The Sea Bride Part 26

Afterward, Dan'l went with Noll into the after cabin. Faith had gone on deck; and she and Willis c.o.x were talking together, by the wheel, with Roy. Brander, as usual, had taken himself to the waist where he was under the eye of the crew. His harpooner, Loum, was with him. Mauger hung within sound of his voice like an adoring dog.

Dan'l, in the after cabin with Noll, made up the log. Noll sat heavily on the seat, half asleep. He got up, while Dan'l was still writing, and got his bottle. It was almost empty; and he cursed at that, and Dan'l looked up and said:

"Sit down, sir. Give that to me. I'll fill it up again."

Noll accepted the offer without speaking, and gave Dan'l the key to his storeroom, where there was a cask of whiskey, and another of rum. Dan'l came back presently with the bottle filled.... His eyes were shining with an evil inspiration, but he said nothing for a little. When his work on the log was done, however, he looked across to Noll, and after a little, as though answering a spoken question, said:

"I wouldn't worry about him, sir."

Noll looked at him dully. "About who, Dan'l?"

"Brander. I saw you watching him...."

Noll dropped his head. "I don't like the man."

"He's a good officer."

"Oh, aye...."

"I doubt if he means trouble over the 'gris."

Noll waved a hand fretfully. "He's too much with the crew, Mr. Tobey."

Dan'l shook his head. "I doubt it. That's one way to handle men--Be one of them. They'll do anything for him, sir."

Noll's eyes narrowed with the shrewdness of a drunken man. "That's the worst part of it. Will they do anything for me, Dan'l? Or for you?"

Dan'l said reluctantly: "Well, sir, maybe they'd jump quicker for him."

"And that's not rea.s.suring," said Noll. "Is it, now?"

"It wouldn't be, if he meant wrong. I don't think he does. Any case, he knows the 'gris is not his, in the end...." And he added: "You're concerned over Faith and him--the way they are when they're together.

But there's no need, sir. Faith is loyal...."

Noll looked at the mate, and he frowned. "How are they, when they're together?"

"I thought you had marked it for yourself.... I meant nothing."

"Nothing? You meant something. You've seen something. What is it you've seen, Dan'l?"

Dan'l protested. "Why, nothing at all. There's no harm in their being friends. He's a young man, strong, with wisdom in his head; and she's young, too. It's natural that young folk should be friendly."

Noll's head sank upon his chest; he said dully: "Aye, and you're thinking I'm old."

"No, sir," Dan'l cried. "Not that. You're not so old as you think, sir.

Not so old but what you might strike, if there was need. I only meant it was to be expected that they should be drawn together, like. Faith's young...."

Noll's eyes were reddening angrily. "Speak out, man," he exclaimed.

"Don't shilly-shally with your tongue. If there's harm afoot, by G.o.d, I can take a hand. What's in your mind?"

"Why, nothing at all. No harm in the world, sir.... I was only meaning to rea.s.sure you. I thought you had seen her eyes when she looked at the man...."

"Her eyes?"

"Aye."

"What's in her eyes?"

Dan'l frowned uncomfortably. "Why--friendship, if you like. Liking, perhaps. Nothing more, I'll swear. I know Faith too well...."

Noll said heavily: "I'll watch her eyes, Dan'l."

Dan'l said with apparent anxiety: "You should not concern yourself, Cap'n Wing. It's but the fancy of youth for youth.... I...."

Noll came to his feet with sudden rage in him. "Have done, Dan'l. I...."

They both heard, then, Faith's step in the main cabin; and their eyes met and burned. And Dan'l got up quietly, and closed the log, and as Faith came in, he went out and closed the door behind him. Closed the door and crossed to the companion as though to go on deck; but he lingered there, listening....

Listened; but there was little for him to hear. When the door closed behind him, Faith had turned to her own cabin, hers and Noll's. Noll sat down, his eyes sullen.... He watched her through the open door to the cabin where their bunks were. She turned after a moment and came out to him; and he got to his feet with a rush of anger, and stared at her, so that she stood still....

He said hoa.r.s.ely: "Faith.... By G.o.d...."

His words failed, then, before the steady light in her eyes. She was wondering, questioning him.... She met his eyes so fairly that the soul of the man cowered and shrank. The strength of rage went from him. He drew back.

"What is it, Noll?" she asked. "Why are you--angry?"

He lifted a clenched hand over his head; it trembled there for an instant, then came slowly down. He wrenched open the door to the main cabin, and went out and left her standing there....

Faith watched him go; perplexity in her eyes. Dan'l joined him, and they went on deck together.

XXI

They came to the Solander Grounds with matters still in this wise.

Brander much with the crew; Noll Wing rotting in his chair in the cabin; Faith gaining strength of soul with every day; Dan'l playing upon Noll, upon Roy, upon all those about him to his own ends....

The Solander received them roughly; they pa.s.sed the tall Solander Rock and cruised to the westward, keeping it in sight. There was another whaling ship, almost hull down, north of them, and the smoke that clouded her told the _Sally_ she had her trypots going. Dan'l Tobey was handling the vessel; and he chose to work up that way. But before they were near the other craft, the masthead men sighted whales.... Spouts all about, blossoming like flowers upon the blue water. Noll had regained a little of his strength when they came upon the Grounds; he took the ship, and bade Dan'l and the other mates lower and single out a lone whale....

"They'll all be bulls, hereabouts," he said. "Big ones, too.... And we'll take one at a spell and be thankful for that...."

The whale was, as Noll had predicted, a bull. Dan'l made the kill, a ridiculously easy one. The vast creature lifted a little in the water at the first iron; he swam slowly southward; but there was no fight in him when they pulled up and thrust home the lance. The lance thrusts seemed to take out of him what small spirit of resistance there had been in the beginning; and when his spout crimsoned, he lay absolutely still, and thus died....

An hour after lowering, the whale was alongside the _Sally_; a monstrous creature, not far short of the colossus Cap'n Wing had slain. He was made fast to the fluke-chain bitt, and the cutting in began forthwith.... That, too, on Noll Wing's order. "Fair weather never sticks, hereabouts," he said. "Work while there's working seas."

Now the first part of cutting in a whale is to work off the head; and that is no small task. For the whale has no neck at all, unless a certain crease in his thick blubber may be called a neck. The spades of the mates, keen-edged, and mounted on long poles with which they jab downward from the cutting stage, chock into the blubber and draw a deep cut along the chosen line.... The carca.s.s is laboriously turned, the process is repeated.... Thus on, till at last the huge ma.s.s can be torn free....