This new tension aboard the _Sally_ came to a head in the cabin; the very air there was charged with it. Dan'l and old Tichel were against Brander from the first; Cox was inclined to support him. Dan'l sought to sound Noll Wing and learn his attitude.... He said to Noll casually, one day: "The 'gris will make this a fat cruise, sir." Noll nodded. "Oh, aye.... No doubt!" Dan'l looked away. "Of course, Brander doesn't intend to claim it all.... To push his claim...." "Ye think not?" Noll asked anxiously. "No," said Dan'l. "He knows he can't.... It's a part of the takings of the _Sally_...." Noll wagged his head dolefully: "Aye, but will the man see it that way?" "He'll have to." The captain looked up at Dan'l cautiously. "Did you mark the greed in the one eye of Mauger when they came aboard?" he asked. "Mauger sets store by the stuff...." Dan'l snorted. "Mauger! Pshaw!" Noll shifted uneasily in his chair. "Just the same," he said, "Mauger holds a grudge against me.... He but waits his chance for a knife in my back.... And Brander is his friend, you'll mind." "You're not afraid of the two of them.... There's no need. I'll undertake to see to that...." "You're a strong man, Dan'l," said old Noll. "A strong, youthful man.... But I'm getting old. Eh, Dan'l...." His voice broke with his pity of himself. "Eh, Dan'l, I've sailed the sea too long...." Dan'l said, with some scorn in his tone: "Nevertheless, you're not afraid...." Then Faith opened the door from the after cabin; and Dan'l checked his word. Faith looked from Dan'l to her husband, and her eyes hardened as she looked to Dan'l again. "You'll not be saying Noll Wing is afraid of--anything, Dan'l," she said mildly. "I'm telling him," said Dan'l, "that he should not permit Brander to claim the ambergris for himself." Faith smiled a little. "You think Brander means to do that?" "He has done it," said Dan'l stubbornly. "He claimed it in the beginning; he speaks of what he will do with it.... He speaks of it as his own." "I think," said Faith, "that something has robbed you of discernment, Dan'l. Why do you hate Brander? Is he not a good officer?... A man?" Dan'l might have spoken, but Brander himself dropped down the ladder from the deck just then; and Dan'l stood silently for a moment, watching.... Brander looked at Faith, and spoke to her, and to the others. Then he went into his own cabin and closed the door. They all knew the thinness of the cabin walls; what they might say, Brander could hear distinctly. Dan'l turned without a word, and went on deck. He met Tichel there, and told him what had passed. Tichel grinned angrily.... "Aye," said the old man. "He comes and Jonahs us, so we sight no whale for a month on end.... And then is wishful to hold the prize that the _Sally's_ boat found." His teeth set; his fist rose.... And Dan'l nodded his agreement. "We'll see that he does not, in the end," he said. "Aye," said Tichel. "Aye, we'll see t'that."