Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Married people -- Fiction; Seafaring life -- Fiction; Whaling -- Fiction
He had struck at the _Sally_; she set her lips and brushed the tears
from her cheeks and turned back to them. "Mr. Tobey," she said. "Put
Mr. Brander in irons, below. Give Mauger a whipping and send him
forward." She hesitated a moment, glanced at Willis. "If you'll come
down to the cabin with me," she said, "I'll give you the irons."
Willis stepped toward her; and with no further glance for Brander, she
turned and went below.
* * * * *
They had been two weeks hard and fast on the sand; there was another
week ahead of them. An easterly storm would cement them into the sand
beyond any help; and the men looked for it daily.... For the rest, there
was little to do. The _Sally_ was in shape again, ready to be off if she
had the chance.... The men, with black faces, loafed about the fore deck
and whispered man to man; and Dan'l went among them now and then, and
talked much with Roy, and some with the others.... Roy was elated in
those days; the boy went about with shining eyes and triumphant lips.
Every other face among the crew was morose save his....
Dan'l was not morose. He was overly cheerful in those days. He spoke in
louder tones than was his custom; and there was no caustic bite to his
tongue. But his eyes were narrower, and more furtive.... And once or
twice Faith saw him turn away from a word with some of the crew and
catch sight of her watching him, and flush uneasily....
But Faith scarce heeded; she was sick with sorrow, and sick with
anxiety.... The tides were rising higher every day; she watched for the
hour when they should lift the _Sally_.... And at each high tide, she
made the men stand to the capstan bars, and fight in desperate efforts
to fetch the _Sally_ free. The day before the night of the full of the
moon, she had them fetch up casks from the hold and lower them overside
and raft them there.... Cask after cask, as many as the men could handle
during the day, so that the _Sally_ was lighter at nightfall than she
had ever been before.
The tide was at the flood that night at nine; and for half an hour
before, and for a full hour after the waters had begun to ebb, every man
of them strove to stir the _Sally_.... And strove fruitlessly; for the
ship seemed fast-bedded in the sand, beyond moving. At ten o'clock,
Faith left the deck and went sick-heartedly below....
At half past ten, Dan'l knocked on the door of the after cabin, and she
bade him come in. He opened the door, shut it behind him, looked at her
with his cap in his hands for a space, then sat down on the seat beside
the desk where she was sitting.
"Eh, Faith," he said, "we're stuck."
For a moment, she did not answer; then she lifted her head and looked at
him. "There's a high tide to-morrow night; comes a bit higher than it is
on the flood," she said. "We'll get out more casks to-morrow, and
to-morrow night we'll float her."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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