He shook his head. "No." If she believed, let her believe. He was
furious with her....
"Why did you do it?" she asked.
He said nothing; and she looked up at him a moment more, and then turned
to Mauger. "Why did you do it?" she asked the little man.
Mauger squinted sidewise at Brander. Mauger was Brander's man; and all
his loyalty was to Brander. Brander chose not to speak, not to deny the
charge she laid against them.... All right; if Brander could keep
silent, so could he. If Brander would not deny, neither would he. He
grinned at Faith; and the closed lids that covered his empty eye-socket
seemed to wink; but he said nothing at all.
Dan'l Tobey chuckled at Brander. "Eh, Brander, I'm ashamed for ye," he
said. "Such an example t'the crew."
Brander held silent. He was waiting for Faith to speak....
When neither Brander nor Mauger would answer her, Faith turned her back
on them all and went to the after rail and stood there alone,
thinking.... She knew Dan'l would wait on her word.... What was she to
do? She needed Brander; she would need him more and more.... Dan'l was
never to be trusted; she must have a man at her back.... Brander.... In
spite of her belief that he had done this thieving, she trusted him....
And loved him.... Loved him so that as she stood there with her back to
them all, the tears rolled down her cheeks, and her nails dug at her
palms.... Why had he done this? Why did he not deny? Protest? Defend
himself? She loved him so much that she hated him. If he had offended
against herself alone, she might have forgiven.... But by stealing
whiskey and giving it to the crew he was striking at the welfare of the
_Sally Sims_ herself.... And the _Sally_ was dearer to Faith just now
than herself.
He had struck at the _Sally_; she set her lips and brushed the tears
from her cheeks and turned back to them. "Mr. Tobey," she said. "Put
Mr. Brander in irons, below. Give Mauger a whipping and send him
forward." She hesitated a moment, glanced at Willis. "If you'll come
down to the cabin with me," she said, "I'll give you the irons."
Willis stepped toward her; and with no further glance for Brander, she
turned and went below.
* * * * *
They had been two weeks hard and fast on the sand; there was another
week ahead of them. An easterly storm would cement them into the sand
beyond any help; and the men looked for it daily.... For the rest, there
was little to do. The _Sally_ was in shape again, ready to be off if she
had the chance.... The men, with black faces, loafed about the fore deck
and whispered man to man; and Dan'l went among them now and then, and
talked much with Roy, and some with the others.... Roy was elated in
those days; the boy went about with shining eyes and triumphant lips.
Every other face among the crew was morose save his....
Dan'l was not morose. He was overly cheerful in those days. He spoke in
louder tones than was his custom; and there was no caustic bite to his
tongue. But his eyes were narrower, and more furtive.... And once or
twice Faith saw him turn away from a word with some of the crew and
catch sight of her watching him, and flush uneasily....
But Faith scarce heeded; she was sick with sorrow, and sick with
anxiety.... The tides were rising higher every day; she watched for the
hour when they should lift the _Sally_.... And at each high tide, she
made the men stand to the capstan bars, and fight in desperate efforts
to fetch the _Sally_ free. The day before the night of the full of the
moon, she had them fetch up casks from the hold and lower them overside
and raft them there.... Cask after cask, as many as the men could handle
during the day, so that the _Sally_ was lighter at nightfall than she
had ever been before.
The tide was at the flood that night at nine; and for half an hour
before, and for a full hour after the waters had begun to ebb, every man
of them strove to stir the _Sally_.... And strove fruitlessly; for the
ship seemed fast-bedded in the sand, beyond moving. At ten o'clock,
Faith left the deck and went sick-heartedly below....
At half past ten, Dan'l knocked on the door of the after cabin, and she
bade him come in. He opened the door, shut it behind him, looked at her
with his cap in his hands for a space, then sat down on the seat beside
the desk where she was sitting.
"Eh, Faith," he said, "we're stuck."
For a moment, she did not answer; then she lifted her head and looked at
him. "There's a high tide to-morrow night; comes a bit higher than it is
on the flood," she said. "We'll get out more casks to-morrow, and
to-morrow night we'll float her."
Dan'l shook his head slowly. "You're brave, Faith, and strong.... But
the sea's stronger. I've sailed them long enough to know."
She said steadfastly: "The _Sally Sims_ has got to come free. It's in my
mind to get her off if we have to take every stick out of her and lift
her off ourselves...."
"If we could do it, I'd be with you," he told her. "But we can't,
Faith."
"We will," she said.
He smiled, studied her for a moment, then leaned toward her, resting his
hands on the desk. "Faith," he said softly, "you're a wonderful, brave
woman."
She looked at him with a weary flicker of lips and eyes that might have
passed for a smile. "It's not that I'm brave, Dan'l," she said. "It's
just that I'll not let Noll Wing's ship rot here when it should be bound
home t'the other side of the world."
"Noll Wing's ship?" he echoed. "Eh, Faith, but Noll Wing is dead and
gone."