You're--imagining things, Mark."

"Am I?" he asked. And he touched Joel's arm. "Look at her, Joel, and see
which of us is right."

Joel was eating his breakfast silently, but he had seen Priscilla's eyes.
He looked toward her now, and she flushed in spite of herself, and got up
quickly, and slipped away.... They watched her go, Joel's eyes clouded
thoughtfully, Mark's shining. And when she was gone, Mark leaned across
and said to Joel softly, a devil of mischief in his eyes: "She heard my
tale last night, Joel. She was not asleep. Fooled you...."

Joel shook his head. "No. She was asleep."

Mark laughed. "Don't you suppose I know. I've seen that look in woman's
eyes before. In the eyes of the little brown girl, the night I dropped
the fat man overside...."

He sat there, chuckling, when Joel got abruptly to his feet and went on
deck; and when he came up the companion a little later, he was still
chuckling under his breath.

After that first morning, Priss was able to cloak her eyes and hide her
thoughts; and on the surface, life aboard the _Nathan Ross_ seemed to go
on as before. Mark 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. Joel one day remonstrated with him. "It
is not wise," he said. "You were captain here; you are my brother. It is
not wise for you to mix, as an equal, with the men."

Mark only laughed at him. "Your dignity is very precious to you, Joel,"
he mocked. "But as for me--I am not proud. You'd not have me sit aft and
twiddle my thumbs and hold yarn for little Priss.... And I must be doing
something...."

He and Jim Finch were much together. Finch always gave Joel careful
obedience, always handled the ship when he was in charge with smooth
efficiency. His boat was the best manned and the most successful of the
four. But he and Joel were not comradely. Joel instinctively disliked the
big man; and Finch's servility disgusted him. The mate was full of smooth
and flattering words, but his eyes were shallow.

Mark talked with him long, one morning; and then he left Finch and came
to Joel, by the after house, chuckling as though at some enormous jest.
"Will ye look at Finch, there?" he begged.

Joel had been watching the two. He saw Finch now, standing just forward
of the boat house with flushed cheeks and eyes fixed and hands twitching.
The big man was powerfully moved by something....