She turned, and her eyes held his. "That was a cowardly thing to do,
Noll, my husband," she said.
V
When Noll Wing kicked the unconscious man, and Faith slipped quietly
away and went below, the life of the _Sally Sims_ for an instant stood
still. Yella' Boy and Loum, two of the boat-steerers, were lounging at
the forward end of the boathouse, and saw. Dan'l Tobey, who had gripped
the wheel, saw. And three or four of the men, amidships, saw. For a
space they all stood still, watching, while Noll growled above his
victim, and Mauger, limp and senseless, rolled slackly back and forth
upon the deck with the motion of the vessel.
Then Noll looked around, and saw them all watching him with steady,
hard, frightened eyes; and their silence irked him, so that he broke it
with a cry of his own.
"You, Yella' Boy, sluice him off," he shouted.
Yella' Boy grinned, showed his teeth with the amiability of his dark
race; and he took a canvas bucket and dropped it over the rail, and drew
it up filled with brine, and flung this callously in Mauger's horribly
crushed face. The water loosed the blood, washed it away in flecks and
gouts.... It bared the skin, and through this skin, from many little
slits and scratches like the cracks in a half-broken egg, more blood
trickled, spreading moistly. The salt burned.... Mauger groaned
hoarsely, slumped into unconsciousness again.
"Douse him again," Noll Wing commanded. "The dog's shamming." He looked
around, saw Dan'l at the wheel. "You, Mr. Tobey, look to him," he
commanded.
Dan'l was one of those men whose hands have a knack for healing. He knew
something of medicine; he had gone so far, upon a former cruise, as to
trim away a man's crushed fingers after an accident of the whale
fisheries had nipped them.... He hailed one of the men in the waist,
now, and gave the wheel to this man, and then crossed to where Mauger
lay and knelt beside him, and dabbed away the blood upon his face....
Cap'n Wing, leaning against the rail, his knuckles white with the grip
he had upon it, watched Dan'l, and swayed upon his feet.... And Yella'
Boy, with his bucket still half full of brine, stood by, and grinned,
and waited.
Mauger came slowly back to life under Dan'l's ministrations; he groaned,
and he began to twitch, and kick.... And of a sudden he cried out, like
one suddenly waking from sleep. Then consciousness flooded him, and with
it came the agony he was enduring, and he howled.... And then his howls
grew weak and weaker till he was sobbing.... And Dan'l helped him to his
feet.... He had put a rough bandage about the man's head, and from
beneath this bandage, one of Mauger's eyes looked forth, blackly
gleaming, wild with the torment he endured. This eye fixed its gaze upon
Noll Wing....
Dan'l stepped a little nearer Noll, and said in a low voice: "His eye is
gone, sir. No good. It ought to be dimmed out.... Cleared away...."
That shocked the liquor out of Noll; his face went white beneath the
brown; and Mauger heard, and suddenly he screamed again, and leveled a
shaking finger at Noll Wing, and cursed him shrilly.... Dan'l whirled
and bade him be silent; he signed to Yella' Boy, and the harpooner half
dragged, half carried Mauger forward. But as they went, Mauger, twisting
in the other's arms, shook his thin fist at Noll Wing and swore
terribly.... Cursed Noll, called death down upon him, vowed that he
would some day even the score....
Yella' Boy cuffed him and dragged him away.... And Dan'l watched Noll to
see what the captain would say. Noll said nothing. He took off his cap
and rubbed his bald head and looked for an instant like an old man; his
eyes shifted furtively from Dan'l to the cursing man....
Abruptly, he turned and went aft to the stern of the ship and stood
there by himself, thinking. He sought reassurance; he abused Mauger
under his breath, and told himself the little man had been well
served.... The _Sally_ fell away; he turned and cursed the new man at
the wheel, and got relief from the oath he spoke. It gave him a
blustering sort of courage.... He wished Dan'l Tobey would tell him he
had done right.... But Dan'l had gone forward to the fo'c's'le....
Mauger was howling.... Noll thought Dan'l might be trimming away that
crushed eye.... And he shuddered. He was, suddenly, immensely lonely. He
wished with all his soul for support, for a word of comfort, a word of
reassurance....
He went down into the cabin, thinking to speak with Henry Ham. Mr. Ham
was always an apostle of violence.... But the mate was sleeping; Noll
could hear him snore. So was tigerish little James Tichel....
Noll went into the after cabin, and found Faith there. Her back was
turned, she was looking out of the stern windows. He wished she would
look at him, but she did not. So he said, his voice thick with anger,
and at the same time plaintive with hunger for a reassuring word....
"That damned rat won't try that again...."
Then Faith turned and told him: "That was a cowardly thing to do, Noll,
my husband."
He had come for comfort; he was ready to humble himself; he was a prey
to the instinct of wrong-doing man which bids him confess and be
forgiven.... But Faith's eyes accused him.... When a man's wife turns
against him.... He said, bitter with rage:
"Keep your mouth shut, child. This is not a pink tea, aboard the _Sally
Sims_. You know nothing of what's necessary to handle rough men."
Faith smiled a little wistfully. "I know it is never necessary to kick a
helpless man in the face," she said.
He was so nearly mad with fury and shame and misery that he raised his
great fist as though he would have struck even Faith. "Mind your own
matters," he bade her harshly. "The dog struck me.... Where would the
ship be if I let that go? I should have killed him...."
"Did you not?" Faith asked gently. "I thought he would be dead...."
"No; hell, no!" Noll blustered. "You can't kill a snake. He'll be
poisonous as ever in a day...."
"I saw ..." said Faith; she shuddered faintly. "I--think his eye is
gone."
"Eye?" Noll echoed. "What's an eye? He's lucky to live. There's
skippers that would have killed him where he stood.... For what he
did...."
Faith shook her head. "He's only a little man, weak, not used to sea
life. You are big, and strong, Noll.... My Noll.... There was no need of
kicking him."
The man flung himself, then, into an insane burst of anger at her. He
hated the whole world, hated Faith most of all because she would not
soothe him and tell him never to mind.... He raved at her, gripped her
round shoulders and shook her, flung her away from him.... He was
mad....
And Faith, steadfastly watching him, though her soul trembled, prayed in
her heart that she might find the way to bring Noll back to manhood
again; she endured his curses; she endured his harsh grip upon her
shoulders.... She waited while he flooded her with abuse.... And at the
end, when he was quiet for lack of words to say, she went to him and
touched his arm.
"Noll ..." she said.