All the Brothers Were Valiant

en she met Mark at breakfast in the cabin next morning;

gure; he had lived red life, and fought for his life, and killed.... There was Puritan blood in Priscilla; but overrunning it was a flood of warmer life, a cross-strai

ked her: "Why do you look at me like that

and laughed at him. "How do I look a

d Joel's arm. "Look at her, Joe

got up quickly, and slipped away.... They watched her go, Joel's eyes clouded thoughtfully, Mark's shining. And when she was gone, Mark lea

head. "No. Sh

look in woman's eyes before. In the eyes of the little b

eet and went on deck; and when he came up the companion

threw himself into the routine of the work, mixing with the men, going off in the boats when there was a whale to be struck, doing three men's share of toil. Jo

cked. "But as for me--I am not proud. You'd not have me sit aft and twiddle m

h efficiency. His boat was the best manned and the most successful of the four. But he and Joel were not comradely. Joel instinctively

and came to Joel, by the after house, chuckling as though at

boat house with flushed cheeks and eyes fixed and hands twitching. The big ma

arls," Mark chuckled. "He's

ou're mad, Mark," he snapped. "That

k protested. "It's mirthfu

hip. His tongue w

l him to be silent. You should

control; and when he stood before them, his lips were twisting into someth

ther says he has t

. "An extraordinary ad

nothing about it," Joel told him. "

ir. There's no need they sho

not going after them. I cons

I thought...." He looked at Mark, and Mark was chuckling. "It's

. "Keep silent abou

ed respectfully. "Very well, Captain Shor

ly: "You have him well trained, Joel. Like a litt

Young Dick Morrell came to him with shining eyes. "Is it true, sir, that w

he boy's arm.

alf angry. "I--overhear

're a whaler, and we

esture almost pleading. "But i

d him. "I do not wish the men to know of it. And

"Yes, sir." The set of his shoulders, as he

ard the men whispering the thing among themselves. "Tongues hissing like little serpents, sir," he told

oel said. "I'm sor

're roused by what they know. Some say you're going after the pearls, and aim t

ble, softly clenched.

"There was a whisper that

er the log. Mark was telling Priss an expurgated version of some one of his adventures; and Joel, looking once or twice that way, saw the quick-caug

the matter? Yo

his eyes rested on Mark's, and he said slowly: "It's in my m

o say!" Her voice had grown deeper and more resonant of late, Joel thought. I

he told her. "That's o

tn't to

do not understand, Priscilla. You would

ht, though her eyes burned with slow resentment, she bit her lips and was stil

bad company, Priss," he told

Varde and Finch, at the table there, talking in husky whispers.... It was so, he knew, over the whole ship. Everywhere, the men were whispering.... There hung over th

the sudden surge of his desire to grip Mark's lean throat.... Ashore, he would have done so. But as things were, the ship was his first charge; and a break with Mark would precipitate the thing that menaced the ship.... He could not fight Mark wi

that brushed aside all smaller sounds, so that he made little noise. Thus, when he reached the t

t.... His wife, and Mark.... His

chose a course upon it. The nearest land; he and Mark as