The Sea Bride Part 27

Before the work on this whale was half done, it became apparent that a gale was brewing. Cross swells, angling together at the mouth of Foveaux Straits, kicked up a drunken sea that made the _Sally_ pitch and roll at the same time; a combination not relished by any man. Nevertheless, the head was got off and hauled alongside for cutting up....

This work had taken the better part of the night; and with the dawn, there arose a whine in the wind that sang a constant, high note in the taut rigging. With the _Sally_ pitching and rolling drunkenly, the fifteen ton junk was got off the head and hoisted aboard, while every strand of rigging creaked and protested at the terrible strain. The blubber was coming in; but the wind was increasing....

In the end, the _Sally_ had to let go what remained of her catch and run for it, losing thereby the huge "case" full of spermaceti, and a full half of the blubber. But it was time.... The wind was still increasing.... The _Sally_ scudded like a yacht before it....

They ran into Port William for shelter, and Noll Wing swore at his ill luck, and when the ship was anch.o.r.ed, went sulkily below.... Dan'l drove the men to their tasks....

The weeks that followed were repet.i.tions of this first experience, with such capricious modifications as the gales and the sea chose to arrange.

They killed many big whales; some they lost altogether, and some they lost in part, and some few they harvested. They fell into the way of running for port with their kill as soon as the whale was alongside, rather than risk the storms in the open.... It was hard and steady work for all hands; and as the men had grumbled at ill luck when they sighted no whales, so now they grumbled because their luck was overgood. The deck of the _Sally_ was filled with morose and sullen faces....

Dan'l found them easy working, ready for his hands; and by a word dropped now and then through these busy times, he led them in the way he wished them to go.... He never let them forget, for one thing, the ambergris beneath the cabin. When they grumbled, he reminded them it was there as a rich reward for all their labors.... And he reminded them, at the same time, that Brander claimed it.... Neither did he let the men forget that which he wished them to believe of Faith and Brander. By indirections; by words with Roy which he took care they should overhear; by reproofs for chance-caught words, he kept the matter alive in their minds, so that they began to look at Faith sidewise when she appeared upon the after deck....

Brander was not blind to this; and if he had been blind, Mauger's one eye would have seen for him. He knew the matter in the minds of the men; but he could not be sure that Dan'l was putting it there.... Could not be sure; nevertheless, he spoke to Dan'l of it one day.... It was the first time since Brander came aboard that he and Dan'l had had more than pa.s.sing word.

Brander made an opportunity to take the mate aside; and he held Dan'l's eyes with his own and said steadily: "Mr. Tobey, there's ugly talk among the men aboard here that should be put a stop to...."

Dan'l looked surprised; he asked what Brander meant. Brander said openly: "They're coupling my name with that of the captain's wife.

You've heard them. It should be ended."

Dan'l said amiably: "I know. It's very bad. But that is a thing you can't stop from the after deck, Mr. Brander."

Brander said: "That's true. So what do you think should be done in the matter?"

The mate waved his hand. "It's not my affair, Mr. Brander. It's not me whose name is coupled with Faith's. You know that, yourself."

Brander nodded. "Suppose," he said, "suppose I go forward again.... I'll make some occasion to commit a fault: Cap'n Wing can send me forward and put Silva, or another, in my place."

Dan'l looked at Brander sharply; and he shook his head. "The men would be saying, then, that it was because of this matter you were put out of the cabin."

"I suppose so."

"It is very sure."

"What would you suggest?" Brander asked, his eyes holding Dan'l's. Dan'l seemed to weigh the matter.

"How if you were to leave the ship completely?" he inquired.

Brander's eyes narrowed; and Dan'l, in spite of himself, turned away his head. If Brander left the ship.... There was no other man aboard whom he need fear when the time should come.... If Brander but left the ship....

Brander's eyes narrowed; he studied Dan'l; and after a little he laughed harshly, and nodded his head as though a.s.sured of something which he had doubted before. "No," he said. "No. I'll not leave the _Sally_...." He could never do that; there might come the day when Faith would have to look to him.... "No; I'll stick aboard here...."

Dan'l's hopes had leaped so high; they fell so low.... But he hid his chagrin. "You are right," he said. "That is a deal to ask, just to stop the idle chatter of the men. Stay.... Best stay.... It will be forgotten."

Brander turned abruptly away, to crush down a sudden flood of anger that had clenched his fists. He knew Dan'l, now, beyond doubt. He had guessed the mate's eagerness to be rid of him.... Dan'l should not have his way in this so easily....

Dan'l's own eyes had been opened by this talk with Brander. The mate's heart had not yet formed his full design; he was working evil without any further plan than to bring harm and ruin.... But Brander's suggestion, the possibility that Brander might leave the ship, had revealed to Dan'l in a single flash how matters would lie in his two hands if Brander were gone. Noll Wing was nothing; old Tichel he could swing; Willis c.o.x was a boy; the crew were sheep. Only Brander stood out against him; only Brander must be beaten down to clear his path. With Brander gone....

Dan'l set himself this task; to eliminate Brander. He thought of many plans, a little mishap in the whaling, a kinked line, a flying spade, an ugly mischance.... But these could not be arranged; he could only hope for the luck of them. Hope for the luck.... But that need not prevent him working to help out the fates. Not openly; he could not do that without setting Brander on guard. And Brander on guard was doubly to be feared. Dan'l remembered an ancient phrase, the advice of an old philosopher to a rebellious soul, he thought. "When you strike at a king, you must kill him...." It was so with Brander; he must be destroyed at a blow.... Utterly....

Noll was a tool that might serve; Noll would strike, if he could be roused to the full measure of wrath. Dan'l worked with Noll discreetly, in hidden words, appearing always to defend Brander.... Brander and Faith meant no harm.... They were friends, no more.... Dan'l a.s.sured Noll of this, again and again; and he took care that his a.s.surances should not convince. Noll stormed at him one night:

"Why must you always be defending Faith? Why do you stand by her?"

And Dan'l said humbly: "I've always known Faith, sir. I don't want to see her do anything.... That is, I don't want to see you harsh with her, sir."

And Noll fell into a brooding silence that pleased Dan'l mightily....

But still he did not strike at Brander....

Dan'l reminded the captain that Brander still gave much time to the crew; he played on that string.... Still hoping Noll might be roused to overwhelming rage. But Dan'l's poisoned soul was losing its gift of seeing into the hearts of men; the old Noll would have reacted to his words as he hoped. This new Noll was another matter; this Noll, aging and rotting with drink, was led by Dan'l's talk to hate Brander--and to fear him. His fear of Brander and of the one-eyed man obsessed even his sober mind. He would never dare seek to crush Brander openly; Faith he might strike, but not the man.

In the end, even Dan'l perceived this; he cast about for a new instrument, and found it in the man, Slatter.

Slatter had crossed Brander's path, to his sorrow. The loose-tongued man dropped some word of Faith which Brander heard, and Brander remembered.... He made pretext of Slatter's next small failure at the work to beat the man into a bleeding pulp.... No word of Faith in this; he thrashed Slatter for idling at the windla.s.s when a blanket strip was being hoisted, and for impudence.... And Slatter was his enemy thereafter. Dan'l saw, and understood.... And he cultivated Slatter; he tended the man's hurts, and gave him covert sympathy for the beating he had taken.... And Slatter, emboldened, harshly swore that he would end Brander for it, give him half a chance.

Dan'l said hastily, and quietly: "Don't talk such matters, man. There's more than you aboard ship would do that if they dared. I'm not saying even Noll Wing would not smile to see Brander gone.... No matter why...."

"I know why," Slatter swore. "Every man forrad knows the why of that...."

"Well, then you'll not blame Noll," said Dan'l. "I'm thinking he'd fair kiss the man that had a hand in ending Brander, if it was not done too open. But there's none aboard would dare it...."

"By G.o.d, let me get him forrad, right, and I'll...."

"Quiet," said Dan'l. "Here's the man himself...."

Here was his tool; Dan'l waited only the occasion. There was a way to make that.

A whaler's crew are for the most part sc.u.m; harmless enough when they're held in hand.... Harmless enough so long as they're kept in fear. But alcohol drives fear out of a man. And there was whiskey and rum in the captain's storeroom, aft....

It was one of the duties of Roy, as ship's boy, to fetch up stores from this room at command; he was accustomed to fill Noll Wing's bottles now and then. Dan'l saw he might use Roy; and he did so without scruple.

"I've need for liquor, Roy," he told the lad. "But I'd not ask Noll....

He's jealous of the stuff, as you know. So when next you're down, fill a jug.... Fetch it up to me."

He said it so casually that Roy agreed without question. The boy was pleased to serve Dan'l.... Dan'l held him, he had captured Roy, heart and soul. Roy gave him the jug full of liquor next morning, Slatter had it by nightfall, and that without Dan'l's appearing in the matter.

Slatter came aft to take the wheel, and Dan'l saw to it the jug was in his sight and at hand.... Slatter carried it forward with him.... He pa.s.sed Dan'l in the waist; and Dan'l looked at the jug and laughed and said:

"Man, that looks like liquor."

Slatter grinned uneasily. "Oil for the fo'c's'le lamp," he said.

Dan'l wagged his head. "See that that's so," he said. "If any ructions start in the fo'c's'le, I'll send Brander forward to quiet you. You'll not be wanting Brander to lay hand on you again."

Slatter's eyes shifted hungrily; he went on his way with quick feet, and Dan'l watched him go, and his eyes set hard.

That was at dusk. Toward ten that night, when Brander was in his hammock under the boathouse, one of the men howled, forward, and there was the sound of scuffling in the fo'c's'le. Dan'l was aft, waiting.... He called to Brander:

"Go forward and put a stop to that yammering, Mr. Brander."

Brander slid out of his hammock, a.s.sented quietly, and started forward along the deck. Dan'l watched his dark figure in the night until it was lost in the waist of the _Sally_.... He waited a moment.... Brander must be at the fo'c's'le scuttle by now....