Gordon Young

“ Williams had an eye for boat-beauty, as other men have for the next most feminine thing, a woman.
I have a preference for the ark-like ship, high out of the water; and if it needs two guesses to tell her stern from her bow, I like her the better. She may ride the sea like a sailor on horseback and be stupid at her helm, but she won't be headstrong and full of the devil.
Sally Martin was reasonably behaved while she lay on the beach, turning from one side to the other like a lazy lady in the hands of slaves. ”

“ Why shouldn't the distress of women's love hurt a fat man as much as a lean? Is his belly a buckler for his heart, so that while we mock the heavily armored man that's pinked, we cry out over the wounds of the naked gladiator?
“No, friend Burly Ben,” I said to myself; “though tears roll down your hilly cheeks I'll be sympathetic—for I enjoy the sad tales of fat men.”
“I was young once,” said Hawkins. “But al'us had a good sheath of flesh for my soul. I danced a merry jig to a woman's tongue an' bent my back to hones' work. But she wanted to go hellward with a greasy-haired gambler. ”

“ Let the biggest man alive put a chip on his shoulder, and it will be impudently knocked off. Williams, not wholly unconsciously, wore a chip. Most people, either cautious or sensible, not necessarily timid, gave him headway.
I ignored his manner; though not his words. Commands were things he meant. He was not a bully. And when he gave his loyalty, his friendship, his word, not the combined admiralties of the world could frighten or fight him out of it.
“Too much imagination,” Williams snapped angrily.
I had talked of a woman.
“I'm a mummy inside, Skipper.” ”

“ As one should who has heard the sphinx. Listen. I have her secret. Dakaru is nothing, a trifle that may fall to any fellow's ears, as to Raikes's. But this: She loves you.”
I don't know what Williams said. It wasn't a word; it was an exasperated, inarticulate, clipped comment. And he followed it up with a ferocious order to get below.
The three words had hit him in his Achilles' heel—the vulnerable spot. Love of women was to him as the flaming shirt some hero of old time put on unsuspectingly from the hands of a woman—who loved him. ”

“ Among them would certainly be a blue-eyed ghost with an empty beer-bottle—and blood-covered hair.
Davenant, stiff and aloof, seemed to want loneliness. He had taken the air for a few minutes and gone. He was more unbending than ever of late. Nursing, perhaps, his injury from Williams's tongue. It had been reckless, crazy, of him to turn for even only a short time a man like Davenant to work.
Not because there was anything degrading about the work, but because Davenant was Davenant. Davenant was polite in the way of a man who seems a little startled when there is a call for his attention ”

“ The background of the life of the man known as Hurricane Williams was tragic; and who could have sanity with such memory-ghosts haunting the brain? Or trust women?
“Hawkins,” I said as we leaned against the galley, “you've made a sighing furnace of many a woman. Tell me, how do you win their confidence?” ”

“ Then he spoke harshly:
“Raikes knows. I don't want to hang him up by the thumbs. He's a good sailor. Not to be trusted—bad shipmate. But you find out. A woman always talks—if she's giving away somebody's secret.”
“Now listen, Skipper,” I pleaded. “Just a nip or two, you know. You can't expect a sober man to talk to a woman like that.” ”

“ There are men who hate women because they can't help loving them—the women. I can help it; nothing like Hawkins's blue-eyed ghost haunts me. But this isn't of my affairs; so it is more to the point to say Williams could perhaps help loving them, too. But he seemed simply not to see them. That may be the coward's way out, but it is the safest a brave man can take.
Miss Davenant—Raikes had said a quarter of an hour before that her name was Dula. How did he know?—Miss Davenant talked friendly. ”

“ A wounded man he would nurse on his own knee; but a man dying of overwork—he didn't appear to recognize any such death.
I was given two quarts of gin. I took them to Raulson, and word was passed. Nobody believed it, but all came. I, lying a bit, told Raulson they were from the skipper because he was satisfied with the way the men worked; and, as I intended that he should, Raulson repeated that. It was like a distribution of medals.
Not that it made the men love Williams. Far from it. It livened them up—the nip and praise—to damning him for thinking to buy them cheaply ”

“ For herself? She, being a woman among men of a kind that are not thought to be trusted? She did not appear squeamishly fearful; yet since the cape had never been off her when she was on deck perhaps the knife had never been out of her hand.
I had lost the chance of getting at her secret, the one Raikes inadvertently shared. But I had another. One perhaps she did not intend to have me learn any more than the one pertaining to Dakaru. ”

“ It was something new to find this fleshy bulk sentimental. I had the impression that it would be diverting, though just yet he was a little too earnest to be laughed at. Earnest people may be mocked. But even when they are ponderously fat it is poor sport. ”

“ I don't care anything about what we have to eat. And the other men are about the same. But we want something to drink and we have to have some sleep. There's not going to be anything left but ghosts to work your ship for you if this keeps up.”
“Did the forecastle send you?” ”

“ Some of the men had thought about running away, but they were wisely afraid of taking to the strange forest with no station or settlement on the coast. But with plenty of wood our condensers filled casks as fast as they were emptied. ”