diff options
Diffstat (limited to '25885.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 25885.txt | 3681 |
1 files changed, 3681 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/25885.txt b/25885.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4c18cec --- /dev/null +++ b/25885.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3681 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, All the Brothers Were Valiant, by Ben Ames +Williams + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: All the Brothers Were Valiant + + +Author: Ben Ames Williams + + + +Release Date: June 23, 2008 [eBook #25885] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANT*** + + +E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANT + + * * * * * * + +The MacMillan Company + +New York . Boston . Chicago . Dallas +Atlanta . San Francisco + +MacMillan & Co., Limited + +London . Bombay . Calcutta +Melbourne + +The MacMillan Co. of Canada, Ltd. +Toronto + + * * * * * * + +ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANT + +by + +BEN AMES WILLIAMS + + + + + + + +New York +The MacMillan Company +1919 + +All rights reserved + +Copyright, 1919, by +The Ridgway Company + +Copyright, 1919 +by The MacMillan Company + +Set up and electrotyped. Published, May, 1919 + +ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANT + + + + + + +ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANT + +I + + +The fine old house stood on Jumping Tom Hill, above the town. It had +stood there before there was a town, when only a cabin or two fringed the +woods below, nearer the shore. The weather boarding had been brought in +ships from England, ready sawed; likewise the bricks of the chimney. +Indians used to come to the house in the cold of winter, begging shelter. +Given blankets, and food, and drink, they slept upon the kitchen floor; +and when Joel Shore's great-great-grandfather came down in the morning, +he found Indians and blankets gone together. Sometimes the Indians came +back with a venison haunch, or a bear steak ... sometimes not at all. + +The house had, now, the air of disuse which old New England houses often +have. It was in perfect repair; its paint was white, and its shutters +hung squarely at the windows. But the grass was uncut in the yard, and +the lack of a veranda, and the tight-closed doors and windows, made the +house seem lifeless and lacking the savor of human presence. There was a +white-painted picket fence around the yard; and a rambler rose draped +these pickets. The buds on the rose were bursting into crimson flower. + +The house was four-square, plain, and without any ornamentation. It was +built about a great, square chimney that was like a spine. There were six +flues in this chimney, and a pot atop each flue. These little chimney +pots breaking the severe outlines of the house, gave the only suggestion +of lightness or frivolity about it. They were like the heads of impish +children, peeping over a fence.... + +Across the front of this house, on the second floor, ran a single, long +room like a corridor. Its windows looked down, across the town, to the +Harbor. A glass hung in brackets on the wall; there was a hog-yoke in its +case upon a little table, and a ship's chronometer, and a compass.... +There were charts in a tin tube upon the wall, and one that showed the +Harbor and the channel to the sea hung between the middle windows. In the +north corner, a harpoon, and two lances, and a boat spade leaned. Their +blades were covered with wooden sheaths, painted gray. A fifteen-foot +jawbone, cleaned and polished and with every curving tooth in place, hung +upon the rear wall and gleamed like old and yellow ivory. The chair at +the table was fashioned of whalebone; and on a bracket above the table +rested the model of a whaling ship, not more than eighteen inches long, +fashioned of sperm ivory and perfect in every detail. Even the tiny +harpoons in the boats that hung along the rail were tipped with bits of +steel.... + +The windows of this place were tight closed; nevertheless, the room was +filled with the harsh, strong smell of the sea. + +Joel Shore sat in the whalebone chair, at the table, reading a book. The +book was the Log of the House of Shore. Joel's father had begun it, when +Joel and his four brothers were ranging from babyhood through youth.... A +full half of the book was filled with entries in old Matthew Shore's +small, cramped hand. The last of these entries was very short. It began +with a date, and it read: + +"Wind began light, from the south. This day came into Harbor the bark +_Winona_, after a cruise of three years, two months, and four days. +Captain Chase reported that my eldest son, Matthew Shore, was killed by +the fluke of a right whale, at Christmas Island. The whale yielded +seventy barrels of oil. Matthew Shore was second mate." + +And below, upon a single line, like an epitaph, the words: + + "'All the brothers were valiant.'" + +Two days after, the old man sickened; and three weeks later, he died. He +had set great store by big Matt.... + +Joel, turning the leaves of the Log, and scanning their brief entries, +came presently to this--written in the hand of his brother John: + +"Wind easterly. This day the _Betty_ was reported lost on the Japan +grounds, with all hands save the boy and the cook. Noah Shore was third +mate. Day ended as it began." + +And below, again, that single line: + + "'All the brothers were valiant.'" + +There followed many pages filled with reports of rich cruises, when ships +came home with bursting casks, and the brothers of the House of Shore +played the parts of men. The entries were now in the hand of one, now of +another; John and Mark and Joel.... Joel read phrases here and there.... + +"This day the _Martin Wilkes_ returned ... two years, eleven months and +twenty-two days ... died on the cruise, and first mate John Shore became +captain. Day ended as it began." + +And, a page or two further on: + +"... _Martin Wilkes_ ... two years, two months, four days ... tubs on +deck filled with oil, for which there was no more room in the casks ... +Captain John Shore." + +Mark Shore's first entry in the Log stood out from the others; for Mark's +hand was bold, and strong, and the letters sprawled blackly along the +lines. Furthermore, Mark used the personal pronoun, while the other +brothers wrote always in the third person. Mark had written: + +"This day, I, Mark Shore, at the age of twenty-seven, was given command +of the whaling bark _Nathan Ross_." + +Joel read this sentence thrice. There was a bold pride in it, and a +strong and reckless note which seemed to bring his brother before his +very eyes. Mark had always been so, swift of tongue, and strong, and +sure. Joel turned another page, came to where Mark had written: + +"This day I returned from my first cruise with full casks in two years, +seven months, fifteen days. I found the _Martin Wilkes_ in the dock. They +report Captain John Shore lost at Vau Vau in an effort to save the ship's +boy, who had fallen overboard. The boy was also lost." + +And, below, in bold and defiant letters: + + "'All the brothers were valiant.'" + +There were two more pages of entries, in Mark's hand or in Joel's, before +the end. When he came to the fresh page, Joel dipped his pen, and huddled +his broad shoulders over the book, and slowly wrote that which had to be +written. + +"Wind northeast, light," he began, according to the ancient form of the +sea, which makes the state of wind and weather of first and foremost +import. "Wind northeast, light. This day the _Martin Wilkes_ finished a +three year cruise. Found in port the _Nathan Ross_. She reports that +Captain Mark Shore left the ship when she watered at the Gilbert Islands. +He did not return, and could not be found. They searched three weeks. +They encountered hostile islanders. No trace of Mark Shore." + +When he had written thus far, he read the record to himself, his lips +moving; then he sat for a space with frowning brows, thinking, thinking, +wondering if there were a chance.... + +But in the end he cast the hope aside. If Mark lived, they would have +found him, would surely have found him.... + +And so Joel wrote the ancient line: + + "'All the brothers were valiant.'" + +And below, as an afterthought, he added: "Joel Shore became first mate of +the _Martin Wilkes_ on her cruise." + +He blotted this line, and closed the book, and put it away. Then he went +to the windows that looked down upon the Harbor, and stood there for a +long time. His face was serene, but his eyes were faintly troubled. He +did not see the things that lay outspread below him. + +Yet they were worth seeing. The town was old, and it had the fragrance of +age about it. + +Below Joel, on the hill's slopes, among the trees, stood the square white +houses of the town folk. Beyond them, the white spire of the church with +its weather vane atop. Joel marked that the wind was still northeast. The +vane swung fitfully in the light air. He could see the masts and yards of +the ships along the waterfront. The yards of the _Nathan Ross_ were +canted in mournful tribute to his brother. At the pier end beside her, he +marked the ranks of casks, brown with sweating oil. Beyond, the smooth +water ruffled in the wind, and dark ripple-shadows moved across its +surface with each breeze. There were gulls in the air, and on the water. +Such stillness lay upon the sleepy town that if his windows had been +open, he might have heard the harsh cries of the birds. A man was +sculling shoreward from a fishing schooner that lay at anchor off the +docks; and a whaleboat crawled like a spider across the harbor toward +Fairhaven on the other side. + +On a flag staff above a big building near the water, a half-masted flag +hung idly in the faintly stirring air. It hung there, he knew, for his +brother's sake. He watched it thoughtfully, wondering.... There had been +such an abounding insolence of life in big Mark Shore.... It was hard to +believe that he was surely dead. + +A woman passed along the street below the house, and looked up and saw +him at the window. He did not see her. Two boys crawled along the white +picket fence, and pricked their fingers as they broke half-open clusters +from the rambler without molestation. A gray squirrel, when the boys had +gone, came down from an elm across the street and sprinted desperately to +the foot of the great oak below the house. When it was safe in the oak's +upper branches, it scolded derisively at the imaginary terrors it had +escaped. A blue jay, with ruffled feathers--a huge, blue ball in the +air--rocketed across from the elm, and established himself near the +squirrel, and they swore at each other like coachmen. The squirrel swore +from temper and disposition; the jay from malice and derision. The bird +seemed to have the better of the argument, for the squirrel suddenly fell +silent and departed, his emotions revealing themselves only in the angry +flicks of his tail. When he was gone, the jay began to investigate a knot +in a limb of the oak. The bird climbed around this knot with slow motions +curiously like those of a parrot. + +A half-grown boy came up the street and turned in at the gate. Joel +remained where he was until the boy manipulated the knocker on the door; +then he went down and opened. He knew the boy; Peter How. Peter was thin +and freckled and nervous; and he was inclined to stammer. When Joel +opened the door, Peter was at first unable to speak. He stood on the +step, jerking his chin upward and forward as though his collar irked him. +Joel smiled slowly. + +"Come in, Peter," he said. + +Peter jerked his chin, jerked his whole head furiously. "C--C--C--" he +said. "Asa W-W-Worthen wants to s-s-see you." + +Asa Worthen was the owner of the _Martin Wilkes_, and of the _Nathan +Ross_. Joel nodded gently. + +"Thank you, Peter," he told the boy. "I'll get my hat and come." + +Peter jerked his head. He seemed to be choking. "He's a-a-a-a-at his +office," he blurted. + +Joel had found his hat. He closed the door of the house behind him, and +he and Peter went down the shady street together. + + + + +II + + +Asa Worthen was a small, lean, strong old man, immensely voluble. He must +have been well over sixty years old; and he had grown rich by harvesting +the living treasures of the sea. At thirty-four, he owned his first ship. +She was old, and cranky, and no more seaworthy than a log; but she earned +him more than four hundred thousand dollars, net, before he beached her +on the sand below the town. She lay there still, her upper parts strong +and well preserved. But her bottom was gone, and she was slowly rotting +into the sand. + +Asa himself had captained this old craft, until she had served her +appointed time; but when she went to the sand flats, he, too, stayed +ashore, to watch his ships come in. When they were in harbor, they +berthed in his own dock; and from his office at the shoreward end of the +pier, he could look down upon their decks, and watch the casks come out, +so fat with oil, and the stores go aboard for each cruise. The cries of +the men and the wheeling gulls, the rattle of the blocks and gear, and +the rich smell of the oil came up to him.... The _Nathan Ross_ was +loading now; and when Joel climbed the office stairs, he found the old +man at the window watching them sling great shooks of staves into her +hold, and fidgeting at the lubberliness of the men who did the work. + +Asa's office was worth seeing; a strange, huge room, windowed on three +sides; against one wall, a whaleboat with all her gear in place; in a +corner, the twisted jaw of a sixty-barrel bull, killed in the Seychelles; +and Asa Worthen's big desk, with a six-foot model of his old ship atop +it, between the forward windows. Beside the desk stood that contrivance +known to the whalemen as a "woman's tub"; a cask, sawed chair-fashion, +with a cross board for seat, and ropes so rigged that the whole might be +easily and safely swung from ship to small boat or back again. Asa had +taken his wife along on more than one of his early voyages ... before she +died.... + +At Joel's step, the little man swung awkwardly away from the window, +toward the door. Many years ago, a racing whale line had snarled his left +leg and whipped away a gout of muscle; and this leg was now shorter than +its fellow, so that Asa walked with a pegging limp. He hitched across the +big room, and took Joel's arm, and led the young man to the desk. + +"Sit down, Joel. Sit down," he said briskly. "I've words to say to you, +my son. Sit down." Asa was smoking; and Joel took a twist of leaf from +his pocket, and cut three slices, and crumbled them and stuffed them into +the bowl of his black pipe. Asa watched the process, and he watched Joel, +puffing without comment. There was something furtive in the scrutiny of +the young man, but Joel did not mark it. When the pipe was ready, Asa +passed across a match, and Joel struck it, and puffed slowly.... + +Asa began, abruptly, what he had to say. "Joel, the _Nathan Ross_ will be +ready for sea in five days. She's stout, her timbers are good and her +tackle is strong. She's a lucky ship. The oil swims after her across the +broad sea, and begs to be taken. She's my pet ship, Joel, as you know; +and she's uncommon well fitted. Mark had her. Now I want you to take +her." + +Joel's calm eyes had met the other's while Asa was speaking; and Asa had +shifted to avoid the encounter. But Joel's heart was pounding so, at the +words of the older man, that he took no heed. He listened, and he waited +thoughtfully until he was sure of what he wished to say. Then he asked +quietly: + +"Is not James Finch the mate of her? Did he not fetch her home?" + +"Aye," said Asa impatiently. "He brought her home--in the top scurry of +haste. There was no need of such haste; for he had still casks unfilled, +and there was sparm all about him where he lay. He should have filled +those last casks. 'Tis in them the profit lies." He shook his head +sorrowfully. "No, Jim Finch will not do. He is a good man--under another +man. But he has not the spine that stands alone. When Mark Shore was gone +... Jim had no thought but to throw the try works overside and scurry +hitherward as though he feared to be out upon the seas alone." + +Joel puffed thrice at his pipe. Then: "You said this morning that for +three weeks he hunted Mark, up and down the Gilbert Islands." + +Asa's little eyes whipped toward Joel, and away again. "Oh, aye," he said +harshly. "Three weeks he hunted, when one was plenty. If Mark Shore +lived, and wished to find his ship again, he'd have found her in a week. +If he were dead ... there was no need of the time wasted." + +"Nevertheless," said Joel quietly, "James Finch has my thanks for his +search; and I'm no mind to do him a harm, or to step into his shoes." + +Asa smiled grimly. "Ye're over considerate," he said. "Jim Finch was your +brother's man, and a very loyal one. As long as he is another's man, he +is content. But he has no want to be his own master and the master of a +ship, and of men. I've askit him." + +Joel puffed hard at his pipe; and after a little he asked: "Sir, what +think you it was that came to Mark?" + +Asa looked at him sharply, then away; and his accustomed volubility fell +away from him. He lifted his hands. "Ask James Finch. I've no way to +tell," he said curtly. + +"Have you no opinion?" Joel insisted. + +The ship owner tilted his head, set finger tip to finger tip, assumed the +air of one who delivers judgment. "Islanders, 'tis like," he said. +"There's a many there." He looked sidewise at Joel, looked away. Joel was +nodding. + +"Yes, many thereabouts," he agreed. "But there would have been tracks. +Were there none?" + +"Mark left his boat's crew," said Asa. "Walked away along the shore. That +was all." + +"No tracks?" + +"They saw where he'd left the sand." The ship owner shifted in his chair. +"Seems like I'd heard you and Mark wa'n't too good friends, Joel. Your +a'mighty worked up." + +Joel looked at the little man with bleak eyes. "He was my brother." + +"I've heard tell he forgot you was his, sometimes." + +Joel paid no heed. "You think it was Islanders?" + +Asa kicked the corner of his desk, watching his foot. "What else was +there?" + +"I've nothing in my mind," said Joel, and shook his head. "But it sticks +in me that Mark was no man to die easy. There was a full measure of life +in him." + +Asa got up awkwardly, waved his hand. "We're off the course, Joel. What +about the _Nathan Ross_? Ready for sea, come Tuesday. I'm not one to +press her on any man, unwilling. Say your say, man. Do you take her? Or +no?" + +Joel drew slowly once more upon his pipe. "If I take her," he said, +"we'll work the Gilberts first of all, and try once again for a sign of +my brother Mark." + +Asa jerked his head. "So you pick up any oil that comes your way, I've no +objection," he agreed. "Matter of fact, that's the best thing to do. Mark +may yet live." His eyes snapped up to the others. "You take her, then?" + +Joel nodded slowly. "I take her, sir," he said. "With thanks to you." + +Asa banged his hand jubilantly on his desk. "That's done. Now ..." + +The two men sat down at Asa's big desk again; and for an hour they were +busy with matters that concerned the coming cruise. When a whaleship goes +to sea, she goes for a three-year cruise; and save only the items of food +and water, she carries with her everything she will need for that whole +time, with an ample allowance to spare. She is a department store of the +seas; for she works with iron and wood, with steel and bone, with fire +and water and rope and sail. All these things she must have, and many +more. And the lists of a whaleship's stores are long and long, and take +much checking. When they had considered these matters, Asa sent out to +the pierhead to summon Jim Finch, and told the man that Joel would have +the ship. Joel said to Finch slowly: "I've no mind to fight a grudge +aboard my ship, sir. If you blame me for stepping into your shoes, Mr. +Worthen will give you another berth." + +Finch shook his head. He was a big, laughing man with soft, fat cheeks. +"No, sir," he declared. "It's yours, and welcome. Your brother was a man; +and you've the look of another, sir." + +Joel frowned. He was uncomfortable; he had an angry feeling that Finch +was too amiable. But he said no more, and Finch went back to the ship, +and Asa and Joel continued with their task. + +While they worked, the afternoon sun drifted down the western sky till +its level rays were flame lances laid across the harbor. A fishing craft +at anchor in mid-stream hoisted her sails with a creak and rattle of +blocks and drifted down the channel with the tide. The wheeling gulls +dropped, one by one, to the water; or they lurched off to some quiet cove +to spend the night. Their harsh cries came less frequently, were less +persistent. The wind had swung around, and it was fetching now from the +water a cold and salty chill. There was a smell of cooking in the air, +and the smoke from the _Nathan Ross_' galley, and the cool smell of the +sea mingled with the strong odor of the oil in the casks ranked at the +end of the pier. + +The sun had touched the horizon when Joel at last rose to go. Asa got up +with him, dropped a hand on the young man's shoulder. They passed the +contrivance called a "woman's tub"; and Asa, at sight of it, seemed to be +minded of something. He stopped, and checked Joel, and with eyes +twinkling, pointed to the tub. "Will you be wishful to take that on the +cruise, Joel?" he asked, and looked up sidewise at the younger man, and +chuckled. + +Joel's brown cheeks were covered with slow fire; but his voice was steady +enough when he replied. "It's a kind offer, sir," he said. "I know well +what store you set by that tub." + +"Will you be wanting it?" Asa still insisted. + +"I'll see," said Joel quietly. "I will see." + + + + +III + + +The brothers of the House of Shore had been, on the whole, slow to take +to themselves wives. Matt had never married, nor Noah, nor Mark. John had +a wife for the weeks he was at home before his last cruise; but he did +not take her with him on that voyage, and there was no John Shore to +carry on the name. + +John Shore's widow was called Rachel. She had been Rachel Holt; and her +sister's name was Priscilla. Rachel was one of those women who suggest +slumbering fires; she was slow of speech, and quiet, and calm.... But +John Shore and Mark had both loved her; and when she married John, Mark +laughed a hard and reckless laugh that made the woman afraid. John and +Mark never spoke, one to another, after that marriage. + +Rachel's sister, Priscilla, was a gay and careless child. She was six +years younger than Joel, and she had acquired in babyhood the habit of +thinking Joel the most wonderful created thing. Their yards adjoined; and +she was the baby of her family, and he of his. Thus the big boy and the +little girl had always been comrades and allies against the world. Before +Joel first went to sea, as ship's boy, the two had decided they would +some day be married.... + +Joel went to supper that night at Priscilla's home. He was alone in his +own house; and Mrs. Holt was a person with a mother's heart. Rachel lived +at home. She gave Joel quiet welcome at the door, before Priscilla in the +kitchen heard his voice and came flying to overwhelm him. She had been +making popovers, and there was flour on her fingers--and on Joel's best +black coat, when she was done with him. Rachel brushed it off, when Priss +had run back to her oven. + +They sat down at table. Mrs. Holt at one end, her husband--he was a big +man, an old sea captain, and full of yarns as a knitting bag--at the +other; and Rachel at one side, facing Priss and Joel. Joel's ship had +come in only that day; the _Nathan Ross_ had been in port for weeks. So +the whole town knew Mark Shore's story. They spoke of it now, and Joel +told them what he knew.... Rachel wondered if there was any chance that +Mark might still be alive. Her father broke in with a story of Mark's +first cruise, when the boy had saved a man's life by his quickness with +the hatchet on the racing line. The town was full of such stories; for +Mark was one of those men about whom legends arise. And now he was +gone.... + +Priscilla listened to the talk with the wide eyes of youth, awed by the +mystery and majesty of tragic things. She remembered Mark as a huge man, +like a pagan god, in whose eyes she had been only a thin-legged little +girl who made faces through the fence.... After supper, when the others +had left them in the parlor together, she said to Joel: "Do you think +he's dead?" Her voice was a whisper. + +"I aim to know," said Joel. + +Rachel looked in at the door. "You needn't bother with the dishes, +Priss," she said. "I'll do them." + +Priscilla had forgotten all about that task. She ran contritely toward +her sister. "Oh, I'm sorry, Rachel. I will, I will do them. Joel and +I...." + +Rachel laughed softly. "I don't mind them. You two stay here." + +Priscilla accepted the offer, in the end; but she had no notion of +staying in the tight-windowed parlor, with its harsh carpet on the floor, +and its samplers on the walls. She was of the new generation, the +generation which discovered that the night is beautiful, and not +unhealthy. "Let's go outside," she said to Joel. "There's a moon. We can +sit on the bench, under the apple tree...." + +They went out, side by side. Joel was not a tall man, but he was inches +taller than Priscilla. She was tiny; a dainty, sweetly proportioned +creature, built on fine lines that were strangely out of keeping with the +stalwart stock from which she sprung. Her hair was darker than Joel's; it +was a brown so dark that it was almost black. But her eyes were vividly +blue, and her lips were vividly red, and her cheeks were bright.... She +slipped her hand through Joel's big arm as they crossed the yard; and +when they had found the seat, she drew his arm frankly about her +shoulders. "I'm cold," she said, laughing up at him. "You must keep me +warm...." + +The moon flecked down through the leaves upon her face. There was +moonlight on her cheek, and on her mouth; but her thick hair and her eyes +were shadowed and mysterious. Joel saw that her lips were smiling.... She +drew his head down toward hers.... Joel was flesh and blood; and she +panted, and gasped, and pushed him away, and smoothed her hair, and +laughed at him. "I love you to be so strong," she whispered, happily. + +He had not told them, at supper, of his promotion. He told Priscilla now; +and the girl could not sit still beside him. She danced in the path +before the seat; she perched on his knee, and caught his big shoulders in +her tiny hands and tried to shake him back and forth in her delight. "You +don't act a bit excited," she scolded. "You don't act as though you were +glad, a bit. Aren't you glad, Joe? Aren't you just so proud?..." + +"Yes," he told her. "Of course. Yes. Yes, I am glad, and I am proud." + +"Oh," she cried, "I could--I could just hug you in two." She tried it, +tightening her arms about his big neck, clinging to him.... He sat stiff +and awkward under her caresses, thrilling with a happiness that he did +not know how to express. He felt uneasy, half embarrassed. Her ecstasy +continued.... + +Then, abruptly, it passed. She became practical. Still upon his knee, she +began to ask questions. When would he sail away? She had heard the +_Nathan Ross_ was almost ready. When would he come back? When would he be +rich, so that they might be married? Would it be long?... + +Joel found tongue. "We will be married Monday," he said slowly. "We will +go away--on the _Nathan Ross_--together. I do not want to go alone." + +She slipped from his knee, stood before him. "Why, Joel! You're--you're +just crazy to think of it." + +He shook his head. "No," he said. "No, I have thought all about it. It is +the best thing to do. We will be married Monday; and we will make a +bigger cabin on the--_Nathan Ross_...." His voice always slowed a little +as he spoke the name of his first ship. "You will be happy on her," he +said. "You will like it all.... The sea...." + +She returned to his knee, tumbling his hair. "You silly! Men don't +understand. Why, I couldn't be ready for ever so long. And I wouldn't +dare go away with you. For so awfully long. I just couldn't...." Her eyes +misted with thought, and she said quite seriously: "Why, Joel, we might +find we didn't like each other at all. But we'd be on the ship, with no +way to get away from it ... for three years. Don't you see?" + +Joel said calmly: "That is not so; because we know about--liking each +other, already. I know how it is with you. It is clothes that you are +thinking about. Well, you can get them in the stores. And you have many, +already. You have new dresses whenever I see you...." + +She laughed gayly. "But, Joel, you only see me once in three years. Of +course I have new dresses, then. But I just couldn't...." + +She laughed again, a faint uneasiness in her laughter. She left his knee, +and sat down soberly beside him. She was feeling a little crushed, +smothered ... as though she were being pushed back against a wall. Joel +said steadily: + +"Mr. Worthen will be glad to know you go with me. And every one will be +glad for you...." + +She burst, abruptly, into tears. She was miserable, she told him. He was +making her miserable. She hated to be bullied, and he was trying to bully +her. She hated him. She wouldn't marry him. Never. He could go off on his +old ship and never come back. That was all. She would not go; and he +ought not to ask her to, anyway. To prove how much she hated him, she +nestled against his side, and his arm enfolded her. + +Joel had not the outward seeming of a wise man; nevertheless he now said: + +"The other girls will all be envying you. To be married so quickly, and +carried away the very next day...." Her sobs miraculously ceased, and he +smiled quietly down upon her dark head against his breast. "Every one +will do things for you.... The whole town.... They will come down to see +us sail away." + +He fell silent, leaving his words for her consideration. She remained +very quiet against his side for a long time, breathing very softly. He +thought he could almost read her thoughts.... + +"It will be," he said, "like a story. Like a romance." And the word +sounded strangely on his sober lips. + +But at the word, the girl sat up quickly, both hands gripping his arm. He +could see her eyes dancing in the moonlight.... "Oh, Joe," she cried, "it +would really be just loads of fun. And terribly romantic.... Wonderful!" +She pressed a hand to her cheek, thinking: "And I could...." + +She could, she said, do thus and so.... + +Joel listened, and he smiled. For he knew that his bride would sail away +with him. + + + + +IV + + +In the few days that remained before the _Nathan Ross_ was to sail, there +was no time for remodeling her cabin to accommodate Priscilla; so that +was left for the first weeks of the cruise. There were matters enough, +without it, to occupy those last days. Little Priss was caught up like a +leaf in the wind; she was whirled this way and that in a pleasant and +heart-stirring confusion. And through it all, her laughter rang in the +air like the sound of bells. To Joel, Sunday night, she said: "Oh, Joe +... it's been an awful rush. But it's been such fun.... And I never was +so happy in my life." + +And Joel smiled, and said quietly: "Yes--with happier times to come." + +She looked up at him wistfully. "You'll be good to me, won't you, Joel?" +He patted her shoulder. + +They were married in the big old white church, and every pew was filled. +Afterwards they all went down to the piers, where Asa Worthen had spread +long tables and loaded them so that they groaned. Alongside lay the +_Nathan Ross_, her decks littered with the last confusion of preparation. +Joel showed Priscilla the lumber for the cabin alterations, ranked along +the rail beneath the boathouse; and she gripped his arm tight with both +hands. Afterwards, he took Priscilla up the hill to the great House of +Shore. Rachel had prepared their wedding supper there.... + +At a quarter before ten o'clock the next morning, the _Nathan Ross_ went +out with the tide. When she had cleared the dock and was fairly in the +stream, Joel gave her in charge of Jim Finch; and he and Priscilla stood +in the after house, astern, and looked back at the throng upon the pier +until the individual figures merged into a black mass, pepper-and-salted +with color where the women stood. They could see the handkerchiefs +flickering, until a turn of the channel swept them out of sight of the +town, and they drifted on through the widening mouth of the bay, toward +the open sea. At dusk that night, there was still land in sight behind +them and on either side; but when Priscilla came on deck in the morning, +there was nothing but blue water and laughing waves. And so she was +homesick, all that day, and laughed not at all till the evening, when the +moon bathed the ship in silver fire, and the white-caps danced all about +them. + +The _Nathan Ross_ was in no sense a lovely ship. There was about her none +of the poetry of the seas. She was designed strictly for utility, and for +hard and dirty toil. Blunt she was of bow and stern, and her widest point +was just abeam the foremast, so that she had great shoulders that +buffeted the sea. These shoulders bent inward toward the prow and met in +what was practically a right angle; and her stern was cut almost straight +across, with only enough overhang to give the rudder room. Furthermore, +her masts had no rake. They stood up stiff and straight as sore thumbs; +and the bowsprit, instead of being something near horizontal, rose toward +the skies at an angle close to forty-five degrees. This bowsprit made the +_Nathan Ross_ look as though she had just stubbed her toe. She carried +four boats at the davits; and two spare craft, bottom up, on the +boathouse just forward of the mizzenmast. Three of the four at the davits +were on the starboard side, and since they were each thirty feet long, +while the ship herself was scarce a hundred and twenty, they gave her a +sadly cluttered and overloaded appearance. For the rest, she was painted +black, with a white checkerboarding around the rail; and her sails were +smeared and smutty with smoke from burning blubber scraps. + +Nevertheless, she was a comfortable ship, and a dry one. She rode waves +that would have swept a vessel cut on prouder lines; and she was +moderately steady. She was not fast, nor cared to be. An easy five or six +knots contented her; for the whole ocean was her hunting ground, and +though there were certain more favored areas, you might meet whales +anywhere. Give her time, and she would poke that blunt nose of hers right +'round the world, and come back with a net profit anywhere up to a +hundred and fifty thousand dollars in her sweating casks. + +Priscilla Holt knew all these things, and she respected the _Nathan Ross_ +on their account. But during the first weeks of the cruise, she was too +much interested in the work on the cabin to consider other matters. Old +Aaron Burnham, the carpenter, did the work. He was a wiry little man, +gray and grizzled; and he loved the tools of his craft with a jealous +love that forbade the laying on of impious hands. Through the long, calm +days, when the ship snored like a sleep-walker through the empty seas, +Priscilla would sit on box or bench or floor, and watch Aaron at his +task, and ask him questions, and listen to the old man's long stories of +things that had come and gone. + +Sometimes she tried to help him; but he would not let her handle an edged +tool. "Ye'll no have the eye for it," he would say. "Leave it be." Now +and then he let her try to drive a nail; but as often as not she missed +the nail head and marred the soft wood, until Aaron lost patience with +her. "Mark you," he cried, "men will see the scar there, and they'll be +thinking I did this task with my foot, Ma'am." + +And Priscilla would laugh at him, and curl up with her feet tucked under +her skirts and her chin in her hands, and watch him by the long hour on +hour. + +The task dragged on; it seemed to her endless. For Aaron had other work +that must be done, and he could give only his spare time to this. Also, +he was a slow worker, accustomed to take his own time; and when Priscilla +grew impatient and scolded him, the old man merely sat back on his knees, +and scratched his head, and tapped thoughtfully with his hammer on the +floor beside him. + +"We-ell, Ma'am," he said, "I do things so, and I do things so; and it +takes time, that does, Ma'am." + +Now and then, through those days, Priscilla's enthusiasm would send her +skittering up the companion to fetch Joel to see some new wonder--a +window set in the stern, or a bench completed, or a door hung. And Joel, +looking far oftener at Priscilla than at the object she wished him to +consider, would chuckle, and touch her shoulder affectionately, and go +back to his post. + +In the sixth week, the last nail had been driven, and the last lick of +paint was dry. In the result, Priscilla was as happy as a bride has a +right to be. + +Across the very stern of the ship, with windows looking out upon the +wake, ran what might have been called a sitting room. It was perhaps +twenty feet wide and eight feet deep; and its rear wall--formed by the +overhanging stern--sloped outward toward the ceiling. Against this slope, +beneath the three windows, a broad, cushioned bench was built, to serve +as couch or seat. The bench was broken in one place to make room for +Joel's desk, and the cabinet wherein he kept his records and his +instruments. Priss had put curtains on the windows; and she had a lily, +in a pot, at one of them, and a clump of pansies at another. Joel's cabin +opened off this compartment, on the starboard side; hers was opposite. +The main cabin, with its folding table built about the thick butt of the +mizzenmast, had been extended forward to make room for the enlargement of +this stern apartment; and the mates were quartered off this main cabin. +The galley and the store rooms were on the main deck, in the after house, +on either side of the awkward "walking wheel" by which the ship was +steered; and the cabin companion was just forward of this wheel. + +There were aboard the _Nathan Ross_ about thirty men, all told; but the +most of them were not of Priscilla's world. The foremast hands never came +aft of the try works, save on tasks assigned; and the secondary +officers--boat-steerers and the like--slept in the steerage and kept +forward of the boathouse. Thus the after deck was shared only by +Priscilla and Joel, the mates, the cook, and old Aaron, who was a man of +many privileges. + +This world, Priscilla ruled. Joel adored her; Jim Finch gave her the +clumsy homage of a puppy--and was at times just as oppressively amiable. +Old Aaron talked to her by the hour, while he went about his work. And +the other mates--Varde, the sullen; and Hooper, who was old and losing +his grip; and Dick Morrell, who was young and finding his--paid her the +respect that was her due. Young Morrell--he was not even as old as she +was--helped her on her first climb to the mast head. He was only a +boy.... The girl, when the first homesick pangs were past, was happy. + +Until the day they killed their whale, a seventy-barrel cachalot cow who +died as peaceably as a chicken, with only a convulsive flop or two when +the lances found the life. Priscilla took a single glimpse of the +shuddering, bloody, oily work of cutting in the carcass, and then she +fled to her cabin and remained there steadfastly until the long task was +done. The smoke from the bubbling try pots, and the persistent smell of +boiling blubber sickened her; and the grime that descended over +everything appalled her dainty soul. Not until the men had cleaned ship +did she go on deck again; and even then she scolded Joel for the affair +as though it were a matter for which he was wholly to blame. + +"There just isn't any sense in making so much dirt," she told him. "I've +had to wash out every one of my curtains; and I can't ever get rid of +that smell." + +Joel chuckled. "Aye, the smell sticks," he agreed. "But you'll be used to +it soon, Priss. You'll come to like it, I'm thinking. Any case, we'll not +be rid of it while the cruise is on." + +She was so angry that she wanted to cry. "Do you actually mean, Joel +Shore, that I've got to live with that sickening, hot-oil smell for +th-three years?" + +He nodded slowly. "Yes, Priss. No way out of it. It's part of the work. +Come another month, and you'll not mind at all." + +She said positively: "I may not say anything, but I shall always hate +that smell." + +His eyes twinkled slowly; and she stamped her foot. "If I'd known it was +going to be like this, I wouldn't have come, Joel. Now don't you laugh at +me. If there was any way to go back, I'd go. I hate it. I hate it all. +You ought not to have brought me...." + +They were on the broad bench across the stern, in their cabin; and he put +his big arm about her shoulders and laughed at her till she could do no +less than laugh back at him. But--she assured herself of this--she was +angry, just the same. Nevertheless, she laughed.... + +Joel had put the _Nathan Ross_ on the most direct southward course, +touching neither Azores nor Cape Verdes. For it was in his mind, as he +had told Asa Worthen, to make direct for the Gilbert Islands and seek +some trace of his brother there. That had been his plan before he left +port; but the plan had become determination after a word with Aaron +Burnham, one day. Joel, resting in the cabin while old Aaron worked +there, fell to thinking of his brother, and so asked: + +"Aaron, what is your belief about my brother, Mark Shore? Is he dead?" + +Aaron was building, that day, the forward partition of the new cabin, +fitting his boards meticulously, and driving home each nail with hammer +strokes that seemed smooth and effortless, yet sank the nail to the head +in an instant. He looked up over his shoulder at Joel, between nails. + +"Dead, d'ye say?" he countered quizzically. + +Joel nodded. "The Islanders? Did they do it, do you believe?" + +Old Aaron chuckled asthmatically. He had lost a fore tooth, and the +effect of his mirth was not reassuring. "There's a brew i' the Islands," +he said. "More like 'twas the island brew nor the island men." + +Joel, for a moment, sat very still and considered. He knew Mark Shore had +never scrupled to take strong drink when he chose; but Mark had always +been a strong man to match his drink, and conquer it. Said Joel, +therefore, after a space of thought: + +"Why do you think that, Aaron? Drink was never like to carry Mark away." + +Aaron squinted up at him. "Have ye sampled that island brew? 'Tis made of +pineapples, or sago, or the like outlandish stuff, I've heard. And one +sip is deviltry, and two is madness, and three is corruption. Some +stomachs are used to it; they can handle it. But a raw man...." + +There was significance in the pause, and the unfinished sentence. Joel +considered the matter. There had always been, between him and Mark, +something of that sleeping enmity that so often arises between brothers. +Mark was a man swift of tongue, flashing, and full of laughter and hot +blood; a colorful man, like a splash of pigment on white canvas. Joel was +in all things his opposite, quiet, and slow of thought and speech, and +steady of gait. Mark was accustomed to jeer at him, to taunt him; and +Joel, in the slow fashion of slow men, had resented this. Nevertheless, +he cast aside prejudice now in his estimate of the situation; and he +asked old Aaron: + +"Do you know there were Islanders about? Or this wild brew you speak of?" + +Aaron drove home a nail, and with his punch set it flush with the soft +wood. "There was some drunken crew, shouting and screeching a mile up the +beach," he said. "Some few of them came off to us with fruit. The sober +ones. 'Twas them Mark Shore went to pandander with." + +"He went to them?" Joel echoed. Aaron nodded. + +"Aye. That he did." + +There was a long moment of silence before Joel asked huskily: "But was it +like that he should stay with them freely?" For it is a black and +shameful thing that a captain should desert his ship. When he had asked +the question, he waited in something like fear for the carpenter's +answer. + +"It comes to me," said Aaron slowly at last, "that you did not well know +your brother. Ye'd only seen him ashore. And--I'm doubting that you knew +all the circumstances of his departure from this ship." + +"I know that he went ashore," said Joel. "Went ashore, and left his men, +and departed; and I know that they searched for him three weeks without a +sign." + +Aaron sat back on his heels, and rubbed the smooth head of his hammer +thoughtfully against his dry old cheek. "I'm not one to speak harm," he +said. "And I've said naught, in the town. But--you have some right to +know that Mark Shore was not a sober man when he left the ship. I' truth, +he had not been sober--cold sober--for a week. And he left with a bottle +in his coat." He nodded his gray old head, eyes not on Joel, but on the +hammer in his hand. "Also, there was a pearling schooner in the lagoon, +with drunk white men aboard." + +He glanced sidewise at Joel then, and saw the Captain's cheek bones +slowly whiten. Whereupon old Aaron bent swiftly to his task, half fearful +of what he had said. But when Joel spoke, it was only to say quietly: + +"Asa should have told me this." + +Aaron shook his head vehemently, but without looking up from his task. +"Not so," he said. "There was no need the town should chew Mark's name. +Better--" He glanced at Joel. "Better if he were thought dead. Asa's a +good man, you mind. And--he knew your father." + +Joel nodded at that. "Asa meant wisest, I've no doubt," he agreed. +"But--Mark would do nothing that he was shamed of." + +"Mark Shore," said Aaron thoughtfully, "did many things without shame for +which other men would have blushit." + +Joel said curtly: "Aaron, ye'll say no more such things as that." + +"Ye're right," Aaron agreed. "I should no have said it. But--'tis so." + +Joel left him and went on deck, and his eyes were troubled.... Priss was +there, with Dick Morrell showing her some trick of the wheel, and they +were laughing together like children. Joel felt immensely older than +Priss.... Yet the difference was scarce six years.... She saw him, and +left Morrell and came running to Joel's side. "Did you sleep?" she asked. +"You needed rest, Joe." + +"I rested," he told her, smiling faintly. "I'll be fine...." + + + + +V + + +They drifted past Pernambuco, and touched at Trinidad, and so worked +south and somewhat westward for Cape Horn. And in Joel grew, stronger and +ever, the resolve to hunt out Mark, and find him, and fetch him home.... +The blood tie was strong on Joel; stronger than any memory of Mark's +derision. And--for the honor of the House of Shore, it were well to prove +the matter, if Mark were dead. It is not well for a Shore to abandon his +ship in strange seas. + +He asked Aaron, two weeks after their first talk, whether they had +questioned the white men on the pearling schooner. + +"Oh, aye," said Aaron cheerfully. "I sought 'em out, myself. Three of +them, they was; and ill-favored. A slinky small man, and a rat-eyed large +man, and a fat man in between; all unshaven, and filthy, and drunken as +owls. They'd seen naught of Mark Shore, they said. I'm thinking he'd let +them see but little of him. He had no tenderness for dirt." + +Joel told Priss nothing of what he hoped and feared; nor did he question +Jim Finch in the matter. Finch was a good man at set tasks, but he was +too amiable, and he had no clamp upon his lips.... Joel did not wish the +word to go abroad among the men. He was glad that most of the crew were +new since last voyage; but the officers were unchanged, save that he +stood in his brother's shoes. + +They left Trinidad behind them, and shouldered their way southward, the +blunt bow of the _Nathan Ross_ battering the seas. And they came to the +Straits, and worked in, and made their westing day by day, while little +Priss, wide-eyed on the deck, watched the gaunt cliffs past whose +wave-gnawed feet they stole. And so at last the Pacific opened out before +them, and they caught the winds, and worked toward Easter Island. + +But their progress was slow. To men unschooled in the patience of the +whaling trade, it would have been insufferably slow. For they struck +fish; and day after day they hung idle on the waves while the trypots +boiled; and day after day they loitered on good whaling grounds, when the +boats were out thrice and four times between sun's rise and set. If Joel +was impatient, he gave no sign. If his desires would have made him hasten +on, his duty held him here, where rich catches waited for the taking; and +while there were fish to be taken, he would not leave them behind. + +Priscilla hated it. She hated the grime, and the smoke, and the smell of +boiling oil; and she hated this dawdling on the open seas, with never a +glimpse of land. More than once she made Joel bear the brunt of her own +unrest; and because it is not always good for two people to be too much +together, and because she had nothing better to do, she began to pick +Joel to pieces in her thoughts, and fret at his patience and stolidity. +She wished he would grow angry, wished even that he might be angry with +her.... She wished for anything to break the long days of deadly calm. +And she watched Joel more intently than it is well for wife to watch +husband, or for husband to watch wife. + +He did so many things that tried her sore. He had a fashion, when he had +finished eating, of setting his hands against the table and pushing +himself back from the board with slow and solid satisfaction. She came to +the point where she longed to scream when he did this. When they were at +table in the main cabin, she watched with such agony of trembling nerves +for that movement of his that she forgot to eat, and could not relish +what she ate. + +Joel was a man, and his life was moving smoothly. His ship's casks were +filling more swiftly than he had any right to hope; his wife was at his +side; his skies were clear. He was happy, and comfortable, and well +content. Sometimes, when they were preparing for sleep, at night, in the +cabin at the stern, he would relax on the couch there. But she did not +wish for him to put his feet upon the cushions; she said that his shoes +were dirty. He offered to take off his shoes; and she shuddered.... + +He had a fashion of stretching and yawning comfortably as he bade her +good night; and sometimes a yawn caught him in the middle of a word, and +he talked while he yawned. She hated this. She was passing through that +hard middle ground, that purgatory between maidenhood and wifehood in the +course of which married folk find each other only human, after all. And +she had not yet come to accept this condition, and to glory in it. She +had always thought of Joel as a hero, a protector, a fine, stalwart, +able, noble man. Now she forgot that he was commander of this ship and +master of the men aboard her, and saw in him only a man who, when work +was done, liked to take his ease--and who talked through his yawns. + +She gnawed at this bone of discontent, in the hours when Joel was busy with +his work. She was furiously resentful of Joel's flesh-and-bloodness.... And +Joel, because he was too busy to be introspective, continued calmly happy +and content. + +The whales led them past Easter Island for a space; and then, abruptly, +they were gone. Came day on day when the men at the masthead saw no misty +spout against the wide blue of the sea, no glistening black body lying +awash among the waves. And the Nathan Ross, with all hands scrubbing +white the decks again, bent northward, working toward that maze of tiny +islands which dots the wide South Seas. + +Their water was getting stale, and running somewhat low; and they needed +fresh foodstuffs. Joel planned to touch at the first land that offered. +Tubuai, that would be. He marked their progress on the chart. + +On the evening before they would reach the island, when Joel and Priss +were preparing for sleep, Priss burst out furiously, like a teapot that +boils over. The storm came without warning, and--so far as Joel could +see--without provocation. She was sick, she said, of the endless wastes +of blue. She wanted to see land. To step on it. If she were not allowed +to do so very soon, she would die. + +Joel, at first, was minded to tell her they would sight land in the +morning; then, with one of the blundering impulses to which husbands fall +victim at such moments, he decided to wait and surprise her. So, instead +of telling her, he chuckled as though at some secret jest, and tried to +quiet her by patting her dark head. + +She fell silent at his caress; and Joel thought she was appeased. As a +matter of fact, she was hating him for having laughed at her; and her +calm was ferocious. He discovered this, too late.... + +He had just kissed her good night. She turned her cheek to his lips; and +he was faintly hurt at this. But he only said cheerfully: "There, +Priss.... You'll be all right in the morning...." + +He yawned in mid-sentence, so that the last two or three words sounded as +though he were trying to swallow a large and hot potato while he uttered +them. Priss could stand no more of that. Positively. So she slapped his +face. + +He was amazed; and he stood, looking at her helplessly, while the slapped +cheek grew red and red. Priss burst into tears, stamped her foot, called +him names she did not mean, and as a climax, darted into her own cabin, +and swung the door, and snapped the latch. + +Joel did not in the least understand; and he went to his bunk at last, +profoundly troubled. + +An hour after they anchored, the next day, at Tubuai, a boat came out +from shore and ran alongside, and Mark Shore swung across the rail, +aboard the _Nathan Ross_. + + + + +VI + + +Joel was below, in the cabin with Priss, when his brother boarded the +ship. Varde and Dick Morrell had gone ashore for water and supplies, and +Priss was to go that afternoon, with Joel. She was sewing a ribbon +rosette upon the hat she would wear, when she and Joel heard the sound of +excited voices, and the movement of feet on the deck above their head. He +left her, curled up on the cushioned bench, with the gay ribbon in her +hands, and went out through the main cabin, and up the companion. He had +been trying, clumsily enough, to make friends with Priss; but she was +very much on her dignity that morning.... + +When his head rose above the level of the cabin skylight, he saw a group +of men near the rail, amidships. Finch, and Hooper, and old Aaron +Burnham, and two of the harpooners, all pressing close about another +man.... Finch obscured this other man from Joel's view, until he climbed +up on deck. Then he saw that the other man was his brother. + +He went forward to join them; and it chanced that at first no one of them +looked in his direction. Mark's back was half-turned; but Joel could see +that his brother was lean, and bronzed by the sun. And he wore no hat, +and his thick, black hair was rumpled and wild. The white shirt that he +wore was open at the throat above his brown neck. His arms were bare to +the elbows. His chest was like a barrel. There was a splendor of strength +and vigor about the man, in the very look of him, and in his eye, and his +voice, and his laughter. He seemed to shine, like the sun.... + +Joel, as he came near them, heard Mark laugh throatily at something Finch +had said; and he heard Finch say unctuously: "Be sure, Captain Shore, +every man aboard here is damned glad you've come back to us. You were +missed, missed sore, sir." + +Mark laughed again, at that; and he clapped Jim's fat shoulder. The +action swung him around so that he saw Joel for the first time. Joel +thrust out his hand. + +"Mark, man! They said you were dead," he exclaimed. + +Mark Shore's eyes narrowed for an instant, in a quick, appraising +scrutiny of his brother. "Dead?" he laughed, jeeringly. "Do I look dead?" +He stared at Joel more closely, glanced at the other men, and chuckled. +"By the Lord, kid," he cried, "I believe old Asa has put you in my +shoes." + +Joel nodded. "He gave me command of the _Nathan Ross_. Yes." + +Mark looked sidewise at big Jim Finch, and grinned. "Over your head, eh, +Jim? Too damned bad!" + +Finch grinned. "I had no wish for the place, sir. You see, I felt very +sure you would be coming back to your own." + +Mark tilted back his head and laughed. "You were always a very cautious +man, Jim Finch. Never jumped till you were sure where you would land." He +wheeled on Joel. "Well, boy--how does it feel to wear long pants?" + +Joel, holding his anger in check, said slowly: "We've done well. Close on +eight hundred barrel aboard." + +Mark wagged his head in solemn reproof. "Joey, Joey, you've been fiddling +away your time. I can see that!" + +Over his brother's shoulder, Joel saw the grinning face of big Jim Finch, +and his eyes hardened. He said quietly: "If that's your tone, Mark, +you'll call back your boat and go ashore." + +A flame surged across Mark's cheek; and he took one swift, terrible step +toward his brother. But Joel did not give ground; and after a moment in +which their eyes clashed like swords, Mark relaxed, and laughed and bowed +low. + +"I was wrong, grievously wrong, Captain Shore," he said sonorously. "I +neglected the respect due your office. Your high office, sir. I thank you +for reminding me of the--the proprieties, Captain." And he added, in a +different tone, "Now will you not invite me aft on your ship, sir?" + +Joel hesitated for a bare instant, caught by a vague foreboding that he +could not explain. But in the end he nodded, as though in answer to the +unspoken question in his thoughts. "Will you come down into the cabin, +Mark?" he invited quietly. "I've much to ask you; and you must have many +things to tell." + +Mark nodded. "I will come," he said; and his eyes lighted suddenly, and +he dropped a hand on Joel's shoulder. "Aye, Joel," he said softly, into +his brother's ear, as they went aft together. "Aye, I've much to tell. +Many things and marvelous. Matters you'd scarce credit, Joel." Joel +looked at him quickly, and Mark nodded. "True they are, Joel," he cried +exultantly. "Marvelous--and true as good, red gold." + +At the tone, and the eager light in his brother's eyes, Joel's slow +pulses quickened, but he said nothing. At the top of the cabin companion, +he stepped aside to let Mark descend first; and Mark went down the steep +and awkward stair with the easy, sliding gait of a great cat. Joel, +behind him, could see the muscles stir and swell upon his shoulders. In +the cabin, Mark halted abruptly, and looked about, and exclaimed: "You've +changed things, Joel. I'd not know the ship." + +The door into Priscilla's cabin, across the stern, was open. Priss had +finished that matter of the ribbon, and was watering her flowers, +kneeling on the bench, when she heard Mark's voice, and knew it. And she +cried, in surprise and joy: "Mark! Oh--Mark!" And she ran to the door, +and stood there, framed for Mark's eyes against the light behind her, +hands holding to the door frame on either side. + +Mark cried delightedly: "Priss Holt!" And he was at her side in an +instant, and caught her without ceremony, and kissed her roundly, as he +had been accustomed to do when he came home from the sea. But he must +have been a blind man not to have seen in that first moment that Priss +was no longer child, but woman. And Mark was not blind. He kissed her +till she laughingly fought herself free. + +"Mark!" she cried again. "You're not dead. I knew you couldn't be...." + +Joel, behind them, at sight of Priscilla in his brother's arms, had +stirred with a quick rush of anger; but he was ashamed of it in the next +moment, and stood still where he was. Mark held Priss by the shoulders, +laughing down at her. + +"And how did you know I couldn't be dead?" he demanded. "Miss Wise Lady." + +She moved her head confusedly. "Oh--you were always so--so alive, or +something.... You just couldn't be...." + +He chuckled, released her, and stood away and surveyed her. "Priss, +Priss," he said contritely, "you're not a little kid any longer. Dresses +down, and hair up...." He wagged his head. "It's a wonder you did not +slap my face." And then he looked from her to Joel, and abruptly he +tossed his great head back and laughed aloud. "By the Lord," he roared. +"The children are married. Married...." + +Priscilla flushed furiously, and stamped her foot at him. "Of course +we're married," she cried. "Did you think I'd come clear around the world +with...." Her words were smothered in her own hot blushes, and Mark +laughed again, until she cried: "Stop it. I won't have you laughing at +us. Joel--make him stop!" + +Mark sobered instantly, and he backed away from Joel in mock panic, both +hands raised, defensively, so that they laughed at him. When they +laughed, he cast aside his panic, and sat down on the cushions, +stretching his legs luxuriously before him. "Now," he exclaimed. "Tell me +all about it. When, and why, and how?" + +Priss dropped on the bench beside him, feet tucked under her in the +miraculous fashion of small women; and she enumerated her answers on the +pink tips of her fingers. "When?" she repeated. "The day before we +sailed. Why? Just because. How? In the same old way." She waved her hand, +as though disposing of the matter once and for all, and looked up at him, +and laughed. Joel thought she had not seemed so completely happy since +the day the cabin was finished. "So," she said, "that's all there is to +tell you about us. Tell us about you." + +Mark's eyes twinkled. "Ah, now, what's the use? That will come later. +Besides--some chapters are not for gentle ears." He nodded toward Joel. +"So you love the boy, yonder?" + +Priss bobbed her head, red lips pursed, eyes dancing. + +"Why?" Mark demanded. "What do you discover in him?" + +She looked at Joel, and they laughed together as though at some +delightful secret, mutually shared. Mark wagged his head dolorously. "And +I suppose he's wild about you?" he asked. + +She nodded more vigorously than ever. + +Mark rubbed his hands together. He looked at Joel, with a faintly +malicious twinkle in his eyes. "Well, now!" he exclaimed. "That is +certainly the best of news...." Joel saw the mocking and malignant little +devil in his eye. "I've never had a kid sister," said Mark gayly. "And +it's been the great sorrow of my life, Priss. So, Joel, you must expect +Priss and myself to turn out the very best of friends." + +And Priscilla, on the seat beside him, nodded her lovely head once more. +"I should say so," she exclaimed. + + + + +VII + + +Mark Shore held something like a reception, on the _Nathan Ross_, all +that first day. He went forward among the men to greet old friends and +meet new ones, and came back and complimented Joel on the quality of his +crew. "You've made good men of them," he said. "Those that weren't good +men before." + +He listened, with a smile half contemptuous, to Jim Finch's somewhat +slavish phrases of welcome and admiration; and he talked with Varde, the +morose second mate, so gayly that even Varde was cozened at last into a +grin. Old Hooper was pathetically glad to see him. Hooper had been mate +of the ship on which Mark started out as a boy; and he liked to hark back +to those days. Young Dick Morrell, on his trips from the shore, gave Mark +frank worship. + +Joel saw all this. He could not help seeing it. And he told himself, +again and again, that it was only to be expected. Mark had captained this +ship, had captained these men, on their last cruise; they had thought him +dead. It was only natural that they should welcome him back to life +again.... + +But even while he gave himself this reassurance, he knew that it was +untrue. There was more than mere welcome in the attitude of the men; +there was more than admiration. There was a quality of awe that was akin +to worship; and there was, beneath this awe, a lively curiosity as to +what Mark would do.... They knew him for a quick man, dominant, one with +the will to lead; and now he found himself supplanted, dependent on the +word of his own younger brother.... Every one knew that Mark and Joel had +always been rather enemies than comrades; so, now, they wondered, and +waited, and watched with all their eyes. Joel saw them, by twos and +threes, whispering together about the ship; and he knew what it was they +were asking each other. + +Of all those on the _Nathan Ross_ that day, Mark himself seemed least +conscious of the dramatic possibilities of the situation. He was glad to +be back among friends; but beyond that he did not go. He gave Joel an +exaggerated measure of respect, so extreme that it was worse than scorn +or mockery. Otherwise, he took no notice of the potentialities created by +his return. + +Priss had planned to go ashore in the afternoon; but Mark dissuaded her. +This was not difficult; he did it so laughingly and so dextrously that +Priss changed her mind without knowing just why she did so. Mark took it +upon himself to make up for her disappointment; they were together most +of the long, hot afternoon. Joel could hear their laughter now and then. + +He had expected to go ashore with Priss; but when she came to him and +said: "Joel, Mark says it's just dirty and hot and ugly, ashore, and I'm +not going," he changed his mind. There was no need of his making the +trip, after all. Varde and Morrell had brought out water, towing long +strings of almost-filled casks behind their boats; and boats from the +shore had come off to sell fresh food. So at dusk, the anchor came up, +and the _Nathan Ross_ spread her dingy sails, and stalked out of the +harbor with the utmost dignity in every stiff line of her, and the night +behind them swallowed up the island. Mark and Priss were astern to watch +it blend in the darkness and lose itself; and Priss, when their last +glimpse of it faded, heard the man draw a deep breath of something like +relief. She looked up at him with wide, curious eyes. + +"What is it?" she asked softly. "Were you--unhappy there?" + +Mark laughed aloud. "My dear Priss," he said, in the elder-brother manner +he affected toward her. "My dear Priss, the South Sea Islands are no +place for a white man, especially when he is alone. I'm glad to get back +in the smell of oil, with an honest deck underfoot. And I don't mind +saying so." + +Priss shuddered, and wrinkled her nose. "Ugh, how I hate that smell," she +exclaimed. "But, Mark--tell me where you've been, and what you did, +and--everything. Why won't you tell?" + +He wagged his head at her severely. "Children," he said, "should be seen +and not heard." + +She stamped her foot. "I'm not a child. I'm a woman." + +He bent toward her suddenly, his dark eyes so close to hers that she +could see the flickering flame which played in them, and the twist of his +smile. "I wonder!" he whispered. "Oh--I wonder if you are...." + +She was frightened, deliciously.... + +Mark had persisted, all day long, in his refusal to tell her of himself. +He had dropped a sentence now and then that brought to life in her +imagination a strange, wild picture.... But always he set a bar upon his +lips, caught back the words, refused to explain what it was he had meant +to say. When she persisted, he laughed at her and told her he only did it +to be mysterious. "Mystery is always interesting, you understand," he +explained. "And--I wish to be very interesting to you, Priss." + +She looked around the after deck for Joel; but he was below in the cabin, +and she decided, abruptly, that she must go down.... + +They had bought chickens at Tubuai, and they had two of them, boiled, for +supper that night in the cabin. It was a feast, after the long months of +sober diet; and the presence of Mark made it something more. He was a +good talker, and without revealing anything of the months of his +disappearance, he nevertheless told them stories that held each one +breathless with interest. But after supper, he went on deck with Finch, +and Joel and Priss sat in the cabin astern for a while; and Joel wrote +up, in the ship's log, the story of his brother's return. Priss read it +over his shoulder, and afterwards she clung close to Joel. "He's a +terribly--overwhelming man, isn't he?" she whispered. + +Joel looked down at her, and smiled thoughtfully. "Aye, Mark's a big +man," he agreed. "Big--in many ways. But--you'll be used to him +presently, Priss." + +When she prepared to go to bed, he bade her good night and left her, and +went on deck; and Priss, in her narrow bunk in the cabin at the side of +the ship, lay wide-eyed with many thoughts stirring in her small head. +She was still awake when she heard them come down into the main cabin +together, Joel and Mark. The walls were thin; she could hear their words, +and she heard Mark ask: "Sure Priss is asleep? There are parts--not for +the pretty ears of a bride, Joel." + +Priss was not asleep, but when Joel came to see, she closed her eyes, and +lay as still as still, scarce breathing. Joel bent over her softly; and +he touched her head, clumsily, with his hand, and patted it, and went +away again, closing her door behind him. She heard him tell Mark: "Aye, +she's fast asleep." + +The brothers sat by Joel's desk, in the cabin across the stern; and Mark, +without preamble, told his story there. Priss, ten feet away, heard every +word; and she lay huddled beneath the blankets, eyes staring upward into +the darkness of her cabin; and as she listened, she shuddered and +trembled and shrank at the terror and wonder and ugliness of the tale he +told. No Desdemona ever listened with such half-caught breath.... + + + + +VIII + + +"You're blaming me," said Mark, when he and Joel were puffing at their +pipes, "for leaving my ship." + +Joel said slowly: "No. But I do not understand it." + +Mark laughed, a soft and throaty laugh. "You would not, Joel. You would +not. For you never felt an overwhelming notion that you must dance in the +moon upon the sand. You've never felt that, Joel; and--I have." + +"I'm not a hand for dancing," said Joel. + +Mark seemed to forget that his brother sat beside him. His eyes became +misty and thoughtful, as though he were living over again the days of +which he spoke. "Mind, Joel," he said, "there's a pagan in every man of +us. And there's two pagans in some of us. And I'm minded, Joel, that +there are three of them in me. 'Twas so, that night." + +"It was night when you left the ship?" + +"Aye, night. Night, and the moon; and it may have been that I had been +drinking a drop or two. Also, as you shall see, I was not well. I tell +these things, not by way of excuse and palliation; but only so that you +may understand. D'ye see? I was three pagans in one body, and that body +witched by moon, and twisted by drink, and trembling with fever. And so +it was I went ashore, and flung my men behind me, and went off, dancing, +along the hard sand. + +"That was a night, Joel. A slow-winded, warm, trembling night when there +was a song in the very air. The wind tingled on your throat like a +woman's finger tips; and the sea was singing at the one side, and the +wind in the palms on the other. And ahead of me, the wild, discordant +chanting of the Islanders about their fires.... That singing it was that +got me by the throat, and led me. I twirled around and around, very +solemnly, by myself in the moonlight on the sand; and all the time I went +onward toward the fires.... + +"I remember, when I came in sight of the fires, I threw away my coat and +ran in among them. And they scattered, and yelled their harsh, +meaningless, throaty yells. And they hid in the bush to stare at me by +the fire.... They hid in the rank, thick grasses. All except one, Joel." + +Joel, listening, watched his brother and saw through his brother's eyes; +for he knew, for all his slow blood, the witchery of those warm, southern +nights. + +"The moon was on her," said Mark. "The moon was on her, and there was a +red blossom in her hair, and some strings of things that clothed her. A +little brown girl, with eyes like the eyes of a deer. And--not afraid of +me. That was the thing that got me, Joel. She stood in my path, met me, +watched me; and her eyes were not afraid.... + +"She was very little. She was only a child. I suppose we would call her +sixteen or seventeen years old. But they ripen quickly, Joel--these +Island children. Her little shoulders were as smooth and soft.... You +could not even mark the ridge of her collar bones, she was fleshed so +sweetly. She stood, and watched me; and the others crept out of the +grasses, at last, and stood about us. And then this little brown girl +held up her hand to me, and pointed me out to the others, and said +something. I did not know what it was that she said; but I know now. She +said that I was sick. + +"I did not know then that I was sick. When she lifted her hand to me, I +caught it; and I began to lead her in a wild dance, in the moonlight, +about their dying fires. I could see them, in the shadows, their eyeballs +shining as they watched us.... And they seemed, after a little, to move +about in a misty, inhuman fashion; and they twisted into strange, +cloud-like shapes. And I stopped to laugh at them, and my head dropped +down before I could catch it and struck against the earth, and the earth +forsook me, Joel, and left me swimming in nothing at all.... + +"My memory was a long time in coming back to me, Joel. It would peep out +at me like a timid child, hiding among the trees. I would see it for an +instant; then 'twould be gone. But I know it must have been many days +that I was on the island there. And I knew, after a time, that I was most +extremely sick; and the little brown girl put cool leaves on my head, and +gave me strange brews to drink, and rubbed and patted my chest and my +body with her hands in a fashion that was immensely comfortable and +strengthening. And I twisted on a bed of coarse grass.... And I remember +singing, at times...." + +He looked toward Joel, eyes suddenly flaming. "Eh, Joel, I tell you I was +not three pagans, but six, in those days. The thing's clear beyond your +guessing, Joel. But it was big. An immense thing. I was back at the +beginning of the world, with food, and drink, and my woman.... It was +big, I tell you. Big!" + +His eyes clouded--he fell silent, and so at last went on again. "I was +asleep one night, tossing in my sleep. And something woke me. And I laid +my hand on the spot beside me where the little brown girl used to lie, +and she was gone. So I got up, unsteadily. There were rifles snapping in +the night; and there were screams. And I heard a white man's black curse; +and the slap of a blow of flesh on flesh. And the screams. + +"So I went that way; and the sounds retreated before me, until I came +out, unsteadily, upon the open beach. There was no moon, that night; and +the water of the lagoon was shot with fire. And there was a boat, pulling +away from the beach, with screaming in it. + +"I swam after the boat for a long time, for I thought I had heard the +voice of the little brown girl. The water was full of fire. When I lifted +my arms, the fire ran down them in streams and drops. And sometimes I +forgot what I was about, and stopped to laugh at these drops of fire. But +in the end, I always swam on. I remember once I thought the little brown +girl swam beside me, and I tried to throw my arm about her, and she +wrenched away, and she burned me like a brand. I found, afterwards, what +that was. My breast and sides were rasped and raw where a shark's rough +skin had scraped them. I've wondered, Joel, why the beast did not take +me.... + +"But he did not; for I bumped at last into the boat, and climbed into it, +and it was empty. But I saw a rope at the end of it, and I pulled the +rope, and came to the schooner's stern, and climbed aboard her." + +His voice was ringing, exultantly and proudly. "I swung aboard," he said. +"And I stumbled over fighting bodies on the deck, astern there. And some +one cried out, in the waist of her; and I knew it was the little brown +girl. So I left those struggling bodies at the stern, for they were not +my concern; and I went forward to the waist. And I found her there. + +"A fat man had her. She was fighting him; and he did not see me. And I +put my fingers quietly into his neck, from behind; and when he no longer +kicked back at me, and no longer tore at my fingers with his, I dropped +him over the side. I saw a fiery streak in the water where I dropped him. +That shark was not so squeamish as the one I had--embraced. It may have +been the other was embarrassed at my ways, Joel. D'ye think that might +have been the way of it?" + +Joel's knuckles were white, where his hand rested on his knee. Mark saw, +and laughed softly. "There's blood in you, after all, boy," he applauded. +"I've hopes for you." + +Joel said slowly: "What then? What then, Mark?" + +Mark laughed. "Well, that was a very funny thing," he said. "You see, the +other two men, they were busy, astern, with their own concerns. And when +I had comforted the little brown girl, and sat down on the deck to laugh +at the folly of it all, she slipped away from me, and went aft, and got +all their rifles. She brought them to me. She seemed to expect things of +me. So I, still laughing, for the fever was on me; I took the rifles and +threw them, all but one, over the side. And I went down into the cabin, +with the little brown girl, and went to bed; and she sat beside me, with +the rifle, and a lamp hanging above the door.... + +"And that was all that happened, until I woke one morning and saw her +there, and wondered where I was. And my head was clear again. She made me +understand that the men had sought to come at me, but had feared the +rifle in her hands.... + +"And we were in the open sea, as I could feel by the labor of the +schooner underfoot. So I took the rifle in the crook of my arm, and with +the little brown girl at my heel, I went up on deck. And we made a +treaty." + +He fell silent for a moment, and Joel watched him, and waited. And at +last, Mark went on. + +"I had been more than a month on the island," he said. "The _Nathan Ross_ +had gone. This schooner was a pearler, and they had the location of a bed +of shell. They had been waiting till another schooner should leave the +place, to leave their own way clear. And when that time came, they went +ashore to get the brown women for companions on that cruise. And they +made the mistake of picking up my little brown girl, when she ran out of +the hut. And so brought me down upon them. + +"There were two of them left; two whites, and three black men forward, +who were of no account. And the other two women. These other two were +chattering together, on the deck astern, when I appeared. They seemed +content enough.... + +"The men were not happy. There was a large man with slanting eyes. There +was Oriental blood in him. You could see that. He called himself Quint. +But his eyes were Jap, or Chinese; and he had their calm, blank screen +across his countenance, to hide what may have been his thoughts. Quint, +he called himself. And he was a big man, and very much of a man in his +own way, Joel. + +"The other was little, and he walked with a slink and a grin. His name +was Fetcher. And he was oily in his speech. + +"When they saw me, they studied me for a considerable time without +speech. And I stood there, with the rifle in my arm, and laughed at them. +And at last, Quint said calmly: + +"'You took Farrell.' + +"'The fat man?' I asked him. He nodded. 'Yes,' I said. 'He took my girl, +and so I dropped him into the water, and a friend met him there and +hurried him away.' + +"'Your girl?' he echoed, in a nasty way. 'You're that, then?' + +"'Am I?' I asked, and shifted the rifle a thought to the fore. And his +eyes held mine for a space, and then he shook his head. + +"'I see that I was mistaken,' he said. + +"'Your sight is good,' I told him. 'Now--what is this? Tell me.' + +"He told me, evenly and without malice. They had a line on the pearls; +there were enough for three. I was welcome. And at the end, I nodded my +consent. The _Nathan Ross_ was gone. Furthermore, there were nine pagans +in me now; and the prospect of looting some still lagoon, in company with +these two rats, had a wild flavor about it that caught me. My blood was +burning; and the sun was hot. Also, they had liquor aboard her. Liquor, +and loot, and the three women. Pagan, Joel. Pagan! But wild and red and +raw. There's a glory about such things.... Songs are made of them.... +There was no handshaking; but we made alliance, and crowded on sail, and +went on our way." + +He stopped short, laughed, filled his pipe again, watched Joel. "You're +shocked with me, boy. I can see it," he taunted mockingly. Joel shook his +head. "Will you hear the rest?" Mark asked; and Joel nodded. Mark lighted +his pipe, laughed.... His fingers thrummed on the desk beside him. + +"We were a week on the way," he said. "And all pagan, every minute of the +week. Days when we fought a storm--as bad as I've ever seen, Joel. We +fought it, holding to the ropes with our teeth, bare to the waist, with +the wind scourging us. It tore at us, and lashed at us.... And we drove +the three black men with knives to their work. And the three women stayed +below, except my little brown girl. She came up, now and then, with dry +clothes for me.... And I had to drive her to shelter.... + +"And when there was not the storm, there was liquor; and they had cards. +We staked our shares in the catch that was to come.... Hour on hour, +dealing, and playing with few words; and our eyes burned hollow in their +sockets, and Quint's thin mouth twisted and writhed all the time like a +worm on a pin. He was a nervous man, for all his calm. A very nervous +man.... + +"The fifth day, one of the blacks stumbled in Quint's path, on deck. +Quint had been losing, at the cards. He slid a knife from his sleeve into +the man's ribs, and tipped the black over the rail without a word. I was +twenty feet away, and it was done before I could catch breath. I shouted; +and Quint turned and looked at me, and he smiled. + +"'What is it?' he asked. 'Have you objections to present?' And the +smeared blade in his hand, and the bubbles still rising, overside. I was +afraid of the man, Joel. I tell you I was afraid. The only time. Fear's a +pagan joy, boy. It was like a new drink to me. I nursed it, eating it. +And I shook my head, humble. + +"'No objections,' I said, to Quint. ''Tis your affair.' + +"'That was my thought,' he agreed, and passed me, and went astern. I +stood aside to let him pass, and trembled, and laughed for the joy of my +fear. + +"And then we came to the lagoon, and the blacks began to dive. Only the +two we had; and there was no sign of Islanders, ashore. But the water was +shallow, and we worked the men with knives, and they got pearls. +Sometimes one or two in a day; sometimes a dozen. Do you know pearls, +Joel? They're sweet as a woman's skin. I had never seen them, before. And +we all went a little mad over them.... + +"They made Fetcher hysterical. He laughed too much. They made Quint +morose. They made me tremble...." + +He wiped his hand across his eyes, as though the memory wearied him; and +he moved his great shoulders, and looked at Joel, and laughed. "But it +could not last, in that fashion," he said. "It might have been anything. +It turned out to be the women. I said they seemed content. They did. But +that may be the way of the blacks. They have a happy habit of life; they +laugh easily.... + +"At any rate, we found one morning that Quint's girl was gone. She was +not on the schooner; and ashore, we found her tracks in the sand. She had +gone into the trees. And we beat the island, and we did not find her. And +Quint sweated. All that day. + +"That night, he looked at my little brown girl, and touched her shoulder. +I was across the deck, the girl coming to me with food. I said to him: +'No. She's mine, Quint.' And he looked at me, and I beat him with my +eyes. And as his turned from mine, Fetcher and his woman came on deck, +and Quint tapped Fetcher, and said to him: 'What will you take for her?' + +"Fetcher laughed at him; and Quint scowled. And I--for I was minded to +see sport, came across to them and said: 'Play for her. Play for her!' + +"Fetcher was willing; because he had the blood that gambles anything. +Quint was willing, because he was the better player. They sat down to the +game, in the cabin, after supper. Poker. Cold hands. Nine of them. Winner +of five to win.... + +"Fetcher got two, lost four, got two more. I was dealing. Card by card, +face upward. I remember those hands. And my little brown girl, and the +other, watching from the corner. + +"The hands on the table grew, card by card. Fetcher got an ace, Quint a +deuce. Fetcher a queen, Quint a seven. Fetcher a jack, Quint a six. +Fetcher a ten, Quint a ten. Only the last card to come to each. If +Fetcher paired any card, he would win. His card came first. It was a +seven. He was ace, queen high. Quint had deuce, six, seven, ten. He had +to get a pair to win.... + +"I saw Quint's hand stir, beneath the table; and I glimpsed a knife in +it. But before I could speak, or stir, Fetcher dropped his own hand to +his trouser leg, and I knew he kept a blade there.... So I laughed, and +dealt Quint's last card.... + +"A deuce. He had a pair, enough to win.... + +"He leaned back, laughing grimly; and Fetcher's knife went in beneath the +left side of his jaw, where the jugular lies. Quint looked surprised, and +got up out of his chair and lay down quietly across the table. I heard +the bubbling of his last breath.... Then Fetcher laughed, and called his +woman, and they took Quint on deck and tipped him overside. The knife had +been well thrown. Fetcher had barely moved his wrist.... I was much +impressed with the little man, and told my brown girl so. But she was +frightened, and I comforted her." + +He was silent again for a time, pressing the hot ashes in his pipe with +his thumb. The water slapped the broad stern of the ship beneath them, +and Joel's pipe was gurgling. There was no other sound. Little Priss, +nails biting her palms, thought she would stream if the silence held an +instant more.... + +But Mark laughed softly, and went on. + +"Fetcher and I worked smoothly together," he said. "The little man was +very pleasant and affable; and I met him half way. The blacks brought up +the shells, and we idled through the days, and played cards at night. We +divided the take, each day; so our stakes ran fairly high. But luck has a +way of balancing. On the day when we saw the end in sight, we were fairly +even.... + +"Fetcher, and the blacks and I went ashore to get fruit from the trees +there. Plenty of it everywhere; and we were running short. We went into +the brush together, very pleasantly; and he fell a little behind. I +looked back, and his knife brushed my neck and quivered in a tree a yard +beyond me. So I went back and took him in my hands. He had another +knife--the little man fairly bristled with them. But it struck a rib, and +before he could use it again, his neck snapped. + +"So that I was alone on the schooner, with the two blacks, and Fetcher's +woman, and the little brown girl. + +"Fetcher's woman went ashore to find him and never came back. And I +decided it was time for me to go away from that place. The pagans were +dying in me. I did not like that quiet little island any more. + +"But the next morning, when I looked out beyond the lagoon, another +schooner was coming in. So I was uncomfortable with Fetcher's pearls, as +well as mine, in my pocket. There are some hard men in these seas, Joel; +and I knew none of them would treasure me above my pearls. So I planned a +story of misfortune, and I went ashore to hide my pearls under a rock. + +"The blacks had brought me ashore. I went out of their sight to do what I +had to do; and when I came back, after hiding the pearls, I saw them +rowing very swiftly toward the schooner. And they looked back at me in a +fearful way. I wondered why; and then four black men came down on me from +behind, with knives and clubs. + +"I had a very hard day, that day. They hunted me back and forth through +the island--I had not even a knife with me--and I met them here and +there, and suffered certain contusions and bruises and minor cuts. Also, +I grew very tired of killing them. They were wiry, but they were small, +and died easily. So I was glad, when from a point where they had cornered +me I saw the little brown girl rowing the big boat toward me. + +"She was alone. The blacks were afraid to come, I thought. But I found +afterward that this was not true. They could not come; for they had tried +to seize the schooner and go quickly away from that place, and the little +brown girl had drilled them both. She had a knack with the rifle.... + +"I waded to meet the boat, and she tossed me the gun. I held them off for +a little, while we drew away from the shore. But when we were thirty or +forty yards off, I heard rifles from the other schooner, firing past us +at the blacks in the bush; and the girl stopped rowing. So I turned +around and saw that one of the balls from the other schooner had struck +her in the back. So I sat there, in the sun, drifting with the wind, and +held her in my arms till she coughed and died. + +"Then I went out to the other schooner and told them they were bad +marksmen. They had only been passing by, for copra; and the story I told +them was a shocking one. They were much impressed, and they seemed glad +to get away. But the blacks were still on shore, so that I could not go +back for the pearls; and I worked the schooner out by myself, and shaped +a course.... + +"I came to Tubuai, alone thus, a day before you, Joel." + + + + +IX + + +For a long time after Mark's story ended, the two brothers sat still in +the cabin, puffing at their pipes, thinking.... Mark watched Joel, +waiting for the younger man to speak. And Joel's thoughts ranged back, +and picked up the tale in the beginning, and followed it through once +more.... + +They were silent for so long that little Priss, in the cabin, drifted +from waking dreams to dreams in truth. The pictures Mark's words had +conjured up merged with troubled phantasies, and she twisted and cried +out softly in her sleep so that Joel went in at last to be sure she was +not sick. But while he stood beside her, she passed into quiet and +untroubled slumber, and he came back and sat down with Mark again. + +"You brought the schooner into Tubuai?" he asked. + +"Aye. Alone. Half a thousand miles. There's a task, Joel." + +"And left it there?" + +"Yes." + +"Why?" + +Mark smiled grimly. "It was known there," he said quietly. "Also, the +three whom I had found aboard it were known. And they had friends in +Tubuai, who wondered what had come to them. I was beginning to--find +their questions troublesome--when the _Nathan Ross_ came in." + +"They will ask more questions now," said Joel. + +"They must ask them of the schooner; and--she does not speak," Mark told +him. + +Joel was troubled and uncertain. "It's--a black thing," he said. + +"They'll not be after me, if that distresses you," Mark promised him. +"Curiosity does not go to such lengths in these waters." + +"You told no one?" + +Mark laughed. "The pearls were--my own concern. You're the first I've +told." He watched his brother. Joel frowned thoughtfully, shook his head. + +"You plan to go back for them?" he asked. + +"You and I," said Mark casually. Joel looked at him in quick surprise; +and Mark laughed. "Yes," he repeated. "You and I. I am not selfish, Joel. +Besides--there are plenty for two." + +Joel, for an instant, found no word; and Mark leaned quickly toward him. +He tapped Joel's knee. "We'll work up that way," he said quietly. "When +we come to the island, you and I go ashore, and get them where they're +hid beneath the rock; and we come back aboard with no one any wiser.... +Rich. A double handful of them, Joel...." + +Joel's eyes were clouded with thought; he shook his head slowly. "What of +the blacks?" he asked. + +Mark laughed. "They were brought down on us by the woman who got away," +he said. "Quint's woman. I heard as much that day, saw her among them. +But--they're gone before this." + +Joel said slowly: "You are not sure of that. And--I cannot risk the +ship...." + +Mark asked sneeringly: "Are you afraid?" + +The younger man flushed; but he said steadily: "Yes. Afraid of losing Asa +Worthen's ship for him." + +Mark chuckled unpleasantly. "I'm minded of what is written, here and +there, in the 'Log of the House of Shore,'" he said, half to himself. And +he quoted: "'All the brothers were valiant....' There's more to that, +Joel. 'And all the sisters virtuous.' I had not known we had sisters--but +it seems you're one, boy. Not valiant, by your own admission; but at +least you're fairly virtuous." + +Joel paid no heed to the taunt. "Asa Worthen likes care taken of his +ship," he said, half to himself. "I'm thinking he would not think well of +this.... He's not a man to gamble...." + +"Gamble?" Mark echoed scornfully. "He has no gamble in this. The pearls +are for you and me. He will know nothing whatever about them. A handful +for me, and a handful for you, Joel. For the taking...." + +"You did not think to give him owner's lay?" Joel asked. + +"No." + +"Where is this island?" + +Mark laughed. "I'll not be too precise--until I have your word, Joel. +But--'tis to the northward." + +"Our course is west, then south." + +"Since when has the _Nathan Ross_ kept schedule and time table like a +mail ship?" + +Joel shook his head. "I cannot do it, Mark." + +"Why not?" + +"A risk I have no right to take; and wasted weeks, out of our course. For +which Asa Worthen pays." + +Mark smiled sardonically. "You're vastly more virtuous than any sister +could be, Joel, my dear." + +Joel said steadily: "There may be two minds about that. There may be two +minds as to--the duty of a captain to his ship and his owner. But--I've +shown you my mind in the matter." + +Mark leaned toward him, eyes half-friendly. "You're wrong, Joel. I'll +convince you." + +"You'll not." + +"A handful of them," Mark whispered. "Worth anything up to a hundred +thousand. Maybe more. I do not know the little things as well as some. +All for a little jog out of your way...." + +Joel shook his head. And Mark, in a sudden surge of anger, stormed to his +feet with clenched hand upraised. "By the Lord, Joel, I'd not have +believed it. You're mad; plain mad--sister, dear! You...." + +Joel said quietly: "Your schooner is at Tubuai. I'll set you back there, +if you will." + +Mark mocked him. "Would you throw your own brother off the ship he +captained?... Oh hard, hard heart...." + +"You may stay, or go," Joel told him. "Have your way." + +Mark's eyes for an instant narrowed; they turned toward the door of the +cabin where Priss lay.... And there was a flicker of black hatred in +them, but his voice was suave when he replied: "With your permission, +captain dear, I'll stay." + +Joel nodded; he rose. "Young Morrell has given you his bunk," he said. +"So--good night, to you." + +He opened the door into the main cabin; and Mark, his fingers twitching, +went out. He turned, spoke over his shoulder. "Good night; and--pleasant +dreams," he said. + + + + +X + + +Even Joel Shore saw the new light in Priscilla's eyes when she met Mark +at breakfast in the cabin next morning; and it is said husbands are the +last to see such things. + +That story she had heard the night before, the story Mark told Joel in +the after cabin, had made of him something superhuman in her eyes. He was +a gigantic, an epic figure; he had lived red life, and fought for his +life, and killed.... There was Puritan blood in Priscilla; but +overrunning it was a flood of warmer life, a cross-strain from some +southern forebear, which sang now in answer to the touch of Mark's words. +She watched him, that morning, with wide eyes that were full of wonder +and of awe. + +Mark saw, and was immensely amused. He asked her: "Why do you look at me +like that, little sister? I'm not going to bite...." + +Priscilla caught herself, and smiled, and laughed at him. "How do I look +at you? You're--imagining things, Mark." + +"Am I?" he asked. And he touched Joel's arm. "Look at her, Joel, and see +which of us is right." + +Joel was eating his breakfast silently, but he had seen Priscilla's eyes. +He looked toward her now, and she flushed in spite of herself, and got up +quickly, and slipped away.... They watched her go, Joel's eyes clouded +thoughtfully, Mark's shining. And when she was gone, Mark leaned across +and said to Joel softly, a devil of mischief in his eyes: "She heard my +tale last night, Joel. She was not asleep. Fooled you...." + +Joel shook his head. "No. She was asleep." + +Mark laughed. "Don't you suppose I know. I've seen that look in woman's +eyes before. In the eyes of the little brown girl, the night I dropped +the fat man overside...." + +He sat there, chuckling, when Joel got abruptly to his feet and went on +deck; and when he came up the companion a little later, he was still +chuckling under his breath. + +After that first morning, Priss was able to cloak her eyes and hide her +thoughts; and on the surface, life aboard the _Nathan Ross_ seemed to go +on as before. Mark threw himself into the routine of the work, mixing +with the men, going off in the boats when there was a whale to be struck, +doing three men's share of toil. Joel one day remonstrated with him. "It +is not wise," he said. "You were captain here; you are my brother. It is +not wise for you to mix, as an equal, with the men." + +Mark only laughed at him. "Your dignity is very precious to you, Joel," +he mocked. "But as for me--I am not proud. You'd not have me sit aft and +twiddle my thumbs and hold yarn for little Priss.... And I must be doing +something...." + +He and Jim Finch were much together. Finch always gave Joel careful +obedience, always handled the ship when he was in charge with smooth +efficiency. His boat was the best manned and the most successful of the +four. But he and Joel were not comradely. Joel instinctively disliked the +big man; and Finch's servility disgusted him. The mate was full of smooth +and flattering words, but his eyes were shallow. + +Mark talked with him long, one morning; and then he left Finch and came +to Joel, by the after house, chuckling as though at some enormous jest. +"Will ye look at Finch, there?" he begged. + +Joel had been watching the two. He saw Finch now, standing just forward +of the boat house with flushed cheeks and eyes fixed and hands twitching. +The big man was powerfully moved by something.... "What is it that's got +him?" Joel asked. + +"I've told him about the pearls," Mark chuckled. "He's wild to be after +them...." + +Joel turned on his brother hotly. "You're mad, Mark," he snapped. "That +is no word to be loose in the ship." + +"I've but told Finch," Mark protested. "It's mirthful to watch the man +wiggle." + +"He'll tell the ship. His tongue wags unceasingly." + +Mark lifted his shoulders. "Tell him to be silent. You should keep order +on your ship, Joel." + +Joel beckoned, and Finch came toward them. As he came, he fought for self +control; and when he stood before them, his lips were twisting into +something like a smile, and his eyes were shifty and gleaming. Joel said +quietly: + +"Mr. Finch, my brother says he has told you his story." + +"Yes, sir," said Finch. "An extraordinary adventure, Captain Shore." + +"I think it best the men should know nothing about it," Joel told him. +"You will please keep it to yourself." + +Finch grinned. "Of course, sir. There's no need they should have any +share in them." + +Joel flushed angrily. "We are not going after them. I consider it +dangerous, and unwise." + +Over Finch's fat cheeks swept a twitching grimace of dismay. "But I +thought...." He looked at Mark, and Mark was chuckling. "It's so easy, +sir," he protested. "Just go, and get them.... Rich...." + +Joel shook his head. "Keep silent about the matter, Finch." + +Finch slowly bowed his head, and he smirked respectfully. "Very well, +Captain Shore," he agreed. "You always know best, sir." + +He turned away; and after a little Mark said softly: "You have him well +trained, Joel. Like a little dog.... I wonder that you can handle men +so...." + +Two days later, Joel knew that either Finch or Mark had told the tale +anew. Young Dick Morrell came to him with shining eyes. "Is it true, sir, +that we're going after the pearls your brother hid?" he asked. "I just +heard...." + +Joel gripped the boy's arm. "Who told you?" + +Morrell twisted free, half angry. "I--overheard it, sir. Is it true?" + +"No," said Joel. "We're a whaler, and we stick to our trade." + +Dick lifted both hands, in a gesture almost pleading. "But it would be so +simple, sir...." + +"Keep the whole matter quiet, Morrell," Joel told him. "I do not wish the +men to know of it. And if you hear any further talk, report it to me." + +Morrell's eyes were sulky. He said slowly: "Yes, sir." The set of his +shoulders, as he stalked forward, seemed to Joel defiant.... + +Within the week, the whole ship knew the story. Old Aaron Burnham, +repairing a bunk in the fo'c's'le, heard the men whispering the thing +among themselves. "Tongues hissing like little serpents, sir," he told +Joel, in the cabin that night. "All of pearls, and women, and the +like.... And a shine in their eyes...." + +"Thanks, Aaron," Joel said. "I'm sorry the men know...." + +"Aye, they know. Be sure of that," Aaron repeated, with bobbing head. +"And they're roused by what they know. Some say you're going after the +pearls, and aim to fraud them of their lay. And some say you're a mad +fool that will not go...." + +Joel's fist, on the table, softly clenched. "What else?" he asked. + +Aaron watched him sidewise. "There was a whisper that you might be made +to go...." + +Priscilla saw, that night, that Joel was troubled. She and Mark were +together on the cushioned seat in the after cabin, and Joel sat at his +desk, over the log. Mark was telling Priss an expurgated version of some +one of his adventures; and Joel, looking once or twice that way, saw the +quick-caught breath in her throat, saw her tremulous interest.... And his +eyes clouded, so that when Priscilla chanced to look toward him, she saw, +and cried: + +"Joel! What's the matter? You look so...." + +He looked from one of them to the other for a space; and then his eyes +rested on Mark's, and he said slowly: "It's in my mind that I'd have done +best to set you ashore at Tubuai, Mark." + +Mark laughed; but Priss cried hotly: "Joel! What a perfectly horrible +thing to say!" Her voice had grown deeper and more resonant of late, Joel +thought. It was no longer the voice of a girl, but of a woman.... Mark +touched her arm. + +"Don't care about him," he told her. "That's only brotherly love...." + +"He oughtn't to say it." + +Joel said quietly: "This is a matter you do not understand, Priscilla. +You would do well to keep silent. It is my affair." + +A month before, this would have swept Priss into a fury of anger; but +this night, though her eyes burned with slow resentment, she bit her lips +and was still. A month ago, she would have forgotten over night. Now she +would remember.... + +Mark got up, laughed. "He's bad company, Priss," he told her. "Come on +deck with me." + +She rose, readily enough; and they went out through the main cabin, and +up the companionway. Joel watched them go. They left open the door into +the cabin, and he heard Varde and Finch, at the table there, talking in +husky whispers.... It was so, he knew, over the whole ship. Everywhere, +the men were whispering.... There hung over the _Nathan Ross_ a cloud as +definite as a man's hand; and every man scowled--save Mark Shore. Mark +smiled with malicious delight at the gathering storm he had provoked.... + +Joel, left in the after cabin, felt terribly lonely. He wanted Priss with +him, laughing, at his side. His longing for her was like a hot coal in +his throat, burning there. And she had taken sides with Mark, against +him.... His shoulders shook with the sudden surge of his desire to grip +Mark's lean throat.... Ashore, he would have done so. But as things were, +the ship was his first charge; and a break with Mark would precipitate +the thing that menaced the ship.... He could not fight Mark without +risking the _Nathan Ross_; and he could not risk the _Nathan Ross_. Not +even.... His head dropped for an instant in his arms, and then he got up +quickly, and shook himself, and set his lips.... No man aboard must see +the trouble in his heart.... + +He went through the main cabin, and climbed to the deck. There was some +sea running, and a wind that brushed aside all smaller sounds, so that he +made little noise. Thus, when he reached the top of the companion, he saw +two dark figures in the shadows of the boat house, closely clasped.... + +He stood for an instant, white hot.... His wife, and Mark.... His little +Priss, and his brother.... + +Then he went quietly below, and glanced at the chart, and chose a course +upon it. The nearest land; he and Mark ashore together.... His blood ran +hungrily at the thought.... + + + + +XI + + +Priscilla went on deck that night so angry with Joel that she could have +killed him; and Mark played upon her as a skilled hand plays upon the +harp. It was such a night as the South Seas know, warm and languorous, +the wind caressing, and the salt spray stinging gently on the cheek. The +moon was near the full, and it laid a path of silver on the water. This +path was like the road to fairyland; and Mark told Priscilla so. He +dropped into a gay little phantasy that he conceived on the moment, a +story of fairies, and of dancing in the moonlight, and of a man and a +woman, hand in hand.... + +She felt the spell he laid upon her, and struggled against it. "Tell me +about the last fight, when the little brown girl was killed," she begged. + +He had told her snatches of his story here and there; but he had not, +till that night, spoken of the pearls. When Priss heard of them, she +swung about and lifted up her face to his, listening like a child. And +Mark told the story with a tongue of gold, so that she saw it all; the +lagoon, blue in the sun; and the schooner creeping in from the sea; and +the hours of flight through the semi-jungle of the island, with the +blacks in such hot pursuit. He told her of the times when they surrounded +him, when he fought himself free.... How he got a great stone and gripped +it in his hand, and how with this stone he crushed the skull of a young +black with but one eye. Priss shuddered with delicious horror at the +tale.... + +She loved best to hear of the little brown girl whom Mark had loved; and +that would have told either of them, if they had stopped to consider, +that she did not love Mark. Else she would have hated the other, brown or +white.... And he told how the brown girl saved him, and gave her life in +the saving, and how he had stopped at a little atoll on his homeward way +and buried her.... She had died in his arms, smiling because she lay +there.... + +"And the pearls?" Priss asked, when she had heard the story through. "You +left them there?" + +"There they are still," he told her. "Safely hid away." + +"How many?" she asked. "Are they lovely?" + +"Three big ones, and thirty-two of a fair size, and enough little ones +and seeds to make a double handful." + +"But why did you leave them there?" + +"The black men were on the island. They were there, and watchful, and +very angry." + +"Couldn't you have kept them in your pocket?" + +He laughed. "That other schooner made me cautious. Man's life is cheap, +in such matters. And if they guessed I had such things upon me.... If I +slept too soundly, or the like.... D'ye see?" + +She nodded her dark head. "I see. But you'll go back...." + +He chuckled at that, and tapped on the rail with one knuckle, in a +thoughtful way. "I had thought that Joel and I would go, in the _Nathan +Ross_, and fetch the things away," he said. + +"Of course," she exclaimed. "That would be so easy.... I'd love to see +the--pearls...." + +"Easy? That was my own thought," he agreed. Something in his tone +prompted her question. + +"Why--isn't it?" + +"Joel objects," he said drily. + +"He--won't. But why? I don't understand. Why?" + +Mark laughed. "He speaks of a matter of duty, not to risk the ship." + +"Is there a risk?" + +"No." He chuckled maliciously. "As a matter of cold fact, Priss, I'm +fearful that Joel is a bit--timid in such affairs." + +She flamed at him: "Afraid?" + +He nodded. + +"I don't believe it." + +His eyes shone. "What a loyal little bride? But--I taxed him with it. +And--that was the word he used...." + +She was so angry that she beat upon Mark's great breast with her tiny +fists. "It's not true! It's not true!" she cried. "You know...." + +Abruptly, Mark took fire. She was swept in his arms, clipped there, +half-lifted from the deck to meet his lips that dipped to hers. She was +like nothing in his grasp; she could not stir.... And from his lips, and +circling arms, and great body the hot fire of the man flung through +her.... She fought him.... But even in that terrific moment she knew that +Joel had never swept or whelmed her so.... + +She twisted her face away.... And thus, from the shadow where they stood, +she saw Joel. He was at the top of the cabin companion, looking toward +them, his face illumined by the light from below. And she watched for an +instant, frozen with terror, expecting him to leap toward them and plunge +at Mark and buffet him.... + +Joel stood for an instant, unstirring. Then he turned, very quietly, and +went down stairs again into the cabin.... + +She thought, sickly, that he had shirked; he had seen, and held his +hand.... + +What was it Mark had said? Afraid.... + +Mark had not seen Joel. He kissed her again. Then she twisted away from +him, and fled below. + +Joel was at his desk. He did not look up at her coming; and she stood for +an instant, behind him, watching his bent head.... + +Then she slipped into her own cabin, and snapped the latch, and plunged +her face in her pillow to stifle bursting sobs. + + + + +XII + + +The _Nathan Ross_ changed course that day; and the word went around the +ship. It passed from man to man. There was whispering; and there were +dark looks, flung toward Joel. + +Joel kept the deck all day, silent, and watchful, and waiting. Mark spoke +to him once or twice, asking what he meant to do. Joel told him nothing. +He had fought out his fight the night before; he knew himself.... + +Mark and Finch talked together, during the morning. Joel watched them +without comment. Later he saw Mark speak to the other mates, one by one. +At dinner in the cabin, the mates were silent. Their eyes had something +of shame in them, and something of venomous hate.... They already hated +Joel, whom they planned to wrong.... + +The day was fair, and the wind drove them smoothly. There was no work to +be done, never a spout on the sea. Joel, watching once or twice the +whispering groups of idle men, wished a whale might be sighted; and once +he sent Morrell and Varde to find tasks for the men to do, and kept them +at it through the long afternoon, scraping, scrubbing, painting.... + +Priss kept to her cabin. When she did not appear at breakfast, Joel went +to her door and knocked. She called to him: "I've a headache. I'm going +to rest." He ordered that food be sent to her.... + +He stayed on deck till late, that night; but with the coming of night the +ship had grown quiet, and most of the men were below in the fo'c's'le. So +at last Joel left the deck to Varde, and went below. He sat down at his +desk and wrote up the day's log.... + +Priss came to him there. She had been in bed; and she wore a heavy +dressing gown over her night garments. Her hair was braided, hanging +across her shoulders. She sat down beside the desk, and when Joel could +fight back the misery in his eyes, he looked toward her and asked: + +"Is your head--better?" + +She said very quietly: "Joel, I want to ask you something." + +He wanted her sympathy so terribly, and her tone was so cool and so aloof +that he winced; but he said: "Very well?" + +"Mark says he asked you to take the _Nathan Ross_ to get--the pearls he +left on that island. Is that true?" + +"Yes," said Joel. + +"He says you would not do it." + +"I will not do it," Joel told her. + +"He says," said Priss quietly, "that you are afraid. He says that was +your own word ... when he accused you. Is that true?" + +If there had been any sympathy or understanding in her voice or in her +eyes, he would have told her ... told her that it was for his ship and +not for himself that he was afraid. But there was not. She was so cold +and hard.... He would not seek to justify himself to her.... + +"Yes," he said quietly. "I used that word." + +She turned her eyes quickly away from his, that he might not see the pain +in hers.... She rose to go back to her cabin.... + +As she reached the door, some one knocked on the door that led to the +main cabin; and without waiting for word from Joel, that door opened. +Mark stood there. He came in, with Finch, and Varde, and old Hooper and +young Morrell on his heels.... Priss shrank back into her cabin, closed +the door to a crack, listened.... + +Joel got to his feet. "What is it?" he asked. + +Mark bowed low, faced his brother with a cold and triumphant smile. +"These gentlemen have asked me," he explained, "to tell you that we have +decided to go fetch the pearls." + + + + +XIII + + +When Priss, through the crack in the door, heard what Mark had said, she +shut the door of her cabin soundlessly, and crouched against it, +listening. She was trembling.... + +There was a long moment when no one of the men in the after cabin spoke. +Then big Jim Finch said suavely: "That is to say, if Captain Shore does +not object." + +Joel asked then: "What if I do object?" + +Mark laughed. "If you do object, why--we'll just go anyway. But you'll +have no share." + +And surly Varde added: "We'd as soon you did object." + +Mark bade him be quiet. "That's not true, Joel," he said. "You know, I +wanted you in this, from the first. Your coming in will--prevent +complications. With you in, the whole matter is very simple, and safe.... +But without you, we will be forced to take measures that may +be--reprehensible." + +Joel did not speak; and Priss, trembling against the door, thought +bitterly: "He's afraid.... He said, himself, that he is afraid...." + +Dick Morrell begged eagerly: "Please, Captain Shore. There's a fortune +for all of us. Mr. Worthen would tell you to do it...." + +Joel said then: "I told Mark Shore in the beginning that I would not risk +my ship. The enterprise is not lawful. The pearls were stolen in the +beginning; murder hung around them. Bad luck would follow them--and there +are blacks on the island to prevent our finding them, in any case." + +"There's no harm in going to see," Morrell urged. + +"'Tis far out of our proper way. Wasted time. And--the men should be +thinking of oil, not of pearls." + +Mark laughed. "That may be," he agreed. "But the men's thoughts are +already on the pearls. They've no mind for whaling, Joel. They've no mind +for it." + +"I'm doubtful that what you say is true." + +His brother snapped angrily: "Do you call me liar?" + +"No," said Joel gently. "You were never one to lie, Mark." And Priss, +listening, winced at the thing that was like apology in his tone. She +heard Mark laugh again, aloud; and she heard the fat chuckle of Jim +Finch. Then Mark said: + +"It's well you remember that. So.... Will you go with us; or do we go +without you?" + +There was a long moment of silence before Joel answered. At last he said: +"You're making to spill blood on the _Nathan Ross_, Mark. I've no mind +for that. I'll not have it--if I can stop it. So ... I'll consider this +matter, to-night, and give you your answer in the morning." + +"You'll answer now," Varde said sullenly. "There's too much words and +words.... You'll answer now." + +"I'll answer in the morning," Joel repeated, as though he had not heard +Varde. "In the morning. And--for now--I'll bid you good night, +gentlemen." + +Mark chuckled. "There's one matter, Joel. You've two rifles and a pair of +revolvers in the lockfast by your cabin there. I'll take them--to avoid +that blood-spilling you mention." + +Priss held her breath, listening.... But Joel said readily: "Yes. Here is +the key, Mark. And--I hold you responsible for the weapons." + +Her anger at Joel for his submission beat in her ears; and she heard the +jingle of the keys, and the scrape and ring of the weapons as Mark took +them. He called to Joel as he did so: "They'll not leave my hands. Till +the morning, Joel, my boy...." + +The keys jingled again. Mark said: "We'll ask you to stay in the after +cabin here till morning. And--Varde will be in the main cabin to see that +you do it." + +"I'll stay here," Joel promised. + +"Then--we'll bid you good night!" + +Priss heard Joel echo the words, in even tones. Then the door closed +behind the men.... There was no further sound in the after cabin. + +She opened her door. Joel stood by his desk, head drooping, one hand +resting on the open log before him. She went toward him, and when he +turned and saw her, she stopped, and studied him, her eyes searching his. +And at last she said, so softly it was as though she spoke to herself: + +"'All the brothers were valiant,' Joel. Are you--just a coward?" + +He would not justify himself to her; he could only remember the shadowed +deck beneath the boat house--Priscilla in his brother's arms.... He +lifted his right hand a little, said sternly: + +"Go back to your place." + +She flung her eyes away from him, stood for an instant, then went to her +cabin with feet that lagged and stumbled. + + + + +XIV + + +Joel lay for an hour, planning what he should do. He could not yield.... +He could not yield, even though he might wish to do so; for the yielding +would forfeit forever all control over these men, or any others. He could +not yield.... + +Yet he did not wish to fight; for the battle would be hopeless, with only +death at the end for him, and it would ruin the men and lose the ship.... +Blood marks a ship with a mark that cannot be washed away. And Joel loved +his ship; and he loved his men with something of the love of a father for +children. Children they were. He knew them. Simple, easily led, easily +swept by some adventurous vision.... + +He slept, at last, dreamlessly; and in the morning, when they came to +him, he told them what he wished to do. + +"Call the men aft," he said. "I'll speak to them. We'll see what their +will is." + +Mark mocked him. "Ask the men, is it?" he exclaimed. "Let them vote, +you'll be saying. Are you master of the ship, man; or just first +selectman, that you'd call a town meeting on the high seas?" + +"I'll talk with the men," said Joel stubbornly. + +Varde strode forward angrily. "You'll talk with us," he said. "Yes or no. +Now. What is it?" + +They were in the main cabin. Joel looked at Varde steadily for an +instant; then he said: "I'm going on deck. You'll come...." + +Priss, in the door of the after cabin, a frightened and trembling little +figure, called to him: "Joel. Joel. Don't...." + +He said, without turning: "Stay in your cabin, Priscilla." And then he +passed between Varde and Finch, at the foot of the companion, and turned +his back upon them and went steadily up the steep, ladder-like stair. +Varde made a convulsive movement to seize his arm; but Mark touched the +man, held him with his eyes, whispered something.... + +They had left old Hooper on deck. He and Aaron Burnham were standing in +the after house when Joel saw them. Joel said to the third mate: "Mr. +Hooper, tell the men to lay aft." + +Mark had come up at Joel's heels; and Hooper looked past Joel to Mark for +confirmation. And Mark smiled mirthlessly, and approved. "Yes, Mr. +Hooper, call the men," he said. "We're to hold a town meeting." + +Old Hooper's slow brain could not follow such maneuvering; nevertheless, +he bellowed a command. And the harpooners from the steerage, and the men +from forecastle and fore deck came stumbling and crowding aft. The men +stopped amidships; and Joel went toward them a little ways, until he was +under the boat house. The mates stood about him, the harpooners a little +to one side; and Mark leaned on the rail at the other side of the deck, +watching, smiling.... The revolvers were in his belt; the rifles leaned +against the after rail. He polished the butt of one of the revolvers +while he watched and smiled.... + +Joel said, without preamble: "Men, the mates tell me that you've heard of +my brother's pearls." + +The men looked at one another, and at the mates. They were a jumbled lot, +riff-raff of all the seas, Cape Verders, Islanders, a Cockney or two, a +Frenchman, two or three Norsemen, and a backbone of New England stock. +They looked at one another, and at the mates, with stupid, questioning +eyes; and one or two of them nodded in a puzzled way, and the Cape +Verders grinned with embarrassment. A New Englander drawled: + +"Aye, sir. We've heard th' tale." + +Joel nodded. "When my brother came aboard at Tubuai," he said quietly, +"he proposed that we go to this island.... I do not know its position--" + +Mark drawled from across the deck: "You know as much as any man +aboard--myself excepted, Joel. It's my own secret, mind." + +"He proposed that we go to this island," Joel pursued, "and that he and I +go ashore and get the pearls and say nothing about them." + +Varde, at Joel's side, swung his head and looked bleakly at Mark Shore; +and one or two of the men murmured. Joel said quickly: "Don't +misunderstand. I'm not blaming him for that. You must not. The pearls are +his. He has a right to them.... + +"What I want you to know is that I refused to go with him and get them on +half shares. I could have had half, and refused.... + +"Now he has spread the story among you. And the mates say that I must go +with you all, and get the things." + +He stopped, and the eyes of the men were on him; and one or two nodded, +and a voice here and there exclaimed in approval. Joel waited until they +were quiet again; then he said: "These--pearls--have cost life. At least +five men and a woman died in the getting of them. If we had them aboard +here, more of us would die; for none would be content with his share.... + +"It's in my mind that they'd bring blood aboard the _Nathan Ross_. And I +have no wish for that. But first-- + +"How many of you are for going after them?" + +There was a murmur of assent from many throats; and Joel looked from man +to man. "Most of you, at least," he said. "Is there any man against +going?" + +There may have been, but no man spoke; and over Joel's face passed a +weary little shadow of pain. For a long moment he stood in the sun, +studying them; and they saw his lips were white. Then he said quietly: + +"You shall not go. The _Nathan Ross_ goes on about her proper matters. +The pearls stay where they are." + +He shifted his weight, looked quickly toward his brother.... He was +poised for battle. By the very force of his word, there was a chance he +might prevail. He watched the men, in whose hands the answer lay. If he +could hold them.... + +Hands clamped his arms, and Mark smiled across the deck. Finch and old +Hooper on one side, Varde and Morrell on the other. And after the first +wrench of his surprise, he knew it was hopeless to struggle, and stood +quietly. Mark strolled across the deck, smiling coldly. + +"If you'll not go, Joel, you must be taken," he said. And to the mates: +"Bring back his arms." + +Joel felt the cord slipped through his elbows and drawn tight and looped +and made secure. Old Aaron Burnham pushed forward and tugged at them; and +Joel heard him say: "They'll hold him fast, Captain Shore. Like a trussed +fowl, sir. That he is...." + +"Captain Shore?" That would be Mark, come into command of the ship again. +And Aaron added: "I've set the bolt on his cabin door, sir. Not five +minutes gone." + +Mark laughed. "Good enough, Aaron. You and Varde take him down. Varde, +you'll stay in the after cabin. If he tries to get free, summon me. +And--treat Mrs. Shore with the utmost courtesy." + +Varde was at Joel's side; and Joel saw the twist of his smile at Mark's +last word. For a moment, thought of Priss left Joel sick. He thrust the +thought aside.... + +They took him down into the main cabin; Varde ahead, then Joel, and old +Aaron close behind, his hand on Joel's elbow. Priss met them in the after +cabin, crouching in a corner, white and still, her hands at her throat. +Her eyes met his for an instant, before Varde led him toward his own +cabin. Aaron, behind, looked toward Priss; and the girl whispered +hoarsely: + +"Is he--hurt?" + +"He is not," said Aaron grimly. "We were most gentle with the man; and he +made no struggle at all...." + +Varde thrust Joel into the little cabin where his bunk was; and Joel +heard the snick of a new-set bolt on the outer side of the door. He was +alone, bound fast.... + +Before he left the deck, he had heard Mark cry an order to the man at the +wheel. The telltale in the after cabin ceiling told him the _Nathan Ross_ +had changed her course again ... for Mark's island.... In the face of +men, he had held himself steady and calm.... But now, alone in his cabin, +he strained at his bonds, lips cracking over set teeth. He strained and +tugged.... Hopeless.... + +No! Not hopeless! He felt them yield a little, a little more.... Then, +with a tiny snap of sound, the coils were loose, and he shook the cords +down over his wrists and hands. He caught them as they fell across his +fingers, lest the sound of their fall might warn Varde, in the cabin +outside his door; and--he was still stupefied by the surprise of this +deliverance--he lifted the broken bonds and examined them.... + +A single strand had yielded, loosing all the rest. And where it had +broken, Joel saw, it had been sliced all but through, with a keen blade. + +Who? His thoughts raced back over the brief minutes of his bondage. Who? + +No other but Aaron Burnham could have had the chance and the good will. +Old Aaron.... And Aaron's knives were always razor sharp. Drawn once +across the tight-stretched cord.... + +Aaron had freed him. Aaron.... + +He remembered something else. Aaron's words to Mark on deck. "I've set +the bolt on his cabin door...." + +Aaron had set the new bolt that was the only bar between him and the +after cabin, where Varde stood watch. Aaron had set the bolt; and Aaron +had cut his bonds. Therefore--the bolt must be flimsy, easily forced +away. That would be Aaron's plan. A single thrust would open the way.... + +He turned toward the door; then caught himself, drew back, dropped on the +bunk and lay there, planning what he must do. + + + + +XV + + +The discovery of Aaron's loyalty had been immensely heartening to Joel. +If Aaron were loyal, there might be others.... Must be.... Not all men +are false.... + +He wondered who they would be; he went over the men, one by one, from +mate to humblest foremast hand. Finch and Varde were surely against him. +Old Hooper--he and Aaron were cronies, and the other mates had left +Hooper somewhat out of their movements thus far. Old Hooper might be, +give him his chance, on Joel's side.... + +Old Hooper, and Aaron. Two. Dick Morrell? A boy, hot with the wonder and +glamor of Mark's tale. Easily swung to either side. Joel thought he would +not swing too desperately to the lawless side. But--he could not be +counted on. What others were there? + +Joel had brought his own harpooner from the _Martin Wilkes_. A big Island +black. A decent man.... A chance. Besides him, there were three men who +had served Asa Worthen long among the foremast hands. Uncertain +quantities. Chances everywhere.... + +But--he must strike quickly. There was no time to sound them out. When +his dinner was brought at noon, his broken bonds would be discovered. +They would be more careful thereafter. Three hours lay before him.... + +He set himself to listen with all his ears; to guess at what was going on +above decks, and so choose his moment. He must wait as long as it was +safe to wait; he must wait till men's bloods ran less hot after the +crisis of the morning. He must wait till sober second thought was upon +them.... + +But there was always the chance to fear that Mark might come down. He +could not wait too long.... + +He could hear feet moving on the deck above his head. The _Nathan Ross_ +had run into rougher weather with her change of course; the wind was +stiffening, and now and then a whisk of spray came aboard. He heard Jim +Finch's bellowing commands.... Heard Mark's laughter. Mark and Jim were +astern, fairly over his head. + +There were men in the main cabin. The scrape of their feet, the murmur of +their voices came to him. Dick Morrell and old Hooper, perhaps.... + +It was through these men that Joel's moment came. Finch, on deck, shouted +down to them.... Mark had decided to shorten sail, ease the strain on the +old masts. Joel heard Morrell and Hooper go up to the deck.... + +That would mean most of the men aloft.... The decks would be fairly +clear. His chance.... + +He wished he could know where Varde sat; but he could not be sure of +that, and he could not wait to guess by listening. He caught up a blanket +from his bunk, held it open in his hands, drew back--and threw himself +against the cabin door. + +It opened so easily that he overbalanced, all but fell. The screws had +been set in punch holes so large that the threads scarce took hold at +all. Joel stumbled out--saw Varde on the cushioned bench which ran across +the stern. The mate was reading, a book from Joel's narrow shelf. At +sight of Joel, he was for an instant paralyzed with surprise.... + +That instant was long enough for Joel. He swept the blanket down upon the +man, smothering his cries with fold on fold; and he grappled Varde, and +crushed him, and beat at his head with his fists until the mate's +spasmodic struggles slackened. Priss had heard the sounds of combat, +swept out of her cabin, bent above them. He looked up and saw her; and he +said quietly: + +"Get back into your place." + +She cried pitifully: "I want to help. Please...." + +He shook his head. "This is my task. Quick." + +She fled.... + +He lifted Varde and carried him back to the cabin where he himself had +been captive; and there, with the cords that had bound his own arms, he +bound Varde, wrist and ankle; and he stripped away the blanket, and +stuffed into Varde's mouth a heavy, woolen sock, and tied it there with a +handkerchief.... Varde's eyes flickered open at the last; and Joel said +to him: + +"I must leave you here for the present. You will do well to lie quietly." + +He left the man lying on the floor, and went out into the after cabin and +salvaged the bolt and screws that had been sent flying by his thrust. He +put the bolt back in place, pushed the screws into the holes, bolted the +door.... No trace remained of his escape.... + +Priss stood in her own door. Without looking at her, he opened the door +into the main cabin. That apartment was empty, as he had expected. The +companion stair led to the deck.... + +But he could not go up that way. Mark and Jim Finch were within reach of +the top of the stair; he would be at a disadvantage, coming up to them +from below. He must reach the deck before they saw him. + +He crossed the cabin to a lockfast, and opened it, and took out the two +pairs of heavy ship's irons that lay there. Spring handcuffs that locked +without a key.... He put one pair in each pocket of his coat. + +There was a seldom used door that opened from the main cabin into a +passage which led in turn to the steerage where the harpooners slept. +Joel stepped to this door, slipped the bolt, entered the passage, and +closed the door behind him. + +It was black dark, where he stood. The passage was unlighted; and the +swinging lamp in the steerage did not send its rays this far. The _Nathan +Ross_ was heeling and bucking heavily in the cross seas, and Joel chose +his footing carefully, and moved forward along the passage, his hands +braced against the wall on either side. The way was short, scarce half a +dozen feet; but he was long in covering the distance, and he paused +frequently to listen. He had no wish to encounter the harpooners in their +narrow quarters.... + +He heard, at last, the muffled sound of a snore; and so covered the last +inches of his way more quickly. When he was able to look into the place, +he saw that two of the men were in their bunks, apparently asleep. The +black whom he had brought from the _Nathan Ross_ was not there. Joel was +glad to think he was on deck; glad to hope for the chance of his help.... + +With steps so slow he seemed like a shadow in the semi-darkness, he +crossed to the foot of the ladder that led to the deck. The men in their +bunks still slept. He began to climb.... The ship was rolling heavily, so +that he was forced to grip the ladder tightly.... One of the sleepers +stirred, and Joel froze where he stood, and watched, and waited for +endless seconds till the man became quiet once more. + +He climbed till his head was on a level with the deck still hidden by the +sides of the scuttle at the top of the ladder. And there he poised +himself; for the last steps to the deck must be made in a single rush, so +quickly that interference would be impossible.... + +He made them; one ... three.... He stood upon the deck, looked aft.... + +Mark and Jim Finch stood there, not ten feet away from him. Finch's back +was turned, but Mark saw Joel instantly; and Joel, watching, saw Mark's +mouth widen in a broad and mischievously delighted smile. + + + + +XVI + + +At the moment when Joel reached the deck, the other men aboard the +_Nathan Ross_ were widely scattered. + +Varde, the second mate, he had left tied and helpless in the cabin. Two +of the four harpooners were below in their bunks, asleep. The greater +part of one watch was likewise below, in the fo'c's'le; and the rest of +the crew, under Dick Morrell's eye, were shortening sail. In the after +part of the ship there were only Mark Shore, Finch, a foremast hand at +the wheel, old Aaron Burnham, and the cook. Of these, Mark, Jim, and the +man at the wheel were in sight when Joel appeared; and only Mark had seen +him. + +Joel saw his brother smile, and stood for an instant, poised to meet an +attack. None came. He swept his eyes forward and saw that he need fear no +immediate interference from that direction; and so he went quietly toward +the men astern. The broad back of Jim Finch was within six feet of +him.... + +What moved Mark Shore in that moment, it is hard to say. It may have been +the reckless spirit of the man, willing to wait and watch and see what +Joel would do; or it may have been the distaste he must have felt for Jim +Finch's slavish adulation; or it may have been an unadmitted admiration +for Joel's courage.... + +At any rate, while Joel advanced, Mark stood still and smiled; and he +gave Finch no warning, so that when Joel touched the mate's elbow, Finch +whirled with a startled gasp of surprise and consternation, and in his +first panic, tried to back away. Still Mark made no move. The man at the +wheel uttered one exclamation, looked quickly at Mark for commands, and +took his cue from his leader. Finch was left alone and unsupported to +face Joel. + +Joel did not pursue the retreating mate. He stepped to the rail, where +the whaleboats hung, and called to Finch quietly: + +"Mr. Finch, step here." + +Finch had retreated until his shoulders were braced against the wall of +the after house. He leaned there, hands outspread against the wall behind +him, staring at Joel with goggling eyes. And Joel said again: + +"Come here, Mr. Finch." + +Joel's composure, and the determination and the confidence in his tone, +frightened Finch. He clamored suddenly: "How did he get here, Captain +Shore? Jump him. Tie him up--you--Aaron...." + +He appealed to the man at the wheel, and to old Aaron, who had appeared +in the doorway of the tiny compartment where his tools were stored. +Neither stirred. Mark Shore, chuckling, stared at Finch and at Joel; and +Finch cried: + +"Captain Shore. Come on. Let's get him...." + +Joel said for the third time: "Come here, Finch." + +Finch held out a hand to Mark, appealingly. Mark shook his head. "This is +your affair, Finch," he said. "Go get him, yourself. He's waiting for +you. And--you're twice his size." + +Give Finch his due. With even moral support behind him, he would have +overwhelmed Joel in a single rush. Without that support, he would still +have faced any reasonable attack. But there was something baffling about +Joel's movements, his tones, the manner of his command, that stupefied +Finch. He felt that he was groping in the dark. The mutiny must have +collapsed.... It may have been only a snare to trap him.... He was +alone--against Joel, and with none to support him.... + +Finch's courage was not of the solitary kind. He took one slow step +toward Joel, and in that single step was surrender. + +Joel stood still, but his eyes held the big man's; and he said curtly: +"Quickly, Finch." + +Finch took another lagging step, another.... + +Joel dropped his hand in his coat pocket and drew out a pair of irons. He +tossed them toward Finch; and the mate shrank, and the irons struck him +in the body and fell to the deck. He stared down at them, stared at Joel. + +Joel said: "Pick them up. Snap one on your right wrist. Then put your +arms around the davit, there, and snap the other...." + +Finch shook his head in a bewildered way, as though trying to understand; +and abruptly, a surge of honest anger swept him, and he stiffened, and +wheeled to rush at Joel. But Joel made no move either to retreat or to +meet the attack; and Finch, like a huge and baffled bear, slumped again, +and slowly stooped, and gathered up the handcuffs.... + +With them in his hands, he looked again at Joel; and for a long moment +their eyes battled. Then Joel stepped forward, touched Finch lightly on +the arm, and guided him toward the rail. Finch was absolutely +unresisting. The sap had gone out of him.... + +Joel drew the man's arms around the davit, and snapped the irons upon his +wrist. Finch was fast there, out of whatever action there was to come. +And Joel's lips tightened with relief. He stepped back.... + +He saw, then, that some of the crew had heard, and three or four of them +were gathering amidships, near the try works. The two harpooners were +there; and one of them was that black whom Joel had brought from the +_Martin Wilkes_, and in whom he placed some faith. He eyed these men for +a moment, wondering whether they were nerved to strike.... + +But they did not stir, they did not move toward him; and he guessed they +were as stupefied as Finch by what had happened. So long as the men aft +allowed him to go free, they would not interfere. They did not +understand; and without understanding, they were helpless. + +He turned his back on them, and looked toward Mark. + +Mark Shore had watched Joel's encounter with Finch in frank enjoyment. +Such incidents pleased him; they appealed to his love for the bold and +daring facts of life.... He had smiled. + +But now Joel saw that he had stepped back a little, perhaps by accident. +He was behind the man at the wheel, behind the spot where Aaron Burnham +stood. He was standing almost against the after rail, in the narrow +corridor that runs fore and aft through the after house.... + +The pistols were in his belt, and the two rifles leaned on the rail at +his side. Mark himself was standing at ease, his arms relaxed, his hands +resting lightly on his hips and his feet apart. He swayed to the movement +of the ship, balancing with the unconscious ease of long custom. + +Joel went toward him, not slowly, yet without haste. He passed old Aaron +with no word, passed the wheelman, and faced his brother. They were +scarce two feet apart when he stopped; and there were no others near +enough to hear, above the slashing of the seas and the whistle of the +wind, his low words. + +He said: "Mark, you've made a mistake. A bad mistake. In--starting this +mutiny." + +Mark smiled slowly. "That's a hard word, Joel. It's in my mind that if +this is mutiny, it's a very peaceful model." + +"Nevertheless, it is just that," said Joel. "It is that, and it is also a +mistake. And--you are wise man enough to see this. There is still time to +remedy the thing. It can be forgotten." + +Mark chuckled. "If that is true, you've a most convenient memory, Joel." + +Joel's cheeks flushed slowly, and he answered: "I am anxious to +forget--whatever shames the House of Shore." + +Mark threw back his head and laughed aloud. "Bless you, boy," he +exclaimed. "'Tis no shame to you to have fallen victim to our numbers." +But there was a heat in his tones that told Joel he was shaken. And Joel +insisted steadily: + +"It was not my own shame I feared." + +"Mine, then?" Mark challenged. + +"Aye," said Joel. "Yours." + +Mark bent toward him with a mocking flare of anger in his eyes; and he +said harshly: "You've spoken too much for a small man. Be silent. And go +below." + +Joel waited for an instant; then his shoulders stirred as though he chose +a hard course, and he held out his hand and said quietly: "Give me the +guns, Mark." + +Mark stared at him; and he laughed aloud. "You're immense, boy," he +applauded. "The cool nerve of you...." His eyes warmed with frank +admiration. "Joel, hark to this," he cried, and jerked his head toward +the captive Finch. "You've ripped the innards out of that mate of mine. +I'll give you the job. You're mate of the _Nathan Ross_ and I'm proud to +have you...." + +"I am captain of the _Nathan Ross_," said Joel. "And you are my brother, +and a--mutineer. Give me the guns." + +Mark threw up his hand angrily. "You'll not hear reason. Then--go below, +and stay there. You...." + +There are few men who can stand flat-footed and still hit a crushing +blow; but Joel did just this. When Mark began to speak, Joel's hands had +been hanging limply at his sides. On Mark's last word, Joel's right hand +whipped up as smoothly as a whip snaps; and it smacked on Mark's lean jaw +with much the sound a whip makes. It struck just behind the point of the +jaw, on the left hand side; and Mark's head jerked back, and his knees +sagged, and he tottered weakly forward into Joel's very arms. + +Joel's hands were at the other's belt, even as Mark fell. He brought out +the revolvers, then let Mark slip down to the deck; and he stepped over +the twitching body of his brother, and caught up the two rifles, and +dropped them, with the revolvers, over the after rail. + +Mark's splendid body had already begun to recover from the blow; he was +struggling to sit up, and he saw what Joel did, and cried aloud: "Don't +be a fool, boy. Keep them.... Hell!" For the weapons were gone. Joel +turned, and looked down at him; and he said quietly: + +"While I can help it, there'll be no blood shed on my ship." + +Mark swept an arm toward the waist of the ship, and Joel looked and saw a +growing knot of angry men there. "See them, do you?" Mark demanded. +"They're drunk for blood. It's out of your hands, Joel. You've thrown +your ace away. Now, boy--what will you do?" + +The men began to surge aft, along the deck. + + + + +XVII + + +THE story of that battle upon the tumbling decks of the _Nathan Ross_ was +to be told and re-told at many a gam upon the whaling grounds. It was +such a story as strong men love; a story of overwhelming odds, of epic +combat, of splendid death where blood ran hot and strong.... + +There were a full score of men in the group that came aft toward Joel. +And as they came, others, running from the fo'c's'le and dropping from +the rigging, joined them. Every man was drunk with the vision of wealth +that he had built upon Mark Shore's story. The thing had grown and grown +in the telling; it had fattened on the greed native in the men; and it +was a monstrous thing now, and one that would not be denied.... The men, +as they moved aft, made grumbling sounds with their half-caught breath; +and these sounds blended into a roaring growl like the growl of a beast. + +To face these men stood Joel. For an instant, he was alone. Then, without +word, old Aaron took his stand beside his captain. Aaron held gripped in +both hands an adze. Its edge was sharp enough to slice hard wood like +cheese.... And at Joel's other side, the cook. A round man, with greasy +traces of his craft upon his countenance. He carried a heavy cleaver. +There is an ancient feud between galley and fo'c's'le; and the men +greeting the cook's coming with a hungry cry of delight.... + +Joel glanced at these new allies, and saw their weapons. He took the adze +from Aaron, the cleaver from the other; and he turned and hurled them +behind him, over the rail. And in the moment's silence that followed on +this action, he called to the men: + +"Go back to your places." + +They growled at him; they were wordless, but they knew the thing they +desired. The cook complained at Joel's elbow: "I could use that cleaver." + +"I'll not have blood spilled," Joel told him. "If there's fighting, it +will be with fists...." + +And Mark touched Joel lightly on the shoulder, and took his place beside +him. He was smiling, a twisted smile above the swollen lump upon his jaw. +He said lightly: "If it's fists, Joel--I think I'm safest to fight beside +you." + +Joel looked up at him with a swift glance, and he brushed his hand across +his eyes, and nodded. "I counted on that, Mark--in the last, long run," +he said. Mark gripped his arm and pressed it; and in that moment the +long, unspoken enmity between the brothers died forever. They faced the +men.... + +One howled like a wolf: "He's done us. Done us in." + +And another: "They're going to hog it. Them two...." + +The little sea of scowling, twisting faces moved, it surged forward.... +The men charged, more than a score, to overwhelm the four. + +In the moment before, Joel had marked young Dick Morrell, at one side, +twisted with indecision; and in the instant when the men moved, he +called: "With us, Mr. Morrell." + +It was command, not question; and the boy answered with a shout and a +blow.... On the flank of the men, he swept toward them. And Joel's +harpooner, and one of Asa Worthen's old men formed a triumvirate that +fought there.... + +They were thus seven against a score. But they were seven good men. And +the score were a mob.... + +It was fists, at the first, as Joel had sworn. The first, charging line +broke upon them; and old Aaron was swept back, fighting like a cat, and +crushed and bruised and left helpless in an instant. The fat cook dodged +into his galley, and snatched a knife and held the door there, prodding +the flanks of those who swirled past his stronghold. Joel dropped the +first man who came to him; and likewise Mark. But another twined 'round +Joel's legs, and he could not kick them free, and there was no time to +stoop and tear the man away. + +He and Mark kept back to back for a moment; but Mark was not a defensive +fighter. He could not stand still and wait attack; and when his second +man fell, he leaped the twisting body and charged into the clump of them. +His black hair tossed, his eye was flaming; and his long arms worked like +pistons and like flails. He became the center of a group that writhed and +dissolved, and formed again. His head rose above them all. + +The man who gripped Joel's legs, freed one hand and began to beat at +Joel's body from below. Joel could not endure the blows; he bent, and +took a rain of buffets on his head and shoulders while he caught the +attacker by the throat, and lifted him up and flung him away. He +staggered free, set his back against the galley wall; and when he shifted +to avoid another attack, he found his place in the galley door. The fat +cook crouched behind him, and Joel heard him shout: "I'll watch your +legs, Cap'n. Give 'em the iron, sir. Give 'em th' iron." + +Once Joel, looking down, saw the cook's knife play like a flame between +his knees.... None would seek to pin him there. + +The black harpooner fought his way across the deck to Joel's side. He +left a trail of twisting bodies behind him. And he was grinning with a +huge delight. "Now, sar, we'll do 'em, sar," he screamed. The sweat +poured down his black cheeks; and his mouth was cut and bleeding. His +shirt was torn away from one shoulder and arm.... + +"Good man," said Joel, between his panting blows. "Good man!" + +Across the deck, one who had run forward for a handspike swept it down on +young Dick Morrel's brown head. Morrell dodged, but the blow cracked his +shoulder and swept him to the deck. The man who had fought beside him +spraddled the prostrate body, and jerked an iron from the boat on the +davits at his back and held it like a lance, to keep all men at a +distance. A sheath knife sped, and twisted in the air, and struck him +butt first above the eye, so that he fell limply and lay still.... + +Mark Shore had been forced against the rail near where Jim Finch was +pinned. Big Finch was howling and weeping with fright; and a little man +of the crew with a rat's mean soul who hated Finch had found his hour. He +was leaping about the mate, lashing him mercilessly with a heavy end of +rope; and Finch screamed and twisted beneath the blows. + +So swiftly had the tumult of the battle arisen that all these things had +come to pass before the harpooners asleep in the steerage could wake and +reach the deck. When they climbed the ladder, and looked about them, they +saw Morrell and his ally prostrate at one side, Joel and the cook holding +the galley door against a half dozen men; and big Mark's towering head +amidst a knot of half a dozen more. And one of the harpooners backed away +toward the waist of the ship, watchful and wary, taking no part in the +affair. + +But the other ... He was a Cape Verder, black blood crossed with Spanish; +and Mark Shore had tied him to a davit, once upon a time, and lashed him +till he bled, for faults committed. He saw Mark now, and his eyes shone +greedily. + +This man crouched, and crossed to a boat--his own--and chose his own +harpoon. He twisted off the wooden sheath that covered the point, and +flung it across the deck; and he poised the heavy iron in his hands, and +started slowly toward Mark, moving on tiptoe, lightly as a cat. + +Mark saw him coming; and the big man shouted joyfully: "Why, Silva! Come, +you...." + +He flung aside the men encircling him. One among them held the handspike +with which he had struck down Morrell; and Mark smote this man in the +body, and when he doubled, wrenched the great club from his hands. He +swung this, leaped to meet the harpooner. + +They came together in mid-deck. The great handspike whistled through the +air, and down. An egg-shell crunched beneath a heel.... Silva dropped. + +Mark stood for an instant above him; and in that instant, every man saw +the harpoon which Silva had driven home. Its heavy shaft hung, dragging +on the deck; it hung from Mark's breast, high in the right shoulder; and +the point stood out six inches behind his shoulder blade. It seemed to +drag at him; he bent slowly beneath its weight, and drooped, and lay at +last across the body of the man whose skull the handspike had crushed. + +There were, at that moment, about a dozen of the men still on their feet; +but in the instant of their paralyzed dismay, two things struck them; two +furies ... Dick Morrell, tottering on unsteady feet, brandishing a +razor-tipped lance full ten feet long. He came upon the men from the +flank, shouting; and Joel, when he saw his brother fall, left his shelter +in the galley door and swept upon them. The fat cook, with the knife, +fought nobly at his side. + +The men broke; they fled headlong, forward; and Joel and Morrell and the +cook pursued them, through the waist, past the trypots, till they tumbled +down the fo'c's'le scuttle and huddled in their bunks and howled.... + +A dozen limp bodies sprawled upon the deck, bodies of moaning men with +heads that would ache and pound for days.... Joel left Morrell to guard +the fo'c's'le, and went back among them, going swiftly from man to +man.... + +Silva was dead. The others would not die--save only Mark. The iron had +pierced his chest, had ripped a lung.... + + + + +XVIII + + +He died that night, smiling to the last. He was able to speak, now and +then, before the end; and Joel and Priss were near him, at his side, +soothing him, listening.... + +He asked Joel, once: "Shall I tell you--where--pearls..." + +Joel shook his head. "I do not want them," he said. "They have enough +blood to turn them crimson. Let them lie." + +And Mark smiled, and nodded faintly. "Right, boy. Let them lie...." And +his eyes shone up at them; and he whispered presently: "That was--a fight +to tell about, Joel...." + +In those hours beside Mark, Priss completed the transition from girl to +woman. She was very sober, and quiet; but she did not weep, and she +answered Mark's smiles. And Mark, watching her, seemed to remember +something, toward the last. Joel saw his eyes beckon; and he bent above +his brother, and Mark whispered weakly: + +"Treasure--Priss, Joel. She's--worth all.... Kissed her, but she fought +me...." + +Joel gripped his brother's hand. "I knew there was no--harm in you--or in +her," he said. "Don't trouble, Mark...." + +When old Aaron had stitched the canvas shroud, they laid Mark on the +cutting stage; and Joel read over him from the Book, while the men stood +silent by. Chastened men, heads bandaged, arms in slings ... Big Jim +Finch at one side, shamed of face. Varde, sullen as ever, but with +hopelessness writ large upon him. Morrell, and old Hooper.... + +Joel finished, and he closed the Book. "Unto the deep...." The cutting +stage tilted, and the wave leaped and caught its burden and bore it +softly down.... The sun was shining, the sea danced, the wind was warm on +fair Priscilla's cheek.... + +And as though, the brief, dramatic chapter being ended, another must at +once begin, the masthead man presently called down to Joel the long, +droning hail: + +"Ah-h-h-h! Blow-w-w-w-w!" + +And he flung his arm toward where a misty spout sparkled in the sun a +mile or two away. Minutes later, the boats took water; and the _Nathan +Ross_ was about her business again. + + * * * * * + +Joel wrote in the log that night, with Priscilla beside him, her fingers +in his hair. Priscilla had been very humble, till Joel took her in his +arms and comforted her.... + +He set down the ship's position; he recorded their capture, that day, of +a great bull cachalot; and then: + +"... This day Mark Shore was buried at sea. He died late last night, from +wounds received when he fought valiantly to put down the mutiny of the +crew. Fourth brother of the House of Shore...." + +And below, the ancient and enduring epitaph: + + "'All the brothers were valiant.'" + +Priscilla, reading over his shoulder, pointed to this line and whispered +sorrowfully: "But I--called you coward, Joel." He looked up at her, and +smiled a little. "I know better now," she said. "So--give me the pen ... +And close your eyes...." + +He heard the scratch of steel on paper; and when he opened his eyes again +he saw that Priscilla had underscored, with three deep strokes, the first +word of that honorable line. + +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANT*** + + +******* This file should be named 25885.txt or 25885.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/8/8/25885 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + |