Harrigan | Page 5

on the rail ready to dive. Then he
turned and stood with folded arms looking up to the bridge, for his
mind was dark with many doubts. He tapped a passing sailor on the
shoulder.
"What sort of an old boy is the captain?"

He made up his mind that according to the answer he would stay with
the ship or swim to the shore, but the sailor merely stared stupidly at
him for a moment and then grinned slowly. There might be malice,
there might be mere ridicule in that smile. He passed on before another
question could be asked.
"Huh!" grunted Harrigan. "I stay!"
He kept his eyes fixed on the bridge, remaining motionless at the rail
for an hour while the glow of Honolulu grew dimmer and dimmer past
the stern. There were lights in the after-cabin and he guessed that the
ship, in a small way, carried both freight and passengers. At last McTee
came down the steps to the deck and as he passed Harrigan snapped:
"Follow me."
He led the way aft and up another flight of steps to the after-cabin,
unlocked a door, and showed Harrigan into the captain's room. Here he
took one chair and Harrigan dropped easily into another.
"Now, what 'n hell was your line of thinkin', McTee," he began, "when
you told me to--"
"Stand up!" said McTee.
"What?"
"Stand up!"
Harrigan rose very slowly. His jaw was setting harder and harder, and
his face became grim.
"Harrigan, you took a chance and came with me."
"Yes."
"I didn't ask you to come."
"Sure you didn't, but if you think you can treat me like a swine and get
away with it--"

It was wonderful to see the eyes of McTee grow small. They seemed to
retreat until they became points of light shining from the deep shadow
of his brow. They were met by the cold, incurious light of Harrigan's
stare.
"You're a hard man, Harrigan."
He made no answer, but listened to the deep thrum of the engines. It
seemed to him that the force which drove the ship was like a part of
McTee's will, a thing of steel.
"And I'm a hard man, Harrigan. On this ship I'm king. There's no will
but my will; there's no right but my right; there's no law but my law.
Remember, on land we stood as equals. On this ship you stand and I
sit."
The thin lips did not curve, and yet they seemed to be smiling cruelly,
and the eyes were probing deep, deep, deep into Harrigan's soul,
weighing, measuring, searching.
"When we reach land," said Harrigan, "I got an idea I'll have to break
you."
He raised his hands, which trembled with the restrained power of his
arms, and moved them as though slowly breaking a stick of wood.
"I've broken men--like that," he finished.
"When I'm through with you, Harrigan, you'll take water from a
Chinaman. You're the first man I've ever seen who could make me stop
and look twice. I need a fellow like you, but first I've got to make you
my man. The best colt in the world is no good until he learns to take the
whip without bucking. I'm going to get you used to the whip. This is
frank talk, eh? Well, I'm a frank man. You're in the harness now,
Harrigan; make up your mind: Will you pull or will you balk? Answer
me!"
"I'll see you damned!"

"Good. You've started to balk, so now you'll have to feel the whip."
He pulled a cord, and while they waited, the relentless duel of the eyes
continued. A flash of instinct like a woman's intuition told Harrigan
what impulse was moving McTee. He knew it was the same thing
which makes the small schoolboy fight with the stranger; the same
curiosity as to the unknown power, the same relentless will to be
master, but now intensified a thousandfold in McTee, who looked for
the first time, perhaps, on a man who might be his master. Harrigan
knew, and smiled. He was confident. He half rejoiced in looking
forward to the long struggle.
A knock came and the door opened.
"Masters," said McTee to the boatswain, "we're three hands short."
"Yes, sir."
"Here are the three hands. Take them forward."
CHAPTER 3
Masters looked at Harrigan, started to laugh, looked again, and then
silently held the door open. Harrigan stepped through it and followed to
the forecastle, a dingy retreat in the high bow of the ship. He had to
bend low to pass through the door, and inside he found that he could
not stand erect. It was his first experience of working aboard a ship, and
he expected to find a scrupulous neatness, and hammocks in place of
beds.