'Whalers chiefly, Edward says.'
'Suppose one should come; what will Captain Burke do?'
'Ask her to tow us.'
'If the master declines? This is a big, helpless vessel for another ship to tow in such seas as run here. And what would a ship do with us in tow should we meet with such weather as blew last night or the night before?'
She made no answer.
'Surely Captain Burke will transfer us all.'
'He'll not leave this vessel,' said she. 'It is not only that he has himself an uninsured venture in her, his obtaining further employment might depend upon his carrying the "Lady Emma" into safety. And if it can be done, it ought to,' she added, with a flat, peering, anxious look around the sea.
Presently all was ready with the sail. The seamen raised a song, and, to a steady, shearing noise of ropes in sheaves, with a frequent chorus that swept like a shout of hope into the bitter, motionless atmosphere, the yard slowly ascended the jury-mast. It was like a huge lug-sail in form and fittings. Tauten it as they would, the breast hollowed and rounded with such blows as of a cudgel, and such claps as of musketry, that the boom sprang and buckled like a willow in a breeze; the sail was therefore lowered until wind came to steady it.
It put a weariness as of rheumatism into the body to stand long, and when we saw the sail hoisted we went below.