"A funeral if you don't get out from under handy," said the sealer. "What's more important to the rest of us, it might tear out half the decks. When she gets loose and swinging you can't fool with that size of mast."
"Then why can't you let it stay where it is?" asked Niven. "It would set the trysail, and that's about all the sail we seem to carry on the mainmast."
"And how fast will she go under trysail?" asked Charley.
"That depends upon how much wind there is," said Niven.
Donegal looked at him a moment and solemnly shook his head. "'Tis no credit ye are to me, and I've tried to do my duty by ye," he said. "The question is how fast ye would want to go when there were two cutters stuffed wid men and cutlasses pulling after ye. Then 'twould be sailing nice and quiet under trysail would content ye?"
"We haven't seen any of those cutters yet," said Niven.
Donegal laughed softly, and a little grim smile crept into the faces of the rest. "There's a good many things ye have not seen, but ye may have the opportunity of observing one or two av them yet, and I don't know that it would please ye then," he said.
Niven was about to answer when Stickine, who crawled into his bunk, flung a wet fur cap at him. "It's about time you were sleeping, sonny, and you'll want all the breath you've got to-morrow," he said.
When morning came Niven found this was correct enough, for as soon as it was light the work commenced, and when Brulée called them for breakfast the mainmast was ready for lifting, while the men were unusually quiet as they went back on deck. The mast looked very big and heavy, and the Champlain was rolling more than she had done as yet. It was also raining hard, and a cold wind blew the drizzle into their eyes, while the tackles were stiff and swollen, but when Jordan raised his hand they bent their backs, and for five minutes the mast rose inch by inch. Then it stuck, and Appleby fancied he could feel the deck quiver beneath him under the strain as one of the beams it was fastened to took part of the weight.
The men, finding they could not move it, stood still a moment, their faces showing set and drawn with the fierceness of their effort, some with hands clenched above their heads upon the rigid ropes and one or two with bent backs, while their eyes were fixed on Jordan who stood impassive and motionless on the house.