It came to Ratcliffe that the quietude of Satan over the business came less from natural good temper than some other reason. The desertion of the Sarah was mutiny and a rank crime. Satan had been left with his food to cook and his jumper to wash, his sister had been off with an almost stranger for a whole night—yet he was not displeased.
If Jude had done the business alone, she most surely would have been carpeted. It was evidently his—Ratcliffe’s—participation in it that fended off trouble and turned wrath into complacence. Why?
Was it because he was a guest? Not a bit! Satan, had he been angry, would not have bothered about that. He followed down below, and there, over the breakfast table, the Cleary business was cleared up.
“He dropped in last night,” said Satan, “an hour before sundown, and the anchor hadn’t more than clawed the mud before he was aboard the Juan. I expected the shootin’ to begin; but there weren’t no fireworks, and after dark I lit out for the Juan in the c’lapsible and tied up and boarded her. All the men were in the foc’sle, eating onions and playin’ tunes on guitars,—no anchor watch,—and the Cleary crowd down in the saloon as friendly as pie, Cark ladling the liquor and Cleary suckin’ it down, cigars as big as your leg in their faces, and Cleary with his thumbs in the armhulls of his vest leanin’ back laughin’. That’s how I found them.”
“I told you,” said Jude to Ratcliffe, “they’d be kissing each other and—”
“Suppose you shet your head!” said Satan. “I’m tellin’ you—there they were sittin’ all colludin’ together thick as thick, and I sat for an hour with them and then lit out. Sweet as sugar they were; but I tell you this, I’m as frightened as hell.”
“How’s thet?”
“Cleary. Y’see Cark and Sellers aren’t much by themselves, but Cleary is the snake’s tooth an’ poison bug of that combination, now that he’s joined in with Cark again. Cleary’s Irish gone bad on the father’s side and drunk Welsh on the mother’s: I had his pedigree from Pap. Pap said he was a sure-enough thoroughbred of a hellhound, and he reckoned the roof of his mouth was black right down to the heart of him. Well, I’ve had forty dollars from Cleary for them rotten pearls and one thousand dollars from Cark on account of takin’s. Now you see how I am, supposin’ the wreck turns out a dud. D’you mean to say they won’t go for me to get their money back? Supposin’ the gold is there. D’you mean to say they won’t chouse me out of my share?”
“What are you going to do?”
“I worked the hull thing out last night before I boarded them. Seeing there was no fighting, I concluded they’d joined up an’ become friends; then I made my plans, I didn’t put out no anchor light.