A curious lull settled down upon the _Sally Sims_ during the days after
Noll's open accusation of Faith, and his collapse before her steady
courage. There was an apathy in the air; they saw few whales, lowered
for them without zeal, missed more than one that should have been
killed.... There was a silence upon the ship, like the hush of listening
men who wait to hear an expected call. This paralysis gripped every soul
aboard--save Noll Wing alone.
Noll, in those last days, stalked his deck like a parody of the man he
once had been. Faith had put a fictitious courage in the man; he thought
himself once more the master, as in the past. His heels pounded the
planks; his head was high; his voice roared.... But there was a tremor
in his stride; there was a trembling about the poise of him; there was a
cracking quaver in his voice. He was like a child who plays at being a
man.... They humored him; the men and the mates seemed to enter into a
conspiracy to humor him. They leaped to his bidding; they shrank from
his curses as though desperate with fear.... And Noll was so delighted
with all this that he was perpetually good-natured, jovial....
He was, of course, drinking heavily and steadily; but the drink seemed
to hearten him and give him strength. Certainly it made him lenient; for
on three occasions when the men found a bottle, forward, and befuddled
themselves with it, Noll only laughed as though at a capital jest. Noll
laughed.... But Faith wondered and was distressed and watched to see how
the liquor was being stolen. She was disturbed and alarmed; but Noll
laughed at her fears.
"A little of it never hurt a man," he told her boastfully. "Look at me,
to see that. Let be, Faith. Let be."
When she protested, he overrode her; and to show his own certainty of
himself, he did a thing that Noll sober would never have done. He had
the rum drawn from the barrel in his storeroom and served out to the
men, a ration daily.... It amused him to see the men half fuddled with
it. He forced it on them; and once, while Faith watched hopelessly, he
commanded a hulking Cape Verder--the biggest man in the fo'c's'le--to
drink a bout with him. They took glass for glass, till the other was
helpless as a log; and Noll vaunted his own prowess in the matter.
Dan'l Tobey contented himself with the progress of these matters; he no
longer stuck a finger in the pie. Noll was going; that was plain to any
seeing eye. The captain grew weaker every day; his skin yellowed and
parched, and the lower lids of his eyes sagged down and revealed the
flaming red of their inner surface. These sagging lower lids made
crescent-shaped pockets which were forever filled with rheumy fluid....
Noll was an ugly thing; and his perpetual mirth, his cackling laughter
were the more horrible.... He was a laughing corpse; dissolution was
upon him. But he kept himself so steeped with alcohol he did not feel
its pangs.
Faith could do nothing; Brander could do nothing. Between these two, no
further word had passed. But there was no need. Meeting face to face on
deck, the day after Noll surprised them, their eyes met in a long and
steady glance.... Their eyes met and spoke; and after that there was no
need of words between them. There was a pledging of vows in that glance;
there was also a renunciation. Both saw, both understood.... Faith
thought she knew Brander to the depths....
Neither, in that moment, knew that Dan'l Tobey was at hand; but the mate
had seen, and he had understood. He saw, slipped away, held his peace,
considered.
Brander was fighting for Roy, to fulfill his pledge to Faith. He had set
himself to win the boy's confidence and esteem; he applied himself to
this with all the strength there was in him. Yet he was careful; he did
not force the issue; he did not harass Roy with his attentions.... He
held off, let Roy see for himself, think.... There were days when he
thought he made some progress; there were days when he thought the
effort was a hopeless one. Nevertheless, he persisted....
Noll Wing's good will, in those days, extended even to Brander. He
offered Brander a drink one day.... Brander refused, and Noll
insisted.... And was still refused. Noll said hotly, querulously:
"Come, Brander.... Don't be stiff, man. It will warm you, do you
good.... You're needing warming. You're over cold and calm."