“Jack, it isn’t my mistrust that keeps you in the dark,” says he.  “You know I trust you absolutely.  But I cannot explain—­others have that right.  But, lad, I can tell you this—­things are moving, aft there, and the sky is brighter for me—­and for her.  And, you must not worry about me if this should happen again, some other night.  I shall be safe; don’t come hunting me, it might ruin everything.  You will know soon just what is happening.  And you already know, Jack, how I count upon you—­and she, too.  If things should go wrong, if he outwits me, it is your head and arm I count upon to aid her.”

“Anything, any time,” was my eager response.  “Oh, I want to help.”

I found my hand being tightly squeezed in his, and there was a little catch in his voice.  “A thick-and-thin friend, eh, Jack?  I’ve learned something about friendship since I have known you.”

CHAPTER XVI

This strange peace, this interlude of quiet, lasted for several days.  It was a curious time, a period of uneasy suspense for me, for I could feel hell simmering beneath the smooth surface of the ship’s life, but I could not see it, or guess when or where it would bubble over.

Even Lynch toned down his adjectives, and slackened his driving.  He was commanded to do so by Captain Swope while the watch was within hearing.  The Old Man told him to “go easy with those boys, Mister; we’ve made it too hard for them this voyage.”  Aye, that was a nice bitter pill for Bucko Lynch to swallow before his watch; oh, the lads enjoyed it, I can tell you.

Fitzgibbon, the roaring lion, became the bleating lamb.  He hardly worked his men during those days, let alone haze them.  He let Nigger alone.  He stopped swearing at Holy Joe.  Why, a man might fancy from his manner that he had become afraid of his men.  Aye, a man might fancy from their behavior that the lot of them aft possessed a sudden fear of the crew.  Even the tradesmen were publicly ordered to treat the men with civility.  But I didn’t fancy they were afraid.  I knew better.  It was part of the game Swope was playing.

“I took the trick when Nils died,” explained Newman, when I asked him what the new program meant, “and now our sweet captain is dealing a new hand, from a cold deck.  He is nursing the scum, because this time he will strike through them, instead of through the squareheads.”

By “scum,” Newman meant our unsavory mob of stiffs.  And indeed they were being “nursed,” and without even suspecting it.  Inevitably, the unwonted gentleness of the men aft was interpreted as weakness and fear, and of course their stiffs’ courage mounted and slopped over.  Aye, he was a canny brute, was Captain Swope; he knew just how to play such a crowd as we were.  And I think he thoroughly enjoyed such a cat-and-mouse game.

There was valorous talk in the foc’sle, and half-veiled insolence on deck.  These cringing stiffs began to swank and swagger.  They began to bluster openly about what they could do and would do; they began to tell each other how easy it would be to “dump ’em over, and take charge o’ the hooker.”  That’s the sort they were.  It took bucko methods to keep them decent.