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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