Part 13

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 anchored, went sulkily below.... Dan'l drove the men to their tasks....

The weeks that followed were repetitions 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 passing 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 assured 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 Cox 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 assured Noll of this, again and again; and he took care that his assurances 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 windlass 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 God, 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 scum; 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 passed 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, assented 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....

Came cries, blows, a tumultuous outbreak. The _Sally_ rang with the storm of battle. Then, abruptly, quiet....

At that sudden-falling quiet, Dan'l turned pale in spite of himself; he licked his lips. The thing was done....

He ran forward, virtuously ready to take a hand.

XXII

When Brander, at Dan'l's command, went forward to quiet the men in the fo'c's'le, he found two or three of the crew on deck about the scuttle, watching the tumult below.... When they heard him and saw him, they backed away. The light from the fo'c's'le lamp dimly illumined their faces; and Brander thought there was something murderous and at the same time furtive in their eyes.

More than that, he caught the smell of alcohol.... So there was whiskey loose below him.

A man boiled up the ladder past him to the deck, saw him and slid away into the dark. Another.... Six or eight were still fighting below.

Brander had that sixth sense which men must have who would command other men; he felt, now, the peril in the air. His duty was down there among those fighting men; to get down, he would ordinarily have used the ladder. But to do so would be to engage his hands and his feet, and he might well have need of both these members.... He put his hands on the edge of the fo'c's'le scuttle and dropped lightly to the floor of the fo'c's'le, without touching the ladder. He landed on his toes, poised, ready....

The narrow, crowded, triangular den was thick with the smell of hot men, of whiskey, of burning oil; the air was heavy with smoke. A single swinging lamp lighted the place.... Beneath this lamp, four or five men were involved in a battle from which legs and arms were waved awkwardly as their owners struggled. Two other men crouched at opposite sides of the fo'c's'le.... Watching.... One was Mauger; the other Slatter. Brander cried:

"Drop it, now...."

The character of the struggle changed; the fighting men straightened.... Then some one hit the lamp and sent it whirling into darkness; and at the same moment, Brander heard Slatter scream murderously.... He slipped to one side, backed into a corner, held hands before him, ready to meet an attack....

Slatter's charge, if he were attacking Brander, should have carried the man past the mate's hiding place. But Brander, in the dark, heard a thump of two bodies together, and heard Slatter bellowing profanity, and heard heels thumping upon the floor. Then two or three men made a rush up the ladder to the deck.... Another.... Brander stepped forward, tripped over a whirling leg, and dropped upon a smother of two bodies which writhed beneath him. An arm was flying; he gripped for it and felt the prick of a knife in his wrist. So.... Death in the air, then....

He dragged that arm down to his face and bit at the wrist and the back of the hand, till he felt the knife drop from the man's fingers.... The three of them were writhing and striking and kicking and strangling.... But the knife was gone.... So much the better. He began to fumble with his right hand, seeking marks for his fists.... He did not strike blindly, but when he struck, his blows went home.... On some one's ribs, and back, and once on the neck at the base of the ear....

They were fighting in silence now.... All had passed so quickly that it was still scarce more than seconds since Brander dropped into the fo'c's'le. Their bodies thumped the planking resonantly; they struggled in a fashion that shook the ship. They were gasping and choking for breath....

Some one screamed terribly in Brander's very ear, and a hand that was gripping his neck relaxed and fell away. The bodies of the fighting men were for an instant still; and in that instant's silence, some one asked:

"You all right, Mr. Brander?"

Brander knew the voice. Mauger's. He said: "Yes...."

Mauger squirmed out from under Brander.... "What hit Slatter?" he asked sharply. "Did you get him?..."

Brander got up, and the body of Slatter fell away from him limply. It was about that time that Dan'l reached the fo'c's'le scuttle above, and looked down into the darkness. He saw nothing; and he called:

"Mr. Brander?"

Brander said quietly: "Yes, sir, all right."

"What's wrong, here?"

"Slatter tried to knife me," said Brander.

"Have you got him?"

"I don't know. He's still. Strike a light, if you please...."

Dan'l was already half way down the ladder; but even before his sulphur match scratched, Brander's nostrils told him what had happened. They brought him a smell.... Unmistakable.... Appalling.... The smell of blood....

He was on his knees beside Slatter's body when Dan'l bent over him with the flickering match. They saw Slatter doubled forward over his own legs, and Brander explained swiftly: "I had a full-Nelson.... I was forcing him over that way when he yelled...."

He lifted Slatter's body; and they saw the hilt of a knife that was stuck downward, deep into his right thigh. Dan'l cried:

"You've killed him."

And one-eyed Mauger interrupted loyally: "No, he didn't. Didn't...."

Dan'l looked at the one-eyed man. "How do you know?"

"I did. I stuck the knife in him...."

Brander looked at Mauger, and he touched the little man's shoulder. "You're a liar, little friend," he said, and smiled. And he turned to Dan'l. "I bit the knife out of his hand," he said. "Out of Slatter's.... It fell against my chest and slid down.... It must have dropped between his body and his legs, and his own body, bending forward, drove it in."

Dan'l smiled unpleasantly. "All right; but Mauger says he did it."

Brander shook his head. "He didn't. For a good reason. He was flat on the floor, and I was kneeling on his back, between him and Slatter, when Slatter yelled and quit fighting...."

Dan'l groped for the whale-oil lamp and lighted it and bent to look at the knife. "How did it kill him, there?" he demanded.

"Struck the big thigh artery," said Brander. "It must have...."

Then Noll Wing's voice came to them from the scuttle. "What's wrong, below?" And his big bulk slid down the ladder....

* * * * *

Brander's explanation was the one that went down in the log, in the end. Noll wrote it himself, in the irregular and straggling characters which his trembling fingers formed. And that was Faith's doing; for Dan'l did not believe, or affected not to believe, and Noll was too shaken by the tragedy to know what he believed.

Dan'l and Noll and Faith talked it over between them, in the after cabin, the next morning. Faith had slept through the disturbance of the night before; but when she heard of it in the morning it absorbed her. She went on deck and found Brander and made him tell her what had happened. He described the outbreak in the fo'c's'le; he told how, when he went forward, he smelled liquor on the men.... How he dropped through the fo'c's'le scuttle, and some one knocked the lamp from its hanging, and Slatter rushed him.

"Mauger saw what the man meant," he said. "He jumped on him from the side; and then I took a hand; and we had it for a while, in a heap on the floor."

The other men in the fo'c's'le had fled to the deck, leaving Slatter to do his own work. "I made him let go of the knife," Brander explained, "and after we had banged around for a while, I got him from behind, my arms under his, my hands clasped behind his neck. I bent him over, forward.... He was trying to get hold of my throat, over his shoulder.... And he yelled and let go...."

Faith's eyes were troubled. "You say the men had been drinking?"

"Yes."

"Where did they get it?"

Brander shook his head; he waited for her to speak. She said: "Let me talk to Mauger."

He sent the one-eyed man to her, and took himself away.... Mauger told his story volubly. The little man had added a cubit to his stature by his exploit; he had done heroically, and knew it, and was proud.... He told, straightforwardly, how Brander dropped down into the fo'c's'le.... "Slatter had fixed it with a man to knock out the light," he explained. "I heard them whispering. I was watching.... I saw Slatter had a knife. So when he jumped for Mr. Brander, I tripped him, and he fell over me, and then Mr. Brander grabbed him...." The little man chuckled at the joke on himself. "They fit all over me, ma'am," he said, "They done a double shuffle up and down my backbone, right."

Faith smiled at him and told him he did well. "But where did the men get liquor?" she asked.

Mauger grinned and backed away. "I dunno, ma'am.... Did they have any?..."

She said steadily: "Mauger, where did the men get the liquor?"

The man squirmed, but he stood still under her eyes; he tried to avoid her.... But in the end he came nearer, looking backward and from side to side. Came nearer, and whispered at last....

"Slatter brought a jug forward after his go at the wheel, ma'am."

"Slatter?" Faith echoed softly.... "Slatter.... All right, Mauger. And--don't talk too much, forward...."

The man escaped eagerly. He had been willing enough to talk about Slatter's knife and his own good deed; but this other was another matter. Whiskey in the fo'c's'le....

This was in the early morning, before the whole story had spread to every man. Faith went quickly below, and asked his keys from Noll, and went into the storeroom. Found nothing there to guide her.... But while she was there, Tinch, the cook, came down to get coffee.... She studied the man thoughtfully....

"Tinch," she said, finger pressing her cheek, "I left a jug down here.... It's gone. Have you seen it anywhere?"

Tinch, a tall, lean man with a bald head, looked at her stupidly, and ran a thin finger through his straggly locks and thought. "Waal, now, ma'am," he said at last, "I rec'lect I see Roy fetch a jug up out o' here, yist'day."

"Roy?" she asked. "What was he down here for?"

"Come down to...." He looked at her, and was suddenly confused with fear he had played Judas. "Waal, now, ma'am," he drawled, "I cal'late you'd best ask the boy that there."

She nodded at once. "Of course.... Thank you, Tinch."

So Faith had this matter in her mind when Dan'l came down to find Noll, in mid-morning, and ask what was to be done about the tragedy. Noll said fretfully: "Slide Slatter over t'side, Mr. Tobey. Do I have to look after everything aboard this ship?"

Dan'l nodded. "Hitch is fixing for that," he said. "What I mean is, how about Mauger? He says he done it."

Noll said sullenly: "Well, if he says he done it, he done it."

"That's what I say," Dan'l agreed. "Only thing is, Brander stands up for him. So what do you aim t'do?"

"Brander stands up for him...."

"Says he couldn't ha' done it, any ways."

Noll threw up his fist angrily. "Damn it, Mr. Tobey; don't run to me with this. Find out what happened.... Then tell me. That's the thing.... My God, this ship is.... God's sake, Mr. Tobey, be a man."

Dan'l said steadily: "All right; I say Mauger did it."

Noll's cheeks turned pale and his eyes narrowed on the mate. "Stuck the knife in him?"

"Yes."

The captain's hands tapped his knees. "How did he know to stick it in the man's leg so neat? Most men would ha' struck for the back.... The man knows the uses of a knife, Mr. Tobey."

Dan'l nodded. "Oh, aye...."

Noll looked furtively toward the door. "I've allus said he'd a knife for me.... He'll be on my back, one day...." He was trembling, and he poured a drink and swallowed it. Faith, sitting near him, looked up, looked at Dan'l, then bent her head over her book again. Dan'l said:

"I think it's wise to put him in irons."

Noll roared: "Then do it, Mr. Tobey. Don't come whining to me with your little matters. I'm an old man, Dan'l.... I'm weary and old.... Settle such things.... That's the business of a mate, Mr. Tobey...."

Faith said quietly, without looking up: "Why make so much talk? Mr. Brander has explained what happened."

The men were silent for an instant, surprised and uneasy. Dan'l looked at the captain; Noll's head was bent. Dan'l ventured to say:

"You think Mr. Brander is right?"

"Of course."

Dan'l suggested awkwardly: "You--think he's telling truth?"

Faith nodded. "Any one can see that...."

Dan'l laughed mirthlessly, "Then we'd best write.... We'd best let Mr. Brander write his story in the log, sir."

Faith looked at Dan'l steadily; then she turned to her husband. "Noll," she said, "you write the log. I'll tell you what to write."

He looked up at her stupidly, not understanding. She got up and opened the log book and gave him a pen. He protested: "Faith, wait...."

She touched his shoulder lightly with her hand, silencing him. "Write this," she said; and when Noll took the pen, she dictated: "Some one gave the men liquor this day; they were drinking in the fo'c's'le. When Mr. Brander went forward to quiet them...." She saw Noll had fallen behind with his writing, and waited a moment, then repeated more slowly: "When Mr. Brander went forward to quiet them, Slatter attacked him with a knife. In the struggle, Slatter dropped the knife, and a moment later fell on it, dying from the wound."