Mops topped a wave astern and disappeared temporarily in the trough.It was a large wave, but it was no graybeard.A small boat could live easily in such a sea, and in such a sea the Mary Rogers could easily come to.But she could not come to and make westing at the same time.
For the first time in all his years, George Dorety was seeing a real drama of life and death--a sordid little drama in which the scales balanced an unknown sailor named Mops against a few miles of longitude.At first he had watched the man astern, but now he watched big Dan Cullen, hairy and black, vested with power of life and death, smoking a cigar.
Captain Dan Cullen smoked another long, silent minute.Then he removed the cigar from his mouth.He glanced aloft at the spars of the Mary Rogers, and overside at the sea.
"Sheet home the royals!" he cried.
Fifteen minutes later they sat at table, in the cabin, with food served before them.On one side of George Dorety sat Dan Cullen, the tiger, on the other side, Joshua Higgins, the hyena.Nobody spoke.On deck the men were sheeting home the skysails.George Dorety could hear their cries, while a persistent vision haunted him of a man called Mops, alive and well, clinging to a life-buoy miles astern in that lonely ocean.He glanced at Captain Cullen, and experienced a feeling of nausea, for the man was eating his food with relish, almost bolting it.
"Captain Cullen," Dorety said, "you are in command of this ship, and it is not proper for me to comment now upon what you do.But I wish to say one thing.There is a hereafter, and yours will be a hot one."Captain Cullen did not even scowl.In his voice was regret as he said--"It was blowing a living gale.It was impossible to save the man.""He fell from the royal-yard," Dorety cried hotly."You were setting the royals at the time.Fifteen minutes afterward you were setting the skysails.""It was a living gale, wasn't it, Mr.Higgin?" Captain Cullen said, turning to the mate.
"If you'd brought her to, it'd have taken the sticks out of her," was the mate's answer."You did the proper thing, Captain Cullen.The man hadn't a ghost of a show."George Dorety made no answer, and to the meal's end no one spoke.After that, Dorety had his meals served in his state-room.Captain Cullen scowled at him no longer, though no speech was exchanged between them, while the Mary Rogers sped north toward warmer latitudes.At the end of the week, Dan Cullen cornered Dorety on deck.
"What are you going to do when we get to 'Frisco?" he demanded bluntly.
"I am going to swear out a warrant for your arrest," Dorety answered quietly."I am going to charge you with murder, and I am going to see you hanged for it.""You're almighty sure of yourself," Captain Cullen sneered, turning on his heel.
A second week passed, and one morning found George Dorety standing in the coach-house companionway at the for'ard end of the long poop, taking his first gaze around the deck.The Mary Rogers was reaching full-and-by, in a stiff breeze.Every sail was set and drawing, including the staysails.
Captain Cullen strolled for'ard along the poop.He strolled carelessly, glancing at the passenger out of the corner of his eye.Dorety was looking the other way, standing with head and shoulders outside the companionway, and only the back of his head was to be seen.Captain Cullen, with swift eye, embraced the mainstaysail-block and the head and estimated the distance.He glanced about him.Nobody was looking.Aft, Joshua Higgins, pacing up and down, had just turned his back and was going the other way.
Captain Cullen bent over suddenly and cast the staysail-sheet off from its pin.The heavy block hurtled through the air, smashing Dorety's head like an egg-shell and hurtling on and back and forth as the staysail whipped and slatted in the wind.Joshua Higgins turned around to see what had carried away, and met the full blast of the vilest portion of Captain Cullen's profanity.
"I made the sheet fast myself," whimpered the mate in the first lull, "with an extra turn to make sure.I remember it distinctly.""Made fast?" the Captain snarled back, for the benefit of the watch as it struggled to capture the flying sail before it tore to ribbons."You couldn't make your grandmother fast, you useless hell's scullion.If you made that sheet fast with an extra turn, why in hell didn't it stay fast?
That's what I want to know.Why in hell didn't it stay fast?"The mate whined inarticulately.
"Oh, shut up!" was the final word of Captain Cullen.
Half an hour later he was as surprised as any when the body of George Dorety was found inside the companionway on the floor.In the afternoon, alone in his room, he doctored up the log.
"Ordinary seaman, Karl Brun," he wrote, "lost overboard from foreroyal-yard in a gale of wind.Was running at the time, and for the safety of the ship did not dare come up to the wind.Nor could a boat have lived in the sea that was running."On another page, he wrote"Had often warned Mr.Dorety about the danger he ran because of his carelessness on deck.I told him, once, that some day he would get his head knocked off by a block.A carelessly fastened mainstaysail sheet was the cause of the accident, which was deeply to be regretted because Mr.
Dorety was a favourite with all of us."
Captain Dan Cullen read over his literary effort with admiration, blotted the page, and closed the log.He lighted a cigar and stared before him.
He felt the Mary Rogers lift, and heel, and surge along, and knew that she was making nine knots.A smile of satisfaction slowly dawned on his black and hairy face.Well, anyway, he had made his westing and fooled God.
