And he descended into the fo'c's'le with no further word, while Roy's face blazed with humiliation, and the men who had heard laughed under their breath. Some boys would have stormed, beaten out their strength in futile efforts to compel Brander to do their bidding; Roy had cooler blood in him. He fell abruptly silent; he went on with his fishing.... But he did not forget....
He told Dan'l Tobey about it. Dan'l was his confidant, in this as in other things. And Dan'l comforted him.
"Best forget it, Roy," he said. "No good in going to the Old Man. The man was right.... He didn't have to do it...."
"There was no reason why he should be impertinent," Roy blazed. "He holds himself too high."
"Well, I'll not say he does not," Dan'l agreed. "Same time, it never hurts to wait." And he added, a little uncomfortably, as though he were unwilling to make the suggestion: "Besides, your sister shipped the man. She'd have the say, in any trouble."
"I guess not," Roy stoutly boasted. "I guess she's nothing but a woman. I guess Noll Wing is the boss around here."
"Sure," said Dan'l. "Sure. But—let's wait a bit."
This pleased Roy; it had a mysteriously ominous sound. He waited; and he fell into the way of watching Brander, spying on the man, keeping the newcomer constantly under his eye. Brander marked this at once, smiled good-humoredly....
Brander and Faith saw very little of each other in those days; they exchanged no words whatever, save on one day when Brander had the wheel and Faith nodded to him and bade him good morning. For the rest, the convention of the deck kept Brander forward of the tryworks; and Faith never went forward. But now and then their eyes met, across the length of the Sally; and one night at the cutting in, she heard Brander singing a chanty to inspire the men as they tugged at the capstan bars.... He sang well, a clear voice and a true one. In the shadows of the after deck, she listened thoughtfully.
Dan'l came upon her there, when he paused for a moment in his work. He saw her before she saw him, saw her face illumined by the light of the flare in the rigging above the tryworks. And for a moment he stood, watching; and the man's lip twisted....