Brander looked at him; and an imp of mischief gleamed in his eye. He
said quietly: "The rest of you. I was sent out to remove the carcass,
not to dissect it. The digging for this was my private enterprise, Mr.
Tobey."
Old James Tichel gasped under his breath. Dan'l started to speak, then
looked to Noll. They all looked toward Cap'n Noll Wing.... It was for
him to deal with Brander's claim.... They looked to Noll; and big Noll
stared at the precious stuff on the deck, and at Brander.... And he said
nothing.
Brander smiled. He called Mauger to come aft and help him, and he
proceeded with the utmost care to clean the lumps of ambergris of the
filth that clung to them. He paid no further heed to the men about him.
Noll went below; and Faith, who had listened without speaking, followed
him. Dan'l and old Tichel got together by the after rail and talked in
whispers. Willis Cox stood, watching.... The young man's eyes were wide
and his cheeks were white. These seven ugly lumps of something like
hard, dirty yellow soap were worth more than the whole cruise of the
_Sally_ might be expected to pay.... They caught Willis's imagination;
he could not take his eyes from them.
Brander had Mauger fetch whale oil; he washed the lumps in this as
tenderly as a mother bathes a child. The black washed away, they became
an even, dull yellow in his hands.... Here and there, bits of white
stuff like bones showed in them.... Bits of the bones of the gigantic
squid on which the cachalot feeds. Their faint, persistent odor spread
around them....
When the cleaning was done, Mauger fetched steelyards and they weighed
the lumps, slinging each with care.... The larger ones were so heavy
that they had to make the scales fast to the rigging.... The largest
weighed seventy-four pounds and a fraction; the next was sixty-one; the
third, forty-eight. The four smaller lumps, weighed together, tipped the
beam at nineteen pounds.... The seven totaled two hundred and two
pounds....
Mauger was disappointed at that; he complained: "I took 'em to weigh
three hundred, anyways...."
Brander looked at Willis. "Two hundred isn't to be laughed at! Eh, Mr.
Cox?"
Willis said hoarsely: "That must be the biggest find of ambergris ever
was."
Brander shook his head. "The _Watchman_, out o' Nantucket, brought back
eight hundred pounds, in '58. I've heard so, anyways."
Willis had nothing to say to that; he went aft to join Tichel and Dan'l
Tobey and tell them the weight of the stuff.... Brander sent for Eph
Hitch, the cooper.... He showed him the ambergris....
"Fix me up a cask," he said. "Big enough to hold all that.... We'll stow
it dry...."
Eph scratched his head. He spat over the rail. "Fix you up a cask?" he
repeated. "Oh, aye." He emphasized the pronoun; and Brander's eyes
twinkled.
They packed the ambergris away in the captain's storeroom; the
compartment at the bottom of the _Sally_, under the cabin, in the very
stern. It rested there among the barrels and casks of food and the
general supplies.... There was no access to this place save through the
cabin itself; it was not connected with the after hold where water and
general stores and gear were stowed away. Brander suggested putting it
there; he came to Noll Wing with his request, and because Dan'l Tobey
was with Noll, Brander framed his question in a personal form.
"I'd like to stow this below us here," he said. "Best it be out of reach
of the men."
Dan'l scowled; Noll looked up heavily, met Brander's eyes. In the end,
he nodded. "Where you like," he said sulkily. "Don't bother me."
Brander smiled; and the cask was hidden away below....
But it was not forgotten; it could not be forgotten. From its hiding
place, the ambergris made its influence felt all over the vessel. It was
like dynamite in its potentialities for mischief. The mates could not
forget it; the boat-steerers in the steerage discussed it over and over;
the men forward in the fo'c's'le argued about it endlessly.
It was a rich treasure, worth as much as the whole cruise was like to be
worth in oil; and it was all in one lump.... That is to say, it was no
more than a heavy burden for a strong man. Two men could have carried
it....
A thousand acres of well-tilled farm land are worth a great deal of
money; but this form of riches is not one to catch the imagination.
Wealth becomes more fascinating as it becomes more compact. Coal is more
treasured than an equal value of earth; lead is more treasured than
coal; and men will die for a nugget of gold that is worth no more than
the unconsidered riches which lie all about them. Great value in small
compass sets men by the ears....
Every man aboard the _Sally_ had a direct and personal interest in
Brander's find of ambergris. And the matter of their debate was this:
was the ambergris the property of the _Sally_, a fruit of the voyage; or
was it Brander's? If it was a part of the profits of the cruise, they
would all share in it. If it was Brander's, they would not....
Brander--and this word had gone around the ship--had spoken of it as his
own. For which some condemned and hated him; some praised and chose to
flatter him. If the worth of the stuff was divided between them all,
Noll Wing and Dan'l Tobey would have the lion's share, and the men
forward would have no more than the price of a debauch. If it were
Brander's alone, they might beg or steal a larger share from him.
Or--and not a few had this thought--they might seize the whole treasure
and make off with it....
The possibilities were infinite; the potentialities for trouble were
enormous.
This new tension aboard the _Sally_ came to a head in the cabin; the
very air there was charged with it. Dan'l and old Tichel were against
Brander from the first; Cox was inclined to support him. Dan'l sought to
sound Noll Wing and learn his attitude....
He said to Noll casually, one day: "The 'gris will make this a fat
cruise, sir."