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 is going along too.”
“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.
Overhead, monkeys chattered noisily, like old wives leaning over their backyard fences and exchanging gossip about their visitors.
Brightly colored birds swooped low, cawing and screeching as they darted through the foliage.
It was hot. The sun beat down with an intolerable intensity that abated only when they passed under the sheltering leaves of a tree.
Wild fruit spread overhead in lush abundance.
“I would like to find water,” Erik said at last.
“There must be water,” Neil said. “All this growth…”
A faint rustling ahead brought the trio to a dead stop. Olaf’s hand tightened on his ax, as Erik raised his over his head, ready to deliver a blow. Cautiously, they tiptoed forward.
With a loud cracking of twigs and branches, the leaves ahead of them parted violently. A startled deer, its eyes wild in fright, burst into view, turned a hurried glance on his visitors, and then darted away into the forest.
Erik stood looking after the deer, his ax poised overhead. Suddenly, Neil began laughing.
“Only a deer,” he choked. “Only a little deer.”
Erik became gruff all at once. “Quiet, boy,” he barked, sliding his ax into his belt. And then, as the foolishness of the situation became clear to him, a smile broke over his face. White teeth gleamed against the brown ruggedness of his face, against the blazing, reddish-blond of his beard. The smile burst into a slight laugh which immediately erupted into an uncontrollable bellow.
He put his arm around Neil’s shoulder and, laughing wildly, they stumbled ahead through the undergrowth.
Only Olaf was sullen, his mouth grim.
They traveled for a half-hour with the sun beating down on their heads, and still they found no water.
“Can it be there are no rivers in this land?” Erik asked.
“There are rivers,” Olaf said. “But we will find none while the Devil follows in our tracks.” He looked meaningfully at Neil.
“Was not one Devil enough for you today?” Erik asked.
“Let’s go a little farther,” Neil suggested, tactfully.
They chopped their way through more light growth, seeing a jaguar leap to the ground once and rush away between the trees.
“Plenty of meat,” Erik commented. “We need not worry about that.”
They rested, then, on a broad, flat, yellow rock between two low bushes. Neil glanced at his wrist watch. They’d left the beach more than forty-five minutes ago. We’d better get started again, he thought. Either find water or get back to the beach.
Neil got to his feet, not fully rested yet, and feeling a little lazy.
“We’d better move on,” he said.
Erik and Olaf followed Neil as he took the lead into the forest. They moved on, slowly, relentlessly, the insects buzzing around them, and the monkeys raising an infernal din.