Our liberty men appeared in various stages of dejection from their Oriental haunts of infamy, but none were missing, and we sailed for the eastward, to cruise about the Seychelles. Smith had been assigned to Mr. Brown’s boat, to take my oar, for I was nothing but a substitute. I was chagrined, but there was nothing to be done about it. Mr. Brown was sorry, but again there was nothing to be done about it. He could not object unless he wanted to open the matter which he had resolutely kept closed—to everybody but me, as I believed—and Smith was a thorough seaman, as far as there had been opportunity to tell. He started out, in fact, as a model, his only fault being that he was a little too much of a gentleman for the forecastle. The men were suspicious of him, and held off at first. Mr. Baker was suspicious of him too. He said it was too good to be true; that a man with his history behind him for the past ten years—he was convinced of the truth of his inferences in that matter—would be as good as that only if he was up to some trick. Smith was a man to watch, and he proposed to keep his eye on him. I tried to sound Mr. Brown on the subject of Smith, but met with no success. He turned his quiet smile upon me. “He ’s a pretty good shot with a knife,” he said, “is n’t he, Tim? It must have taken a great deal of practice. And he seems to be a quiet sort of man, and a good sailor. We have n’t lowered yet, but I ’ve no’ doubt that he ’ll prove as good in the boat.” He did. We got no whales on the Seychelles grounds, but we saw several, and Mr. Brown’s boat was down nearly every time. Smith pulled an oar in perfect form, and he pulled a strong oar, rather to everybody’s surprise, {240} for he was very thin, and did not seem muscular. I suppose he was wiry, and I knew that he was not burdened with any kind of tissue that he did not need. He was pleasant to everybody, respectful to the officers, and he did not seem surly and disgruntled at having to pull for hours after a whale which finally got away. He soon won the confidence of the men. The confidence of the officers was not so easy. Mr. Brown could feel no confidence, I was sure, and I was almost equally sure of Mr. Baker. Mr. Snow was surly and irritable, and getting worse. He was on bad terms with his crew, and seemed determined to haze Silver, who had been subjected to that process ever since leaving Cape Town.