At eight bells, all hands assembled at the wheel, and Boyd Duncan appeared with a black bottle and a mug.The rum he served out himself, half a mug of it to each man.They gulped the stuff down with many facial expressions of delight, followed by loud lip-smackings of approval, though the liquor was raw enough and corrosive enough to burn their mucous membranes.All drank except Lee Goom, the abstemious cabin boy.
This rite accomplished, they waited for the next, the present-giving.Generously molded on Polynesian lines, huge-bodied and heavy-muscled, they were nevertheless like so many children, laughing merrily at little things, their eager black eyes flashing in the lantern light as their big bodies swayed to the heave and roll of the ship.
Calling each by name, Minnie gave the presents out, accompanying each presentation with some happy remark that added to the glee.There were trade watches, clasp knives, amazing assortments of fish-hooks in packages, plug tobacco, matches, and gorgeous strips of cotton for loincloths all around.That Boyd Duncan was liked by them was evidenced by the roars of laughter with which they greeted his slightest joking allusion.
Captain Dettmar, white-faced, smiling only when his employer chanced to glance at him, leaned against the wheel-box, looking on.Twice, he left the group and went below, remaining there but a minute each time.Later, in the main cabin, when Lorenzo, Lee Goom and Toyama received their presents, he disappeared into his stateroom twice again.For of all times, the devil that slumbered in Captain Dettmar's soul chose this particular time of good cheer to awaken.Perhaps it was not entirely the devil's fault, for Captain Dettmar, privily cherishing a quart of whisky for many weeks, had selected Christmas Eve for broaching it.
It was still early in the evening--two bells had just gone--when Duncan and his wife stood by the cabin companionway, gazing to windward and canvassing the possibility of spreading their beds on deck.A small, dark blot of cloud, slowly forming on the horizon, carried the threat of a rain-squall, and it was this they were discussing when Captain Dettmar, coming from aft and about to go below, glanced at them with sudden suspicion.
He paused, his face working spasmodically.Then he spoke:
"You are talking about me."
His voice was hoarse, and there was an excited vibration in it.
Minnie Duncan started, then glanced at her husband's immobile face, took the cue, and remained silent.
"I say you were talking about me," Captain Dettmar repeated, this time with almost a snarl.
He did not lurch nor betray the liquor on him in any way save by the convulsive working of his face.
"Minnie, you'd better go down," Duncan said gently."Tell Lee Goom we'll sleep below.It won't be long before that squall is drenching things."She took the hint and left, delaying just long enough to give one anxious glance at the dim faces of the two men.
Duncan puffed at his cigar and waited till his wife's voice, in talk with the cabin-boy, came up through the open skylight.
"Well?" Duncan demanded in a low voice, but sharply.
"I said you were talking about me.I say it again.Oh, Ihaven't been blind.Day after day I've seen the two of you talking about me.Why don't you come out and say it to my face!
I know you know.And I know your mind's made up to discharge me at Attu-Attu.""I am sorry you are ****** such a mess of everything," was Duncan's quiet reply.
But Captain Dettmar's mind was set on trouble.
"You know you are going to discharge me.You think you are too good to associate with the likes of me--you and your wife.""Kindly keep her out of this," Duncan warned."What do you want?""I want to know what you are going to do!""Discharge you, after this, at Attu-Attu.""You intended to, all along."
"On the contrary.It is your present conduct that compels me.""You can't give me that sort of talk."
"I can't retain a captain who calls me a liar."Captain Dettmar for the moment was taken aback.His face and lips worked, but he could say nothing.Duncan coolly pulled at his cigar and glanced aft at the rising cloud of squall.
"Lee Goom brought the mail aboard at Tahiti," Captain Dettmar began.
"We were hove short then and leaving.You didn't look at your letters until we were outside, and then it was too late.That's why you didn't discharge me at Tahiti.Oh, I know.I saw the long envelope when Lee Goom came over the side.It was from the Governor of California, printed on the corner for any one to see.You'd been working behind my back.Some beachcomber in Honolulu had whispered to you, and you'd written to the Governor to find out.And that was his answer Lee Goom carried out to you.Why didn't you come to me like a man! No, you must play underhand with me, knowing that this billet was the one chance for me to get on my feet again.And as soon as you read the Governor's letter your mind was made up to get rid of me.
I've seen it on your face ever since for all these months..
I've seen the two of you, polite as hell to me all the time, and getting away in corners and talking about me and that affair in 'Frisco.""Are you done?" Duncan asked, his voice low, and tense."Quite done?"Captain Dettmar made no answer.
"Then I'll tell you a few things.It was precisely because of that affair in 'Frisco that I did not discharge you in Tahiti.
God knows you gave me sufficient provocation.I thought that if ever a man needed a chance to rehabilitate himself, you were that man.Had there been no black mark against you, I would have discharged you when I learned how you were robbing me."Captain Dettmar showed surprise, started to interrupt, then changed his mind.