Part 5 (1/2)
”I've come to say something that's disagreeable for you to hear and for me to speak.”
Still he would not talk. He was as silent as Harrigan. She clenched her hands and drove bravely ahead. She told how she had called the red-headed sailor up to the after-cabin and dressed his hurts, and she described succinctly, but with rising anger the raw and swollen condition of his fingers. The captain listened with apparent enjoyment; she could not tell whether he was relis.h.i.+ng her story or his slowly puffed cigar. In the end she waited for his answer, but evidently none was forthcoming.
”Now,” she said at last, ”I know something about s.h.i.+ps and sailors, and I know that if this fellow was to appeal against you after you touch port, a judge would weigh a single word of yours against a whole sentence of Harrigan's. It would be a different matter if a disinterested person pressed a charge of cruelty against you. I am such a person; I would press such a charge; I have the money, the time, and the inclination to do it.”
She read the slight hesitation in his manner, not as if he were impressed by what she had to say, but as though he was questioning himself as to whether he should give her any answer at all. It made her wish fervently that she were a man--and a big one. He spoke then, as if an illuminating thought had occurred to him.
”You know Harrigan's record?”
”No,” she admitted grudgingly.
McTee sighed as if with deep relief and leaned back in his chair. His smile was sympathetic and it altered his face so marvelously that she caught her breath.
”Of course that explains it, Miss Malone. I don't doubt that he was clever enough to make you think him abused.”
”He didn't say a word of accusation against anyone.”
”Naturally not. When a man is bad enough to seem honest--”
He drew a long, slow puff on his cigar by way of finis.h.i.+ng his sentence and his eyes smiled kindly upon her.
”I knew that he would do his worst to start mutiny among the crew; I didn't think he could get as far as the pa.s.sengers.”
Her confidence was shaken to the ground. Then a new suspicion came to her.
”If he is such a terrible character, why did you let him come aboard your s.h.i.+p?”
Instead of answering, he pulled a cord. The bos'n appeared in a moment.
”Tell this lady how Harrigan came aboard,” ordered the captain, and he fastened a keen eye upon the bos'n.
”Made it on the jump while we was pullin' out of dock,” said the sailor. ”Just managed to get his feet on the gangplank--came within an ace of falling into the sea.”
”That's all.”
The bos'n retreated and McTee turned back to Kate Malone.
”He had asked me to sign him up for this trip,” he explained. ”If I'd set him ash.o.r.e, he'd probably have been in the police court the next morning. So I let him stay. To be perfectly frank with you, I had a vague hope that grat.i.tude might make a decent sailor out of him for a few days. But the very first night he started his work he began to talk discontent among the men in the forecastle, and such fellows are always ready to listen. Of course I could throw Harrigan in irons and feed him on bread and water; my authority is absolute at sea. But I don't want to do that if I can help it. Instead, I have been trying to discipline him with hard work. He knows that he can come to me at any time and speak three words which will release him from his troubles. But he won't say them--yet!”
”Really?” she breathed.
She began to feel deeply honored that such a man as McTee would make so long an explanation to her.
”Shall I call him up here and ask him to say them now?”
”Would you do that? Captain McTee, I'm afraid that I've been very foolish to bother you in this matter, but--”
He silenced her with a wave of the hand, and pulled the cord.
”Bring up Harrigan,” he said, when the bos'n appeared again.