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the bulk of him dimly as he moved about. I rolled out of my blankets and crept noiselessly after him in my stocking feet. He had armed himself with a draw-knife from the tool-locker, and with this he prepared to cut across the throat-halyards I had again rigged to the shears. He felt the halyards with his hands and discovered that I had not made them fast. This would not do for a draw-knife, so he laid hold of the running part, hove taut, and made fast. Then he prepared to saw across with the draw-knife. "I wouldn't, if I were you," I said quietly. He heard the click of my pistol and laughed. "Hello, Hump," he said. "I knew you were here all the time. You can't fool my ears." "That's a lie, Wolf Larsen," I said, just as quietly as before. "However, I am aching for a chance to kill you, so go ahead and cut." "You have the chance always," he sneered. "Go ahead and cut," I threatened ominously. "I'd rather disappoint you," he laughed, and turned on his heel and went aft. "Something must be done, Humphrey," Maud said, next morning, when I had told her of the night's occurrence. "If he has liberty, he may do anything. He may sink the vessel, or set fire to it. There is no telling what he may do. We must make him a prisoner." "But how?" I asked, with a helpless shrug. "I dare not come within reach of his arms, and he knows that so long as his resistance is passive I cannot shoot him." "There must be some way," she contended. "Let me think." "There is one way," I said grimly. She waited. I picked up a seal-club. "It won't kill him," I said. "And before he could recover I'd have him bound hard and fast." She shook her head with a shudder. "No, not that. There must be some less brutal way. Let us wait." But we did not have to wait long, and the problem solved itself. In the morning, after several trials, I found the point of balance in the foremast and attached my hoisting tackle a few feet above it. Maud held the turn on the windlass and coiled down while I heaved. Had the windlass been in order it would not have been so difficult; as it was, I was compelled to apply all my weight and strength to every inch of the heaving. I had to rest frequently. In truth, my spells of resting were longer than those of working. Maud even contrived, at times when all my efforts could not budge the windlass, to hold the turn with one hand and with the other to throw the weight of her
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