The Mutiny of the Elsinore | Page 9

thin-lipped, shapeless
mouth that uttered gracious things so graciously. Involuntarily I
glanced at his hands. Like the mate's, they were thick-boned,
broken-knuckled, and malformed. Back into his blue eyes I looked. On
the surface of them was a film of light, a gloss of gentle kindness and
cordiality, but behind that gloss I knew resided neither sincerity nor
mercy. Behind that gloss was something cold and terrible, that lurked
and waited and watched--something catlike, something inimical and
deadly. Behind that gloss of soft light and of social sparkle was the live,
fearful thing that had shaped that mouth into the gash it was. What I
sensed behind in those eyes chilled me with its repulsiveness and
strangeness.

As I faced Mr. Mellaire, and talked with him, and smiled, and
exchanged amenities, I was aware of the feeling that comes to one in
the forest or jungle when he knows unseen wild eyes of hunting
animals are spying upon him. Frankly I was afraid of the thing
ambushed behind there in the skull of Mr. Mellaire. One so as a matter
of course identifies form and feature with the spirit within. But I could
not do this with the second mate. His face and form and manner and
suave ease were one thing, inside which he, an entirely different thing,
lay hid.
I noticed Wada standing in the cabin door, evidently waiting to ask for
instructions. I nodded, and prepared to follow him inside. Mr. Pike
looked at me quickly and said:
"Just a moment, Mr. Pathurst."
He gave some orders to the second mate, who turned on his heel and
started for'ard. I stood and waited for Mr. Pike's communication, which
he did not choose to make until he saw the second mate well out of
ear-shot. Then he leaned closely to me and said:
"Don't mention that little matter of my age to anybody. Each year I sign
on I sign my age one year younger. I am fifty-four, now, on the
articles."
"And you don't look a day older," I answered lightly, though I meant it
in all sincerity.
"And I don't feel it. I can outwork and outgame the huskiest of the
younglings. And don't let my age get to anybody's ears, Mr. Pathurst.
Skippers are not particular for mates getting around the seventy mark.
And owners neither. I've had my hopes for this ship, and I'd a-got her, I
think, except for the old man decidin' to go to sea again. As if he
needed the money! The old skinflint!"
"Is he well off?" I inquired.
"Well off! If I had a tenth of his money I could retire on a chicken

ranch in California and live like a fighting cock--yes, if I had a fiftieth
of what he's got salted away. Why, he owns more stock in all the
Blackwood ships . . . and they've always been lucky and always earned
money. I'm getting old, and it's about time I got a command. But no;
the old cuss has to take it into his head to go to sea again just as the
berth's ripe for me to fall into."
Again I started to enter the cabin, but was stopped by the mate.
"Mr. Pathurst? You won't mention about my age?"
"No, certainly not, Mr. Pike," I said.
CHAPTER III

Quite chilled through, I was immediately struck by the warm comfort
of the cabin. All the connecting doors were open, making what I might
call a large suite of rooms or a whale house. The main-deck entrance,
on the port side, was into a wide, well-carpeted hallway. Into this
hallway, from the port side, opened five rooms: first, on entering, the
mate's; next, the two state-rooms which had been knocked into one for
me; then the steward's room; and, adjoining his, completing the row, a
state-room which was used for the slop-chest.
Across the hall was a region with which I was not yet acquainted,
though I knew it contained the dining-room, the bath-rooms, the cabin
proper, which was in truth a spacious living-room, the captain's
quarters, and, undoubtedly, Miss West's quarters. I could hear her
humming some air as she bustled about with her unpacking. The
steward's pantry, separated by crosshalls and by the stairway leading
into the chart-room above on the poop, was placed strategically in the
centre of all its operations. Thus, on the starboard side of it were the
state-rooms of the captain and Miss West, for'ard of it were the
dining-room and main cabin; while on the port side of it was the row of
rooms I have described, two of which were mine.

I ventured down the hall toward the stern, and found it opened into the
stern of the Elsinore, forming a single large apartment at least
thirty-five feet