Noll shook his head. "No," he said sharply. The disappointment, coming
on the heels of the hope that had been roused, had made him fretful and
angry. Brander said:
"I was thinking...."
Noll turned on him querulously. "Some ships have truck with carrion and
dog meat," he snarled. "Not the _Sally_. I'll not play buzzard."
Brander smiled. "It's not pleasant, I know.... But, aboard the _Thomas
Morgan_, we got a bit of ambergris out of such a whale.... This one was
lean, you saw.... It died of a sickness. That's the kind...."
Dan'l Tobey said, with a grin: "A man'd think you like the smell of it,
Brander."
"Ambergris is fool's talk," Noll growled. "I've heard tell of it for
thirty year, and never saw a lump bigger than a man's thumb. Fool's
talk, Mr. Brander. Let be...."
He turned away; and Brander and Dan'l stood together, watching as the
_Sally_ drifted nearer and nearer the dead whale. They could see the
feasting sea birds hovering; they caught once or twice the flash of a
leaping body as sharks tore at the carcass. Here and there the blubber
showed white where great chunks had been ripped away. They watched, and
drifted nearer; and so there came to them presently the smell of it. An
unspeakable smell....
The men caught it first, in the bow; Dan'l and Brander heard their first
cries of disgust before the slowly drifting air brought them the odor.
But five minutes later, it had engulfed the ship, penetrated even into
the cabin. Noll got it; he stuck his head up out of the companion and
bellowed:
"Mr. Tobey, get the _Sally_ out o' range of that."
Dan'l said: "Not a breath of wind, sir." He went toward the companion,
as Noll stepped out on deck; and he grinned with malicious inspiration,
"Mr. Brander likes the smell of it, sir.... Why not send him off to tow
it out of range?"