"I doubt if he means trouble over the 'gris."
Noll waved a hand fretfully. "He's too much with the crew, Mr. Tobey."
Dan'l shook his head. "I doubt it. That's one way to handle men—Be one of them. They'll do anything for him, sir."
Noll's eyes narrowed with the shrewdness of a drunken man. "That's the worst part of it. Will they do anything for me, Dan'l? Or for you?"
Dan'l said reluctantly: "Well, sir, maybe they'd jump quicker for him."
"And that's not reassuring," said Noll. "Is it, now?"
"It wouldn't be, if he meant wrong. I don't think he does. Any case, he knows the 'gris is not his, in the end...." And he added: "You're concerned over Faith and him—the way they are when they're together. But there's no need, sir. Faith is loyal...."
Noll looked at the mate, and he frowned. "How are they, when they're together?"
"I thought you had marked it for yourself.... I meant nothing."
"Nothing? You meant something. You've seen something. What is it you've seen, Dan'l?"