Willis flushed painfully. "He's just a kid," he protested.
"You were almost three months older when you struck your first whale, if
I mind right," said Dan'l pleasantly.
Big Noll Wing interrupted harshly: "That's enough. Silva and Roy. Who
would you have, Mr. Cox?"
"Only one man aboard," said Willis.
"That's who.... I've no mind for conundrums."
"Brander," said Cox. "Brander!"
Noll seemed to slump a little in his chair; he smiled wearily. Dan'l
Tobey thought the captain had never looked so old. His big fist on the
table moved a little from side to side, then was still. In the silence,
they all heard the voice of Roy Kilcup, from the deck above, crying to
Faith in a trembling whisper:
"Dan'l wants to make me mate, Sis! He wants to make me mate...."
His voice was so tremulous, so obviously the voice of a boy, that every
man of them save Dan'l Tobey smiled. Noll said slowly: "He's over
youthful yet, Dan'l. Teach him the trade.... Happen, some day, we'll
see...."
Dan'l was betrayed by anger into indiscretion. "Over youthful, that may
be," he exclaimed. "But not a Portugee; and not a beach comber...."
Noll held up his big hand, silencing Dan'l. And he looked from man to
man; and he said slowly, as an old man speaks: "I've no liking for
Brander. He dared me to my face, t'other day. But there's this....
"He holds the crew. They like him. And he's a man; and he knows the job;
and he does not know how to be afraid. Also, he has a right to the
place. If we don't give it to him, he might well enough make a bit
trouble for us. Leastwise, that's the seeming of it to me...."