The Sea Bride

by Ben Ames Williams

Mauger looked up and grinned unhappily and apologetically. "You know," he said. "You and—her...."

Brander's eyes hardened; he said, under his breath: "Thanks, Mauger." And he walked away from where the one-eyed man was scrubbing. Mauger rose on his knees to look after the fourth mate with something like worship in his eyes.

Brander went aft with his problem. A real problem. Faith besmirched.... He would have cut off his right hand to prevent it; but cutting off his right hand would have done no good whatever. He would have fought the whole crew of the Sally, single-handed; but that would have done even less good than the other. You cannot permanently gag a man by jamming your fist in his mouth. And Brander knew it; so that while he boiled with anger and disgust, he held himself in check, and tried to consider what should be done....

Must do something.... No easy task to determine what that something was to be.

Brander considered the members of the crew; the fo'm'st hands. Slatter he knew; an evil man. Others there were like him, either from weakness or sheer malignant festering of the soul. But there were some who were men, some who were decent.... Some who would fight the foul talk, wisely or unwisely as the case might be; some who had eyes to see the goodness of Faith, and hearts to trust her....

Brander's task was to help these men. He could not himself go into the fo'c's'le and strike; to do so would only spread the filth of words abroad. But—one thing he could do. He saw the way....

Avoid Faith.... That would not be easy, since their lives must lie in the cabin. Avoid Faith, avoid speaking to her save in the most casual way, avoid being alone with her. That much he must do; and something more. The crew would be spying on them now, watching, whispering. He must give them no food for whispers; he must go further. He must give them proof that their whispers were ill-founded. He must....

It was this word of Mauger's that led Brander to a determination which was to threaten him with ruin in the end; it was this word of Mauger's that determined Brander to give himself to the crew. To keep some of them always near him, always in sight of him; to force them, if he could, to see for themselves that he had little talk with Faith and few words with her. That was what Brander planned to do. He worked out the details carefully. When he was on deck, he must keep in their sight; and he must keep himself on deck every hour of the day save when he went below for meals. He decided to do more; the nights were warm and pleasant. He had a hammock swung under the boathouse, and planned to sleep there; he laid open his whole life to their prying eyes. Let them see for themselves....

He was satisfied with this arrangement, at last. It was the best that could be done; he put it into action at once, and he saw within three days' time that Slatter and the others had noticed, and were wondering and questioning.

The men were puzzled; the cabin was puzzled. And no one was more puzzled by Brander's new way of life than Dan'l Tobey. He was puzzled, but he was at the same time elated. For he perceived that Brander had given him a weapon, a handle to take hold of. And Dan'l was not slow to take advantage of it.