For a long time after Mark's story ended, the two brothers sat still in
the cabin, puffing at their pipes, thinking.... Mark watched Joel,
waiting for the younger man to speak. And Joel's thoughts ranged back,
and picked up the tale in the beginning, and followed it through once
more....
They were silent for so long that little Priss, in the cabin, drifted
from waking dreams to dreams in truth. The pictures Mark's words had
conjured up merged with troubled phantasies, and she twisted and cried
out softly in her sleep so that Joel went in at last to be sure she was
not sick. But while he stood beside her, she passed into quiet and
untroubled slumber, and he came back and sat down with Mark again.
"You brought the schooner into Tubuai?" he asked.
"Aye. Alone. Half a thousand miles. There's a task, Joel."
"And left it there?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Mark smiled grimly. "It was known there," he said quietly. "Also, the
three whom I had found aboard it were known. And they had friends in
Tubuai, who wondered what had come to them. I was beginning to--find
their questions troublesome--when the _Nathan Ross_ came in."
"They will ask more questions now," said Joel.
"They must ask them of the schooner; and--she does not speak," Mark told
him.
Joel was troubled and uncertain. "It's--a black thing," he said.
"They'll not be after me, if that distresses you," Mark promised him.
"Curiosity does not go to such lengths in these waters."
"You told no one?"
Mark laughed. "The pearls were--my own concern. You're the first I've
told." He watched his brother. Joel frowned thoughtfully, shook his head.
"You plan to go back for them?" he asked.
"You and I," said Mark casually. Joel looked at him in quick surprise;
and Mark laughed. "Yes," he repeated. "You and I. I am not selfish, Joel.
Besides--there are plenty for two."
Joel, for an instant, found no word; and Mark leaned quickly toward him.
He tapped Joel's knee. "We'll work up that way," he said quietly. "When
we come to the island, you and I go ashore, and get them where they're
hid beneath the rock; and we come back aboard with no one any wiser....
Rich. A double handful of them, Joel...."
Joel's eyes were clouded with thought; he shook his head slowly. "What of
the blacks?" he asked.
Mark laughed. "They were brought down on us by the woman who got away,"
he said. "Quint's woman. I heard as much that day, saw her among them.
But--they're gone before this."
Joel said slowly: "You are not sure of that. And--I cannot risk the
ship...."