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....