drag it clear of its burial site.
‘How do you know it will float?’ asked Kel, ‘It’s nothing like the tree trunks we used before.’
‘I don’t really know, I just think it will somehow. Anyway, we can try it out a soon as we get it down to the water, and if it doesn’t, we have only lost some time and a little work.’
It took them two days and a lot more even harder work to drag and lever the cumbersome feeding trough down to the distant beach.
Having got it there, they suddenly realized that they would have to go into the water in order to get it afloat, and the possibility of being attacked by the denizens of the deep precluded that action.
‘Now what we do?’ It was Jay’s turn to show her frustration at the turn of events.
As there was no answer forthcoming, they all retired to their little encampment at the top end of the beach, sat down, and generally felt and looked miserable.
Again it was Moss who saved the day.
‘I’ve noticed that the water goes up and down the beach every day, so if we wait until it has gone down as far as it can, and drag the bot after it, we can get in and if the end in the water floats, as I think it will, we shall be able to float away as the water returns up the beach.
‘If it doesn’t float, then we can get out of it from the end which is
