When it was well beyond the high-tide mark, Dave sent the men for the timber that had been lashed to it. Heavy ropes were wrapped tightly about the upper bubble. These were placed in the hands of three strong sailors who played the ropes out past the control room and the lower bubble. Two men stood by with the stout timber, ready to prop it under the control room as soon as the machine began to rise.
The remaining five Norsemen, and Neil and Dave, put their shoulders under the upper bubble and started to lift. Slowly, with the rim of the lower bubble wedged firmly in the sand, the machine began to rise. The three men on the ropes pulled, and the men under the bubble slowly lifted the machine. When they were standing erect, the machine resting on their shoulders and held by the firm ropes, the two men standing by the control room wedged their lumber into the sand, and slid it under the aluminum. They stood bracing the lumber against the machine, as the five Norsemen moved out from the upper bubble.
Dave and Neil stepped back then and considered the rest of their task.
“We’ve got to get her standing up again,” Dave said.
“How are we going to do that?” Neil asked.
“It’s really simple,” Dave answered. “We keep moving the lumber under the control room, a little at a time. We’ll get some longer pieces of wood and start shoving on the bubble end too.”
When the men had chopped some long branches from the forest, they turned to the job of righting the machine again. Three men put their weight against the lumber under the control room. Slowly, they forced the end that was wedged in the sand a few feet forward. The machine rose slightly.
With infinite patience, they repeated the process again.
Then, with the long branches they’d cut in the forest, the rest of the men pushed up against the bubble, while the men with the ropes pulled back.
“Careful now,” Dave ordered. “All right now, push. Let’s push, all together now. Watch those ropes, men. Don’t get them snarled. Here we go, now. Together. Push. Pu-u-u-u-u-ssssh!”
As Neil struggled against his branch, he smiled inwardly at Dave, who was shouting English orders at men who understood Swedish only.
And then, finally, the machine stood almost erect. It quivered for an instant, as if deciding whether to get on its feet or fall back to the sand on its side.
“Pull on those ropes!” Dave shouted.
The Norsemen put their back muscles into the strenuous pull, and the machine settled down, the floor of the lower bubble resting firmly in the sand.
“Whew,” Dave said, letting out his breath. “Some job.”
He automatically reached into his shirt pocket for a cigarette. Neil put his hand on Dave’s arm and whispered, “I wouldn’t smoke, Dave.”
Dave remembered the recent trouble over the cigarette, and let his hand drop to his side. “Darn it,” he complained. “I sure feel like a smoke.” Suddenly he had an inspiration. “Here, Neil,” he said, “you take my lighter. I’ll pretend I’ve lost it. I certainly won’t rub two sticks together to light a cigarette.”
Neil took the cigarette lighter and stuffed it into his pocket.
“I’ll ask you for that back as soon as I can sneak off somewhere and have a lonely smoke,” Dave said. “I feel the way I did when I was sixteen and smoking corn shocks behind the barn.”
Neil laughed a little at this. He had many friends who did the same thing.
Erik strode over and looked up at the machine, his eyes calmly examining it, his beard pointing skyward.
“Is this the position in which you sail it?” he asked in a surprised voice.
“Yes,” Neil said.
Erik examined the machine again, walking completely around its base. When he joined the Americans again, he shook his head in wonder and said, “A strange vessel. Very strange.”
Then, completely dismissing the subject, he turned to Neil. “Olaf and I are going into the forest in search of water,” he said. “Would you and Dave like to come along?”
“Why, sure,” Neil answered. All at once, he remembered the fight Dave had just finished. “Dave, Erik would like us to look for water in the forest with him. Olaf
“I think I’d better stay here,” Dave said. “I don’t think Shorty would appreciate my company. And besides, I’d like to keep an eye on the machine. You go ahead, Neil.”
“You won’t mind?”
“Not a bit. Go ahead.”
“I’ll see you later,” Neil called as he started walking toward the forest with Erik. Olaf joined them at the forest’s edge. He was no longer bleeding, but his lips were puffed, and his face was covered with cuts. Both eyes were discolored, and he glanced at Neil sullenly, his eyes dark beneath their puffed, swollen lids.
The forest was not as dense as it had appeared. Rather, it was somewhat sparse at the outskirts, and they walked easily for the first ten minutes. After that, the growth seemed to be a little thicker, and Erik and Olaf used their axes freely as they hacked their way through the tangled trees and bushes.