Dan'l had laid his plans well; he had felt sure of success; but he had
not counted on trouble with Faith. He thought, after their failure to
float the _Sally_, she would be crushed and ready to fall into his arms;
ready at least to yield to his advice and come away and leave the _Sally
Sims_ where she lay.
After that, Dan'l counted on separating the crew by losing the other
boats. The ambergris would be in his; he would master the men with
him.... Faith and the treasure would be his....
Brander was to stay in the _Sally_, ironed in the after 'tween decks.
Dan'l thought Brander was destroyed by the evidence of his thieving; he
no longer feared the man.
Not all the crew would go with him when he left the ship. Old Tichel had
refused. "I've waited all my days to be cap'n of a craft," Tichel
declared. "With you gone, I'm master o' the _Sally_, I'll stay and get
the feeling of it." And Dan'l was willing to let him stay. Willis Cox
agreed to do as Faith decided. Long Jim, the harpooner, was loyal to
Tichel. Loum, Dan'l did not trust. The man might stay with Brander if he
chose.
But Dan'l had on his side Kellick, the steward; and Yella' Boy, and
Silva, and four seamen from forward, and seven of those who had shipped
as green hands. Silva hated Brander no less than Dan'l, for Brander had
been given the mate's berth that Silva claimed.... Silva was Dan'l's
right-hand man in his plans.
And Roy, of course, was Dan'l's, to do with as he chose.
Mauger got some whisperings of all this in the fo'c's'le. There was no
effort to keep it secret from him; no effort to keep the matter secret
at all. Dan'l had said openly that if the _Sally_ did not float, he was
for deserting her; those might come with him who chose. Save Mauger,
there were none openly against him. Tichel would stay, Willis waited on
Faith's word, but the rest held off and swung neither one way nor
another.
All of which Mauger, with infinite stealth, told Brander, sneaking down
into the after 'tween decks at peril of his skin, night after night; and
Brander, fast-ironed there, and taking his calamities very
philosophically, praised the little man. "Keep your eyes open," he said.
"Bring me any word you get. Warn me in full time. And--find me a good,
keen file."
Mauger fetched the file, pilfering it from the tool chest of Eph Hitch,
the cooper. Brander worked patiently at his bonds, submitting without
protest to his captivity.
That night of the full moon, after they had failed to float the _Sally_,
Dan'l called Silva and bade him prepare two boats. "Get food and water
into them," he said. "Plenty. Make them ready. Tell the rest of them to
lower if they've a mind. I'm for leaving."
Silva grinned his understanding. He asked a question. Dan'l said: "I'm
going down, now, to convince her. She'll come, no fear."
He went below and left Silva to prepare the boats. Old Tichel was on
deck, but Willis had gone below. Tichel did not molest Silva. Discipline
had evaporated on the _Sally_; it was every man for himself. Those who
were for leaving ship were hotly impatient; and one boat full of men
lowered and drew slowly away toward the mouth of the cove where the
_Sally_ lay. There was no wind; the sea was glassy; and their oars
stirred the water into sparkling showers like jewels. Kellick and Yella'
Boy and four seamen were in that boat. Five of the green hands and
Tinch, the cook, caught the infection, and dumped food into another and
water, and followed....
Silva got his boat overside. He had with him two men, men of his
choosing who had signed as green hands but were stalwarts now. He saw
that the boat was ready, then stood in her by the rail, waiting for
Dan'l to come with Faith. Roy was on the after deck, where he would join
them.
The men in the two boats that had already put off were lying on their
oars, half a mile away, watching the _Sally_. In all their minds was the
thought of the ambergris. They had no notion of leaving that behind; and
they did not mean to be tricked of their share in it. Silva could see
the boats idly drifting....
Mauger had slipped down to Brander with the word. "Two boats gone
a'ready," he said. "Silva waiting for Dan'l Tobey, now."
"Where's Faith?" Brander asked.
"In the cabin. Mr. Tobey went to her. He've not come up, yet."
Brander considered. "Fetch a handspike," he said; and Mauger crawled on
deck and returned with it, and Brander pried open the irons he had filed
apart. He stood up and shook himself to ease the ache of his muscles.
"Now," he said, "let's go see...."
He climbed up on deck, Mauger at his heels, and started aft. Roy saw him
coming, and Silva, from the rail, marked his movements and watched. Roy
dropped into the cabin to warn Dan'l; Brander leaped to follow him.
Silva spoke to his two men, and plunged up to the deck and darted after
Brander.
Brander was at the foot of the companion ladder in the cabin when Roy
threw open the door of the after cabin to shout his warning; he saw, as
Roy saw, Dan'l gripping Faith and struggling with her. He heard Roy's
cry.... Leaped that way....
Roy was before him. Roy, grown into a man in that moment. Dan'l had told
him they would leave the ship, told him nothing more. Roy hated his
sister, and Dan'l knew this, and feared no trouble from the boy. But he
forgot that a boy's hate is not over strong. When Roy saw Faith in
Dan'l's arms, helplessly fighting against his kisses, he leaped to
protect her as though there had never been harsh words between them. Roy
was on Faith's side, thenceforward.
The boy gripped Dan'l from behind; and for an instant more Dan'l clung
to Faith. His encircling arm tightened about her so that she thought her
ribs would crack; and when he flung her away, she was breathless and
sick to nausea, and she fell on the floor and lay there, retching and
gasping for breath. Dan'l flung her away, and swung on Roy.
"You young fool," he swore, "I'll kill you, now."
Roy was helpless before him. Dan'l held him by the throat, his fingers
sinking home, Roy beat and tore at the man helplessly for a space, then
his face blackened, and his eyes bulged, and Dan'l flung him away.
Brander might have helped him, but for the fact that three men dropped
on him from the companion hatch and bore him smothering to the deck. The
three were Silva and his allies. Silva had a knife; and Mauger had felt
it, on the deck above. The one-eyed man lay there now, twisting and
clutching at a hole in his side. Silva was first down on Brander; and he
struck at Brander's neck as he leaped. But Brander had time to dodge to
one side, so that Silva hit him on the hip and bore him down. Then the
other two were upon him....
This sudden tumult in the cabin rang through the _Sally_. The night was
still; the noise could be heard even by the boats that drifted half a
mile away. Its abrupt outbreak was unsettling; it jangled taut nerves.
The two remaining seamen and Long Jim, Loum, and Eph Hitch lost courage,
raced for a boat, dropped it to the water and pulled off to see what was
to come. Tichel, who was on deck, ran to try to stop them; but Loum
struck out blindly and threw the mate off-balance for an instant that
was long enough to let them get away.
The desertion of these last men left on the _Sally_ only the four
officers, Roy, Mauger, Silva, and Silva's two men. Faith was still
helpless, so was Roy, and Mauger had dragged himself upright against the
bulwarks and stripped up his shirt to investigate his wound. It was
bleeding profusely, but he found he could breathe without difficulty,
and told himself shrewdly that he would come out all right.
Of men able to fight aboard the _Sally_, there were left Dan'l, Silva,
and the two seamen on one side, against Brander and Tichel and Cox. The
attitude of Tichel and Cox was in some sort uncertain. But the problem
was quickly settled....
Dan'l, dropping Faith and flinging Roy aside, had charged into the main
cabin to finish Brander; but Brander was so inextricably involved in his
struggle with his three antagonists that Dan'l got no immediate chance
at him. He was shifting around the twisting tangle of men, watching,
when Willis came out of his cabin in a single leap.... Willis had been
asleep; he was in shirt and trousers, his belt tight-girthed. He stared
stupidly, not understanding.
Dan'l, balked of his chance at Brander, took Willis for fair game. If he
thought at all, it was to remember that Willis was loyal to Faith. He
attacked before Willis was fully awake, and bore the other man back into
the cabin from which Willis had come. He bent Willis against the bunks
so that for an instant it seemed the man's back would snap; but
desperation gave Willis the strength to fling himself away.... They
whirled into the cabin, still fighting. Dan'l was drunk with his own
rage by now.... He had thrown himself into a debauch of battle; and he
proved, this night, that he could fight when he chose....
He rocked Willis at last with a left-hand blow in the ribs, so that the
younger man dropped his arms to hug his bruised body; and Dan'l drove
home his fist to the other's jaw. The blow smacked loudly; and Willis
went down without a sound, his jaw broken....
If old Tichel had come down the companion ladder a minute sooner, he
might have saved Willis; and he and Willis between them might have
overcome Dan'l. But he was too late for that; he was in time to see
Willis fall; and before he could speak, Dan'l Tobey had attacked him.
Dan'l was pure maniac now; he did not stop to ask whether Tichel were
friend or foe. And Tichel, old man though he was, was never one to
refuse a battle. He met Dan'l's charge with the tigerish venom that
characterized him in his rages; he leaped and was fairly in the air when
Dan'l struck him. But Dan'l's greater weight and the impetus of his
charge were too much for old Tichel. In the flash of a second, Dan'l had
him by the throat, down, banging his head against the floor till the
skin of his scalp was crushed and the blood flowed, and Tichel at last
lay still....
Dan'l got up, choking for breath, his chin down on his chest. There was
blood on him; his shirt was torn; his hair was wild. The mild, round
face of the man was distorted by wrinkles of passion. His lip was
bruised by a blow, and it puffed out in a surly, drunken way.... He
stood there, tottering, looking with blinking eyes at the heap of men
fighting at one side of the cabin.... Brander was in that heap
somewhere. It was still less than thirty seconds since Dan'l had smashed
Willis's jaw. Dan'l stepped unsteadily toward the heap of men and
peered down at them and laid hands on them to pull them away.... They
were too closely intertwined....
He backed off and looked around for a weapon. In a corner of the cabin
he saw something that might serve.... The head of a killing lance.... A
bar of metal three or four feet long, flattened at one end like the
blade of a putty knife, and ground to the keenest edge.... In the
whale-fisheries, it would be mounted on a staff; but there was no staff
in it now. He picked the thing up, and balanced it in his hands, and
walked gingerly back toward the striving knot of men.
* * * * *
When Brander dropped down into the cabin and through the open door saw
Faith in Dan'l's arms, he was for an instant paralyzed.... Then, as rage
surged up in him, he sensed the danger above him, and dodged to one side
as Silva leaped down from the deck. Silva struck against Brander's hip,
his knife slitting the air. Brander was thrown headlong, and Silva flung
after him. Brander rolled on his back, catching Silva in the stomach
with both feet, as the other two men dropped across his body.
He had put little force into his kick at Silva, so that the man was
unhurt. Brander gripped one of the men who had fallen on him, and
whirled him under. At the same time, the other man attached himself to
Brander's neck, his right arm about Brander's neck to choke him. Brander
wedged his chin down and gripped this arm between his chin and his
breast, holding it off a little from his throat. Then Silva came at him
from the left side, and Brander's left hand flung out and gripped
Silva's knife wrist....
Brander was past the first flush of anger; he was cool, now, as he was
always cool in danger. Save Silva, the men against him were unarmed. At
least, neither made any effort to use a weapon. Therefore Brander flung
the one man out of his arms, and gave his attention to Silva. He was
just in time. Silva had shifted the knife to his other hand. Brander
grabbed for it, and the blade slid along his fingers, barely scratching
them.... Then he had the hand that held it; and he dragged it down and
wrenched it over, and across, and the fingers opened and the knife fell.
Brander groped for it, Silva swarming over him. He got the knife, but
knew he could not use it, so he threw it with the half of his arm which
was free. Crushed down by the man atop him, he saw that it slid across
the floor and flew into the after cabin. He thought Silva had not seen
it go....
Brander had not marked Dan'l when the man came first to crouch above
them. Dan'l was at Willis when Brander threw the knife. That weapon
being gone, Brander turned his attention to the man who had his throat.
He worked as coolly as though this man was his only antagonist; and
while he held off the others with his left hand and his knees, his right
went up over his shoulder and found the face of the man who choked him.
This groping hand of his came down against the man's face from above.
His palm rested against the cheek of his antagonist; and his fingers
groped under the other's jaw bone and clenched around it, biting far
into the soft flesh at the bottom of the mouth. He got a grip on this
that would hold; and the man screamed, and Brander jerked him up, and
over his shoulder.... The man slid helplessly tearing at Brander's
clenched fingers. Brander, at this time, was sitting up, with Silva at
his left, arms gripping, fists striking, and the other at the right. The
man whose jaw he had came down in Brander's lap, and he brought his
right knee up with all his force against the other's head and the man
became a dead weight across his legs. Brander wriggled free of him,
thought calmly that one of the three was gone and only two remained, and
turned his attention to the others.
He had been forced to let them have their will of him for the seconds
required to deal with the man who had choked him. They had him down,
now, on his back on the cabin floor. One on either side.... He got a
left-hand grip on the seaman; he set his right hand on Silva's arm and
his fingers clenched on Silva's biceps. He flung them off a little,
freeing himself, so that he might have fought to his feet....
But when he thrust these two back, thus to right and left, and started
to sit up, he saw above him Dan'l. Dan'l, an insane light in his eyes,
the whaling lance poised in the thrusting position. It flickered
downward like a shaft of light....
Brander wrenched with all his strength at Silva; he swung Silva up and
over his own body just in time to intercept the lance. It slid in
between two ribs, an inch from Silva's backbone, and pierced him through
to the sternum.... It struck obliquely, cut half way into the mingled
cartilage and bone.... Then the soft iron of the shaft "elbowed" at
right angles, and Dan'l had to twist and fight to pull it free. Silva,
of course, was as dead as dead. Blood poured out of his mouth in
Brander's very face.... He flung the corpse aside, rolling after it to
be on his feet before Dan'l should strike again. But the remaining
seaman was in his path, grappled him, held him for an instant
motionless. Dan'l had had no chance to straighten the lance; he lifted
it like a hoe to bring it down on Brander's back.
Then Faith called, from the door of the after cabin:
"Dan'l! Have done!"
Dan'l looked and saw her, weak, trembling, gripping the doorsill with
her left hand. In her right was a revolver.
He leaped toward her, roaring; and Faith waited till he was within six
feet of her, then shot him carefully through the knee. He fell on his
face at her feet, howling.
At the same time, Brander got home a blow that silenced his last
antagonist, and a great quiet settled down upon the _Sally Sims_.