Suddenly the captain asked, "Do you believe the sailor's stories of magic they tell of her?"
"Why, sir?" asked the mate. "Do you?"
"No, I don't," said the captain with a certainty that came too quickly. "Still, with three survivors out of thirteen, that she should be among them, with hardly a robe torn."
"Perhaps they wouldn't touch a woman," suggested the mate, Jordde.
"Perhaps," said the captain.
"And she's been strange," continued Jordde, "ever since then. She walks at night. I've seen her going by the rails, looking from the sea-fire to the stars, and then back."
"Ten good men," mused the captain. "Hacked up, torn in bits. I wouldn't have believed that much barbarity in the world, if I hadn't seen that arm, floating on the water. It gives me chills now, the way the men ran to the rail to see, pointed at it. And it just raised itself up, like a beckoning, a signal, and then sank in a wash of foam and green water."
"Well," said the mate, "we have men to get."
"I wonder if she'll come ashore?"
"She'll come if she wants, Captain. Her doing is no concern of yours. Your job is the ship and to do what she says."