Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Married people -- Fiction; Seafaring life -- Fiction; Whaling -- Fiction
She fought that storm till noon, giving way before it; and in the cabin
Noll passed from tremors to paroxysms of fright. He gnawed at his own
flesh; and hallucinations began to prey upon him. Faith fought him, bade
him lie down, tried to soothe him. She knew the danger of his enforced
abstinence; she gave him a draught that should have compelled sleep; but
after an hour he woke with a scream, and clutched at her shoulders with
fingers that bit the flesh, and flung her away from him, and cowered in
the most distant corner, hands before him, shrieking:
"Back, Mauger! Get away.... You devil! Mauger, get back.... Eh, man, get
away.... By God, I'll ... I never meant the kick, man.... Let be.... My
God, let be...."
She called softly: "It's Faith, Noll. It's Faith, Faith.... Not
Mauger...."
He recognized her, and ran and caught her and swung her around before
him and besought her to keep Mauger and his knife away. She told him,
over and over: "He's not here, Noll. He's not here. It's Faith...."
He cried: "Look at his knife...." He pointed horribly. "His knife....
It's red, now.... Look at the knife. Kill him, Faith.... Drive him
away...."
She held him against her breast as she would have held a child. Brander
came to the door, with Willis Cox. She called to them: "Stay away....
He's mine. I'll tend him." Noll saw them, and screamed at Brander:
"There! Him! There's a knife in his sleeve...."
Brander slipped out of sight; she managed to quiet Noll for a space; but
he broke out again: "Mauger! He's coming, Faith.... There...." And then,
to the man he thought he saw: "Mauger! Get back, man. Let be.... God's
sake...."
Then he wept whisperingly to Faith: "See his eye! Down on his cheek....
Hanging.... Make him put it back--where it belongs.... Mauger, man...."
Bit by bit she wooed him back to sanity, or the semblance of it. He was
quiet when Dan'l Tobey came down; and when he saw Dan'l, Noll demanded:
"Are we making it, Dan'l? Are we near there?..."
Dan'l shook his head. "Not with this gale, sir.... We're going away...."
Noll came to his feet, cat-like. "By God, you're all cowards. I'll bring
her in. I'll bring her in, I say...." He shook Faith away, went up to
the deck with Dan'l at his heels. The _Sally_, riding high as whalers
do, was reasonably dry; but she was fighting desperately in the gale,
racking her rigging. The wind seemed to clear Noll's head; he looked
about, aloft.... Bellowed an order to get sail on her....
Faith protested: "Noll, she'll never stand...."
He brushed her away with clenched fist. She took shelter in a corner by
the deckhouse, ten feet from him..... And Noll Wing took the ship, and
under his hand the _Sally_ did miracles....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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