The Sea Bride

by Ben Ames Williams

She watched it for a space; then put the glass aside with thoughtful eyes.

Brander's coming, in ways that could hardly be defined, eased the tension aboard the Sally. When the man went forward to stow his belongings in the fo'c's'le, he found the men surly.... Quarrelsome.... They looked at him sidewise.... They covertly inspected him....

The men of a whaler's crew are a polyglot lot, picked up from the gutters and the depths. There were good men aboard the Sally, strong men, who knew their work.... Some of them had served Noll Wing before; some had made more than one voyage on the ships of old Jonathan Felt. There was loyalty in these men, and a pride in their tasks.... But there were others who were slack; and there were others who were evil.... The green hands had been made over into able seamen, according to a whaler's standard; and some of them had become men in the process, and some had become something less than men. Yet they all knew their work, and did it....

But they were, when Brander came among them, surly and ugly. In the days that followed, tending strictly to his own work, he nevertheless found time to study them.... A man with a tongue naturally gay, and a smile that inspired friendship, he began to jest with them.... And little by little, they responded.... Their surliness passed....

The officers felt the change. Willis Cox, still half sick from the ordeal that had killed two of his men, took Brander into his boat. Brander was only a year or two older than Willis, but he was vastly more mature.... He knew men, and he knew the work of the ship; and Willis liked him. He let Brander have his way with the other men, and his liking for the newcomer led him to speak of it in the cabin, at supper one night. "He's a good man," he said. "The men like him."

Dan'l Tobey said pleasantly: "He's after your berth, Will. Best watch him."

Willis said honestly: "He knows more about the work than I do. I don't blame him. But—he keeps where he belongs...."

"He will ... till he sees his chance," Dan'l agreed. "Don't let him get away from you."

Old James Tichel grinned malignantly. "Nor don't let him get in my way, Mr. Cox," he said, showing his teeth. "I do not like the cut of him."

The mate looked at Cap'n Noll Wing; but Noll was eating, he seemed not to have heard. Faith, at her husband's side, said nothing. So Mr. Ham kept out of the discussion. Only he wondered—he was not a discerning man—why Dan'l disliked the newcomer. Brander seemed to Mr. Ham to be a lucky find; they had needed a man, they had found a first-rater. That was his view of the matter.