The old man lay quiet and trembling. A young woman upbraided Smith for brutality and talked volubly.
"Talk, you little fool!" he said. "Talk all you want to, but don't you get moving about in this boat, or I'll break your pretty neck."
"You are a monster," said the girl.
"Yes; but if I'd had my way, you would have been safe and sound below in your room instead of out here in this ice," snapped Smith.
The girl quieted down, and then spoke to the young woman, who lay in the bottom of the boat where she had fallen when Smith struck her down. She was the niece of Captain Brownson.
"I never heard of such utter brutality in my life," she said.
Miss Billings, who had first found fault, agreed with her.
"Was your brother aboard, Miss Roberts?" asked Smith.
"Yes, he was—I think he went in the mate's boat—why do you ask?"
"Oh, I was just thinking—that's all. He would have been second officer next voyage. That seemed to be fixed, didn't it?"