The Sea Bride Part 12

Roy shook loose. "No. This is my family affair, Dan'l. Let me alone...."

He started forward. Dan'l hesitated; then he drew back, turned aft, stopped, watched.... He took a malicious pleasure in seeing what would happen.

Brander had seen Roy coming; he was watching the boy, and smiling a little. The other man's back was turned. Roy strode forward, head up, eyes blazing; he kept on till he was face to face with Brander; he stopped, and his hands trembled.

"You, Brander," he said thickly. "You keep your tongue off my...."

Brander moved like a flash of light. He swung Roy to him, swung the boy around, pinned his arms with one of his own, clapped his hand over Roy's mouth.... He lifted the boy easily and carried him, thus pinned and gagged, aft as far as the tryworks. The other man stared in astonishment; Dan'l took a step nearer the two. The others were out of easy hearing when Brander stopped. Still holding Roy's mouth he said quietly:

"Don't lose your head, youngster. You'll only do harm. Speak quietly.

What do you want to say?"

He released Roy and stepped back; and again Roy showed that he was more than a boy. He did not spring at Brander; he did not curse; he did not weep. He stood, straight as a wire, and his eyes were blazing. His voice, when he found it, was husky and low, so that none but Brander could hear.

"I don't know what you're saying about my sister," said Roy. "Whatever it is, it's not true. If you say it again, I'll kill you."

Brander's eyes shadowed unhappily. He asked: "Why do you think I have said anything?"

"No matter," said Roy harshly. "I know. Keep your tongue between your lips, or I'll shoot you like a yellow dog. That's all...."

He swung abruptly, and went aft so quickly that Brander made no move to stop him. Dan'l came quietly across the waist of the ship as Brander took a step after Roy. "Get forward, Brander," he said.

Brander nodded pleasantly; he said: "Yes, sir."

And he went back to the forward deck, his eyes troubled. He fought, that afternoon, with one of the hands, and whipped the man soundly. Dan'l Tobey reported this in the cabin that evening; and Mr. Ham frowned and said:

"He'd best learn we'll do all the fist work that's done aboard here."

Dan'l smiled. "He was an officer once," he reminded the mate. "It's a habit hard to break."

Big Noll was there; he seemed not to listen. His att.i.tude toward the new man was still in doubt. Dan'l Tobey was wondering about it; and so was Faith. It was to be decided, two days later, in a fashion peculiarly dramatic.

Mauger, the one-eyed man, had an increasing hold on the imagination of Noll Wing. The captain encountered the other wherever he went; and he never encountered Mauger without an uneasy feeling that was half dread, half remorse. He could not bear to look at Mauger's face, with the dreadful hollow covered by the twitching lid; and Mauger sensed this and put himself in the captain's path whenever he had the opportunity. Noll wished he could be rid of the one-eyed man; and in his moments of rage, he thought murderously of Mauger. But for the most part, he feared and dreaded the other, and shivered at the little man's malicious and incessant chuckling.

Again and again he spoke to Faith of Mauger, voicing his fear, wishing that she might rea.s.sure him; till Faith wearied of it, and would say no more. He spoke of his dread to Mr. Ham, who thought he was joking and laughed at him harshly. Mr. Ham lacked imagination.

Brander, as has been said, was friendly with Mauger. He was sorry for the little man; and he found in Mauger a singularly persistent spirit of cheer which he liked. He was, for that matter, a friend of all the men in the fo'c's'le, but because Mauger was marked by the cabin, his friendship for Mauger was more frequently noted. Dan'l had seen it, had pointed it out to Willis c.o.x....

Cap'n Wing came on deck one afternoon, a few minutes before the masthead man sighted a pod of whales to the southward. The captain was more cheerful than he had been for days; he was filled with something like the vigor of his more youthful days. There was a joyful turbulence in him, like the exuberance of an athlete.... He stamped the deck, striding back and forth....

When the whales were sighted, the men sprang to the boats. Mauger, since Willis c.o.x's tragic experience, had been put in the fourth mate's boat with Brander, to fill the empty places there. Brander and Mauger were side by side in their positions as they prepared the boat for lowering. But the whales were still well away, the _Sally_ could cruise nearer them, and Noll Wing did not at once give the signal to lower. He stalked along the deck....

As he pa.s.sed where Mauger stood, he marked that the line in the after tub was out of coil a little. That might mean danger, when the whale was struck and the line whistled like a snake as it ran. Noll Wing stopped and swore sulphurously and bade Mr. c.o.x put his boat in order. Willis snapped: "Mauger, stow that line."

Mauger reached for the tub, but his single eye had not yet learned accurately to judge distance; he fumbled; and Brander, at his side, saw his fumbling, and reached out and coiled the line with a single motion....

Noll Wing saw; and he barked:

"Brander!"

Brander looked around. "Yes, sir."

"When a man can't do his own work here, we don't want him. Keep your hands off Mauger's tasks."

Brander said respectfully: "I helped him without thinking, sir. Thought the thing was to do the work, no matter who...."

Noll Wing stepped toward him; and his eyes were blazing, not so much with anger as with sheer exuberance of strength. He roared: "Don't talk back to me, you...."

And struck.

Now Noll Wing was proud of his fists, and proud of his eye; and for fifteen years he had not failed to down his man with a single blow. But when he struck at Brander, a curious thing happened....

Brander's head moved a little to one side, his shoulders shifted.... And Noll's big fist shot over Brander's right shoulder. The captain's weight threw him forward; Brander stepped under Noll's arm. The two men met, face to face, their eyes not six inches apart. Noll's were blazing ferociously; but in Brander's a blue light flickered and played....

The men waited, not breathing; the officers stepped a little nearer.

Dan'l Tobey licked his lips. This would be the end of Brander.... It was not etiquette to dodge the Old Man's blows....

But, amazingly, after seconds of silence, Noll Wing's grim face relaxed; he chuckled.... He laughed aloud, and clapped Brander on the shoulder.

"Good man.... Good man!"

Mr. Ham called: "We'll gally the sparm...."

And Noll turned, and waved his hand. "Right," he said. "Lower away, boats...."

The lean craft struck the water, the men dropped in, the chase was on.

XI

When the boats left the _Sally_, Mr. Ham's in the lead as of right, Faith came from the after deck to where Noll stood by the rail and touched his arm. He turned and looked down at her.... He was already regretting what had happened. His recognition of Brander's courage had been the last flame of n.o.bility from the man's soul; he was to go down, thereafter, into lower and lower depths.... He was already regretful and ashamed....

Faith touched his arm; he looked down and saw pride and happiness in her eyes; and with the curious lack of logic of the male, he was the more ashamed of what he had done because she was proud of him for it. She said softly:

"That was fine, Noll."

"Fine--h.e.l.l!" he said hoa.r.s.ely. "I ought to have smashed him."

Faith smiled; she shook her head.... Her hand rested on his arm; and as he turned to look after the departing boats, she leaned a little against him. He mumbled: "Fool.... That's what I was. I ought to have smashed him. Now he--every man aboard--they'll think they can pull it on me...."

His big fists clenched. "By G.o.d, I'll show 'em. I'll string him up for a licking, time he gets back."

"I was--very proud," she said. "If you had struck him, I should have been ashamed."

"That's the woman of it," he jeered. "d.a.m.n it, Faith; you can't run a whaler with kisses...."

She studied his countenance. He was flushed, nervous, his lips moving.... He took off his cap to wipe his forehead; and his bald head and his gray hair and the slack muscles of his cheeks reminded her again that he was an old, an aging man.... She felt infinitely sorry for him; she patted his arm comfortingly.