Brander's face was sober; he hesitated. "No, not lost," he said. He did
not seem minded to go on; and Faith asked again:
"What happened?"
He laughed uneasily. "I left them," he said, and again seemed to wish to
let the matter rest. But Faith would not.
"Is there any reason, why you should not tell me all about it?" she
asked.
"No."
"Then tell me, please...."
He threw up his free hand in a gesture of surrender. "All right," he
said....
They were following the narrow path down the stream's side toward the
sea. Faith was ahead, Brander on her heels. After a moment, he went
on....
"A man named Marks was the skipper of the _Thomas Morgan_. I shipped
aboard her as a seaman. I'd had one cruise before.... Not with him. I
shipped with him.... And I found out, within two days, that I'd made a
mistake.
"Not that they were hard on me. I knew my job, after a fashion; and ...
they let me alone. But the men had a tough time of it. It was a tough
ship, through and through. Marks; and his mate.... Mate's name was
Trant, and I'd not like to meet that man on a dark night. There was
murder in him.... The sheer love of it.... He was the sort of man that
will catch a shark just for the fun of spiking the creature's jaws and
turning him loose again.... I was in Taku once.... Saw a little China
boy catch a dragon fly and tie a twig to its tail and let it go. The
twig overbalanced the dragon fly--It went straight up into the air, fast
as it could wing.... May be going yet.... That was the sort of trick
Trant would have liked.
"Not that he ever actually killed a man on this cruise. Better if he
had, for the men. But he didn't.
"A big fellow. Heavy fisted; but he wasn't satisfied with the fist. The
boot for him...."
They were climbing a little knoll in the path; he fell silent while they
climbed; and Faith thought of Noll Wing and Mauger....
"Well," said Brander. "Well, you know how things drag along.... We
dragged along.... Then, one day, we touched.... We'd gone around into
the Japan Sea. Marks and Trant walked up to the second mate and took
him, between them, into a boat, and took him ashore.... They came back
without him. He was a man as big as Trant, but he had crossed Trant,
more than once.... Trant had a face that was cut to ribbons when he came
back aboard; but the other man did not come back at all. I never knew
what the particular quarrel was....
"They shoved the third mate up to the second, and put me in as third. I
said to myself: 'All right.... But don't go to sleep, Brander.' And I
didn't. It didn't pay.... I couldn't."
He waved his hand as though to dismiss what followed with a word....
Nevertheless, he went on:
"There was a man in my boat.... He was called 'Lead-Foot' by every one,
because he was a slow-moving man. He was not good for much. He was very
much afraid of every one. Especially Trant. He was bigger than Trant, so
Trant took a certain satisfaction from abusing him. I decided to
interfere with this. I told this big coward who was in my boat to keep
out of Trant's way; and I told Trant, jokingly, one day, to leave my men
alone. He was huffed at that; growled at me." Brander chuckled. "So I
swelled up my chest like a fighting cock and told him to keep hands off.
Oh, I threw a great bluff, I can tell you. But Trant was not a coward.
He waited his time; and I knew he was waiting....
"And while he waited, he talked to the captain; and I could see them
both whispering together. They whispered about me. They did not like to
have me about; and once Marks threatened to put me back in the
fo'c's'le; but he changed his mind.
"So matters were till we came past an island to the north of here, forty
or fifty miles. We made that island at dusk, and worked nearer it after
darkness had fallen. It came on cloudy and dark....
"I met Trant on the deck; and I said to him: 'Do we go ashore here?' He
grinned at me with his teeth and bade me wait till morning and see. And
that was enough for me. I knew what was coming. I thought I would hurry
it a little; but luck hurried it for me, in a way that worked out very
well.
"This lead-footed man was at the wheel. When the anchor went down, he
started forward and brushed against Trant. Trant may have meant it to be
so. Anyway, Trant knocked the lead-foot flying, and went after him with
the boot, jumping, as lumbermen do. There happened to be a belaying pin
handy. So I took it and cracked Trant, and he dropped in mid-leap....
Then Marks jumped me; and I managed to wriggle out from under him, and
he fell and banged his head. And he lay still; but Trant was up, by
then, and at me.
"The lead-footed man was yelling in my ear. I told him to go overboard
and swim for it; and he did. And just then Trant got in the way of the
belaying pin again, and this time he did not seem to want to get up.
"There was some confusion, you understand. I did not stay to straighten
things out. I went over, after Lead-Foot.... He could swim like a
porpoise. He was ahead of me, but half way in he met a shark, and came
clamoring back to me to be saved. So I got out of his way for fear he
would drag us both under, and then I kicked at the shark, and it went
about its business, and we swam on.... They were too busy sluicing the
Old Man and Trant to come after us in a boat.... They could have
knocked us in the head with an oar.... But they didn't....
"However, Lead-Foot took the shark so seriously that he swam too fast.
Or something of the sort.... Anyway, he keeled when we touched sand, and
I felt him and found that he was dead with heart failure or the like. I
didn't stop to work over him. I could hear Trant bellowing. He had come
to life; and a boat was racing after me.
"So I went into the bush and stayed there till the _Thomas Morgan_ took
herself off. After that, not liking the island, which was low and
marshy, I borrowed a native canoe and came over here.... And I've been
here, since."
They were within sound of the rollers on the beach when he finished.
Faith was silent for a little; then she asked: "Were there other white
men here? Why didn't you stay at the village?"
"There was too much society there," said Brander, grinning amiably. "I'm
a solitary man, by nature. So I went up into the hills. Besides, I could
watch for ships, there.... I'd no notion of staying here indefinitely,
you understand...."
Faith was filling out the gaps in his narrative from her own
understanding of the life aboard a whaler. She could guess what Brander
must have endured; she thought he had done well to come through it and
still smile.... She thought he was a man....
They could see the surf, through the thinning bush, when he said: "You
haven't told me how you happen to be aboard the _Sally Sims_...."
Faith had almost forgotten, herself. She remembered, and something like
a chill of sorrow struck down upon her. But: "I am Noll Wing's wife,"
she said.
They came out, abruptly, into the white glare of the beach, Mr. Ham's
boat was drawn up, a quarter-mile away. Brander looked toward it, looked
at Faith.
"Ah," he said quietly. "Then yonder is your husband's boat, waiting....
Noll Wing is an able skipper...."
Faith said nothing. They went on, side by side, toward Mr. Ham.