Gordon Young

“ Raikes's voice was better than silence. Anything would have been better than being alone, even Shaylor's boastings. Someway, seamen are not ashamed of their crimes—if they are crimes.
At last Raikes asked what I had against him; asked it as a man does when he feels, or pretends to feel, regretful, as when it seems stupid for two people who might be friends to be at outs.
I mentioned that at Turkee he seemed to have guessed Douglas Moore was some one else. With scorn he denied all thought of having even thought to turn Williams up. ”

“ I believe she would have let Red Shaylor, or any other man, die without a flicker of her eyelid if it had not been that every protoplasmic cell of her belonged—in that utter way that women once in a lifetime, never twice, perhaps most of them never the once, give themselves to some man—to Williams.
That he did not want her was of no consequence. No more than the wanting, the intense desire, of other men would have changed her attitude toward them. She loved him.
Love to a woman usually means petting. But that isn't love. ”

“ Mid-watch at sea are the hours of confessional, of confidences. A little craft, winged with white, floats over the black waters that are fretted with evanescent fires like myriad gems sparkling and vanishing; and the ship groans and moans and creaks so that a fellow if he has imagination at all must talk a bit to take his mind off ghosts and things.
Raikes said he went to sea at twelve. ”

“ I was surprised to see their sympathy was with Williams. I had not been with him when he and Hawkins fought.
No doubt the fact that Shaylor refused work when they were short-handed had something to do with it. Then too men are always inclined to admire the one who deals a swift knock-out. Nothing could have been swifter than Williams's blow.
The fact that Shaylor fell from the forecastle-head was incidental. He would have been knocked to any deck. ”

“ For another thing, as the lone survivor of the Roanoke, Shaylor naturally felt himself entitled to certain consideration. The lone survivor is almost always for a time regarded as something of a hero. And being by nature one who resented a bullying order from anybody not authoritatively above him, and seldom averse to a fight, he answered indignantly.
In retrospect I really sympathize with his feeling. Williams would offend anybody. He was direct as a bullet, more unfeeling than a huntsman among his hounds. ”

“ Look out for sailors that don't curse skipper, sea, ship and selves.
The men did not talk with me; but Hawkins was one of them. They accepted him. He sang and told long monotonous yarns, and had that fine disregard for the truth that deceives no one, but interests all.
“I hope you give a cannibal indigestion!” he said to me when he discovered that he had been shifted to the helm when Red Shaylor had the deck. “All us fellows for'ard hate him—. No. This Red bloke. Williams don't fight with his jaw.” ”

“ The simple way out was to say that I would; though nothing that could be said by man or oracle would make Williams more strainedly alert, more constantly suspicious. I doubt if he really trusted me, who could probably have been urged into treachery, bought, if somebody had offered something I wanted; not mere money and trinkets. If somebody had offered me the chance to live under a coconut-tree near a rum mill, on an island where there were no mosquitoes or missionaries,—why, if a man is tempted beyond his strength should he be condemned for seeming weak? ”

“ None if the dominant chords of their personality are struck. Though a woman is far from being a lyre in my fingers to play on as I please. More often I am soft clay in hers.
I asked myself what she was wanting; and myself gave no answer. With a sense of agitation, a real flutter, I at last perceived that she was treating me as the lesser of two evils. She came near me, stood near me, talked and pretended to talk to me to avoid Red Shaylor, late of the Roanoke.
The first person Red Shaylor had seen when he opened his eyes in Williams's bed had been Miss Davenant ”

“ He looked inquiringly.
“I don't know why Davenant's bound Dakaru-ward. But some o' the things she's tried to keep from God, I know. A woman usually shows her worst side to Him—when she loves!”
Williams made an impatient gesture of disgust.
“Give me time, give me time, Skipper. Rome wasn't built out of strawless bricks. And they had lots to drink. She'll talk to me one of these lonesome nights if Red Shaylor doesn't put in his oar.
“He calls himself Red Shaylor. Do you catch that, Skipper? It isn't because of his hair. It isn't because of his face. Must be because of his hands. ”

“ I stole an idea from Hawkins, and pointed to my ears. Then Raikes furtively warned me to warn Williams against Shaylor.
I suggested that he use his own legs and tongue. He had. Williams hadn't listened.
There never was such a man. Davenant was afraid of him. It seemed to impress Raikes as queer that Davenant should be afraid of anybody; but of course Williams was Williams. ”

“ Williams said something that included “good sailor.”
“Yes, and I'm a good shot with a revolver. Can hit anybody that gets close enough to kick me. Supposin' the Lord had made 'em big enough to do it—how would you like to be kicked? Well, my hide's just as tender as anybody's.”
I was boasting, no doubt. A fellow often lets his tongue act valiant. I can ruthlessly, slap-slam-smash, kill mosquitoes and flies—but things that bleed? It makes me rather queasy at my stomach to think of that, though if events happen fast and my blood is warmed up I can make as much noise with a gun as anybody. ”

“ Shaylor began. Because he talked rapidly, self-infuriated, he probably got out a half dozen of his hard, curdling oaths—then he went backward down the forecastle ladder, having straightened up to evade the flash of a fist at his face, and thereby receiving the one intended—with a hundred and eighty pounds behind it—for his stomach. ”

“ I whispered:
“His fist!”
It was Hawkins who estimated Shaylor as a bad one. The men forward, he confided with me, all said that Williams ought to have killed him. They couldn't understand his being given the deck.
“I've known 'em like him, Red-Top. They toady t' the skipper an' kick cabinboys overboard when nobody's lookin'. They carry a grudge same as you an' me carry a thirst. Never lose it. They got ever'thing that makes a fighter but the stuff that makes a licked man win.
“He's told Raikes he'd get 'im—get Williams. It's bad that woman's on board. Seen the way he looks at 'er? No? ”

“ Ask the man who shrieks to see a blood-red elephant climb the wall. Drunkard, says the wise men. The terrible deliriums are those of silent, sober men with a score of wasted years, a cluster of heavy, withered, dry memories about their necks. ”

“ I have heard it told that boasters and bullies will not fight. Most of those I have chanced across would fight. As a lion beats its sides with its tail, they rouse themselves with their own tongues. But somehow something always seems lacking in them. Perhaps it is because they drive only with their fist, and have little or nothing of that dynamic force of personality, often stronger than blows. Just as at that instant a surprising thing happened.
“Now, you —— —— ——,” Shaylor cried exulting, “who's runnin' this ship?”
Williams was out of the bed, on his feet ”

“ It is merely gratification of the desire to have her fur stroked, and pink ribbons put around her neck, and bowls of thick cream for her little red tongue to lick, and a soft cushion before a hearth. Women pretend the cushion and hearth show the domestic instinct. ”

“ There would have been plenty of time for everybody to loaf but in his boyhood Williams must have used one of those copy-books that require the young pupil to write down fifty times that “the devil finds work for idle hands.” ”

“ Williams, lest a mutinous crew should get hold of the rifles, had removed the firing-pins. Then quietly:
“You can't trust anybody. I don't know about Hawkins. Maybe he's all right. Shaylor, Davenant, Raikes—watch them. And that woman. ”