Next day, the mast-steps clear and everything in readiness, we started toget the two topmasts aboard. The maintopmast was over thirty feet inlength, the foretopmast nearly thirty, and it was of these that Iintended making the shears. It was puzzling work. Fastening one end ofa heavy tackle to the windlass, and with the other end fast to the buttof the foretopmast, I began to heave. Maud held the turn on the windlassand coiled down the slack.

We were astonished at the ease with which the spar was lifted. It was animproved crank windlass, and the purchase it gave was enormous. Ofcourse, what it gave us in power we paid for in distance; as many timesas it doubled my strength, that many times was doubled the length of ropeI heaved in. The tackle dragged heavily across the rail, increasing itsdrag as the spar arose more and more out of the water, and the exertionon the windlass grew severe.

But when the butt of the topmast was level with the rail, everything cameto a standstill.

“I might have known it,” I said impatiently. “Now we have to do it allover again.”

“Why not fasten the tackle part way down the mast?” Maud suggested.

“It’s what I should have done at first,” I answered, hugely disgustedwith myself.

Slipping off a turn, I lowered the mast back into the water and fastenedthe tackle a third of the way down from the butt. In an hour, what ofthis and of rests between the heaving, I had hoisted it to the pointwhere I could hoist no more. Eight feet of the butt was above the rail,and I was as far away as ever from getting the spar on board. I sat downand pondered the problem. It did not take long. I sprang jubilantly tomy feet.

“Now I have it!” I cried. “I ought to make the tackle fast at the pointof balance. And what we learn of this will serve us with everything elsewe have to hoist aboard.”

Once again I undid all my work by lowering the mast into the water. ButI miscalculated the point of balance, so that when I heaved the top ofthe mast came up instead of the butt. Maud looked despair, but I laughedand said it would do just as well.

Instructing her how to hold the turn and be ready to slack away atcommand, I laid hold of the mast with my hands and tried to balance itinboard across the rail. When I thought I had it I cried to her to slackaway; but the spar righted, despite my efforts, and dropped back towardthe water. Again I heaved it up to its old position, for I had nowanother idea. I remembered the watch-tackle—a small double and singleblock affair—and fetched it.

While I was rigging it between the top of the spar and the opposite rail,Wolf Larsen came on the scene. We exchanged nothing more thangood-mornings, and, though he could not see, he sat on the rail out ofthe way and followed by the sound all that I did.

Again instructing Maud to slack away at the windlass when I gave theword, I proceeded to heave on the watch-tackle. Slowly the mast swung inuntil it balanced at right angles across the rail; and then I discoveredto my amazement that there was no need for Maud to slack away. In fact,the very opposite was necessary. Making the watch-tackle fast, I hove onthe windlass and brought in the mast, inch by inch, till its top tilteddown to the deck and finally its whole length lay on the deck.

I looked at my watch. It was twelve o’clock. My back was aching sorely,and I felt extremely tired and hungry. And there on the deck was asingle stick of timber to show for a whole morning’s work. For the firsttime I thoroughly realized the extent of the task before us. But I waslearning, I was learning. The afternoon would show far moreaccomplished. And it did; for we returned at one o’clock, rested andstrengthened by a hearty dinner.

In less than an hour I had the maintopmast on deck and was constructingthe shears. Lashing the two topmasts together, and making allowance fortheir unequal length, at the point of intersection I attached the doubleblock of the main throat-halyards. This, with the single block and thethroat-halyards themselves, gave me a hoisting tackle. To prevent thebutts of the masts from slipping on the deck, I nailed down thick cleats.Everything in readiness, I made a line fast to the apex of the shears andcarried it directly to the windlass. I was growing to have faith in thatwindlass, for it gave me power beyond all expectation. As usual, Maudheld the turn while I heaved. The shears rose in the air.

Then I discovered I had forgotten guy-ropes. This necessitated myclimbing the shears, which I did twice, before I finished guying it foreand aft and to either side. Twilight had set in by the time this wasaccomplished. Wolf Larsen, who had sat about and listened all afternoonand never opened his mouth, had taken himself off to the galley andstarted his supper. I felt quite stiff across the small of the back, somuch so that I straightened up with an effort and with pain. I lookedproudly at my work. It was beginning to show. I was wild with desire,like a child with a new toy, to hoist something with my shears.

“I wish it weren’t so late,” I said. “I’d like to see how it works.”

“Don’t be a glutton, Humphrey,” Maud chided me. “Remember, to-morrow iscoming, and you’re so tired now that you can hardly stand.”

“And you?” I said, with sudden solicitude. “You must be very tired. Youhave worked hard and nobly. I am proud of you, Maud.”

“Not half so proud as I am of you, nor with half the reason,” sheanswered, looking me straight in the eyes for a moment with an expressionin her own and a dancing, tremulous light which I had not seen before andwhich gave me a pang of quick delight, I know not why, for I did notunderstand it. Then she dropped her eyes, to lift them again, laughing.

“If our friends could see us now,” she said. “Look at us. Have you everpaused for a moment to consider our appearance?”

“Yes, I have considered yours, frequently,” I answered, puzzling overwhat I had seen in her eyes and puzzled by her sudden change of subject.

“Mercy!” she cried. “And what do I look like, pray?”

“A scarecrow, I’m afraid,” I replied. “Just glance at your draggledskirts, for instance. Look at those three-cornered tears. And such awaist! It would not require a Sherlock Holmes to deduce that you havebeen cooking over a camp-fire, to say nothing of trying out seal-blubber.And to cap it all, that cap! And all that is the woman who wrote ‘A KissEndured.’”

She made me an elaborate and stately courtesy, and said, “As for you,sir—”

And yet, through the five minutes of banter which followed, there was aserious something underneath the fun which I could not but relate to thestrange and fleeting expression I had caught in her eyes. What was it?Could it be that our eyes were speaking beyond the will of our speech?My eyes had spoken, I knew, until I had found the culprits out andsilenced them. This had occurred several times. But had she seen theclamour in them and understood? And had her eyes so spoken to me? Whatelse could that expression have meant—that dancing, tremulous light, anda something more which words could not describe. And yet it could notbe. It was impossible. Besides, I was not skilled in the speech ofeyes. I was only Humphrey Van Weyden, a bookish fellow who loved. Andto love, and to wait and win love, that surely was glorious enough forme. And thus I thought, even as we chaffed each other’s appearance,until we arrived ashore and there were other things to think about.

“It’s a shame, after working hard all day, that we cannot have anuninterrupted night’s sleep,” I complained, after supper.

“But there can be no danger now? from a blind man?” she queried.

“I shall never be able to trust him,” I averred, “and far less now thathe is blind. The liability is that his part helplessness will make himmore malignant than ever. I know what I shall do to-morrow, the firstthing—run out a light anchor and kedge the schooner off the beach. Andeach night when we come ashore in the boat, Mr. Wolf Larsen will be lefta prisoner on board. So this will be the last night we have to standwatch, and because of that it will go the easier.”

We were awake early and just finishing breakfast as daylight came.

“Oh, Humphrey!” I heard Maud cry in dismay and suddenly stop.

I looked at her. She was gazing at the _Ghost_. I followed her gaze,but could see nothing unusual. She looked at me, and I looked inquiryback.

“The shears,” she said, and her voice trembled.

I had forgotten their existence. I looked again, but could not see them.

“If he has—” I muttered savagely.

She put her hand sympathetically on mine, and said, “You will have tobegin over again.”

“Oh, believe me, my anger means nothing; I could not hurt a fly,” Ismiled back bitterly. “And the worst of it is, he knows it. You areright. If he has destroyed the shears, I shall do nothing except beginover again.”

“But I’ll stand my watch on board hereafter,” I blurted out a momentlater. “And if he interferes—”

“But I dare not stay ashore all night alone,” Maud was saying when I cameback to myself. “It would be so much nicer if he would be friendly withus and help us. We could all live comfortably aboard.”

“We will,” I asserted, still savagely, for the destruction of my belovedshears had hit me hard. “That is, you and I will live aboard, friendlyor not with Wolf Larsen.”

“It’s childish,” I laughed later, “for him to do such things, and for meto grow angry over them, for that matter.”

But my heart smote me when we climbed aboard and looked at the havoc hehad done. The shears were gone altogether. The guys had been slashedright and left. The throat-halyards which I had rigged were cut acrossthrough every part. And he knew I could not splice. A thought struckme. I ran to the windlass. It would not work. He had broken it. Welooked at each other in consternation. Then I ran to the side. Themasts, booms, and gaffs I had cleared were gone. He had found the lineswhich held them, and cast them adrift.

Tears were in Maud’s eyes, and I do believe they were for me. I couldhave wept myself. Where now was our project of remasting the _Ghost_?He had done his work well. I sat down on the hatch-combing and rested mychin on my hands in black despair.

“He deserves to die,” I cried out; “and God forgive me, I am not manenough to be his executioner.”

But Maud was by my side, passing her hand soothingly through my hair asthough I were a child, and saying, “There, there; it will all come right.We are in the right, and it must come right.”

I remembered Michelet and leaned my head against her; and truly I becamestrong again. The blessed woman was an unfailing fount of power to me.What did it matter? Only a set-back, a delay. The tide could not havecarried the masts far to seaward, and there had been no wind. It meantmerely more work to find them and tow them back. And besides, it was alesson. I knew what to expect. He might have waited and destroyed ourwork more effectually when we had more accomplished.

“Here he comes now,” she whispered.

I glanced up. He was strolling leisurely along the poop on the portside.

“Take no notice of him,” I whispered. “He’s coming to see how we takeit. Don’t let him know that we know. We can deny him that satisfaction.Take off your shoes—that’s right—and carry them in your hand.”

And then we played hide-and-seek with the blind man. As he came up theport side we slipped past on the starboard; and from the poop we watchedhim turn and start aft on our track.

He must have known, somehow, that we were on board, for he said“Good-morning” very confidently, and waited, for the greeting to bereturned. Then he strolled aft, and we slipped forward.

“Oh, I know you’re aboard,” he called out, and I could see him listenintently after he had spoken.

It reminded me of the great hoot-owl, listening, after its booming cry,for the stir of its frightened prey. But we did not fir, and we movedonly when he moved. And so we dodged about the deck, hand in hand, likea couple of children chased by a wicked ogre, till Wolf Larsen, evidentlyin disgust, left the deck for the cabin. There was glee in our eyes, andsuppressed titters in our mouths, as we put on our shoes and clamberedover the side into the boat. And as I looked into Maud’s clear browneyes I forgot the evil he had done, and I knew only that I loved her, andthat because of her the strength was mine to win our way back to theworld.