Dan'l laughed. "Shucks! You can't fool any one with that, Roy. If you
don't want to talk...."
Roy hesitated; he studied Dan'l for a moment. "Dan'l," he said, "you've
known Faith and me all our lives. I guess I can talk to you if I can to
anybody. And I've got to talk to somebody, Dan'l."
Dan'l nodded soberly. "I'm here to be talked to. What's the matter,
Roy?"
The boy asked abruptly: "Dan'l--have you noticed the way Faith looks at
Brander?"
Dan'l had been half prepared for the question; nevertheless his fingers
dug into his palms. He remained silent for a minute, thinking.... His
thoughts raced.... And his eyes fell on foul-tongued Slatter, at the
wheel.... There was a piece of luck; an instrument ready to his hand.
Dan'l still hesitated for a space; his brows twisting.... Then the man
threw all decency behind him, and flung himself at last into the paths
toward which his feet had been tending. He moved to one side, so that
Roy, facing him, must also face the man at the wheel; so that Roy's
words would come to Slatter's ears. And Dan'l was very sure that Slatter
would take care to hear....
For another moment he did not speak; then he laughed harshly; and he
asked: "What do you mean, Roy?"
Roy repeated: "I mean the way Faith looks at Brander all the time.
Looking at him.... A queer way...."
Dan'l Tobey seemed to be embarrassed; he looked to right and left, and
he said huskily: "Shucks--I guess you've got too much imagination, Roy."
Roy shook his head. "No, I haven't, either, I've been watching her....
She looks at him, and her eyes get kind of misty like.... And if you say
something to her, sometimes she doesn't hear you at all."
"She's got a right to think," Dan'l chuckled. "You talk too much,
anyway, Roy.... No wonder she don't listen to you." His tone was
good-natured. Roy fell silent for a moment, studying Dan'l's face; and
Dan'l looked confused. Roy said sharply:
"Dan'l, haven't you seen, yourself, what I mean? Haven't you, Dan'l?"
Dan'l turned his head away; he would not meet Roy's eyes. Roy cried: "I
knew you saw it.... Everybody must see...."
Dan'l said sternly: "Roy, you'd best not see too much. It don't pay.
There's times when it's wise to see little and say nothing. If it was
me, I'd say this was one of the times."
"That's all right," Roy admitted. "But I can talk to you...." He added
suddenly: "Dan'l, Noll Wing is too old for Faith. She ought to have
married you, Dan'l."
Children have a disconcerting way of sticking a word like a knife into
our secret hearts; they see so clearly, and they have not yet learned to
pretend they do not see. Roy, for all his eighteen years, was still as
much child as man; and Dan'l winced. "Land, Roy," he protested. "Get
that out of your head. Faith and me understand...."
Roy turned his back, looking aft. Dan'l glanced toward Slatter at the
wheel. Slatter's back was toward them; but Dan'l could have sworn the
man's ears were visibly pricking to miss no word. And Dan'l's eyes
burned unpleasantly. A woman's strongest armor is her innocence. If
Faith were tarnished in the eyes of the men in the fo'c's'le, she would
have few defenders there.... The roughest man will honor a good woman;
but he looks upon one who is soiled with contemptuous or greedy eyes.
Dan'l was willing, for his own ends, that the fo'c's'le should think
evil of Faith Wing.
While they stood thus, Brander came on deck, and spoke for a minute with
Dan'l, then went slowly forward. Because he and Dan'l clashed so
sharply, Brander had fallen into the way of spending much time amidships
with the harpooners, or forward with the crew.... Dan'l's place was
aft.... Roy watched Brander now as he spoke to the mate, watched him
walk away. When Brander was gone, Dan'l looked toward Roy. Roy said
quietly:
"Dan'l, if Brander tries to--to do anything to my sister, I'm going to
kill him."
Dan'l said nothing; and Roy moved abruptly past him and went below....
He was not seeking Faith; but he came upon her there, in the main cabin.
She was at the table, with a book, and paper and pen; and he stopped to
look over her shoulder, and saw that she was making calculations....
Latitude and longitude.... He asked: "What are you doing?"