"It would be as well to get ready the spare grapnel and cable," said his chum. "It's jolly lucky that Desolation Inlet is practically tideless, or with the flood tide the Polarity would be barging into us."
"I'll see how she's lying," said Guy. "I can't stop outside very long. It's too cold."
Barely had he thrust his head through the hatchway, when he announced that the Polarity was swinging out her derrick. Captain Stormleigh was about to attempt the risky expedient of hauling the sleigh bodily out of the raging sea.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE END OF THE MAMMOTH
SLOWLY the steel wire hawser, terminating in a "span" with two enormous gun-metal hooks, was lowered through the block on the derrick.
"Sleigh ahoy!" roared Captain Stormleigh. "Send a couple of hands to engage the hooks."
It was much easier said than done. At about two feet from each end of the Bird of Freedom was a stout galvanised iron eyebolt. The "eye" projected above the rounded neck, while the bolt passed completely through and was secured by a nut to a massive crossbar on the underside of the floor.
Apart from the hazardous operation of engaging the hook of the span to the eyebolts—a task which necessitated two men making their way along the slippery, heaving deck—the sudden strain of the sleigh, which with motors and full complement weighed between ten and eleven tons, might burst the eyebolts asunder.