Mr. Ham was dead and gone. Faith was surprised to find, in the next few
days, how much she missed him. The mate had been harsh, brutal to the
men, ready with his fist.... Yet somehow she found in her heart a deep
affection for the man. He was so amiably stupid, so stupidly good of
heart. His philosophy of life had been the philosophy of blows; he
believed men, like children, were best ruled for their own good by the
heavy hand of a master. And he acted on that belief, with the best will
in the world. But there had never been any malice in his blows; he
frowned and glared and struck from principle; he was at heart a simple
man, and a gentle one.... Not the stuff of a leader; never the man to
take command of a masterless ship. Nevertheless, a man of a certain rude
and simple strength of soul....
Faith was sorry he was gone; she felt they could have better spared
another man.... Almost any other, save Noll Wing.
She did not at once perceive the true nature of the change which Mr.
Ham's death must bring about aboard the _Sally_. In the balancing of man
and man which had made for a precarious stability there, Mr. Ham had
taken a passive, but nevertheless important part. Now he was gone; the
balance was disturbed. But neither Faith nor the others at once
perceived this; none of them saw that Dan'l Tobey as second mate, and
Dan'l Tobey as first mate, with only a step between him and the command,
were very different matters.... Not even Dan'l, in the beginning....
They were all too busy, for one thing; there were the whales to be cut
in--for James Tichel had killed and towed his booty back to the _Sally_
an hour after Mr. Ham died. Tichel's whale, and the one that had killed
Mr. Ham, would give the whole ship work for days; feverish work, hard
and engrossing. Cap'n Wing, who had leaned upon Mr. Ham in the past,
perforce took charge of this work, and the strain of it wearied him. He
no longer had the abounding vitality which it demanded.... It wearied
him; and what with the death of the mate, and the rush of this work and
his own weariness, he altogether forgot his threat to have the man,
Brander, whipped in the rigging. He forgot Brander, tried to drive the
men at their tasks, and eventually gave up in a stormy outbreak of
impatience and left the matter in the hands of Dan'l Tobey.
Dan'l went about the business of cutting in and boiling the blubber in a
deep abstraction; he was considering the problem raised by the death of
Mr. Ham, which none of the others--save, perhaps, Faith--had yet
perceived.
This problem was simple; yet it had possibilities of trouble. Mr. Ham
was gone; Dan'l automatically became first officer; old James Tichel
ranked as second, Willis as third.... But the place of fourth mate was
left empty.... It would have to be filled. The _Sally_ could not go on
about her business with one boat's crew forever idle. There would have
to be a new officer.
Dan'l was troubled by the problem, for the obvious reason that Brander
was the only man aboard with an officer's training; that Brander was the
obvious choice. Dan'l did not want Brander in the cabin; he had seen too
much in Faith's eyes that night when she heard Brander sing by the
capstan.... He had eyes to see, and he had seen. And there was boiling
in Dan'l a storm of hatred for Brander. He was filled with a rancor
unspeakable....
No one spoke of this necessity for choosing another officer until the
last bit of blubber from the two whales had been boiled; the last drop
of oil stowed in the casks; the last fleck of soot scoured from the
decks. Then it was old Tichel who opened the matter. It was at dinner in
the cabin that he spoke. Cap'n Wing was there, and Faith, and Dan'l, and
Roy. Willis Cox was on deck; Mr. Ham's chair was vacant. Old Tichel
looked at it, and he looked at Noll Wing, and he said:
"Who's to set there, cap'n?" He pointed toward the empty chair as he
spoke. It was at Cap'n Wing's right hand, where Mr. Ham had been
accustomed to sit. Dan'l Tobey had not yet preëmpted it. Dan'l was
always a discreet man.
Cap'n Wing looked across at Tichel. "Mr. Tobey, o' course," he said.
Tichel nodded. "Natural. I mean--who's goin' to be the new officer? Or
don't you figure to hev one?"
Noll had been drinking that day; he was befuddled; his brain was thick.
He waved one of his big hands from side to side as though to brush
Tichel away. "Leave it to me," he said harshly. "I don't call for any
pointers, Mr. Tichel. Leave it to me...."
James Tichel nodded again; he got up and wiped his mouth with the back
of his hand and went on deck.... Dan'l and Roy, Faith and Noll Wing,
were left together. Dan'l wondered whether it was time for him to speak;
he studied Noll's lowered countenance, decided to hold his tongue.... He
followed Tichel to the deck.
Noll said nothing of the matter all that day. At night, when they were
going to bed, Faith asked him: "Who have you decided to promote to be an
officer, Noll?"