ALL 
 
 THE 
 BROTHERS 
 
 WERE 
 VALIANT 
 
 BEN AMES 
 WI1LIAMS 
 
 
1- U 
 
 fj+- ~ <T "*-.*/: 
 
ALL THE BROTHERS 
 WERE VALIANT 
 
BEN AMES WILLIAMS has also written 
 SPLENDOR 
 
 A distinguished novel of newspaper life 
 
 "Mr. Williams demonstrates that real- 
 ism need not be sordid or ugly. (His) 
 Henry Becker is not the kind of Amer- 
 ican that Sinclair Lewis, for example, 
 understands or even recognizes as ex- 
 isting, yet the country has vastly more 
 Henry Beckers than it has of the 
 people whom Mr. Lewis and his school 
 have pictured to the world as typical 
 Americans." The Boston Herald. 
 
 "He fairly jostles Mark Sullivan in the 
 latter's pre-empted territory. . . . Fic- 
 tion aside, Mr. Williams poses in his 
 book some interesting journalistic ques- 
 tions." The New York Times. 
 
 "I know of no book that I have read 
 which reflects in such a true and un- 
 erring sense the home life of a family 
 of moderate means in the suburbs. 
 There are thousands of people of that 
 kind, and no book could portray their 
 lives as well as does this novel." 
 
 Edward W. Bok. 
 
 "The story is the kind of realism that 
 keeps me reading into the night. It 
 is a splendid book." George Ade. 
 
 DEATH ON SCURVY STREET 
 THE DREADFUL NIGHT 
 THE SILVER FOREST 
 IMMORTAL LONGINGS 
 THE RATIONAL HIND 
 BLACK PAWL 
 THRIFTY STOCK 
 AUDACITY 
 EVERED 
 
 Published by E. P. Dutton & Company, Inc. 
 
Ps 
 
 /f-7 
 
 ALL THE BROTHERS 
 WERE VALIANT 
 
ALL THE BROTHERS 
 WERE VALIANT 
 
 THE fine old house stood on Jumping 
 Tom Hill, above the town. It had 
 stood there before there was a town, when only 
 a cabin or two fringed the woods below, nearer 
 the shore. The weather boarding had been 
 brought in ships from England, ready sawed; 
 likewise the bricks of the chimney. Indians 
 used to come to the house in the cold of win- 
 ter, begging shelter. Given blankets, and 
 food, and drink, they slept upon the kitchen 
 floor; and when Joel Shore's great-great-grand- 
 father came down in the morning, he found In- 
 dians and blankets gone together. Sometimes 
 
 [5] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 the Indians came back with a venison haunch, 
 or a bear steak . . . sometimes not at all. 
 
 The house had, now, the air of disuse which 
 old New England houses often have. It was 
 in perfect repair; its paint was white, and its 
 shutters hung squarely at the windows. But 
 the grass was uncut in the yard, and the lack 
 of a veranda, and the tight-closed doors and 
 windows, made the house seem lifeless and 
 lacking the savor of human presence. There 
 was a white-painted picket fence around the 
 yard; and a rambler rose draped these pickets. 
 The buds on the rose were bursting into crim- 
 son flower. 
 
 The house was four-square, plain, and with- 
 out any ornamentation. It was built about a 
 great, square chimney that was like a spine. 
 There were six flues in this chimney, and a pot 
 atop each flue. These little chimney pots 
 breaking the severe outlines of the house, gave 
 [6] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 the only suggestion of lightness or frivolity 
 about it. They were like the heads of impish 
 children, peeping over a fence. . . . 
 
 Across the front of this house, on the second 
 floor, ran a single, long room like a corridor. 
 Its windows looked down, across the town, to 
 the Harbor. A glass hung in brackets on the 
 wall; there was a hog-yoke in its case upon a 
 little table, and a ship's chronometer, and a 
 compass. . . . There were charts in a tin 
 tube upon the wall, and one that showed the 
 Harbor and the channel to the sea hung be- 
 tween the middle windows. In the north cor- 
 ner, a harpoon, and two lances, and a boat spade 
 leaned. Their blades were covered with 
 wooden sheaths, painted gray. A fifteen-foot 
 jawbone, cleaned and polished and with every 
 curving tooth in place, hung upon the rear wall 
 and gleamed like old and yellow ivory. The 
 chair at the table was fashioned of whalebone; 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 and on a bracket above the table rested the 
 model of a whaling ship, not more than eight- 
 een inches long, fashioned of sperm ivory and 
 perfect in every detail. Even the tiny har- 
 poons in the boats that hung along the rail were 
 tipped with bits of steel. . . . 
 
 The windows of this place were tight closed; 
 nevertheless, the room was filled with the harsh, 
 strong smell of the sea. 
 
 Joel Shore sat in the whalebone chair, at the 
 table, reading a book. The book was the Log 
 of the House of Shore. Joel's father had be- 
 gun it, when Joel and his four brothers were 
 ranging from babyhood through youth. . . . 
 A full half of the book was filled with entries in 
 old Matthew Shore's small, cramped hand. 
 The last of these entries was very short. It be- 
 gan with a date, and it read : 
 
 "Wind began light, from the south. This 
 day came into Harbor the bark Winona, after a 
 [8] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 cruise of three years, two months, and four 
 days. Captain Chase reported that my eldest 
 son, Matthew Shore, was killed by the fluke of 
 a right whale, at Christmas Island. The whale 
 yielded seventy barrels of oil. Matthew Shore 
 was second mate." 
 
 And below, upon a single line, like an epi- 
 taph, the words: 
 
 " 'All the brothers were valiant.' " 
 
 Two days after, the old man sickened; and 
 three weeks later, he died. He had set great 
 store by big Matt. . . . 
 
 Joel, turning the leaves of the Log, and scan- 
 ning their brief entries, came presently to this 
 written in the hand of his brother John : 
 
 "Wind easterly. This day the Betty was 
 reported lost on the Japan grounds, with all 
 hands save the boy and the cook. Noah Shore 
 was third mate. Day ended as it began." 
 
 And below, again, that single line: 
 
 [9] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 " 'All the brothers were valiant.' " 
 
 There followed many pages filled with re- 
 ports of rich cruises, when ships came home 
 with bursting casks, and the brothers of the 
 House of Shore played the parts of men. The 
 entries were now in the hand of one, now of an- 
 other; John and Mark and Joel. . . . Joel 
 read phrases here and there. . . . 
 
 "This day the Martin Wilkes returned . . . 
 two years, eleven months and twenty-two days 
 . . . died on the cruise, and first mate John 
 Shore became captain. Day ended as it be- 
 gan." 
 
 And, a page or two further on : 
 
 ". . . Martin Wilkes . . . two years, two 
 months, four days . . . tubs on deck filled with 
 oil, for which there was no more room in the 
 casks . . . Captain John Shore." 
 
 Mark Shore's first entry in the Log stood out 
 from the others; for Mark's hand was bold, and 
 
 [10] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 strong, and the letters sprawled blackly along 
 the lines. Furthermore, Mark used the per- 
 sonal pronoun, while the other brothers wrote 
 always in the third person. Mark had written : 
 
 "This day, I, Mark Shore, at the age of 
 twenty-seven, was given command of the whal- 
 ing bark Nathan Ross. 1 ' 
 
 Joel read this sentence thrice. There was a 
 bold pride in it, and a strong and reckless note 
 which seemed to bring his brother before his 
 very eyes. Mark had always been so, swift of 
 tongue, and strong, and sure. Joel turned an- 
 other page, came to where Mark had written: 
 
 "This day I returned from my first cruise 
 with full casks in two years, seven months, 
 fifteen days. I found the Martin Wilkes in the 
 dock. They report Captain John Shore lost at 
 Vau Vau in an effort to save the ship's boy, 
 who had fallen overboard. The boy was also 
 lost." 
 
 [11] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 And, below, in bold and defiant letters : 
 " 'All the brothers were valiant/ " 
 
 There were two more pages of entries, in 
 Mark's hand or in Joel's, before the end. 
 When he came to the fresh page, Joel dipped 
 his pen, and huddled his broad shoulders over 
 the book, and slowly wrote that which had to 
 be written. 
 
 "Wind northeast, light," he began, accord- 
 ing to the ancient form of the sea, which makes 
 the state of wind and weather of first and fore- 
 most import. "Wind northeast, light. This 
 day the Martin Wilkes finished a three year 
 cruise. Found in port the Nathan Ross. She 
 reports that Captain Mark Shore left the ship 
 when she watered at the Gilbert Islands. He 
 did not return, and could not be found. They 
 searched three weeks. They encountered hos- 
 tile islanders. No trace of Mark Shore." 
 
 When he had written thus far, he read the 
 [12] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 record to himself, his lips moving; then he sat 
 for a space with frowning brows, thinking, 
 thinking, wondering if there were a chance. . . . 
 
 But in the end he cast the hope aside. If 
 Mark lived, they would have found him, would 
 surely have found him. . . . 
 
 And so Joel wrote the ancient line : 
 " 'All the brothers were valiant/ " 
 
 And below, as an afterthought, he added: 
 "Joel Shore became first mate of the Martin 
 Wilkes on her cruise." 
 
 He blotted this line, and closed the book, 
 and put it away. Then he went to the win- 
 dows that looked down upon the Harbor, and 
 stood there for a long time. His face was 
 serene, but his eyes were faintly troubled. He 
 did not see the things that lay outspread below 
 him. 
 
 Yet they were worth seeing. The town was 
 old, and it had the fragrance of age about it. 
 
 [13] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Below Joel, on the hill's slopes, among the 
 trees, stood the square white houses of the town 
 folk. Beyond them, the white spire of the 
 church with its weather vane atop. Joel 
 marked that the wind was still northeast. The 
 vane swung fitfully in the light air. He could 
 see the masts and yards of the ships along the 
 waterfront. The yards of the 'Nathan Ross 
 were canted in mournful tribute to his brother. 
 At the pier end beside her, he marked the ranks 
 of casks, brown with sweating oil. Beyond, 
 the smooth water ruffled in the wind, and dark 
 ripple-shadows moved across its surface with 
 each breeze. There were gulls in the air, and 
 on the water. Such stillness lay upon the 
 sleepy town that if his windows had been open, 
 he might have heard the harsh cries of the birds. 
 A man was sculling shoreward from a fishing 
 schooner that lay at anchor off the docks; and 
 a whaleboat crawled like a spider across the 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 harbor toward Fairhaven on the other side. 
 
 On a flag staff above a big building near the 
 water, a half-masted flag hung idly in the 
 faintly stirring air. It hung there, he knew, 
 for his brother's sake. He watched it thought- 
 fully, wondering. . . . There had been such 
 an abounding insolence of life in big Mark 
 Shore. ... It was hard to believe that he was 
 surely dead. 
 
 A woman passed along the street below the 
 house, and looked up and saw him at the win- 
 dow. He did not see her. Two boys crawled 
 along the white picket fence, and pricked their 
 fingers as they broke half-open clusters from 
 the rambler without molestation. A gray 
 squirrel, when the boys had gone, came down 
 from an elm across the street and sprinted des- 
 perately to the foot of the great oak below the 
 house. When it was safe in the oak's upper 
 branches, it scolded derisively at the imaginary 
 
 [15] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 terrors it had escaped. A blue jay, with ruffled 
 feathers a huge, blue ball in the air rocketed 
 across from the elm, and established himself 
 near the squirrel, and they swore at each other 
 like coachmen. The squirrel swore from 
 temper and disposition; the jay from malice 
 and derision. The bird seemed to have the bet- 
 ter of the argument, for the squirrel suddenly 
 fell silent and departed, his emotions revealing 
 themselves only in the angry flicks of his tail. 
 When he was gone, the jay began to investigate 
 a knot in a limb of the oak. The bird climbed 
 around this knot with slow motions curiously 
 like those of a parrot. 
 
 A half-grown boy came up the street and 
 turned in at the gate. Joel remained where he 
 was until the boy manipulated the knocker on 
 the door; then he went down and opened. He 
 knew the boy; Peter How. Peter was thin and 
 freckled and nervous; and he was inclined to 
 
 [16] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 stammer. When Joel opened the door, Peter 
 was at first unable to speak. He stood on the 
 step, jerking his chin upward and forward as 
 though his collar irked him. Joel smiled 
 slowly. 
 
 "Come in, Peter," he said. 
 
 Peter jerked his chin, jerked his whole head 
 furiously. "C C C " he said. "Asa W- 
 W-Worthen wants to s-s-see you." 
 
 Asa Worthen was the owner of the Mar- 
 tin Wilkes, and of the Nathan Ross. Joel 
 nodded gently. 
 
 'Thank you, Peter," he told the boy. "I'll 
 get my hat and come." 
 
 Peter jerked his head. He seemed to be 
 choking. "He's a-a-a-a-at his office," he 
 blurted. 
 
 Joel had found his hat. He closed the door 
 of the house behind him, and he and Peter went 
 down the shady street together. 
 
 [17] 
 
II 
 
 ASA WORTHEN was a small, lean, strong 
 old man, immensely voluble. He must 
 have been well over sixty years old ; and he had 
 grown rich by harvesting the living treasures of 
 the sea. At thirty-four, he owned his first ship. 
 She was old, and cranky, and no more sea- 
 worthy than a log; but she earned him more 
 than four hundred thousand dollars, net, be- 
 fore he beached her on the sand below the town. 
 She lay there still, her upper parts strong and 
 well preserved. But her bottom was gone, and 
 she was slowly rotting into the sand. 
 
 Asa himself had captained this old craft, un- 
 til she had served her appointed time ; but when 
 she went to the sand flats, he, too, stayed ashore, 
 to watch his ships come in. When they were 
 
 [18] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 in harbor, they berthed in his own dock; and 
 from his office at the shoreward end of the pier, 
 he could look down upon their decks, and watch 
 the casks come out, so fat with oil, and the 
 stores go aboard for each cruise. The cries of 
 the men and the wheeling gulls, the rattle of 
 the blocks and gear, and the rich smell of the 
 oil came up to him. . . . The 'Nathan Ross 
 was loading now; and when Joel climbed the 
 office stairs, he found the old man at the win- 
 dow watching them sling great shooks of staves 
 into her hold, and fidgeting at the lubberli- 
 ness of the men who did the work. 
 
 Asa's office was worth seeing; a strange, 
 huge room, windowed on three sides; against 
 one wall, a whaleboat with all her gear in 
 place; in a corner, the twisted jaw of a sixty- 
 barrel bull, killed in the Seychelles; and Asa 
 Worthen's big desk, with a six-foot model of 
 his old ship atop it, between the forward win- 
 
 [19] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 dows. Beside the desk stood that contrivance 
 known to the whalemen as a "woman's tub"; 
 a cask, sawed chair-fashion, with a cross board 
 for seat, and ropes so rigged that the whole 
 might be easily and safely swung from ship 
 to small boat or back again. Asa had taken 
 his wife along on more than one of his early 
 voyages . . . before she died. . . . 
 
 At Joel's step, the little man swung awk- 
 wardly away from the window, toward the 
 door. Many years ago, a racing whale line had 
 snarled his left leg and whipped away a gout of 
 muscle; and this leg was now shorter than its 
 fellow, so that Asa walked with a pegging limp. 
 He hitched across the big room, and took Joel's 
 * arm, and led the young man to the desk. 
 
 "Sit down, Joel. Sit down," he said briskly. 
 "I've words to say to you, my son. Sit down." 
 Asa was smoking; and Joel took a twist of leaf 
 from his pocket, and cut three slices, and crum- 
 
 [20] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 bled them and stuffed them into the bowl of 
 his black pipe. Asa watched the process, and 
 he watched Joel, puffing without comment. 
 There was something furtive in the scrutiny of 
 the young man, but Joel did not mark it. 
 When the pipe was ready, Asa passed across 
 a match, and Joel struck it, and puffed 
 slowly. . . . 
 
 Asa began, abruptly, what he had to say. 
 "Joel, the Nathan Ross will be ready for sea 
 in five days. She's stout, her timbers are good 
 and her tackle is strong. She's a lucky ship. 
 The oil swims after her across the broad sea, 
 and begs to be taken. She's my pet ship, Joel, 
 as you know; and she's uncommon well fitted. 
 Mark had her. Now I want you to take her." 
 
 Joel's calm eyes had met the other's while 
 Asa was speaking; and Asa had shifted to avoid 
 the encounter. But Joel's heart was pounding 
 so, at the words of the older man, that he took 
 
 [21] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 no heed. He listened, and he waited thought- 
 fully until he was sure of what he wished to 
 say. Then he asked quietly: 
 
 "Is not James Finch the mate of her*? Did 
 he not fetch her hornet" 
 
 "Aye," said Asa impatiently. "He brought 
 her home in the top scurry of haste. There 
 was no need of such haste; for he had still 
 casks unfilled, and there was sparm all about 
 him where he lay. He should have filled those 
 last casks. 'Tis in them the profit lies." He 
 shook his head sorrowfully. "No, Jim Finch 
 will not do. He is a good man under an- 
 other man. But he has not the spine that 
 stands alone. When Mark Shore was gone . . . 
 Jim had no thought but to throw the try works 
 overside and scurry hitherward as though he 
 feared to be out upon the seas alone." 
 
 Joel puffed thrice at his pipe. Then: 
 "You said this morning that for three weeks 
 
 [22] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 he hunted Mark, up and down the Gilbert 
 Islands." 
 
 Asa's little eyes whipped toward Joel, and 
 away again. "Oh, aye," he said harshly. 
 "Three weeks he hunted, when one was plenty. 
 If Mark Shore lived, and wished to find his 
 ship again, he'd have found her in a week. If 
 he were dead . . . there was no need of the 
 time wasted." 
 
 "Nevertheless," said Joel quietly, "James 
 Finch has my thanks for his search; and I'm 
 no mind to do him a harm, or to step into his 
 shoes." 
 
 Asa smiled grimly. "Ye 5 re over consid- 
 erate," he said. "Jim Finch was your brother's 
 man, and a very loyal one. As long as he is an- 
 other's man, he is content. But he has no want 
 to be his own master and the master of a ship, 
 and of men. I've askit him." 
 
 Joel puffed hard at his pipe; and after a little 
 
 [23] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 he asked: "Sir, what think you it was that 
 came to Mark?" 
 
 Asa looked at him sharply, then away; and 
 his accustomed volubility fell away from him. 
 He lifted his hands. "Ask James Finch, 
 I've no way to tell," he said curtly. 
 
 "Have you no opinion?" Joel insisted. 
 
 The ship owner tilted his head, set finger tip 
 to finger tip, assumed the air of one who de- 
 livers judgment. "Islanders, 'tis like," he said. 
 "There's a many there." He looked sidewise 
 at Joel, looked away. Joel was nodding. 
 
 "Yes, many thereabouts," he agreed. "But 
 there would have been tracks. Were there 
 none?" 
 
 "Mark left his boat's crew," said Asa. 
 "Walked away along the shore. That was all." 
 
 "No tracks?" 
 
 "They saw where he'd left the sand." The 
 ship owner shifted in his chair. "Seems like 
 
 [24] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 I'd heard you and Mark wa'n't too good 
 friends, Joel. Your a'mighty worked up." 
 
 Joel looked at the little man with bleak eyes. 
 "He was my brother." 
 
 "I've heard tell he forgot you was his, some- 
 times." 
 
 Joel paid no heed. "You think it was 
 Islanders'?" 
 
 Asa kicked the corner of his desk, watching 
 his foot. "What else was there*?" 
 
 "I've nothing in my mind," said Joel, and 
 shook his head. "But it sticks in me that Mark 
 was no man to die easy. There was a full 
 measure of life in him." 
 
 Asa got up awkwardly, waved his hand. 
 "We're off the course, Joel. What about the 
 Nathan Ross? Ready for sea, come Tuesday. 
 I'm not one to press her on any man, unwilling. 
 Say your say, man. Do you take her? Or 
 no?" 
 
 [25] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Joel drew slowly once more upon his pipe. 
 "If I take her," he said, "we'll work the Gil- 
 berts first of all, and try once again for a sign 
 of my brother Mark/' 
 
 Asa jerked his head. "So you pick up any 
 oil that comes your way, I've no objection," 
 he agreed. "Matter of fact, that's the best 
 thing to do. Mark may yet live." His eyes 
 snapped up to the others. "You take her, 
 then?" 
 
 Joel nodded slowly. "I take her, sir," he 
 said. "With thanks to you." 
 
 Asa banged his hand jubilantly on his desk. 
 "That's done. Now . . ." 
 
 The two men sat down at Asa's big desk 
 again; and for an hour they were busy with 
 matters that concerned the coming cruise. 
 When a whaleship goes to sea, she goes for a 
 three-year cruise; and save only the items of 
 food and water, she carries with her everything 
 
 [26] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 she will need for that whole time, with an am- 
 ple allowance to spare. She is a department 
 store of the seas; for she works with iron and 
 wood, with steel and bone, with fire and water 
 and rope and sail. All these things she must 
 have, and many more. And the lists of a 
 whaleship's stores are long and long, and take 
 much checking. When they had considered 
 these matters, Asa sent out to the pierhead to 
 summon Jim Finch, and told the man that Joel 
 would have the ship. Joel said to Finch 
 slowly: 'I've no mind to fight a grudge 
 aboard my ship, sir. If you blame me for step- 
 ping into your shoes, Mr. Worthen will give 
 you another berth." 
 
 Finch shook his head. He was a big, laugh- 
 ing man with soft, fat cheeks. "No, sir," he 
 declared. "It's yours, and welcome. Your 
 brother was a man; and you've the look of 
 another, sir." 
 
 [27] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Joel frowned. He was uncomfortable; he 
 had an angry feeling that Finch was too ami- 
 able. But he said no more, and Finch went 
 back to the ship, and Asa and Joel continued 
 with their task. 
 
 While they worked, the afternoon sun drifted 
 down the western sky till its level rays were 
 flame lances laid across the harbor. A fish- 
 ing craft at anchor in mid-stream hoisted her 
 sails with a creak and rattle of blocks and 
 drifted down the channel with the tide. The 
 wheeling gulls dropped, one by one, to the 
 water; or they lurched off to some quiet cove 
 to spend the night. Their harsh cries came 
 less frequently, were less persistent. The wind 
 had swung around, and it was fetching now 
 from the water a cold and salty chill. There 
 was a smell of cooking in the air, and the smoke 
 from the Nathan Ross 9 galley, and the cool 
 smell of the sea mingled with the strong odor 
 
 [28] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 of the oil in the casks ranked at the end of the 
 pier. 
 
 The sun had touched the horizon when Joel 
 at last rose to go. Asa got up with him, 
 dropped a hand on the young man's shoulder. 
 They passed the contrivance called a "woman's 
 tub"; and Asa, at sight of it, seemed to be 
 minded of something. He stopped, and 
 checked Joel, and with eyes twinkling, pointed 
 to the tub. "Will you be wishful to take that 
 on the cruise, Joel 5 ?" he asked, and looked up 
 sidewise at the younger man, and chuckled. 
 
 Joel's brown cheeks were covered with slow 
 fire; but his voice was steady enough when he 
 replied. "It's a kind offer, sir," he said. "I 
 know well what store you set by that tub." 
 
 "Will you be wanting it?' Asa still in- 
 sisted. 
 
 "I'll see," said Joel quietly. "I will see." 
 
 r 
 
 [29] 
 
Ill 
 
 THE brothers of the House of Shore had 
 been, on the whole, slow to take to 
 themselves wives. Matt had never married, 
 nor Noah, nor Mark. John had a wife for the 
 weeks he was at home before his last cruise; 
 but he did not take her with him on that voy- 
 age, and there was no John Shore to carry on 
 the name. 
 
 John Shore's widow was called Rachel. She 
 had been Rachel Holt; and her sister's name 
 was Priscilla. Rachel was one of those women 
 who suggest slumbering fires; she was slow of 
 speech, and quiet, and calm. . . . But John 
 Shore and Mark had both loved her; and when 
 she married John, Mark laughed a hard and 
 reckless laugh that made the woman afraid. 
 
 [30] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 John and Mark never spoke, one to another, 
 after that marriage. 
 
 Rachel's sister, Priscilla, was a gay and care- 
 less child. She was six years younger than 
 Joel, and she had acquired in babyhood the 
 habit of thinking Joel the most wonderful cre- 
 ated thing. Their yards adjoined; and she was 
 the baby of her family, and he of his. Thus 
 the big boy and the little girl had always been 
 comrades and allies against the world. Be- 
 fore Joel first went to sea, as ship's boy, the two 
 had decided they would some day be mar- 
 ried. . . . 
 
 Joel went to supper that night at Priscilla's 
 home. He was alone in his own house; and 
 Mrs. Holt was a person with a mother's heart. 
 Rachel lived at home. She gave Joel quiet 
 welcome at the door, before Priscilla in the 
 kitchen heard his voice and came flying to over- 
 whelm him. She had been making popovers, 
 
 [31] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 and there was flour on her fingers and on 
 Joel's best black coat, when she was done with 
 him. Rachel brushed it off, when Priss had 
 run back to her oven. 
 
 They sat down at table. Mrs. Holt at one 
 end, her husband he was a big man, an old 
 sea captain, and full of yarns as a knitting 
 bag at the other; and Rachel at one side, 
 facing Priss and Joel. Joel's ship had come 
 in only that day; the Nathan Ross had been in 
 port for weeks. So the whole town knew Mark 
 Shore's story. They spoke of it now, and 
 Joel told them what he knew. . . . Rachel 
 wondered if there was any chance that Mark 
 might still be alive. Her father broke in with 
 a story of Mark's first cruise, when the boy had 
 saved a man's life by his quickness with the 
 hatchet on the racing line. The town was full 
 of such stories; for Mark was one of those 
 
 [32] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 men about whom legends arise. And now he 
 was gone. . . . 
 
 Priscilla listened to the talk with the wide 
 eyes of youth, awed by the mystery and maj- 
 esty of tragic things. She remembered Mark 
 as a huge man, like a pagan god, in whose eyes 
 she had been only a thin-legged little girl who 
 made faces through the fence. . . . After sup- 
 per, when the others had left them in the parlor 
 together, she said to Joel: "Do you think 
 he's dead?" Her voice was a whisper. 
 
 "I aim to know," said Joel. 
 
 Rachel looked in at the door. "You 
 needn't bother with the dishes, Priss," she said. 
 "I'll do them." 
 
 Priscilla had forgotten all about that task. 
 She ran contritely toward her sister. "Oh, I'm 
 sorry, Rachel. I will, I will do them. Joel 
 and I. . . ." 
 
 [33] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Rachel laughed softly. "I don't mind them. 
 You two stay here." 
 
 Priscilla accepted the offer, in the end; but 
 she had no notion of staying in the tight-win- 
 dowed parlor, with its harsh carpet on the floor, 
 and its samplers on the walls. She was of the 
 new generation, the generation which discovered 
 that the night is beautiful, and not unhealthy. 
 "Let's go outside," she said to Joel. "There's 
 a moon. We can sit on the bench, under the 
 apple tree. . . ." 
 
 They went out, side by side. Joel was not 
 a tall man, but he was inches taller than Pris- 
 cilla. She was tiny; a dainty, sweetly propor- 
 tioned creature, built on fine lines that were 
 strangely out of keeping with the stalwart stock 
 from which she sprung. Her hair was darker 
 than Joel's ; it was a brown so dark that it was 
 almost black. But her eyes were vividly blue, 
 and her lips were vividly red, and her cheeks 
 
 [34] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 were bright. . . . She slipped her hand through 
 Joel's big arm as they crossed the yard; and 
 when they had found the seat, she drew his arm 
 frankly about her shoulders. "I'm cold," she 
 said, laughing up at him. "You must keep me 
 warm. . . ." 
 
 The moon flecked down through the leaves 
 upon her face. There was moonlight on her 
 cheek, and on her mouth ; but her thick hair and 
 her eyes were shadowed and mysterious. Joel 
 saw that her lips were smiling. . . . She drew 
 his head down toward hers. . . . Joel was 
 flesh and blood; and she panted, and gasped, 
 and pushed him away, and smoothed her hair, 
 and laughed at him. "I love you to be so 
 strong," she whispered, happily. 
 
 He had not told them, at supper, of his pro- 
 motion. He told Priscilla now; and the girl 
 could not sit still beside him. She danced in 
 the path before the seat; she perched on his 
 
 [35] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 knee, and caught his big shoulders in her tiny 
 hands and tried to shake him back and forth 
 in her delight. "You don't act a bit excited," 
 she scolded. "You don't act as though you 
 were glad, a bit. Aren't you glad, Joe*? 
 Aren't you just so proud 4 ? . . ." 
 
 "Yes," he told her. "Of course. Yes. 
 Yes, I am glad, and I am proud." 
 
 "Oh," she cried, "I could I could just hug 
 you in two." She tried it, tightening her arms 
 about his big neck, clinging to him. . . . He 
 sat stiff and awkward under her caresses, thrill- 
 ing with a happiness that he did not know how 
 to express. He felt uneasy, half embarrassed. 
 Her ecstasy continued. . . . 
 
 Then, abruptly, it passed. She became prac- 
 tical. Still upon his knee, she began to ask 
 questions. When would he sail away'? She 
 had heard the Nathan Ross was almost ready. 
 When would he come back*? When would he 
 
 [36] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 be rich, so that they might be married? 
 Would it be long? . . . 
 
 Joel found tongue. "We will be married 
 Monday," he said slowly. "We will go away 
 on the Nathan Ross together. I do not 
 want to go alone." 
 
 She slipped from his knee, stood before him. 
 "Why, Joel! You're you're just crazy to 
 think of it." 
 
 He shook his head. "No," he said. "No, I 
 have thought all about it. It is the best thing 
 to do. We will be married Monday; and we 
 will make a bigger cabin on the Nathan 
 Ross. . . ." His voice always slowed a little 
 as he spoke the name of his first ship. "You 
 will be happy on her," he said. "You will like 
 it all. ... The sea. . . ." 
 
 She returned to his knee, tumbling his hair. 
 "You silly! Men don't understand. Why, I 
 couldn't be ready for ever so long. And I 
 
 [37] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 wouldn't dare go away with you. For so aw- 
 fully long. I just couldn't. . . ." Her eyes 
 misted with thought, and she said quite seri- 
 ously: "Why, Joel, we might find we didn't 
 like each other at all. But we'd be on the ship, 
 with no way to get away from it ... for three 
 years. Don't you see?" 
 
 Joel said calmly: "That is not so; because 
 we know about liking each other, already. I 
 know how it is with you. It is clothes that 
 you are thinking about. Well, you can get 
 them in the stores. And you have many, al- 
 ready. You have new dresses whenever I see 
 you. . . ." 
 
 She laughed gayly. "But, Joel, you only see 
 me once in three years. Of course I have new 
 dresses, then. But I just couldn't. . . ." 
 
 She laughed again, a faint uneasiness in her 
 laughter. She left his knee, and sat down so- 
 berly beside him. She was feeling a little 
 
 [38] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 crushed, smothered ... as though she were be- 
 ing pushed back against a wall. Joel said 
 steadily : 
 
 "Mr. Worthen will be glad to know you go 
 with me. And every one will be glad for 
 you. . . ." 
 
 She burst, abruptly, into tears. She was mis- 
 erable, she told him. He was making her mis- 
 erable. She hated to be bullied, and he was 
 trying to bully her. She hated him. She 
 wouldn't marry him. Never. He could go off 
 on his old ship and never come back. That was 
 all. She would not go ; and he ought not to ask 
 her to, anyway. To prove how much she hated 
 him, she nestled against his side, and his arm 
 enfolded her. 
 
 Joel had not the outward seeming of a wise 
 man ; nevertheless he now said : 
 
 "The other girls will all be envying you. To 
 be married so quickly, and carried away the 
 
 [39] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 very next day. . . ." Her sobs miraculously 
 ceased, and he smiled quietly down upon her 
 dark head against his breast. "Every one will 
 do things for you. . . . The whole town. . . . 
 They will come down to see us sail away." 
 
 He fell silent, leaving his words for her con- 
 sideration. She remained very quiet against 
 his side for a long time, breathing very softly. 
 He thought he could almost read her 
 thoughts. . . . 
 
 "It will be," he said, "like a story. Like a 
 romance." And the word sounded strangely on 
 his sober lips. 
 
 But at the word, the girl sat up quickly, both 
 hands gripping his arm. He could see her eyes 
 dancing in the moonlight. . . . "Oh, Joe," 
 she cried, "it would really be just loads of 
 fun. And terribly romantic. . . . Wonder- 
 ful !" She pressed a hand to her cheek, think- 
 ing: "And I could . . ." 
 [40] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 She could, she said, do thus and so. ... 
 Joel listened, and he smiled. For he knew 
 that his bride would sail away with him. 
 
 [40 
 
IV 
 
 IN the few days that remained before the Na- 
 than Ross was to sail, there was no time for 
 remodeling her cabin to accommodate Priscilla; 
 so that was left for the first weeks of the cruise. 
 There were matters enough, without it, to oc- 
 cupy those last days. Little Priss was caught 
 up like a leaf in the wind ; she was whirled this 
 way and that in a pleasant and heart-stirring 
 confusion. And through it all, her laughter 
 rang in the air like the sound of bells. To 
 Joel, Sunday night, she said: "Oh, Joe . . . 
 it's been an awful rush. But it's been such fun. 
 . . . And I never was so happy in my life." 
 
 And Joel smiled, and said quietly: "Yes 
 with happier times to come." 
 
 [42] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 She looked up at him wistfully. "You'll be 
 good to me, won't you, Joel 1 ?" He patted her 
 shoulder. 
 
 They were married in the big old white 
 church, and every pew was filled. Afterwards 
 they all went down to the piers, where Asa 
 Worthen had spread long tables and loaded 
 them so that they groaned. Alongside lay the 
 Nathan Ross, her decks littered with the last 
 confusion of preparation. Joel showed Pris- 
 cilla the lumber for the cabin alterations, ranked 
 along the rail beneath the boathouse; and she 
 gripped his arm tight with both hands. After- 
 wards, he took Priscilla up the hill to the great 
 House of Shore. Rachel had prepared their 
 wedding supper there. . . . 
 
 At a quarter before ten o'clock the next morn- 
 ing, the Nathan Ross went out with the tide. 
 When she had cleared the dock and was fairly 
 
 [43] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 in the stream, Joel gave her in charge of Jim 
 Finch; and he and Priscilla stood in the after 
 house, astern, and looked back at the throng 
 upon the pier until the individual figures 
 merged into a black mass, pepper- and-sal ted 
 with color where the women stood. They 
 could see the handkerchiefs flickering, until a 
 turn of the channel swept them out of sight of 
 the town, and they drifted on through the wid- 
 ening mouth of the bay, toward the open sea. 
 At dusk that night, there was still land in sight 
 behind them and on either side ; but when Pris- 
 cilla came on deck in the morning, there was 
 nothing but blue water and laughing waves. 
 And so she was homesick, all that day, and 
 laughed not at all till the evening, when the 
 moon bathed the ship in silver fire, and the 
 white-caps danced all about them. 
 
 The Nathan Ross was in no sense a lovely 
 ship. There was about her none of the poetry 
 
 [44] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 of the seas. She was designed strictly for util- 
 ity, and for hard and dirty toil. Blunt she was 
 of bow and stern, and her widest point was just 
 abeam the foremast, so that she had great shoul- 
 ders that buffeted the sea. These shoulders 
 bent inward toward the prow and met in what 
 was practically a right angle ; and her stern was 
 cut almost straight across, with only enough 
 overhang to give the rudder room. Further- 
 more, her masts had no rake. They stood up 
 stiff and straight as sore thumbs; and the bow- 
 sprit, instead of being something near horizon- 
 tal, rose toward the skies at an angle close to 
 forty-five degrees. This bowsprit made the 
 Nathan Ross look as though she had just 
 stubbed her toe. She carried four boats at the 
 davits; and two spare craft, bottom up, on the 
 boathouse just forward of the mizzenmast. 
 Three of the four at the davits were on the star- 
 board side, and since they were each thirty feet 
 
 [45] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 long, while the ship herself was scarce a hun- 
 dred and twenty, they gave her a sadly cluttered 
 and overloaded appearance. For the rest, she 
 was painted black, with a white checkerboard- 
 ing around the rail ; and her sails were smeared 
 and smutty with smoke from burning blubber- 
 scraps . 
 
 Nevertheless, she was a comfortable ship, 
 and a dry one. She rode waves that would 
 have swept a vessel cut on prouder lines; and 
 she was moderately steady. She was not fast, 
 nor cared to be. An easy five or six knots con- 
 tented her; for the whole ocean was her hunting 
 ground, and though there were certain more 
 favored areas, you might meet whales any- 
 where. Give her time, and she would poke 
 that blunt nose of hers right 'round the world, 
 and come back with a net profit anywhere up to 
 a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in her 
 sweating casks. 
 
 [46] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Priscilla Holt knew all these things, and she 
 respected the Nathan Ross on their account. 
 But during the first weeks of the cruise, she was 
 too much interested in the work on the cabin to 
 consider other matters. Old Aaron Burnham, 
 the carpenter, did the work. He was a wiry 
 little man, gray and grizzled; and he loved the 
 tools of his craft with a jealous love that for- 
 bade the laying on of impious hands. Through 
 the long, calm days, when the ship snored like 
 a sleep-walker through the empty seas, Priscilla 
 would sit on box or bench or floor, and watch 
 Aaron at his task, and ask him questions, and 
 listen to the old man's long stories of things that 
 had come and gone. 
 
 Sometimes she tried to help him; but he 
 would not let her handle an edged tool. "Ye'll 
 no have the eye for it," he would say. "Leave 
 it be." Now and then he let her try to drive a 
 nail ; but as often as not she missed the nail head 
 
 [47] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 and marred the soft wood, until Aaron lost pa- 
 tience with her. "Mark you," he cried, "men 
 will see the scar there, and they'll be thinking 
 I did this task with my foot, Ma'am." 
 
 And Priscilla would laugh at him, and curl 
 up with her feet tucked under her skirts and 
 her chin in her hands, and watch him by the 
 long hour on hour. 
 
 The task dragged on; it seemed to her end- 
 less. For Aaron had other work that must be 
 done, and he could give only his spare time to 
 this. Also, he was a slow worker, accustomed 
 to take his own time; and when Priscilla grew 
 impatient and scolded him, the old man merely 
 sat back on his knees, and scratched his head, 
 and tapped thoughtfully with his hammer on 
 the floor beside him. 
 
 "We-ell, Ma'am," he said, "I do things so, 
 and I do things so ; and it takes time, that does, 
 Ma'am." 
 
 [48] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Now and then, through those days, Priscilla's 
 enthusiasm would send her skittering up the 
 companion to fetch Joel to see some new won- 
 der a window set in the stern, or a bench com- 
 pleted, or a door hung. And Joel, looking far 
 oftener at Priscilla than at the object she wished 
 him to consider, would chuckle, and touch her 
 shoulder affectionately, and go back to his post. 
 
 In the sixth week, the last nail had been 
 driven, and the last lick of paint was dry. In 
 the result, Priscilla was as happy as a bride has 
 a right to be. 
 
 Across the very stern of the ship, with win- 
 dows looking out upon the wake, ran what 
 might have been called a sitting room. It was 
 perhaps twenty feet wide and eight feet deep; 
 and its rear wall formed by the overhanging 
 stern sloped outward toward the ceiling. 
 Against this slope, beneath the three windows, a 
 broad, cushioned bench was built, to serve as 
 
 [49] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 couch or seat. The bench was broken in one 
 place to make room for Joel's desk, and the cab- 
 inet wherein he kept his records and his instru- 
 ments. Priss had put curtains on the windows ; 
 and she had a lily, in a pot, at one of them, and 
 a clump of pansies at another. Joel's cabin 
 opened off this compartment, on the starboard 
 side ; hers was opposite. The main cabin, with 
 its folding table built about the thick butt of 
 the mizzenmast, had been extended forward to 
 make room for the enlargement of this stern 
 apartment; and the mates were quartered off 
 this main cabin. The galley and the store 
 rooms were on the main deck, in the after house, 
 on either side of the awkward "walking wheel" 
 by which the ship was steered; and the cabin 
 companion was just forward of this wheel. 
 
 There were aboard the Nathan Ross about 
 thirty men, all told ; but the most of them were 
 not of Priscilla's world. The foremast hands 
 
 [50] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 never came aft of the try works, save on tasks 
 assigned ; and the secondary officers boat-steer- 
 ers and the like slept in the steerage and kept 
 forward of the boathouse. Thus the after deck 
 was shared only by Priscilla and Joel, the 
 mates, the cook, and old Aaron, who was a man 
 of many privileges. 
 
 This world, Priscilla ruled. Joel adored 
 her ; Jim Finch gave her the clumsy homage of 
 a puppy and was at times just as oppressively 
 amiable. Old Aaron talked to her by the hour, 
 while he went about his work. And the other 
 mates Varde, the sullen; and Hooper, who 
 was old and losing his grip; and Dick Morrell, 
 who was young and finding his paid her the 
 respect that was her due. Young Morrell 
 he was not even as old as she was helped her 
 on her first climb to the mast head. He was 
 only a boy. . . . The girl, when the first home- 
 sick pangs were past, was happy. 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Until the day they killed their whale, a sev- 
 enty-barrel cachalot cow who died as peaceably 
 as a chicken, with only a convulsive flop or two 
 when the lances found the life. Priscilla took 
 a single glimpse of the shuddering, bloody, oily 
 work of cutting in the carcass, and then she fled 
 to her cabin and remained there steadfastly un- 
 til the long task was done. The smoke from 
 the bubbling try pots, and the persistent smell 
 of boiling blubber sickened her; and the grime 
 that descended over everything appalled her 
 dainty soul. Not until the men had cleaned 
 ship did she go on deck again; and even then 
 she scolded Joel for the affair as though it were 
 a matter for which he was wholly to blame. 
 
 "There just isn't any sense in making so much 
 dirt," she told him. "I've had to wash out 
 every one of my curtains ; and I can't ever get 
 rid of that smell." 
 
 Joel chuckled. "Aye, the smell sticks," he 
 
 [52] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 agreed. "But you'll be used to it soon, Priss. 
 You'll come to like it, I'm thinking. Any case, 
 we'll not be rid of it while the cruise is on." 
 
 She was so angry that she wanted to cry. 
 "Do you actually mean, Joel Shore, that I've 
 got to live with that sickening, hot-oil smell for 
 th- three years'?" 
 
 He nodded slowly. "Yes, Priss. No way 
 out of it. It's part of the work. Come an- 
 other month, and you'll not mind at all." 
 
 She said positively: "I may not say any- 
 thing, but I shall always hate that smell." 
 
 His eyes twinkled slowly; and she stamped 
 her foot. "If I'd known it was going to be like 
 this, I wouldn't have come, Joel. Now don't 
 you laugh at me. If there was any way to go 
 back, I'd go. I hate it. I hate it all. You 
 ought not to have brought me. . . ." 
 
 They were on the broad bench across the 
 stern, in their cabin; and he put his big arm 
 
 [53] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 about her shoulders and laughed at her till she 
 could do no less than laugh back at him. But 
 she assured herself of this she was angry, 
 just the same. Nevertheless, she laughed. . . . 
 
 Joel had put the Nathan Ross on the most 
 direct southward course, touching neither Azores 
 nor Cape Verdes. For it was in his mind, as he 
 had told Asa Worthen, to make direct for the 
 Gilbert Islands and seek some trace of his 
 brother there. That had been his plan before 
 he left port; but the plan had become determi- 
 nation after a word with Aaron Burnham, one 
 day. Joel, resting in the cabin while old Aaron 
 worked there, fell to thinking of his brother, 
 and so asked : 
 
 "Aaron, what is your belief about my brother, 
 Mark Shore? Is he dead? ' 
 
 Aaron was building, that day, the forward 
 partition of the new cabin, fitting his boards 
 meticulously, and driving home each nail with 
 
 [54] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 hammer strokes that seemed smooth and effort- 
 less, yet sank the nail to the head in an instant. 
 He looked up over his shoulder at Joel, between 
 nails. 
 
 "Dead, d'ye say 1 ?" he countered quizzically. 
 
 Joel nodded. "The Islanders? Did they 
 do it, do you believe?" 
 
 Old Aaron chuckled asthmatically. He had 
 lost a fore tooth, and the effect of his mirth was 
 not reassuring. "There's a brew i' the Is- 
 lands," he said. "More like 'twas the island 
 brew nor the island men." 
 
 Joel, for a moment, sat very still and con- 
 sidered. He knew Mark Shore had never 
 scrupled to take strong drink when he chose; 
 but Mark had always been a strong man to 
 match his drink, and conquer it. Said Joel, 
 therefore, after a space of thought : 
 
 "Why do you think that, Aaron? Drink 
 was never like to carry Mark away." 
 
 [55] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Aaron squinted up at him. "Have ye sam- 
 pled that island brew? 'Tis made of pineap- 
 ples, or sago, or the like outlandish stuff, I've 
 heard. And one sip is deviltry, and two is 
 madness, and three is corruption. Some stom- 
 achs are used to it; they can handle it. But a 
 raw man ..." 
 
 There was significance in the pause, and the 
 unfinished sentence. Joel considered the mat- 
 ter. There had always been, between him and 
 Mark, something of that sleeping enmity that so 
 often arises between brothers. Mark was a 
 man swift of tongue, flashing, and full of laugh- 
 ter and hot blood ; a colorful man, like a splash 
 of pigment on white canvas. Joel was in all 
 things his opposite, quiet, and slow of thought 
 and speech, and steady of gait. Mark was ac- 
 customed to jeer at him, to taunt him; and Joel, 
 in the slow fashion of slow men, had resented 
 
 [56] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 this. Nevertheless, he cast aside prejudice now 
 in his estimate of the situation; and he asked 
 old Aaron : 
 
 "Do you know there were Islanders about ? 
 Or this wild brew you speak of*?" 
 
 Aaron drove home a nail, and with his punch 
 set it flush with the soft wood. "There was 
 some drunken crew, shouting and screeching a 
 mile up the beach," he said. "Some few of 
 them came off to us with fruit. The sober ones. 
 'Twas them Mark Shore went to pandander 
 with." 
 
 "He went to them?" Joel echoed. Aaron 
 nodded. 
 
 "Aye. That he did." 
 
 There was a long moment of silence before 
 Joel asked huskily: "But was it like that he 
 should stay with them freely?" For it is a 
 black and shameful thing that a captain should 
 
 [57] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 desert his ship. When he had asked the ques- 
 tion, he waited in something like fear for the 
 carpenter's answer. 
 
 "It comes to me," said Aaron slowly at last, 
 "that you did not well know your brother. 
 ,Ye'd only seen him ashore. And I'm doubt- 
 ing that you knew all the circumstances of his 
 departure from this ship." 
 
 "I know that he went ashore," said Joel. 
 "Went ashore, and left his men, and departed; 
 and I know that they searched for him three 
 weeks without a sign." 
 
 Aaron sat back on his heels, and rubbed the 
 smooth head of his hammer thoughtfully 
 against his dry old cheek. "I'm not one to 
 speak harm," he said. "And I've said naught, 
 in the town. But you have some right to 
 know that Mark Shore was not a sober man 
 when he left the ship. I' truth, he had not 
 been sober cold sober for a week. And he 
 
 [58] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 left with a bottle in his coat." He nodded his 
 gray old head, eyes not on Joel, but on the ham- 
 mer in his hand. "Also, there was a pearling 
 schooner in the lagoon, with drunk white men 
 aboard." 
 
 He glanced sidewise at Joel then, and saw 
 the Captain's cheek bones slowly whiten. 
 Whereupon old Aaron bent swiftly to his task, 
 half fearful of what he had said. But when 
 Joel spoke, it was only to say quietly : 
 
 "Asa should have told me this." 
 
 Aaron shook his head vehemently, but with- 
 out looking up from his task. "Not so," he 
 said. "There was no need the town should 
 chew Mark's name. Better " He glanced 
 at Joel. "Better if he were thought dead. 
 Asa's a good man, you mind. And he knew 
 your father." 
 
 Joel nodded at that. "Asa meant wisest, 
 I've no doubt," he agreed. "But Mark 
 
 [59] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 would do nothing that he was shamed of." 
 
 "Mark Shore," said Aaron thoughtfully, "did 
 many things without shame for which other men 
 would have blushit." 
 
 Joel said curtly: "Aaron, ye'll say no more 
 such things as that." 
 
 "Ye' re right," Aaron agreed. "I should no 
 have said it. But 'tis so." 
 
 Joel left him and went on deck, and his eyes 
 were troubled. . . . Priss was there, with Dick 
 Morrell showing her some trick of the wheel, 
 and they were laughing together like children. 
 Joel felt immensely older than Priss. . . . Yet 
 the difference was scarce six years. . . . She 
 saw him, and left Morrell and came running to 
 Joel's side. "Did you sleep*?" she asked. 
 "You needed rest, Joe." 
 
 "I rested," he told her, smiling faintly. 
 'Til be fine. . . ." 
 
 [60] 
 
THEY drifted past Pernambuco, and 
 touched at Trinidad, and so worked 
 south and somewhat westward for Cape Horn. 
 And in Joel grew, stronger and ever, the resolve 
 to hunt out Mark, and find him, and fetch him 
 home. . . . The blood tie was strong on Joel; 
 stronger than any memory of Mark's derision. 
 And for the honor of the House of Shore, it 
 were well to prove the matter, if Mark were 
 dead. It is not well for a Shore to abandon 
 his ship in strange seas. 
 
 He asked Aaron, two weeks after their first 
 talk, whether they had questioned the white men. 
 on the pearling schooner. 
 
 "Oh, aye," said Aaron cheerfully. "I sought 
 'em out, myself. Three of them, they was; 
 
 [61] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 and ill-favored. A slinky small man, and a 
 rat-eyed large man, and a fat man in between; 
 all unshaven, and filthy, and drunken as owls. 
 They'd seen naught of Mark Shore, they said. 
 I'm thinking he'd let them see but little of him. 
 He had no tenderness for dirt." 
 
 Joel told Priss nothing of what he hoped and 
 feared; nor did he question Jim Finch in the 
 matter. Finch was a good man at set tasks, but 
 he was too amiable, and he had no clamp upon 
 his lips. . . . Joel did not wish the word to go 
 abroad among the men. He was glad that 
 most of the crew were new since last voyage; 
 but the officers were unchanged, save that he 
 stood in his brother's shoes. 
 
 They left Trinidad behind them, and shoul- 
 dered their way southward, the blunt bow of 
 the Nathan Ross battering the seas. And they 
 came to the Straits, and worked in, and made 
 their westing day by day, while little Priss, 
 
 [62] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 wide-eyed on the deck, watched the gaunt cliffs 
 past whose wave-gnawed feet they stole. And 
 so at last the Pacific opened out before them, 
 and they caught the winds, and worked toward 
 Easter Island. 
 
 But their progress was slow. To men un- 
 schooled in the patience of the whaling trade, it 
 would have been insufferably slow. For they 
 struck fish ; and day after day they hung idle on 
 the waves while the trypots boiled; and day 
 after day they loitered on good whaling 
 grounds, when the boats were out thrice and 
 four times between sun's rise and set. If Joel 
 was impatient, he gave no sign. If his desires 
 would have made him hasten on, his duty held 
 him here, where rich catches waited for the tak- 
 ing; and while there were fish to be taken, he 
 would not leave them behind. 
 
 Priscilla hated it. She hated the grime, and 
 the smoke, and the smell of boiling oil ; and she 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 hated this dawdling on the open seas, with never 
 a glimpse of land. More than once she made 
 Joel bear the brunt of her own unrest; and be- 
 cause it is not always good for two people to be 
 too much together, and because she had nothing 
 better to do, she began to pick Joel to pieces in 
 her thoughts, and fret at his patience and stolid- 
 ity. She wished he would grow angry, wished 
 even that he might be angry with her. . . . She 
 wished for anything to break the long days of 
 deadly calm. And she watched Joel more in- 
 tently than it is well for wife to watch husband, 
 or for husband to watch wife. 
 
 He did so many things that tried her sore. 
 He had a fashion, when he had finished eating, 
 of setting his hands against the table and push- 
 ing himself back from the board with slow and 
 solid satisfaction. She came to the point where 
 she longed to scream, when he did this. When 
 they were at table in the main cabin, she 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 watched with such agony of trembling nerves 
 for that movement of his that she forgot to eat, 
 and could not relish what she ate. 
 
 Joel was a man, and his life was moving 
 smoothly. His ship's casks were filling more 
 swiftly than he had any right to hope ; his wife 
 was at his side; his skies were clear. He was 
 happy, and comfortable, and well content. 
 Sometimes, when they were preparing for sleep, 
 at night, in the cabin at the stern, he would re- 
 lax on the couch there. But she did not wish 
 for him to put his feet upon the cushions; she 
 said that his shoes were dirty. He offered to 
 take off his shoes ; and she shuddered. . . . 
 
 He had a fashion of stretching and yawning 
 comfortably as he bade her good night; and 
 sometimes a yawn caught him in the middle of a 
 word, and he talked while he yawned. She 
 hated this. She was passing through that hard 
 middle ground, that purgatory between maiden- 
 
 [65] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 hood and wifehood in the course of which mar- 
 ried folk find each other only human, after all. 
 And she had not yet come to accept this condi- 
 tion, and to glory in it. She had always 
 thought of Joel as a hero, a protector, a fine, 
 stalwart, able, noble man. Now she forgot 
 that he was commander of this ship and master 
 of the men aboard her, and saw in him only a 
 man who, when work was done, liked to take his 
 ease and who talked through his yawns. 
 
 She gnawed at this bone of discontent, in the 
 hours when Joel was busy with his work. She 
 was furiously resentful of Joel's flesh-and- 
 bloodness. . . . And Joel, because he was too 
 busy to be introspective, continued calmly 
 happy and content. 
 
 The whales led them past Easter Island for 
 a space; and then, abruptly, they were gone. 
 Came day on day when the men at the mast- 
 head saw no misty spout against the wide blue 
 [66] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 of the sea, no glistening black body lying awash 
 among the waves. And the Nathan Ross, with 
 all hands scrubbing white the decks again, bent 
 northward, working toward that maze of tiny 
 islands which dots the wide South Seas. 
 
 Their water was getting stale, and running 
 somewhat low; and they needed fresh food- 
 stuffs. Joel planned to touch at the first land 
 that offered. Tubuai, that would be. He 
 marked their progress on the chart. 
 
 On the evening before they would reach the 
 island, when Joel and Priss were preparing for 
 sleep, Priss burst out furiously, like a teapot 
 that boils over. The storm came without warn- 
 ing, and so far as Joel could see without 
 provocation. She was sick, she said, of the 
 endless wastes of blue. She wanted to see land. 
 To step on it. If she were not allowed to do so 
 very soon, she would die. 
 
 Joel, at first, was minded to tell her they 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 would sight land in the morning; then, with one 
 of the blundering impulses to which husbands 
 fall victim at such moments, he decided to wait 
 and surprise her. So, instead of telling her, he 
 chuckled as though at some secret jest, and tried 
 to quiet her by patting her dark head. 
 
 She fell silent at his caress ; and Joel thought 
 she was appeased. As a matter of fact, she was 
 hating him for having laughed at her; and her 
 calm was ferocious. He discovered this, too 
 late. . . . 
 
 He had just kissed her good night. She 
 turned her cheek to his lips ; and he was faintly 
 hurt at this. But he only said cheerfully: 
 "There, Priss. . . . You'll be all right in the 
 morning. . . ." 
 
 He yawned in mid-sentence, so that the last 
 
 two or three words sounded as though he were 
 
 trying to swallow a large and hot potato while 
 
 he uttered them. Priss could stand no more of 
 
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All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 that. Positively. So she slapped his face. 
 
 He was amazed; and he stood, looking at her 
 helplessly, while the slapped cheek grew red and 
 red. Priss burst into tears, stamped her foot, 
 called him names she did not mean, and as a 
 climax, darted into her own cabin, and swung 
 the door, and snapped the latch. 
 
 Joel did not in the least understand; and he 
 went to his bunk at last, profoundly troubled. 
 
 An hour after they anchored, the next day, at 
 Tubuai, a boat came out from shore and ran 
 alongside, and Mark Shore swung across the 
 rail, aboard the Nathan Ross. 
 
VI 
 
 JOEL was below, in the cabin with Priss, 
 when his brother boarded the ship. Varde 
 and Dick Morrell had gone ashore for water 
 and supplies, and Priss was to go that after- 
 noon, with Joel. She was sewing a ribbon ro- 
 sette upon the hat she would wear, when she and 
 Joel heard the sound of excited voices, and the 
 movement of feet on the deck above their head. 
 He left her, curled up on the cushioned bench, 
 with the gay ribbon in her hands, and went out 
 through the main cabin, and up the companion. 
 He had been trying, clumsily enough, to make 
 friends with Priss; but she was very much on 
 her dignity that morning. . . . 
 
 When his head rose above the level of the 
 cabin skylight, he saw a group of men near the 
 
 [70] 
 
All the Er others Were Valiant 
 
 rail, amidships. Finch, and Hooper, and old 
 Aaron Burnham, and two of the harpooners, all 
 pressing close about another man. . . . Finch 
 obscured this other man from Joel's view, until 
 he climbed up on deck. Then he caw that the 
 other man was his brother. 
 
 He went forward to join them; and it 
 chanced that at first no one of them looked in 
 his direction. Mark's back was half-turned; 
 but Joel could see that his brother was lean, and 
 bronzed by the sun. And he wore no hat, and 
 his thick, black hair was rumpled and wild. 
 The white shirt that he wore was open at the 
 throat above his brown neck. His arms were 
 bare to the elbows. His chest was like a bar- 
 rel. There was a splendor of strength and 
 vigor about the man, in the very look of him, 
 and in his eye, and his voice, and his laughter. 
 He seemed to shine, like the sun. . . . 
 
 Joel, as he came near them, heard Mark 
 
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All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 laugh throatily at something Finch had said; 
 and he heard Finch say unctuously : "Be sure, 
 Captain Shore, every man aboard here is 
 damned glad you've come back to us. You 
 were missed, missed sore, sir." 
 
 Mark laughed again, at that ; and he clapped 
 Jim's fat shoulder. The action swung him 
 around so that he saw Joel for the first time. 
 Joel thrust out his hand. 
 
 "Mark, man! They said you were dead," 
 he exclaimed. 
 
 Mark Shore's eyes narrowed for an instant, 
 in a quick, appraising scrutiny of his brother. 
 "Dead?" he laughed, jeeringly. "Do I look 
 dead?" He stared at Joel more closely, 
 glanced at the other men, and chuckled. "By 
 the Lord, kid," he cried, "I believe old Asa has 
 put you in my shoes." 
 
 Joel nodded. "He gave me command of the 
 Nathan Ross. Yes." 
 
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All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Mark looked sidewise at big Jim Finch, and 
 grinned. "Over your head, eh, Jim*? Too 
 damned bad !" 
 
 Finch grinned. "I had no wish for the place, 
 sir. You see, I felt very sure you would be 
 coming back to your own." 
 
 Mark tilted back his head and laughed. 
 "You were always a very cautious man, Jim 
 Finch. Never jumped till you were sure where 
 you would land." He wheeled on Joel. 
 "Well, boy how does it feel to wear long 
 pants?" 
 
 Joel, holding his anger in check, said slowly : 
 "We've done well. Close on eight hundred 
 barrel aboard." 
 
 Mark wagged his head in solemn reproof. 
 "Joey, Joey, you've been fiddling away your 
 time. I can see that !" 
 
 Over his brother's shoulder, Joel saw the 
 grinning face of big Jim Finch, and his eyes 
 
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All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 hardened. He said quietly: "If that's your 
 tone, Mark, you'll call back your boat and go 
 ashore." 
 
 A flame surged across Mark's cheek; and he 
 took one swift, terrible step toward his brother. 
 But Joel did not give ground; and after a mo- 
 ment in which their eyes clashed like swords, 
 Mark relaxed, and laughed and bowed low. 
 
 "I was wrong, grievously wrong, Captain 
 Shore," he said sonorously. "I neglected the 
 respect due your office. Your high office, sir. 
 I thank you for reminding me of the the pro- 
 prieties, Captain." And he added, in a differ- 
 ent tone, "Now will you not invite me aft on 
 your ship, sir?" 
 
 Joel hesitated for a bare instant, caught by a 
 vague foreboding that he could not explain. 
 But in the end he nodded, as though in answer 
 to the unspoken question in his thoughts. 
 "Will you come down into the cabin, Mark?" 
 
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All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 he invited quietly. "I've much to ask you; 
 and you must have many things to tell." 
 
 Mark nodded. "I will come," he said; and 
 his eyes lighted suddenly, and he dropped a 
 hand on Joel's shoulder. "Aye, Joel," he said 
 softly, into his brother's ear, as they went aft 
 together. "Aye, I've much to tell. Many 
 things and marvelous. Matters you'd scarce 
 credit, Joel." Joel looked at him quickly, and 
 Mark nodded. "True they are, Joel," he cried 
 exultantly. "Marvelous and true as good, 
 red gold." 
 
 At the tone, and the eager light in his broth- 
 er's eyes, Joel's slow pulses quickened, but he 
 said nothing. At the top of the cabin compan- 
 ion, he stepped aside to let Mark descend first; 
 and Mark went down the steep and awkward 
 stair with the easy, sliding gait of a great cat. 
 Joel, behind him, could see the muscles stir and 
 swell upon his shoulders. In the cabin, Mark 
 
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All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 halted abruptly, and looked about, and ex- 
 claimed: "You've changed things, Joel. I'd 
 not know the ship." 
 
 The door into Priscilla's cabin, across the 
 stern, was open. Priss had finished that matter 
 of the ribbon, and was watering her flowers, 
 kneeling on the bench, when she heard Mark's 
 voice, and knew it. And she cried, in surprise 
 and joy: "Mark! Oh Mark!" And she 
 ran to the door, and stood there, framed for 
 Mark's eyes against the light behind her, hands 
 holding to the door frame on either side. 
 
 Mark cried delightedly: "Priss Holt!" 
 And he was at her side in an instant, and caught 
 her without ceremony, and kissed her roundly, 
 as he had been accustomed to do when he came 
 home from the sea. But he must have been a 
 blind man not to have seen in that first moment 
 that Priss was no longer child, but woman. 
 
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All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 And Mark was not blind. He kissed her till 
 she laughingly fought herself free. 
 
 "Mark !" she cried again. "You're not dead. 
 I knew you couldn't be. . . ." 
 
 Joel, behind them, at sight of Priscilla in his 
 brother's arms, had stirred with a quick rush of 
 anger; but he was ashamed of it in the next mo- 
 ment, and stood still where he was. Mark held 
 Priss by the shoulders, laughing down at her. 
 
 "And how did you know I couldn't be dead 2" 
 he demanded. "Miss Wise Lady." 
 
 She moved her head confusedly. "Oh you 
 were always so so alive, or something. . . . 
 You just couldn't be. . . ." 
 
 He chuckled, released her, and stood away 
 and surveyed her. "Priss, Priss," he said con- 
 tritely, "you're not a little kid any longer. 
 Dresses down, and hair up. . . ." He wagged 
 his head. "It's a wonder you did not slap my 
 
 [77] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 face." And then he looked from her to Joel, 
 and abruptly he tossed his great head back and 
 laughed aloud. "By the Lord," he roared. 
 "The children are married. Married . . ." 
 
 Priscilla flushed furiously, and stamped her 
 foot at him. "Of course we're married," she 
 cried. "Did you think I'd come clear around 
 the world with . . ." Her words were smoth- 
 ered in her own hot blushes, and Mark laughed 
 again, until she cried : "Stop it. I won't have 
 you laughing at us. Joel make him stop !" 
 
 Mark sobered instantly, and he backed away 
 from Joel in mock panic, both hands raised, de- 
 fensively, so that they laughed at him. When 
 they laughed, he cast aside his panic, and sat 
 down on the cushions, stretching his legs luxuri- 
 ously before him. "Now," he exclaimed. 
 "Tell me all about it. When, and why, and 
 how 4 ?" 
 
 Priss dropped on the bench beside him, feet 
 
 [78] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 tucked under her in the miraculous fashion of 
 small women; and she enumerated her answers 
 on the pink tips of her fingers. "When?" she 
 repeated. "The day before we sailed. Why? 
 Just because. How? In the same old way." 
 She waved her hand, as though disposing of the 
 matter once and for all, and looked up at him, 
 and laughed. Joel thought she had not seemed 
 so completely happy since the day the cabin was 
 finished. "So," she said, "that's all there is to 
 tell you about us. Tell us about you." 
 
 Mark's eyes twinkled. "Ah, now, what's the 
 use? That will come later. Besides some 
 chapters are not for gentle ears." He nodded 
 toward Joel. "So you love the boy, yonder?" 
 
 Priss bobbed her head, red lips pursed, eyes 
 dancing. 
 
 "Why?" Mark demanded. "What do you 
 discover in him?" 
 
 She looked at Joel, and they laughed together 
 
 [79] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 as though at some delightful secret, mutually 
 shared. Mark wagged his head dolorously. 
 "And I suppose he's wild about you?" he asked. 
 
 She nodded more vigorously than ever. 
 
 Mark rubbed his hands together. He looked 
 at Joel, with a faintly malicious twinkle in his 
 eyes. "Well, now !" he exclaimed. "That is 
 certainly the best of news. . . ." Joel saw the 
 mocking and malignant little devil in his eye. 
 "I've never had a kid sister,'* said Mark gayly. 
 "And it's been the great sorrow of my life, 
 Priss. So, Joel, you must expect Priss and 
 myself to turn out the very best of friends." 
 
 And Priscilla, on the seat beside him, nodded 
 her lovely head once more. "I should say so," 
 she exclaimed. 
 
 [80] 
 
VII 
 
 MARK SHORE held something like a re- 
 ception, on the Nathan Ross, all that 
 first day. He went forward among the men 
 to greet old friends and meet new ones, and 
 came back and complimented Joel on the qual- 
 ity of his crew. "You've made good men of 
 them," he said. "Those that weren't good men 
 before." 
 
 He listened, with a smile half contemptuous, 
 to Jim Finch's somewhat slavish phrases of wel- 
 come and admiration; and he talked with 
 Varde, the morose second mate, so gayly that 
 even Varde was cozened at last into a grin. 
 Old Hooper was pathetically glad to see him. 
 Hooper had been mate of the ship on which 
 Mark started out as a boy ; and he liked to hark 
 
 [81] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 back to those days. Young Dick Morrell, on 
 his trips from the shore, save Mark frank wor- 
 ship. 
 
 Joel saw all this. He could not help seeing 
 it. And he told himself, again and again, that 
 it was only to be expected. Mark had cap- 
 tained this ship, had captained these men, on 
 their last cruise; they had thought him dead. 
 It was only natural that they should welcome 
 him back to life again. . . . 
 
 But even while he gave himself this reas- 
 surance, he knew that it was untrue. There 
 was more than mere welcome in the attitude of 
 the men; there was more than admiration. 
 There was a quality of awe that was akin to 
 worship; and there was, beneath this awe, a 
 lively curiosity as to what Mark would do. ... 
 They knew him for a quick man, dominant, one 
 with the will to lead; and now he found him- 
 self supplanted, dependent on the word of his 
 
 [82] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 own younger brother. . . . Every one knew 
 that Mark and Joel had always been rather ene- 
 mies than comrades; so, now, they wondered, 
 and waited, and watched with all their eyes. 
 Joel saw them, by twos and threes, whispering 
 together about the ship; and he knew what it 
 was they were asking each other. 
 
 Of all those on the Nathan Ross that day, 
 Mark himself seemed least conscious of the dra- 
 matic possibilities of the situation. He was 
 glad to be back among friends ; but beyond that 
 he did not go. He gave Joel an exaggerated 
 measure of respect, so extreme that it was worse 
 than scorn or mockery. Otherwise, he took no 
 notice of the potentialities created by his return. 
 
 Priss had planned to go ashore in the after- 
 noon; but Mark dissuaded her. This was not 
 difficult; he did it so laughingly and so dex- 
 trously that Priss changed her mind without 
 knowing just why she did so. Mark took it 
 
 [83] 
 
All the Br -others Were Valiant 
 
 upon himself to make up for her disappoint- 
 ment; they were together most of the long, hot 
 afternoon. Joel could hear their laughter now 
 and then. 
 
 He had expected to go ashore with Priss ; but 
 when she came to him and said : "Joe, Mark 
 says it's just dirty and hot and ugly, ashore, and 
 I'm not going," he changed his mind. There 
 was no need of his making the trip, after all. 
 Varde and Morrell had brought out water, tow- 
 ing long strings of almost-filled casks behind 
 their boats ; and boats from the shore had come 
 off to sell fresh food. So at dusk, the anchor 
 came up, and the Nathan Ross spread her dingy 
 sails, and stalked out of the harbor with the ut- 
 most dignity in every stiff line of her, and the 
 night behind them swallowed up the island. 
 Mark and Priss were astern to watch it blend in 
 the darkness and lose itself; and Priss, when 
 their last glimpse of it faded, heard the man 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 draw a deep breath of something like relief. 
 She looked up at him with wide, curious eyes. 
 
 "What is it?" she asked softly. "Were you 
 unhappy there?" 
 
 Mark laughed aloud. "My dear Priss," he 
 said, in the elder-brother manner he affected to- 
 ward her. "My dear Priss, the South Sea Is- 
 lands are no place for a white man, especially 
 when he is alone. I'm glad to get back in the 
 smell of oil, with an honest deck underfoot. 
 And I don't mind saying so." 
 
 Priss shuddered, and wrinkled her nose. 
 "Ugh, how I hate that smell," she exclaimed. 
 "But, Mark tell me where you've been, and 
 what you did, and everything. Why won't 
 you tell?" 
 
 He wagged his head at her severely. "Chil- 
 dren," he said, "should be seen and not heard." 
 
 She stamped her foot. "I'm not a child. 
 I'm a woman." 
 
 [85] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 He bent toward her suddenly, his dark eyes 
 so close to hers that she could see the flickering 
 flame which played in them, and the twist of his 
 smile. "I wonder!" he whispered. "Oh I 
 wonder if you are. . . ." 
 
 She was frightened, deliciously. . . . 
 
 Mark had persisted, all day long, in his re- 
 fusal to tell her of himself. He had dropped a 
 sentence now and then that brought to life in 
 her imagination a strange, wild picture. . . . 
 But always he set a bar upon his lips, caught 
 back the words, refused to explain what it was 
 he had meant to say. When she persisted, he 
 laughed at her and told her he only did it to be 
 mysterious. "Mystery is always interesting, 
 you understand," he explained. "And I wish 
 to be very interesting to you, Priss." 
 
 She looked around the after deck for Joel; 
 but he was below in the cabin, and she decided, 
 abruptly, that she must go down. . . . 
 [86] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 They had bought chickens at Tubuai, and 
 they had two of them, boiled, for supper that 
 night in the cabin. It was a feast, after the 
 long months of sober diet ; and the presence of 
 Mark made it something more. He was a good 
 talker, and without revealing anything of the 
 months of his disappearance, he nevertheless 
 told them stories that held each one breathless 
 with interest. But after supper, he went on 
 deck with Finch, and Joel and Priss sat in the 
 cabin astern for a while; and Joel wrote up, in 
 the ship's log, the story of his brother's return. 
 Priss read it over his shoulder, and afterwards 
 she clung close to Joel. "He's a terribly 
 overwhelming man, isn't he 2" she whispered. 
 
 Joel looked down at her, and smiled thought- 
 fully. "Aye, Mark's a big man," he agreed. 
 "Big in many ways. But you'll be used to 
 him presently, Priss." 
 
 When she prepared to go to bed, he bade her 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 good night and left her, and went on deck ; and 
 Priss, in her narrow bunk in the cabin at the side 
 of the ship, lay wide-eyed with many thoughts 
 stirring in her small head. She was still awake 
 when she heard them come down into the main 
 cabin together, Joel and Mark. The walls 
 were thin; she could hear their words, and she 
 heard Mark ask: "Sure Priss is asleep *? 
 There are parts not for the pretty ears of a 
 bride, Joel." 
 
 Priss was not asleep, but when Joel came to 
 see, she closed her eyes, and lay as still as still, 
 scarce breathing. Joel bent over her softly; 
 and he touched her head, clumsily, with his 
 hand, and patted it, and went away again, clos- 
 ing her door behind him. She heard him tell 
 Mark: "Aye, she's fast asleep." 
 
 The brothers sat by Joel's desk, in the cabin 
 across the stern; and Mark, without preamble, 
 told his story there. Priss, ten feet away, heard 
 [88] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 every word; and she lay huddled beneath the 
 blankets, eyes staring upward into the darkness 
 of her cabin ; and as she listened, she shuddered 
 and trembled and shrank at the terror and won- 
 der and ugliness of the tale he told. No Des- 
 demona ever listened with such half-caught 
 breath. 
 
VIII 
 
 blaming me," said Mark, when 
 he and Joel were puffing at their pipes, 
 "for leaving my ship." 
 
 Joel said slowly: "No. But I do not un- 
 derstand it." 
 
 Mark laughed, a soft and throaty laugh. 
 "You would not, Joel. You would not. For 
 you never felt an overwhelming notion that you 
 must dance in the moon upon the sand. 
 You've never felt that, Joel; and I have." 
 
 "I'm not a hand for dancing," said Joel. 
 
 Mark seemed to forget that his brother sat 
 beside him. His eyes became misty and 
 thoughtful, as though he were living over again 
 the days of which he spoke. "Mind, Joel," he 
 said, "there's a pagan in every man of us. And 
 
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All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 there's two pagans in some of us. And I'm 
 minded, Joel, that there are three of them in 
 me. 'Twas so, that night." 
 
 "It was night when you left the ship 4 ?" 
 "Aye, night. Night, and the moon; and it 
 may have been that I had been drinking a drop 
 or two. Also, as you shall see, I was not well. 
 I tell these things, not by way of excuse and 
 palliation; but only so that you may under- 
 stand. D'ye see? I was three pagans in one 
 body, and that body witched by moon, and 
 twisted by drink, and trembling with fever. 
 And so it was I went ashore, and flung my men 
 behind me, and went off, dancing, along the 
 hard sand. 
 
 "That was a night, Joel. A slow- winded, 
 warm, trembling night when there was a song in 
 the very air. The wind tingled on your throat 
 like a woman's finger tips ; and the sea was sing- 
 ing at the one side, and the wind in the palms on 
 
 [91] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 the other. And ahead of me, the wild, discord- 
 ant chanting of the Islanders about their fires. 
 . . . That singing it was that got me by the 
 throat, and led me. I twirled around and 
 around, very solemnly, by myself in the moon- 
 light on the sand; and all the time I went on- 
 ward toward the fires. . . . 
 
 "I remember, when I came in sight of the 
 fires, I threw away my coat and ran in among 
 them. And they scattered, and yelled their 
 harsh, meaningless, throaty yells. And they 
 hid in the bush to stare at me by the fire. . . . 
 They hid in the rank, thick grasses. All ex- 
 cept one, Joel." 
 
 Joel, listening, watched his brother and saw 
 through his brother's eyes ; for he knew, for all 
 his slow blood, the witchery of those warm, 
 southern nights. 
 
 "The moon was on her," said Mark. "The 
 moon was on her, and there was a red blossom 
 
 [92] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 in her hair, and some strings of things that 
 clothed her. A little brown girl, with eyes like 
 the eyes of a deer. And not afraid of me. 
 That was the thing that got me, Joel. She 
 stood in my path, met me, watched me; and 
 her eyes were not afraid. . . . 
 
 "She was very little. She was only a child. 
 I suppose we would call her sixteen or seventeen 
 years old. But they ripen quickly, Joel these 
 Island children. Her little shoulders were as 
 smooth and soft. . . . You could not even mark 
 the ridge of her collar bones, she was fleshed so 
 sweetly. She stood, and watched me; and the 
 others crept out of the grasses, at last, and stood 
 about us. And then this little brown girl held 
 up her hand to me, and pointed me out to the 
 others, and said something. I did not know 
 what it was that she said; but I know now. 
 She said that I was sick. 
 
 "I did not know then that I was sick. When 
 
 [93] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 she lifted her hand to me, I caught it ; and I be- 
 gan to lead her in a wild dance, in the moon- 
 light, about their dying fires. I could see them, 
 in the shadows, their eyeballs shining as they 
 watched us. ... And they seemed, after a lit- 
 tle, to move about in a misty, inhuman fashion ; 
 and they twisted into strange, cloud-like shapes. 
 And I stopped to laugh at them, and my head 
 dropped down before I could catch it and struck 
 against the earth, and the earth forsook me, 
 Joel, and left me swimming in nothing at 
 all. . . 
 
 "My memory was a long time in coming back 
 to me, Joel. It would peep out at me like a 
 timid child, hiding among the trees. I would 
 see it for an instant; then 'twould be gone. 
 But I know it must have been many days that I 
 was on the island there. And I knew, after 
 a time, that I was most extremely sick; and the 
 little brown girl put cool leaves on my head, 
 
 [94] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 and gave me strange brews to drink, and rubbed 
 and patted my chest and my body with her 
 hands in a fashion that was immensely comfort- 
 able and strengthening. And I twisted on a 
 bed of coarse grass. . . . And I remember sing- 
 ing, at times. . . ." 
 
 He looked toward Joel, eyes suddenly flam- 
 ing. "Eh, Joel, I tell you I was not three 
 pagans, but six, in those days. The thing's 
 clear beyond your guessing, Joel. But it was 
 big. An immense thing. I was back at the be- 
 ginning of the world, with food, and drink, and 
 my woman. ... It was big, I tell you. Big !" 
 
 His eyes clouded he fell silent, and so at 
 last went on again. "I was asleep one night, 
 tossing in my sleep. And something woke me. 
 And I laid my hand on the spot beside me where 
 the little brown girl used to lie, and she was 
 gone. So I got up, unsteadily. There were 
 rifles snapping in the night; and there were 
 
 [95] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 screams. And I heard a white man's black 
 curse; and the slap of a blow of flesh on flesh. 
 And the screams. 
 
 "So I went that way; and the sounds re- 
 treated before me, until I came out, unsteadily, 
 upon the open beach. There was no moon, that 
 night; and the water of the lagoon was shot 
 with fire. And there was a boat, pulling away 
 from the beach, with screaming in it. 
 
 "I swam after the boat for a long time, for I 
 thought I had heard the voice of the little brown 
 girl. The water was full of fire. When I 
 lifted my arms, the fire ran down them in 
 streams and drops. And sometimes I forgot 
 what I was about, and stopped to laugh at these 
 drops of fire. But in the end, I always swam 
 on. I remember once I thought the little brown 
 girl swam beside me, and I tried to throw my 
 arm about her, and she wrenched away, and she 
 burned me like a brand. I found, afterwards, 
 
 [96] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 what that was. My breast and sides were 
 rasped and raw where a shark's rough skin had 
 scraped them. I've wondered, Joel, why the 
 beast did not take me. . . . 
 
 "But lie did not; for I bumped at last into 
 the boat, and climbed into it, and it was empty. 
 But I saw a rope at the end of it, and I pulled 
 the rope, and came to the schooner's stern, and 
 climbed aboard her." 
 
 His voice was ringing, exultantly and 
 proudly. "I swung aboard," he said. "And 
 I stumbled over fighting bodies on the deck, 
 astern there. And some one cried out, in the 
 waist of her ; and I knew it was the little brown 
 girl. So I left those struggling bodies at the 
 stern, for they were not my concern ; and I went 
 forward to the waist. And I found her there. 
 
 "A fat man had her. She was fighting him; 
 and he did not see me. And I put my fingers 
 quietly into -his neck, from behind; and when he 
 
 [97] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 no longer kicked back at me, and no longer tore 
 at my fingers with his, I dropped him over the 
 side. I saw a fiery streak in the water where I 
 dropped him. That shark was not so squeam- 
 ish as the one I had embraced. It may have 
 been the other was embarrassed at my ways, 
 Joel. D'ye think that might have been the 
 way of it?' 
 
 Joel's knuckles were white, where his hand 
 rested on his knee. Mark saw, and laughed 
 softly. "There's blood in you, after all, boy," 
 he applauded. "I've hopes for you." 
 
 Joel said slowly: "What then? What 
 then, Mark?" 
 
 Mark laughed. "Well, that was a very- 
 funny thing," he said. "You see, the other two 
 men, they were busy, astern, with their own con- 
 cerns. And when I had comforted the little 
 brown girl, and sat down on the deck to laugh 
 at the folly of it all, she slipped away from me, 
 
 [98] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 and went aft, and got all their rifles. She 
 brought them to me. She seemed to expect 
 things of me. So I, still laughing, for the fever 
 was on me; I took the rifles and threw them, 
 all but one, over the side. And I went down 
 into the cabin, with the little brown girl, and 
 went to bed; and she sat beside me, with the 
 rifle, and a lamp hanging above the door. . . . 
 
 "And that was all that happened, until I 
 woke one morning and saw her there, and won- 
 dered where I was. And my head was clear 
 again. She made me understand that the men 
 had sought to come at me, but had feared the 
 rifle in her hands. . . . 
 
 "And we were in the open sea, as I could feel 
 by the labor of the schooner underfoot. So I 
 took the rifle in the crook of my arm, and with 
 the little brown girl at my heel, I went up on 
 deck. And we made a treaty." 
 
 He fell silent for a moment, and Joel 
 
 [99] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 watched him, and waited. And at last, Mark 
 went on. 
 
 "I had been more than a month on the is- 
 land," he said. "The Nathan Ross had gone. 
 This schooner was a pearler, and they had the 
 location of a bed of shell. They had been 
 waiting till another schooner should leave the 
 place, to leave their own way clear. And when 
 that time came, they went ashore to get the 
 brown women for companions on that cruise. 
 And they made the mistake of picking up my 
 little brown girl, when she ran out of the hut. 
 And so brought me down upon them. 
 
 "There were two of them left; two whites, 
 and three black men forward, who were of no 
 account. And the other two women. These 
 other two were chattering together, on the deck 
 astern, when I appeared. They seemed con- 
 tent enough. . . . 
 
 "The men were not happy. There was a 
 [ 100 ] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 large man with slanting eyes. There was Ori- 
 ental blood in him. You could see that. He 
 called himself Quint. But his eyes were Jap, 
 or Chinese ; and he had their calm, blank screen 
 across his countenance, to hide what may have 
 been his thoughts. Quint, he called himself. 
 And he was a big man, and very much of a man 
 in his own way, Joel. 
 
 "The other was little, and he walked with a 
 slink and a grin. His name was Fetcher. And 
 he was oily in his speech. 
 
 "When they saw me, they studied me for a 
 considerable time without speech. And I stood 
 there, with the rifle in my arm, and laughed at 
 them. And at last, Quint said calmly : 
 
 " 'You took Farrell.' 
 
 " The fat man? I asked him. He nodded. 
 'Yes, 5 I said. 'He took my girl, and so I 
 dropped him into the water, and a friend met 
 him there and hurried him away.' 
 
 [101] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 " 'Your girl?' he echoed, in a nasty way. 
 'You're that, then?' 
 
 " 'Am I? I asked, and shifted the rifle a 
 thought to the fore. And his eyes held mine 
 for a space, and then he shook his head. 
 
 " 'I see that I was mistaken/ he said. 
 
 " 'Your sight is good,' I told him. 'Now 
 what is this? Tell me.' 
 
 "He told me, evenly and without malice. 
 They had a line on the pearls; there were 
 enough for three. I was welcome. And at the 
 end, I nodded my consent. The Nathan Ross 
 was gone. Furthermore, there were nine pa- 
 gans in me now; and the prospect of looting 
 some still lagoon, in company with these two 
 rats, had a wild flavor about it that caught me. 
 My blood was burning; and the sun was hot. 
 Also, they had liquor aboard her. Liquor, and 
 loot, and the three women. Pagan, Joel. Pa- 
 gan! But wild and red and raw. There's a 
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All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 glory about such things. . . . Songs are made 
 of them. . . . There was no handshaking; but 
 we made alliance, and crowded on sail, and 
 went on our way." 
 
 He stopped short, laughed, filled his pipe 
 again, watched Joel. "You're shocked with 
 me, boy. I can see it," he taunted mockingly. 
 Joel shook his head. "Will you hear the rest?" 
 Mark asked; and Joel nodded. Mark lighted 
 his pipe, laughed. . . . His fingers thrummed 
 on the desk beside him. 
 
 "We were a week on the way," he said. 
 "And all pagan, every minute of the week. 
 Days when we fought a storm as bad as I've 
 ever seen, Joel. We fought it, holding to the 
 ropes with our teeth, bare to the waist, with the 
 wind scourging us. It tore at us, and lashed at 
 us. ... And we drove the three black men 
 with knives to their work. And the three 
 women stayed below, except my little brown 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 girl. She came up, now and then, with dry 
 clothes for me. . . . And I had to drive her to 
 shelter. . . . 
 
 "And when there was not the storm, there 
 was liquor; and they had cards. We staked 
 our shares in the catch that was to come. . . . 
 Hour on hour, dealing, and playing with few 
 words ; and our eyes burned hollow in their sock- 
 ets, and Quint's thin mouth twisted and writhed 
 all the time like a worm on a pin. He was a 
 nervous man, for all his calm. A very nervous 
 man. . . . 
 
 "The fifth day, one of the blacks stumbled 
 in Quint's path, on deck. Quint had been los- 
 ing, at the cards. He slid a knife from his 
 sleeve into the man's ribs, and tipped the black 
 over the rail without a word. I was twenty 
 feet away, and it was done before I could catch 
 breath. I shouted; and Quint turned and 
 looked at me, and he smiled. 
 [104] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 " 'What is it?' he asked. 'Have you objec- 
 tions to present?' And the smeared blade in 
 his hand, and the bubbles still rising, overside. 
 I was afraid of the man, Joel. I tell you I was 
 afraid. The only time. Fear's a pagan joy, 
 boy. It was like a new drink to me. I nursed 
 it, eating it. And I shook my head, humble. 
 
 " 'No objections,' I said, to Quint. ' Tis 
 your affair.' 
 
 " 'That was my thought,' he agreed, and 
 passed me, and went astern. I stood aside to 
 let him pass, and trembled, and laughed for the 
 joy of my fear. 
 
 "And then we came to the lagoon, and the 
 blacks began to dive. Only the two we had; 
 and there was no sign of Islanders, ashore. 
 But the water was shallow, and we worked the 
 men with knives, and they got pearls. Some- 
 times one or two in a day; sometimes a dozen. 
 Do you know pearls, Joel? They're sweet as a 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 woman's skin. I had never seen them, before. 
 And we all went a little mad over them. . . . 
 
 "They made Fetcher hysterical. He laughed 
 too much. They made Quint morose. They 
 made me tremble. . . ." 
 
 He wiped his hand across his eyes, as though 
 the memory wearied him; and he moved his 
 great shoulders, and looked at Joel, and 
 laughed. "But it could not last, in that fash- 
 ion," he said. "It might have been anything. 
 It turned out to be the women. I said they 
 seemed content. They did. But that may be 
 the way of the blacks. They have a happy 
 habit of life ; they laugh easily. . . . 
 
 "At any rate, we found one morning that 
 Quint's girl was gone. She was not on the 
 schooner; and ashore, we found her tracks in 
 the sand. She had gone into the trees. And 
 we beat the island, and we did not find her. 
 And Quint sweated. All that day. 
 
 [106] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 "That night, he looked at my little brown 
 girl, and touched her shoulder. I was across 
 the deck, the girl coming to me with food. I 
 said to him : 'No. She's mine, Quint.' And 
 he looked at me, and I beat him with my eyes. 
 And as his turned from mine, Fetcher and his 
 woman came on deck, and Quint tapped 
 Fetcher, and said to him : 'What will you take 
 for her?' 
 
 "Fetcher laughed at him; and Quint scowled. 
 And I for I was minded to see sport, came 
 across to them and said: Tlay for her. 
 Play for her!' 
 
 "Fetcher was willing; because he had the 
 blood that gambles anything. Quint was will- 
 ing, because he was the better player. They 
 sat down to the game, in the cabin, after sup- 
 per. Poker. Cold hands. Nine of them. 
 Winner of five to win. . . . 
 
 "Fetcher got two, lost four, got two more. I 
 
 [107] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 was dealing. Card by card, face upward. I 
 remember those hands. And my little brown 
 girl, and the other, watching from the corner. 
 
 "The hands on the table grew, card by card, 
 Fetcher got an ace, Quint a deuce. Fetcher a 
 queen, Quint a seven. Fetcher a jack, Quint a 
 six. Fetcher a ten, Quint a ten. Only the 
 last card to come to each. If Fetcher paired 
 any card, he would win. His card came first. 
 It was a seven. He was ace, queen high. 
 Quint had deuce, six, seven, ten. He had to 
 get a pair to win. . . . 
 
 "I saw Quint's hand stir, beneath the table; 
 and I glimpsed a knife in it. But before I 
 could speak, or stir, Fetcher dropped his own 
 hand to his trouser leg, and I knew he kept a 
 blade there. ... So I laughed, and dealt 
 Quint's last card. . . . 
 
 "A deuce. He had a pair, enough to 
 win. . . . 
 
 [108] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 "He leaned back, laughing grimly; and 
 Fetcher's knife went in beneath the left side of 
 his jaw, where the jugular lies. Quint looked 
 surprised, and got up out of his chair and lay 
 down quietly across the table. I heard the 
 bubbling of his last breath. . . . Then Fetcher 
 laughed, and called his woman, and they took 
 Quint on deck and tipped him overside. The 
 knife had been well thrown. Fetcher had 
 barely moved his wrist. ... I was much im- 
 pressed with the little man, and told my brown 
 girl so. But she was frightened, and I com- 
 forted her." 
 
 He was silent again for a time, pressing the 
 hot ashes in his pipe with his thumb. The 
 water slapped the broad stern of the ship be- 
 neath them, and Joel's pipe was gurgling. 
 There was no other sound. Little Priss, nails 
 biting her palms, thought she would scream if 
 the silence held an instant more. . . . 
 
 [109] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 But Mark laughed softly, and went on. 
 
 "Fetcher and I worked smoothly together," 
 he said. "The little man was very pleasant 
 and affable; and I met him half way. The 
 blacks brought up the shells, and we idled 
 through the days, and played cards at night. 
 We divided the take, each day; so our stakes 
 ran fairly high. But luck has a way of balanc- 
 ing. On the day when we saw the end in sight, 
 we were fairly even. . . . 
 
 "Fetcher, and the blacks and I went ashore to 
 get fruit from the trees there. Plenty of it 
 everywhere; and we were running short. We 
 went into the brush together, very pleasantly; 
 and he fell a little behind. I looked back, and 
 his knife brushed my neck and quivered in a 
 tree a yard beyond me. So I went back and 
 took him in my hands. He had another knife 
 the little man fairly bristled with them. But 
 
 [110] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 it struck a rib, and before he could use it again, 
 his neck snapped. 
 
 "So that I was alone on the schooner, with 
 the two blacks, and Fetcher's woman, and the 
 little brown girl. 
 
 "Fetcher's woman went ashore to find him 
 and never came back. And I decided it was 
 time for me to go away from that place. The 
 pagans were dying in me. I did not like that 
 quiet little island any more. 
 
 "But the next morning, when I looked out 
 beyond the lagoon, another schooner was com- 
 ing in. So I was uncomfortable with Fetcher's 
 pearls, as well as mine, in my pocket. There 
 are some hard men in these seas, Joel; and I 
 knew none of them would treasure me above my 
 pearls. So I planned a story of misfortune, and 
 I went ashore to hide my pearls under a rock. 
 
 "The blacks had brought me ashore. I went 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 out of their sight to do what I had to do; and 
 when I came back, after hiding the pearls, I saw 
 them rowing very swiftly toward the schooner. 
 And they looked back at me in a fearful way. 
 I wondered why ; and then four black men came 
 down on me from behind, with knives and clubs. 
 
 "I had a very hard day, that day. They 
 hunted me back and forth through the island I 
 had not even a knife with me and I met them 
 here and there, and suffered certain contusions 
 and bruises and minor cuts. Also, I grew very 
 tired of killing them. They were wiry, but 
 they were small, and died easily. So I was 
 glad, when from a point where they had cor- 
 nered me I saw the little brown girl rowing the 
 big boat toward me. 
 
 "She was alone. The blacks were afraid to 
 
 come, I thought. But I found afterward that 
 
 this was not true. They could not come; for 
 
 they had tried to seize the schooner and go 
 
 [112] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 quickly away from that place, and the little 
 brown girl had drilled them both. She had a 
 knack with the rifle. . . . 
 
 "I waded to meet the boat, and she tossed 
 me the gun. I held them off for a little, while 
 we drew away from the shore. But when we 
 were thirty or forty yards off, I heard rifles from 
 the other schooner, firing past us at the blacks 
 in the bush; and the girl stopped rowing. So 
 I turned around and saw that one of the balls 
 from the other schooner had struck her in the 
 back. So I sat there, in the sun, drifting with 
 the wind, and held her in my arms till she 
 coughed and died. 
 
 "Then I went out to the other schooner and 
 told them they were bad marksmen. They had 
 only been passing by, for copra; and the story 
 I told them was a shocking one. They were 
 much impressed, and they seemed glad to get 
 away. But the blacks were still on shore, so 
 
 [113] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 that I could not go back for the pearls; and I 
 worked the schooner out by myself, and shaped 
 a course. . . . 
 
 "I came to Tubuai, alone thus, a day before 
 you, Joel." 
 
IX 
 
 FOR a long time after Mark's story ended, 
 the two brothers sat still in the cabin, 
 puffing at their pipes, thinking. . . . Mark 
 watched Joel, waiting for tfye younger man to 
 speak. And Joel's thoughts ranged back, and 
 picked up the tale in the beginning, and fol- 
 lowed it through once more. . . . 
 
 They were silent for so long that little Priss, 
 in the cabin, drifted from waking dreams to 
 dreams in truth. The pictures Mark's words 
 had conjured up merged with troubled phanta- 
 sies, and she twisted and cried out softly in her 
 sleep so that Joel went in at last to be sure she 
 was not sick. But while he stood beside her, 
 she passed into quiet and untroubled slumber,, 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 and he came back and sat down with Mark 
 again. 
 
 "You brought the schooner into Tubuai?" he 
 asked. 
 
 "Aye. Alone. Half a thousand miles. 
 There's a task, Joel." 
 
 "And left it there ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 Mark smiled grimly. "It was known there," 
 he said quietly. "Also, the three whom I had 
 found aboard it were known. And they had 
 friends in Tubuai, who wondered what had 
 come to them. I was beginning to find their 
 questions troublesome when the Nathan Ross 
 came in." 
 
 "They will ask more questions now," said 
 Joel. 
 
 "They must ask them of the schooner; and 
 she does not speak," Mark told him. 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Joel was troubled and uncertain. "It's a 
 black thing," he said. 
 
 'They'll not be after me, if that distresses 
 you," Mark promised him. "Curiosity does 
 not go to such lengths in these waters." 
 
 "You told no one?" 
 
 Mark laughed. "The pearls were my own 
 concern. You're the first I've told." He 
 watched his brother. Joel frowned thought- 
 fully, shook his head. 
 
 "You plan to go back for them?" he asked. 
 
 "You and I," said Mark casually. Joel 
 looked at him in quick surprise; and Mark 
 laughed. "Yes," he repeated. "You and I. 
 I am not selfish, Joel. Besides there are 
 plenty for two." 
 
 Joel, for an instant, found no word; and 
 Mark leaned quickly toward him. He tapped 
 Joel's knee. "We'll work up that way," he 
 said quietly. "When we come to the island, 
 
 [117] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 you and I go ashore, and get them where 
 they're hid beneath the rock; and we come back 
 aboard with no one any wiser. . . . Rich. A 
 double handful of them, Joel. . . ." 
 
 Joel's eyes were clouded with thought; he 
 shook his head slowly. "What of the blacks'?" 
 he asked. 
 
 Mark laughed. "They were brought down 
 on us by the woman who got away," he said. 
 "Quint's woman. I heard as much that day, 
 saw her among them. But they're gone be- 
 fore this." 
 
 Joel said slowly : "You are not sure of that. 
 And I cannot risk the ship. . . ." 
 
 Mark asked sneeringly: "Are you afraid*?" 
 
 The younger man flushed ; but he said stead- 
 ily: "Yes. Afraid of losing Asa Worthen's 
 ship for him." 
 
 Mark chuckled unpleasantly. "I'm minded 
 of what is written, here and there, in the 'Log 
 
 [us] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 of the House of Shore,' " he said, half to him- 
 self. And he quoted: " 'All the brothers were 
 valiant. . . .' There's more to that, Joel, 
 'And all the sisters virtuous.' I had not knowi\ 
 we had sisters but it seems you're one, boy. 
 Not valiant, by your own admission; but at 
 least you're fairly virtuous." 
 
 Joel paid no heed to the taunt. "Asa 
 Worthen likes care taken of his ship," he said, 
 half to himself. "I'm thinking he would not 
 think well of this. . . . He's not a man to 
 gamble. . . ." 
 
 "Gamble 4 ?" Mark echoed scornfully. "He 
 has no gamble in this. The pearls are for you 
 and me. He will know nothing whatever 
 about them. A handful for me, and a handful 
 for you, Joel. For the taking. ..." 
 
 "You did not think to give him owner's 
 lay 4 ?" Joel asked. 
 
 "No." 
 
 [119] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 "Where is this island?" 
 
 Mark laughed. "I'll not be too precise un- 
 til I have your word, Joel. But 'tis to the 
 northward." 
 
 "Our course is west, then south." 
 
 "Since when has the Nathan Ross kept sched- 
 ule and time table like a mail ship?" 
 
 Joel shook his head. "I cannot do it, Mark." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "A risk I have no right to take; and wasted 
 weeks, out of our course. For which Asa 
 Worthen pays." 
 
 Mark smiled sardonically. "You're vastly 
 more virtuous than any sister could be, Joel, 
 my dear." 
 
 Joel said steadily: "There may be two 
 minds about that. There may be two minds as 
 to the duty of a captain to his ship and his 
 owner. But I've shown you my mind in the 
 
 matter." 
 
 [120] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Mark leaned toward him, eyes half-friendly. 
 "You're wrong, Joel. I'll convince you." 
 
 "You'll not." 
 
 "A handful of them," Mark whispered. 
 "Worth anything up to a hundred thousand. 
 Maybe more. I do not know the little things 
 as well as some. All for a little jog out of your 
 way. . . ." 
 
 Joel shook his head. And Mark, in a sud- 
 den surge of anger, stormed to his feet with 
 clenched hand upraised. "By the Lord, Joel, 
 I'd not have believed it. You're mad; plain 
 mad sister, dear ! You. . . ." 
 
 Joel said quietly: "Your schooner is at 
 Tubuai. I'll set you back there, if you will." 
 
 Mark mocked him. "Would you throw 
 your own brother off the ship he captained? 
 ... Oh hard, hard heart. . . ." 
 
 "You may stay, or go," Joel told him. 
 "Have your way." 
 
 [121] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Mark's eyes for an instant narrowed; they 
 turned toward the door of the cabin where Priss 
 lay. . . . And there was a flicker of black ha- 
 tred in them, but his voice was suave when he 
 replied : "With your permission, captain dear, 
 I'll stay." 
 
 Joel nodded; he rose. "Young Morrell has 
 given you his bunk," he said. "So good 
 night, to you." 
 
 He opened the door into the main cabin ; and 
 Mark, his fingers twitching, went out. He 
 turned, spoke over his shoulder. "Good night; 
 and pleasant dreams," he said. 
 
 [122] 
 
X 
 
 EVEN Joel Shore saw the new light in 
 Priscilla's eyes when she met Mark at 
 breakfast in the cabin next morning; and it is 
 said husbands are the last to see such things. 
 
 That story she had heard the night before, 
 the story Mark told Joel in the after cabin, had 
 made of him something superhuman in her eyes. 
 He was a gigantic, an epic figure; he had lived 
 red life, and fought for his life, and killed. . . . 
 There was Puritan blood in Priscilla ; but over- 
 running it was a flood of warmer life, a cross- 
 strain from some southern forebear, which sang 
 now in answer to the touch of Mark's words. 
 She watched him, that morning, with wide eyes 
 that were full of wonder and of awe. 
 
 Mark saw, and was immensely amused. He 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 asked her: "Why do you look at me like that, 
 little sister 4 ? I'm not going to bite. . . ." 
 
 Priscilla caught herself, and smiled, and 
 laughed at him. "How do I look at you? 
 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." 
 
 [124] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 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 ab- 
 ruptly 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 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 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, al- 
 ways 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 in- 
 stinctively 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 enor- 
 mous jest. "Will ye look at Finch, there?" 
 he begged. 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 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. . . . "What is it that's 
 got him?" Joel asked. 
 
 "I've told him about the pearls," Mark 
 chuckled. "He's wild to be after them. . . ." 
 
 Joel turned on his brother hotly. "You're 
 mad, Mark," he snapped. "That is no word to 
 be loose in the ship." 
 
 "I've but told Finch," Mark protested. 
 "It's mirthful to watch the man wiggle." 
 
 "He'll tell the ship. His tongue wags un- 
 ceasingly." 
 
 Mark lifted his shoulders. "Tell him to be 
 silent. You should keep order on your ship, 
 Joel." 
 
 Joel beckoned, and Finch came toward them. 
 As he came, he fought for self control; and 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 when he stood before them, his lips were twist- 
 ing into something like a smile, and his eyes 
 were shifty and gleaming. Joel said quietly : 
 
 "Mr. Finch, my brother says he has told you 
 his story." 
 
 "Yes, sir," said Finch. "An extraordinary 
 adventure, Captain Shore." 
 
 "I think it best the men should know nothing 
 about it," Joel told him. "You will please 
 keep it to yourself." 
 
 Finch grinned. "Of course, sir. There's no 
 need they should have any share in them." 
 
 Joel flushed angrily. "We are not going 
 after them. I consider it dangerous, and un- 
 
 wise." 
 
 Over Finch's fat cheeks swept a twitching 
 grimace of dismay. "But I thought. ..." 
 He looked at Mark, and Mark was chuckling. 
 "It's so easy, sir," he protested. "Just go, and 
 get them. . . . Rich. . . ." 
 
 [128] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Joel shook his head. "Keep silent about the 
 matter, Finch." 
 
 Finch slowly bowed his head, and he smirked 
 respectfully. "Very well, Captain Shore," he 
 agreed. "You always know best, sir." 
 
 He turned away ; and after a little Mark said 
 softly: "You have him well trained, Joel. 
 Like a little dog. ... I wonder that you can 
 handle men so. . . ." 
 
 Two days later, Joel knew that either Finch 
 or Mark had told the tale anew. Young Dick 
 Morrell came to him with shining eyes. "Is it 
 true, sir, that we're going after the pearls your 
 brother hid?" he asked. "I just heard. . . .", 
 
 Joel gripped the boy's arm. "Who told 
 you?" 
 
 Morrell twisted free, half angry, "I over- 
 heard it, sir. Is it true?" 
 
 "No," said Joel. "We're a whaler, and we 
 stick to our trade." 
 
 [129] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Dick lifted both hands, in a gesture almost 
 pleading. "But it would be so simple, 
 sir. . . ." 
 
 "Keep the whole matter quiet, Morrell," Joel 
 told him. "I do not wish the men to know of 
 it. And if you hear any further talk, report it 
 to me." 
 
 Morrell's eyes were sulky. He said slowly: 
 "Yes, sir." The set of his shoulders, as he 
 stalked forward, seemed to Joel defiant. . . . 
 
 Within the week, the whole ship knew the 
 story. Old Aaron Burnham, repairing a bunk 
 in the fo'c's'le, heard the men whispering the 
 thing among themselves. "Tongues hissing 
 like little serpents, sir," he told Joel, in the 
 cabin that night. "All of pearls, and women, 
 and the like. . . . And a shine in their 
 eyes. . . ." 
 
 "Thanks, Aaron," Joel said. "I'm sorry the 
 men know. . . ." 
 
 [130] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 "Aye, they know. Be sure of that," Aaron 
 repeated, with bobbing head. "And they're 
 roused by what they know. Some say you're 
 going after the pearls, and aim to fraud them of 
 their lay. And some say you're a mad fool that 
 will not go. . . ." 
 
 Joel's fist, on the table, softly clenched. 
 "What else?" he asked. 
 
 Aaron watched him sidewise. "There was a 
 whisper that you might be made to go. . . ." 
 
 Priscilla saw, that night, that Joel was trou- 
 bled. She and Mark were together on the cush- 
 ioned seat in the after cabin, and Joel sat at his 
 desk, over the log. Mark was telling Priss an 
 expurgated version of some one of his adven- 
 tures ; and Joel, looking once or twice that way, 
 saw the quick-caught breath in her throat, 
 saw her tremulous interest. . . . And his eyes 
 clouded, so that when Priscilla chanced to look 
 toward him, she saw, and cried : 
 
 [130 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 "Joel! What's the matter? You look 
 so. . . ." 
 
 He looked from one of them to the other for 
 a space; and then his eyes rested on Mark's, and 
 he said slowly : "It's in my mind that I'd have 
 done best to set you ashore at Tubuai, Mark." 
 
 Mark laughed; but Priss cried hotly: 
 "Joel! What a perfectly horrible thing to 
 say!" Her voice had grown deeper and more 
 resonant of late, Joel thought. It was no 
 longer the voice of a girl, but of a woman. . . . 
 Mark touched her arm. 
 
 "Don't care about him," he told her. 
 "That's only brotherly love. . . ." 
 
 "He oughtn't to say it." 
 
 Joel said quietly : "This is a matter you do 
 not understand, Priscilla. You would do well 
 to keep silent. It is my affair." 
 
 A month before, this would have swept Priss 
 into a fury of anger ; but this night, though her 
 
 [132] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 eyes burned with slow resentment, she bit her 
 lips and was still. A month ago, she would 
 have forgotten over night. Now she would re- 
 member. . . . 
 
 Mark got up, laughed. "He's bad company, 
 Priss," he told her. "Come on deck with me." 
 
 She rose, readily enough; and they went out 
 through the main cabin, and up the companion- 
 way. Joel watched them go. They left open 
 the door into the cabin, and he heard Varde and 
 Finch, at the table there, talking in husky whis- 
 pers. ... It was so, he knew, over the whole 
 ship. Everywhere, the men were whispering. 
 . . . There hung over the Nathan Ross a cloud 
 as definite as a man's hand; and every man 
 scowled save Mark Shore. Mark smiled 
 with malicious delight at the gathering storm he 
 had provoked. . . . 
 
 Joel, left in the after cabin, felt terribly 
 lonely. He wanted Priss with him, laughing, 
 
 [133] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 at his side. His longing for her was like a hot 
 coal in his throat, burning there. And she had 
 taken sides with Mark, against him. . . . His 
 shoulders shook with the sudden surge of his 
 desire to grip Mark's lean throat. . . . Ashore, 
 he would have done so. But as things were, 
 the ship was his first charge; and a break with 
 Mark would precipitate the thing that menaced 
 the ship. . . . He could not fight Mark with- 
 out risking the Nathan Ross; and he could not 
 risk the Nathan Ross. Not even. . . . His 
 head dropped for an instant in his arms, and 
 then he got up quickly, and shook himself, and 
 set his lips. . . . No man aboard must see the 
 trouble in his heart. . . . 
 
 He went through the main cabin, and 
 climbed to the deck. There was some sea run- 
 ning, and a wind that brushed aside all smaller 
 sounds, so that he made little noise. Thus, 
 when he reached the top of the companion, he 
 
 [134] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 saw two dark figures in the shadows of the boat 
 house, closely clasped. . . . 
 
 He stood for an instant, white hot. . . . His 
 wife, and Mark. . . . His little Priss, and his 
 brother. . . . 
 
 Then he went quietly below, and glanced 
 at the chart, and chose a course upon it. 
 The nearest land; he and Mark ashore to- 
 gether. . . . His blood ran hungrily at the 
 thought. . . . 
 
 [ 135 
 
XI 
 
 PRISCILLA went on deck that night so 
 angry with Joel that she could have 
 killed him; and Mark played upon her as a 
 skilled hand plays upon the harp. It was such 
 a night as the South Seas know, warm and lan- 
 guorous, the wind caressing, and the salt spray 
 stinging gently on the cheek. The moon was 
 near the full, and it laid a path of silver on the 
 water. This path was like the road to fairy- 
 land; and Mark told Priscilla so. He dropped 
 into a gay little phantasy that he conceived on 
 the moment, a story of fairies, and of dancing 
 in the moonlight, and of a man and a woman, 
 hand in hand. . . . 
 
 She felt the spell he laid upon her, and strug- 
 
 [136] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 gled against it. "Tell me about the last fight, 
 when the little brown girl was killed/' she 
 begged. 
 
 He had told her snatches of his story here 
 and there ; but he had not, till that night, spoken 
 of the pearls. When Priss heard of them, she 
 swung about and lifted up her face to his, listen- 
 ing like a child. And Mark told the story with 
 a tongue of gold, so that she saw it all ; the la- 
 goon, blue in the sun ; and the schooner creeping 
 in from the sea ; and the hours of flight through 
 the semi-jungle of the island, with the blacks in 
 such hot pursuit. He told her of the times 
 when they surrounded him, when he fought 
 himself free. . . . How he got a great stone 
 and gripped it in his hand, and how with this 
 stone he crushed the skull of a young black with 
 but one eye. Priss shuddered with delicious 
 horror at the tale. . . . 
 
 She loved best to hear of the little brown girl 
 
 [137] 
 
All the "Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 whom Mark had loved; and that would have 
 told either of them, if they had stopped to con- 
 sider, that she did not love Mark. Else she 
 would have hated the other, brown or white. 
 . . . And he told how the brown girl saved 
 him, and gave her life in the saving, and how 
 he had stopped at a little atoll on his homeward 
 way and buried her. . . . She had died in his 
 arms, smiling because she lay there. . . . 
 
 "And the pearls?" Priss asked, when she had 
 heard the story through. "You left them 
 there?' 
 
 "There they are still," he told her. "Safely 
 hid away." 
 
 "How many?" she asked. "Are they 
 lovely?" 
 
 "Three big ones, and thirty- two of a fair 
 size, and enough little ones and seeds to make a 
 double handful." 
 
 "But why did you leave them there?" 
 
 [138] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 "The black men were on the island. They 
 were there, and watchful, and very angry." 
 
 "Couldn't you have kept them in your 
 pocket?" 
 
 He laughed. "That other schooner made me 
 cautious. Man's life is cheap, in such matters. 
 And if they guessed I had such things upon me. 
 ... If I slept too soundly, or the like. . . . 
 D'ye see?" 
 
 She nodded her dark head. "I see. But 
 you'll go back. . . ." 
 
 He chuckled at that, and tapped on the rail 
 with one knuckle, in a thoughtful way. "I had 
 thought that Joel and I would go, in the 
 Nathan Ross, and fetch the things away," he 
 said. 
 
 "Of course," she exclaimed. "That would 
 be so easy. ... I'd love to see the 
 pearls. . . ." 
 
 "Easy? That was my own thought," he 
 
 [139] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 agreed. Something in his tone prompted her 
 question. 
 
 "Why isn't it?" 
 
 "Joel objects," he said drily. 
 
 "He won't. But why? I don't under- 
 stand. Why?" 
 
 Mark laughed. "He speaks of a matter of 
 duty, not to risk the ship." 
 
 "Is there a risk?" 
 
 "No." He chuckled maliciously. "As a 
 matter of cold fact, Priss, I'm fearful that Joel 
 is a bit timid in such affairs." 
 
 She flamed at him : "Afraid?" 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 "I don't believe it." 
 
 His eyes shone. "What a loyal little bride? 
 But I taxed him with it. And that was the 
 word he used. . . ." 
 
 She was so angry that she beat upon Mark's 
 great breast with her tiny fists. "It's not true ! 
 
 [ HO] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 It's not true!" she cried. "You know. . . ." 
 
 Abruptly, Mark took fire. She was swept in 
 his arms, clipped there, half-lifted from the 
 deck to meet his lips that dipped to hers. She 
 was like nothing in his grasp; she could not 
 stir. . . . And from his lips, and circling arms, 
 and great body the hot fire of the man flung 
 through her. . . . She fought him. ... But 
 even in that terrific moment she knew that Joel 
 had never swept or whelmed her so. ... 
 
 She twisted her face away. . . . And thus, 
 from the shadow where they stood, she saw Joel. 
 He was at the top of the cabin companion, look- 
 ing toward them, his face illumined by the light 
 from below. And she watched for an instant, 
 frozen with terror, expecting him to leap toward 
 them and plunge at Mark and buffet him. . . . 
 Joel stood for an instant, unstirring. Then 
 he turned, very quietly, and went down stairs 
 again into the cabin. . . . 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 She thought, sickly, that he had shirked; he 
 had seen, and held his hand. . . . 
 
 What was it Mark had said? Afraid. . . . 
 
 Mark had not seen Joel. He kissed her 
 again. Then she twisted away from him, and 
 fled below. 
 
 Joel was at his desk. He did not look up at 
 her coming; and she stood for an instant, behind 
 him, watching his bent head. . . . 
 
 Then she slipped into her own cabin, and 
 snapped the latch, and plunged her face in her 
 pillow to stifle bursting sobs. 
 
 [142] 
 
XII 
 
 THE Nathan Ross changed course that 
 day; and the word went around the ship. 
 It passed from man to man. There was whis- 
 pering; and there were dark looks, flung toward 
 Joel. 
 
 Joel kept the deck all day, silent, and watch- 
 ful, and waiting. Mark spoke to him once or 
 twice, asking what he meant to do. Joel told 
 him nothing. He had fought out his fight the 
 night before; he knew himself. . . . 
 
 Mark and Finch talked together, during the 
 morning. Joel watched them without com- 
 ment. Later he saw Mark speak to the other 
 mates, one by one. At dinner in the cabin, the 
 mates were silent. Their eyes had something 
 
 CHS] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 of shame in them, and something of venomous 
 hate. . . . They already hated Joel, whom 
 they planned to wrong. . . . 
 
 The day was fair, and the wind drove them 
 smoothly. There was no work to be done, 
 never a spout on the sea. Joel, watching once 
 or twice the whispering groups of idle men, 
 wished a whale might be sighted; and once he 
 sent Morrell and Varde to find tasks for the 
 men to do, and kept them at it through the long 
 afternoon, scraping, scrubbing, painting. . . . 
 
 Priss kept to her cabin. When she did not 
 appear at breakfast, Joel went to her door and 
 knocked. She called to him: "I've a head- 
 ache. I'm going to rest." He ordered that 
 food be sent to her. . . . 
 
 He stayed on deck till late, that night; but 
 with the coming of night the ship had grown 
 quiet, and most of the men were below in the 
 fo'c's'le. So at last Joel left the deck to Varde, 
 
 [144] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 and went below. He sat down at his desk and 
 wrote up the day's log. . . . 
 
 Priss came to him there. She had been in 
 bed; and she wore a heavy dressing gown over 
 her night garments. Her hair was braided, 
 hanging across her shoulders. She sat down 
 beside the desk, and when Joel could fight back 
 the misery in his eyes, he looked toward her 
 and asked: 
 
 "Is your head better?' 
 
 She said very quietly: "Joel, I want to 
 ask you something." 
 
 He wanted her sympathy so terribly, and her 
 tone was so cool and so aloof that he winced; 
 but he said: "Very well?' 
 
 "Mark says he asked you to take the Nathan 
 Ross to get the pearls he left on that island. 
 Is that true?" 
 
 "Yes," said Joel. 
 
 "He says you would not do it." 
 
 [145] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 "I will not do it," Joel told her. 
 
 "He says," said Priss quietly, "that you are 
 afraid. He says that was your own word . . . 
 when he accused you. Is that true*?" 
 
 If there had been any sympathy or under- 
 standing in her voice or in her eyes, he would 
 have told her . . . told her that it was for his 
 ship and not for himself that he was afraid. 
 But there was not. She was so cold and hard. 
 ... He would not seek to justify himself to 
 her. . . . 
 
 "Yes," he said quietly. "I used that word." 
 
 She turned her eyes quickly away from his, 
 that he might not see the pain in hers. . . . She 
 rose to go back to her cabin. . . . 
 
 As she reached the door, some one knocked on 
 the door that led to the main cabin; and with- 
 out waiting for word from Joel, that door 
 opened. Mark stood there. He came in, with 
 Finch, and Varde, and old Hooper and young 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Morrell on his heels. . . . Priss shrank back 
 into her cabin, closed the door to a crack, lis- 
 tened. . . . 
 
 Joel got to his feet. "What is it 4 ?" he 
 asked. 
 
 Mark bowed low, faced his brother with a 
 cold and triumphant smile. "These gentlemen 
 have asked me," he explained, "to tell you that 
 we have decided to go fetch the pearls." 
 
 [147] 
 
XIII 
 
 WHEN Priss, through the crack in the 
 door, heard what Mark had said, she 
 shut the door of her cabin soundlessly, and 
 crouched against it, listening. She was trem- 
 bling. . . . 
 
 There was a long moment when no one of the 
 men in the after cabin spoke. Then big Jim 
 Finch said suavely: "That is to say, if Cap- 
 tain Shore does not object." 
 
 Joel asked then : "What if I do object?" 
 
 Mark laughed. "If you do object, why 
 we'll just go anyway. But you'll have no 
 share." 
 
 And surly Varde added : "We'd as soon you 
 did object." 
 
 Mark bade him be quiet. "That's not true, 
 [148] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Joel," he said. "You know, I wanted you in 
 this, from the first. Your coming in will pre- 
 vent complications. With you in, the whole 
 matter is very simple, and safe. . . . But with- 
 out you, we will be forced to take measures that 
 may be reprehensible." 
 
 Joel did not speak; and Priss, trembling 
 against the door, thought bitterly: "He's 
 afraid. . . . He said, himself, that he is 
 afraid. . . ." 
 
 Dick Morrell begged eagerly: "Please, Cap- 
 tain Shore. There's a fortune for all of us. 
 Mr. Worthen would tell you to do it. . . ." 
 
 Joel said then: "I told Mark Shore in the 
 beginning that I would not risk my ship. The 
 enterprise is not lawful. The pearls were 
 stolen in the beginning; murder hung around 
 them. Bad luck would follow them and 
 there are blacks on the island to prevent our 
 finding them, in any case." 
 
 [H9] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 "There's no harm in going to see," Morrell 
 urged. 
 
 " 'Tis far out of our proper way. Wasted 
 time. And the men should be thinking of oil, 
 not of pearls." 
 
 Mark laughed. "That may be," he agreed. 
 "But the men's thoughts are already on the 
 pearls. They've no mind for whaling, Joel. 
 They've no mind for it." 
 
 "I'm doubtful that what you say is true." 
 
 His brother snapped angrily: "Do you call 
 me liar?" 
 
 "No," said Joel gently. "You were never 
 one to lie, Mark." And Priss, listening, 
 winced at the thing that was like apology in his 
 tone. She heard Mark laugh again, aloud; and 
 she heard the fat chuckle of Jim Finch. Then 
 Mark said : 
 
 "It's well you remember that. So. . . . 
 
 [150] 
 
ir 
 
 All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Will you go with us; or do we go without 
 you?' 
 
 There was a long moment of silence before 
 Joel answered. At last he said: "You're 
 making to spill blood on the Nathan Ross, 
 Mark. I've no mind for that. I'll not have it 
 if I can stop it. So . . . I'll consider this 
 matter, to-night, and give you your answer in 
 the morning." 
 
 "You'll answer now," Varde said sullenly. 
 "There's too much words and words. . . . 
 You'll answer now." 
 
 "I'll answer in the morning," Joel repeated, 
 as though he had not heard Varde. "In the 
 morning. And for now I'll bid you good 
 night, gentlemen." 
 
 Mark chuckled. "There's one matter, Joel. 
 You've two rifles and a pair of revolvers in 
 the lockfast by your cabin there. I'll take 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 them to avoid that blood-spilling you men- 
 
 tion." 
 
 Priss held her breath, listening. . . . But 
 Joel said readily: "Yes. Here is the key, 
 Mark. And I hold you responsible for the 
 weapons." 
 
 Her anger at Joel for his submission beat in 
 her ears; and she heard the jingle of the keys, 
 and the scrape and ring of the weapons as Mark 
 took them. He called to Joel as he did so: 
 "They'll not leave my hands. Till the morn- 
 ing, Joel, my boy. . . ." 
 
 The keys jingled again. Mark said: 
 "We'll ask you to stay in the after cabin here 
 till morning. And Varde will be in the main 
 cabin to see that you do it." 
 
 "I'll stay here," Joel promised. 
 
 "Then we'll bid you good night !" 
 
 Priss heard Joel echo the words, in even 
 tones. Then the door closed behind the men. 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 . . . There was no further sound in the after 
 cabin. 
 
 She opened her door. Joel stood by his desk, 
 head drooping, one hand resting on the open 
 log before him. She went toward him, and 
 when he turned and saw her, she stopped, and 
 studied him, her eyes searching his. And at 
 last she said, so softly it was as though she spoke 
 to herself: 
 
 " 'All the brothers were valiant,' Joel. Are 
 you just a coward 1 ?" 
 
 He would not justify himself to her; he could 
 only remember the shadowed deck beneath the 
 boat house Priscilla in his brother's arms. 
 . . . He lifted his right hand a little, said 
 sternly : 
 
 "Go back to your place." 
 
 She flung her eyes away from him, stood for 
 an instant, then went to her cabin with feet that 
 lagged and stumbled. 
 
 [153] 
 
XIV 
 
 JOEL lay for an hour, planning what he 
 should do. He could not yield. . . . He 
 could not yield, even though he might wish to 
 do so; for the yielding would forfeit forever 
 all control over these men, or any others. He 
 could not yield. . . . 
 
 Yet he did not wish to fight; for the battle 
 would be hopeless, with only death at the end 
 for him, and it would ruin the men and lose the 
 ship. . . . Blood marks a ship with a mark that 
 cannot be washed away. And Joel loved his 
 ship; and he loved his men with something 
 of the love of a father for children. Chil- 
 dren they were. He knew them. Simple, eas- 
 ily led, easily swept by some adventurous 
 vision. . . . 
 
 He slept, at last, dreamlessly; and in the 
 
 [154] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 morning, when they came to him, he told them 
 what he wished to do. 
 
 "Call the men aft," he said. "I'll speak to 
 them. We'll see what their will is." 
 
 Mark mocked him. "Ask the men, is it?" 
 he exclaimed. "Let them vote, you'll be say- 
 ing. Are you master of the ship, man; or just 
 first selectman, that you'd call a town meeting 
 on the high seas?" 
 
 "I'll talk with the men," said Joel stub- 
 bornly. 
 
 Varde strode forward angrily. "You'll talk 
 with us," he said. "Yes or no. Now. What 
 is it?" 
 
 They were in the main cabin. Joel looked 
 at Varde steadily for an instant; then he said: 
 "I'm going on deck. You'll come. . . ." 
 
 Priss, in the door of the after cabin, a fright- 
 ened and trembling little figure, called to him: 
 "Joel. Joel. Don't. . . ." 
 
 [155] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 He said, without turning: "Stay in your 
 cabin, Priscilla." And then he passed between 
 Varde and Finch, at the foot of the companion, 
 and turned his back upon them and went stead- 
 ily up the steep, ladder-like stair. Varde made 
 a convulsive movement to seize his arm; but 
 Mark touched the man, held him with his eyes, 
 whispered something. . . . 
 
 They had left old Hooper on deck. He and 
 Aaron Burnham were standing in the after 
 house when Joel saw them. Joel said to the 
 third mate: "Mr. Hooper, tell the men to lay 
 aft." 
 
 Mark had come up at Joel's heels; and 
 Hooper looked past Joel to Mark for confirma- 
 tion. And Mark smiled mirthlessly, and ap- 
 proved. "Yes, Mr. Hooper, call the men," he 
 said. "We're to hold a town meeting." 
 
 Old Hooper's slow brain could not follow 
 such maneuvering; nevertheless, he bellowed a 
 
All the brothers Were Valiant 
 
 command. And the harpooners from the steer- 
 age, and the men from forecastle and fore deck 
 came stumbling and crowding aft. The men 
 stopped amidships ; and Joel went toward them 
 a little ways, until he was under the boat house. 
 The mates stood about him, the harpooners a 
 little to one side; and Mark leaned on the rail 
 at the other side of the deck, watching, smiling. 
 . . . The revolvers were in his belt; the rifles 
 leaned against the after rail. He polished the 
 butt of one of the revolvers while he watched 
 and smiled. . . . 
 
 Joel said, without preamble: "Men, the 
 mates tell me that you've heard of my brother's 
 pearls." 
 
 The men looked at one ar other, and at the 
 mates. They were a jumbled lot, riff-raff of 
 all the seas, Cape Verders, Islanders, a Cockney 
 or two, a Frenchman, two or three Norsemen, 
 and a backbone of New England stock. They 
 
 [157] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 looked at one another, and at the mates, with 
 stupid, questioning eyes ; and one or two of them 
 nodded in a puzzled way, and the Cape Verders 
 grinned with embarrassment. A New Eng- 
 lander drawled: 
 
 "Aye, sir. We've heard th' tale." 
 
 Joel nodded. "When my brother came 
 aboard at Tubuai," he said quietly, "he pro- 
 posed that we go to this island. ... I do not 
 know its position " 
 
 Mark drawled from across the deck: "You 
 know as much as any man aboard myself ex- 
 cepted, Joel. It's my own secret, mind." 
 
 "He proposed that we go to this island," Joel 
 pursued, "and that he and I go ashore and get 
 the pearls and say nothing about them." 
 
 Varde, at Joel's side, swung his head and 
 looked bleakly at Mark Shore; and one or two 
 of the men murmured. Joel said quickly: 
 "Don't misunderstand. I'm not blaming him 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 for that. You must not. The pearls are his. 
 He has a right to them. . . . 
 
 "What I want you to know is that I refused 
 to go with him and get them on half shares. I 
 could have had half, and refused. . . . 
 
 "Now he has spread the story among you. 
 And the mates say that I must go with you all, 
 and get the things." 
 
 He stopped, and the eyes of the men were on 
 him; and one or two nodded, and a voice here 
 and there exclaimed in approval. Joel waited 
 until they were quiet again; then he said: 
 "These pearls have cost life. At least five 
 men and a woman died in the getting of them. 
 If we had them aboard here, more of us would 
 die; for none would be content with his 
 share. . . . 
 
 "It's in my mind that they'd bring blood 
 aboard the Nathan Ross. And I have no wish 
 for that. But first 
 
 [159] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 "How many of you are for going after 
 them?" 
 
 There was a murmur of assent from many 
 throats; and Joel looked from man to man. 
 "Most of you, at least," he said. "Is there any 
 man against going*?' 7 
 
 There may have been, but no man spoke ; and 
 over Joel's face passed a weary little shadow of 
 pain. For a long moment he stood in the sun, 
 studying them; and they saw his lips were 
 white. Then he said quietly : 
 
 "You shall not go. The Nathan Ross goes 
 on about her proper matters. The pearls stay 
 where they are." 
 
 He shifted his weight, looked quickly toward 
 his brother. . . . He was poised for battle. 
 By the very force of his word, there was a 
 chance he might prevail. He watched the men, 
 in whose hands the answer lay. If he could 
 hold them. . . . 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Hands clamped his arms, and Mark smiled 
 across the deck. Finch and old Hooper on one 
 side, Varde and Morrell on the other. And 
 after the first wrench of his surprise, he knew it 
 was hopeless to struggle, and stood quietly. 
 Mark strolled across the deck, smiling coldly. 
 
 "If you'll not go, Joel, you must be taken," 
 he said. And to the mates : "Bring back his 
 
 arms." 
 
 Joel felt the cord slipped through his elbows 
 and drawn tight and looped and made secure. 
 Old Aaron Burnham pushed forward and 
 tugged at them; and Joel heard him say: 
 'They'll hold him fast, Captain Shore. Like 
 a trussed fowl, sir. That he is. . . ." 
 
 "Captain Shore?" That would be Mark, 
 come into command of the ship again. And 
 Aaron added: "I've set the bolt on his cabin 
 door, sir. Not five minutes gone." 
 
 Mark laughed. "Good enough, Aaron. 
 
 [161] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 You and Varde take him down. Varde, you'll 
 stay in the after cabin. If he tries to get free, 
 summon me. And treat Mrs. Shore with the 
 utmost courtesy." 
 
 Varde was at Joel's side; and Joel saw the 
 twist of his smile at Mark's last word. For a 
 moment, thought of Priss left Joel sick. He 
 thrust the thought aside. . . . 
 
 They took him down into the main cabin; 
 Varde ahead, then Joel, and old Aaron close be- 
 hind, his hand on Joel's elbow. Priss met them 
 in the after cabin, crouching in a corner, white 
 and still, her hands at her throat. Her eyes 
 met his for an instant, before Varde led him 
 toward his own cabin. Aaron, behind, looked 
 toward Priss ; and the girl whispered hoarsely : 
 
 "Is he hurt?" 
 
 "He is not," said Aaron grimly. "We were 
 most gentle with the man; and he made no 
 struggle at all. . . ." 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Varde thrust Joel into the little cabin where 
 his bunk was; and Joel heard the snick of a 
 new-set bolt on the outer side of the door. He 
 was alone, bound fast. . . . 
 
 Before he left the deck, he had heard Mark 
 cry an order to the man at the wheel. The tell- 
 tale in the after cabin ceiling told him the 
 Nathan Ross had changed her course again 
 . . . for Mark's island. ... In the face of 
 men, he had held himself steady and calm. . . . 
 But now, alone in his cabin, he strained at 
 his bonds, lips cracking over set teeth. He 
 strained and tugged. . . . Hopeless. . . . 
 
 No ! Not hopeless ! He felt them yield a 
 little, a little more . . . Then, with a tiny snap 
 of sound, the coils were loose, and he shook the 
 cords down over his wrists and hands. He 
 caught them as they fell across his fingers, lest 
 the sound of their fall might warn Varde, in the 
 cabin outside his door; and he was still stupe- 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 fied by the surprise of this deliverance he 
 lifted the broken bonds and examined 
 them. . . . 
 
 A single strand had yielded, loosing all the 
 rest. And where it had broken, Joel saw, it 
 had been sliced all but through, with a keen 
 blade. 
 
 Who*? His thoughts raced back over the 
 brief minutes of his bondage. Who 5 ? 
 
 No other but Aaron Burnham could have had 
 the chance and the good will. Old Aaron. 
 . . . And Aaron's knives were always razor 
 sharp. Drawn once across the tight-stretched 
 cord. . . . 
 
 Aaron had freed him. Aaron. . . . 
 
 He remembered something else. Aaron's 
 words to Mark on deck. "I've set the bolt on 
 his cabin door. . . ." 
 
 Aaron had set the new bolt that was the only 
 bar between him and the after cabin, where 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Varde stood watch. Aaron had set the bolt; 
 and Aaron had cut his bonds. Therefore the 
 bolt must be flimsy, easily forced away. That 
 would be Aaron's plan. A single thrust would 
 open the way. . . . 
 
 He turned toward the door ; then caught him- 
 self, drew back, dropped on the bunk and lay 
 there, planning what he must do. 
 
 [165] 
 
XV 
 
 F"T"1HE discovery of Aaron's loyalty had been 
 JL immensely heartening to Joel. If Aaron 
 were loyal, there might be others. . . . Must 
 be. ... Not all men are false. . . . 
 
 He wondered who they would be; he went 
 over the men, one by one, from mate to hum- 
 blest foremast hand. Finch and Varde were 
 surely against him. Old Hooper he and 
 Aaron were cronies, and the other mates had 
 left Hooper somewhat out of their movements 
 thus far. Old Hooper might be, give him his 
 chance, on Joel's side. . . . 
 
 Old Hooper, and Aaron. Two. Dick Mor- 
 rell? A boy, hot with the wonder and glamor 
 of Mark's tale. Easily swung to either side. 
 Joel thought he would not swing too desper- 
 
 [166] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 ately to the lawless side. But he could not 
 be counted on. What others were there 5 ? 
 
 Joel had brought his own harpooner from the 
 Martin Wilkes. A big Island black. A de- 
 cent man. ... A chance. Besides him, there 
 were three men who had served Asa Worthen 
 long among the foremast hands. Uncertain 
 quantities. Chances everywhere. . . . 
 
 But he must strike quickly. There was no 
 time to sound them out. When his dinner was 
 brought at noon, his broken bonds would be dis- 
 covered. They would be more careful there- 
 after. Three hours lay before him. . . . 
 
 He set himself to listen with all his ears; to 
 guess at what was going on above decks, and so 
 choose his moment. He must wait as long as it 
 was safe to wait ; he must wait till men's bloods 
 ran less hot after the crisis of the morning. He 
 must wait till sober second thought was upon 
 them. . . . 
 
 [167] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 But there was always the chance to fear that 
 Mark might come down. He could not wait 
 too long. . . . 
 
 He could hear feet moving on the deck above 
 his head. The Nathan Ross had run into 
 rougher weather with her change of course; 
 the wind was stiffening, and now and then 
 a whisk of spray came aboard. He heard 
 Jim Finch's bellowing commands. . . . Heard 
 Mark's laughter. Mark and Jim were astern, 
 fairly over his head. 
 
 There were men in the main cabin. The 
 scrape of their feet, the murmur of their voices 
 came to him. Dick Morrell and old Hooper, 
 perhaps. . . . 
 
 It was through these men that Joel's moment 
 came. Finch, on deck, shouted down to them. 
 . . . Mark had decided to shorten sail, ease the 
 strain on the old masts. Joel heard Morrell 
 and Hooper go up to the deck. . . . 
 
 [168] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 That would mean most of the men aloft 
 . . . The decks would be fairly clear. His 
 chance. . . . 
 
 He wished he could know where Varde sat; 
 but he could not be sure of that, and he could 
 not wait to guess by listening. He caught up a 
 blanket from his bunk, held it open in his hands, 
 drew back and threw himself against the cabin 
 door. 
 
 It opened so easily that he overbalanced, all 
 but fell. The screws had been set in punch 
 holes so large that the threads scarce took hold 
 at all. Joel stumbled out saw Varde on the 
 cushioned bench which ran across the stern. 
 The mate was reading, a book from Joel's nar- 
 row shelf. At sight of Joel, he was for an in- 
 stant paralyzed with surprise. . . . 
 
 That instant was long enough for Joel. He 
 swept the blanket down upon the man, smother- 
 ing his cries with fold on fold ; and he grappled 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Varde, and crushed him, and beat at his head 
 with his fists until the mate's spasmodic strug- 
 gles slackened. Priss had heard the sounds of 
 combat, swept out of her cabin, bent above 
 them. He looked up and saw her; and he said 
 quietly : 
 
 "Get back into your place." 
 
 She cried pitifully: "I want to help. 
 Please. . . ." 
 
 He shook his head. "This is my task. 
 Quick." 
 
 She fled. . . . 
 
 He lifted Varde and carried him back to the 
 cabin where he himself had been captive; and 
 there, with the cords that had bound his own 
 arms, he bound Varde, wrist and ankle ; and he 
 stripped away the blanket, and stuffed into 
 Varde's mouth a heavy, woolen sock, and tied it 
 there with a handkerchief. . . . Varde' s eyes 
 [170] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 flickered open at the last; and Joel said to him: 
 
 "I must leave you here for the present. You 
 will do well to lie quietly." 
 
 He left the man lying on the floor, and went 
 out into the after cabin and salvaged the bolt 
 and screws that had been sent flying by his 
 thrust. He put the bolt back in place^, pushed 
 the screws into the holes, bolted the door. . . . 
 No trace remained of his escape. . . . 
 
 Priss stood in her own door. Without look- 
 ing at her, he opened the door into the main 
 cabin. That apartment was empty, as he had 
 expected. The companion stair led to the 
 deck. . . . 
 
 But he could not go up that way. Mark 
 and Jim Finch were within reach of the top of 
 the stair; he would be at a disadvantage, coming 
 up to them from below. He must reach the 
 deck before they saw him. 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 He crossed the cabin to a lockfast, and 
 opened it, and took out the two pairs of heavy 
 ship's irons that lay there. Spring handcuffs 
 that locked without a key. . . . He put one 
 pair in each pocket of his coat. 
 
 There was a seldom used door that opened 
 from the main cabin into a passage which led in 
 turn to the steerage where the harpooners slept. 
 Joel stepped to this door, slipped the bolt, en- 
 tered the passage, and closed the door behind 
 him. 
 
 It was black dark, where he stood. The pas- 
 sage was unlighted; and the swinging lamp in 
 the steerage did not send its rays this far. The 
 Nathan Ross was heeling and bucking heavily 
 in the cross seas, and Joel chose his footing care- 
 fully, and moved forward along the passage, his 
 hands braced against the wall on either side. 
 The way was short, scarce half a dozen feet; 
 but he was long in covering the distance, and he 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 paused frequently to listen. He had no wish 
 to encounter the harpooners in their narrow 
 quarters. . . . 
 
 He heard, at last, the muffled sound of a 
 snore ; and so covered the last inches of his way 
 more quickly. When he was able to look into 
 the place, he saw that two of the men were in 
 their bunks, apparently asleep. The black 
 whom he had brought from the Nathan Ross 
 was not there. Joel was glad to think he was 
 on deck; glad to hope for the chance of his 
 help. . . . 
 
 With steps so slow he seemed like a shadow 
 in the semi-darkness, he crossed to the foot of 
 the ladder that led to the deck. The men in 
 their bunks still slept. He began to climb. 
 . . . The ship was rolling heavily, so that he 
 was forced to grip the ladder tightly. . . . One 
 of the sleepers stirred, and Joel froze where he 
 stood, and watched, and waited for endless 
 
 [173] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 seconds till the man became quiet once more. 
 
 He climbed till his head was on a level with 
 the deck still hidden by the sides of the scuttle 
 at the top of the ladder. And there he poised 
 himself; for the last steps to the deck must be 
 made in a single rush, so quickly that interfer- 
 ence would be impossible . . . 
 
 He made them; one . . . three . . . He 
 stood upon the deck, looked aft. . . . 
 
 Mark and Jim Finch stood there, not ten feet 
 away from him. Finch's back was turned, but 
 Mark saw Joel instantly; and Joel, watching, 
 saw Mark's mouth widen in a broad and mis- 
 chievously delighted smile. 
 
XVI 
 
 AT the moment when Joel reached the 
 deck, the other men aboard the Nathan 
 Ross were widely scattered. 
 
 Varde, the second mate, he had left tied and 
 helpless in the cabin. Two of the four har- 
 pooners were below in their bunks, asleep. The 
 greater part of one watch was likewise below, 
 in the fo'c's'le; and the rest of the crew, under 
 Dick Morrell's eye, were shortening sail. In 
 the after part of the ship there were only Mark 
 Shore, Finch, a foremast hand at the wheel, old 
 Aaron Burnham, and the cook. Of these, 
 Mark, Jim, and the man at the wheel were in 
 sight when Joel appeared; and only Mark had 
 seen him. 
 
 Joel saw his brother smile, and stood for an 
 instant, poised to meet an attack. None came. 
 
 [175] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 He swept his eyes forward and saw that he need 
 fear no immediate interference from that direc- 
 tion; and so he went quietly toward the men 
 astern. The broad back of Jim Finch was 
 within six feet of him. . . . 
 
 What moved Mark Shore in that moment, it 
 is hard to say. It may have been the reckless 
 spirit of the man, willing to wait and watch and 
 see what Joel would do; or it may have been the 
 distaste he must have felt for Jim Finch's slav- 
 ish adulation; or it may have been an unad- 
 mitted admiration for Joel's courage . . . 
 
 At any rate, while Joel advanced, Mark stood 
 still and smiled ; and he gave Finch no warning, 
 so that when Joel touched the mate's elbow, 
 Finch whirled with a startled gasp of surprise 
 and consternation, and in his first panic, tried to 
 back away. Still Mark made no move. The 
 man at the wheel uttered one exclamation, 
 looked quickly at Mark for commands, and took 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 his cue from his leader. Finch was left alone 
 and unsupported to face Joel. 
 
 Joel did not pursue the retreating mate. He 
 stepped to the rail, where the whaleboats hung, 
 and called to Finch quietly: 
 
 "Mr. Finch, step here." 
 
 Finch had retreated until his shoulders were 
 braced against the wall of the after house. He 
 leaned there, hands outspread against the wall 
 behind him, staring at Joel with goggling eyes. 
 And Joel said again : 
 
 "Come here, Mr. Finch." 
 
 Joel's composure, and the determination and 
 the confidence in his tone, frightened Finch. 
 He clamored suddenly : "How did he get here, 
 Captain Shore? Jump him. Tie him up 
 you Aaron . . ." 
 
 He appealed to the man at the wheel, and to 
 old Aaron, who had appeared in the doorway of 
 the tiny compartment where his tools were 
 
 [177] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 stored. Neither stirred. Mark Shore, chuck- 
 ling, stared at Finch and at Joel; and Finch 
 cried : 
 
 "Captain Shore. Come on. Let's get 
 him . . ." 
 
 Joel said for the third time: "Come here, 
 Finch." 
 
 Finch held out a hand to Mark, appealingly. 
 Mark shook his head. "This is your affair, 
 Finch," he said. "Go get him, yourself. He's 
 waiting for you. And you're twice his size." 
 
 Give Finch his due. With even moral sup- 
 port behind him, he would have overwhelmed 
 Joel in a single rush. Without that support, 
 he would still have faced any reasonable attack. 
 But there was something baffling about Joel's 
 movements, his tones, the manner of his com- 
 mand, that stupefied Finch. He felt that he 
 was groping in the dark. The mutiny must 
 have collapsed ... It may have been only 
 
 [178] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 a snare to trap him. . . . He was alone 
 against Joel, and with none to support him . . . 
 
 Finch's courage was not of the solitary kind. 
 He took one slow step toward Joel, and in that 
 single step was surrender. 
 
 Joel stood still, but his eyes held the big 
 man's; and he said curtly: "Quickly, Finch." 
 
 Finch took another lagging step, an- 
 other. . . . 
 
 Joel dropped his hand in his coat pocket and 
 drew out a pair of irons. He tossed them to- 
 ward Finch; and the mate shrank, and the 
 irons struck him in the body and fell to the deck. 
 He stared down at them, stared at Joel. 
 
 Joel said : "Pick them up. Snap one on your 
 right wrist. Then put your arms around the 
 davit, there, and snap the other. . . ." 
 
 Finch shook his head in a bewildered way, as 
 though trying to understand; and abruptly, a 
 surge of honest anger swept him, and he stiff- 
 
 [179] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 ened, and wheeled to rush at Joel. But Joel 
 made no move either to retreat or to meet the 
 attack; and Finch, like a huge and baffled bear, 
 slumped again, and slowly stooped, and gath- 
 ered up the handcuffs. . . . 
 
 With them in his hands, he looked again at 
 Joel; and for a long moment their eyes battled. 
 Then Joel stepped forward, touched Finch 
 lightly on the arm, and guided him toward the 
 rail. Finch was absolutely unresisting. The 
 sap had gone out of him . . . 
 
 Joel drew the man's arms around the davit, 
 and snapped the irons upon his wrist. Finch 
 was fast there, out of whatever action there was 
 to come. And Joel's lips tightened with re- 
 lief. He stepped back . . . 
 
 He saw, then, that some of the crew had 
 heard, and three or four of them were gather- 
 ing amidships, near the try works. The two 
 harpooners were there; and one of them was 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 that black whom Joel had brought from the 
 Martin Wilkes, and in whom he placed some 
 faith. He eyed these men for a moment, won- 
 dering whether they were nerved to strike . . . 
 
 But they did not stir, they did not move to- 
 ward him; and he guessed they were as stupe- 
 fied as Finch by what had happened. So long 
 as the men aft allowed him to go free, they 
 would not interfere. They did not under- 
 stand; and without understanding, they were 
 helpless. 
 
 He turned his back on them, and looked to- 
 ward Mark. 
 
 Mark Shore had watched Joel's encounter 
 with Finch in frank enjoyment. Such inci- 
 dents pleased him; they appealed to his love 
 for the bold and daring facts of life . . . He 
 had smiled. 
 
 But now Joel saw that he had stepped back a 
 little, perhaps by accident. He was behind the 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 man at the wheel, behind the spot where Aaron 
 Burnham stood. He was standing almost 
 against the after rail, in the narrow corridor 
 that runs fore and aft through the after 
 house . . . 
 
 The pistols were in his belt, and the two 
 rifles leaned on fche rail at his side. Mark him- 
 self was standing at ease, his arms relaxed, his 
 hands resting lightly on his hips and his feet 
 apart. He swayed to the movement of the 
 ship, balancing with the unconscious ease of 
 long custom. 
 
 Joel went toward him, not slowly, yet with- 
 out haste. He passed old Aaron with no word, 
 passed the wheelman, and faced his brother. 
 They were scarce two feet apart when he 
 stopped; and there were no others near enough 
 to hear, above the slashing of the seas and the 
 whistle of the wind, his low words. 
 
 [182] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 He said: "Mark, you've made a mistake. A 
 bad mistake. In starting this mutiny." 
 
 Mark smiled slowly. "That's a hard word, 
 Joel. It's in my mind that if this is mutiny, 
 it's a very peaceful model." 
 
 "Nevertheless, it is just that," said Joel. 
 "It is that, and it is also a mistake. And 
 you are wise man enough to see this. There 
 is still time to remedy the thing. It can be for- 
 gotten." 
 
 Mark chuckled. "If that is true, you've a 
 most convenient memory, Joel." 
 
 Joel's cheeks flushed slowly, and he an- 
 swered: "I am anxious to forget whatever 
 shames the House of Shore." 
 
 Mark threw back his head and laughed aloud. 
 "Bless you, boy," he exclaimed. " 'Tis no 
 shame to you to have fallen victim to our 
 numbers." But there was a heat in his tones 
 
 [183] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 that told Joel he was shaken. And Joel in- 
 sisted steadily : 
 
 "It was not my own shame I feared." 
 
 "Mine, then 4 ?" Mark challenged. 
 
 "Aye," said Joel. "Yours." 
 
 Mark bent toward him with a mocking flare 
 of anger in his eyes; and he said harshly: 
 "You've spoken too much for a small man. Be 
 silent. And go below." 
 
 Joel waited for an instant; then his shoul- 
 ders stirred as though he chose a hard course, 
 and he held out his hand and said quietly : "Give 
 me the guns, Mark." 
 
 Mark stared at him; and he laughed aloud. 
 "You're immense, boy," he applauded. "The 
 cool nerve of you ..." His eyes warmed 
 with frank admiration. "Joel, hark to this," 
 he cried, and jerked his head toward the captive 
 Finch. "You've ripped the innards out of that 
 
 [184] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 mate of mine. I'll give you the job. You're 
 mate of the Nathan Ross; and I'm proud to 
 have you ..." 
 
 "I am captain of the Nathan Ross," said 
 Joel. "And you are my brother, and a muti- 
 neer. Give me the guns. 7 ' 
 
 Mark threw up his hand angrily. "You'll 
 not hear reason. Then go below, and stay 
 there. You . . ." 
 
 There are few men who can stand flat-footed 
 and still hit a crushing blow; but Joel did just 
 this. When Mark began to speak, Joel's hands 
 had been hanging limply at his sides. On 
 Mark's last word, Joel's right hand whipped up 
 as smoothly as a whip snaps ; and it smacked on 
 Mark's lean jaw with much the sound a whip 
 makes. It struck just behind the point of the 
 jaw, on the left hand side; and Mark's head 
 jerked back, and his knees sagged, and he tot- 
 
 [185] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 tered weakly forward into Joel's very arms. 
 
 Joel's hands were at the other's belt, even as 
 Mark fell. He brought out the revolvers, then 
 let Mark slip down to the deck; and he stepped 
 over the twitching body of his brother, and 
 caught up the two rifles, and dropped them, 
 with the revolvers, over the after rail. 
 
 Mark's splendid body had already begun to 
 recover from the blow; he was struggling to sit 
 up, and he saw what Joel did, and cried aloud : 
 "Don't be a fool, boy. Keep them . . . 
 Hell!" For the weapons were gone. Joel 
 turned, and looked down at him; and he said 
 quietly : 
 
 "While I can help it, there'll be no blood shed 
 on my ship." 
 
 Mark swept an arm toward the waist of the 
 ship, and Joel looked and saw a growing knot 
 of angry men there. "See them, do you 4 ?" 
 Mark demanded. "They're drunk for blood. 
 
 [186] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 It's out of your hands, Joel. You've thrown 
 your ace away. Now, boy what will you 
 do?" 
 
 The men began to surge aft, along the deck. 
 
 [187] 
 
XVII 
 
 THE story of that battle upon the tum- 
 bling decks of the Nathan Ross was to 
 be told and re- told at many a gam upon the 
 whaling grounds. It was such a story as strong 
 men love; a story of overwhelming odds, of 
 epic combat, of splendid death where blood ran 
 hot and strong . . . 
 
 There were a full score of men in the group 
 that came aft toward Joel. And as they came, 
 others, running from the fo'c'sle and dropping 
 from the rigging, joined them. Every man 
 was drunk with the vision of wealth that he had 
 built upon Mark Shore's story. The thing had 
 grown and grown in the telling; it had fattened 
 on the greed native in the men; and it was a 
 monstrous thing now, and one that would not be 
 denied. . . . The men, as they moved aft, 
 
 [188] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 made grumbling sounds with their half-caught 
 breath ; and these sounds blended into a roaring 
 growl like the growl of a beast. 
 
 To face these men stood Joel. For an in- 
 stant, he was alone. Then, without word, old 
 Aaron took his stand beside -his captain. Aaron 
 held gripped in both hands an adze. Its edge 
 was sharp enough to slice hard wood like 
 cheese. . . . And at Joel's other side, the cook. 
 A round man, with greasy traces of his craft 
 upon his countenance. He carried a heavy 
 cleaver. There is an ancient feud between gal- 
 ley and fo'c's'le; and the men greeting the 
 cook's coming with a hungry cry of delight . . . 
 
 Joel glanced at these new allies, and saw 
 their weapons. He took the adze from Aaron, 
 the cleaver from the other; and he turned and 
 hurled them behind him, over the rail. And in 
 the moment's silence that followed on this 
 action, he called to the men: 
 
 [189] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 "Go back to your places." 
 
 They growled at him; they were wordless, 
 but they knew the thing they desired. The 
 cook complained at Joel's elbow: "I could use 
 that cleaver." 
 
 'Til not have blood spilled," Joel told him. 
 "If there's fighting, it will be with fists. . . ." 
 
 And Mark touched Joel lightly on the shoul- 
 der, and took his place beside him. He was 
 smiling, a twisted smile above the swollen 
 lump upon his jaw. He said lightly: "If it's 
 fists, Joel I think I'm safest to fight beside 
 you." 
 
 Joel looked up at him with a swift glance, 
 and he brushed his hand across his eyes, and 
 nodded. "I counted on that, Mark in the 
 last, long run," he said. Mark gripped his 
 arm and pressed it; and in that moment the 
 long, unspoken enmity between the brothers 
 died forever. They faced the men . . . 
 [190] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 One howled like a wolf: "He's done us. 
 Done us in." 
 
 And another: "They're going to hog it. 
 Them two . . ." 
 
 The little sea of scowling, twisting faces 
 moved, it surged forward . . . The men 
 charged, more than a score, to overwhelm the 
 four. 
 
 In the moment before, Joel had marked 
 young Dick Morrell, at one side, twisted 
 with indecision; and in the instant when 
 the men moved, he called: "With us, Mr. 
 Morrell." 
 
 It was command, not question; and the boy 
 answered with a shout and a blow. . . . On the 
 flank of the men, he swept toward them. And 
 Joel's harpooner, and one of Asa Worthen's 
 old men formed a triumvirate that fought 
 there. . . . 
 
 They were thus seven against a score. But 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 they were seven good men. And the score 
 were a mob . . . 
 
 It was fists, at the first, as Joel had sworn. 
 The first, charging line broke upon them; and 
 old Aaron was swept back, fighting like a cat, 
 and crushed and bruised and left helpless in an 
 instant. The fat cook dodged into his galley, 
 and snatched a knife and held the door there, 
 prodding the flanks of those who swirled past 
 his stronghold. Joel dropped the first man 
 who came to him; and likewise Mark. But 
 another twined 'round Joel's legs, and he could 
 not kick them free, and there was no time to 
 stoop and tear the man away. 
 
 He and Mark kept back to back for a mo- 
 ment; but Mark was not a defensive fighter. 
 He could not stand still and wait attack; and 
 when his second man fell, he leaped the twisting 
 body and charged into the clump of them. His 
 black hair tossed, his eye was flaming; and his 
 
 [192] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 long arms worked like pistons and like flails. 
 He became the center of a group that writhed 
 and dissolved, and formed again. His head 
 rose above them all. 
 
 The man who gripped Joel's legs, freed one 
 hand and began to beat at Joel's body from be- 
 low. Joel could not endure the blows; he 
 bent, and took a rain of buffets on his head 
 and shoulders while he caught the attacker by 
 the throat, and lifted him up and flung him 
 away. He staggered free, set his back against 
 the galley wall; and when he shifted to avoid 
 another attack, he found his place in the galley 
 door. The fat cook crouched behind him, and 
 Joel heard him shout: "I'll watch your legs, 
 Cap'n. Give 'em the iron, sir. Give 'em th' 
 iron." 
 
 Once Joel, looking down, saw the cook's 
 knife play like a flame between his knees . . * 
 None would seek to pin him there. 
 [193] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 The black harpooner fought his way across 
 the deck to Joel's side. He left a trail of 
 twisting bodies behind him. And he was grin- 
 ning with a huge delight. "Now, sar, we'll do 
 'em, sar," he screamed. The sweat poured 
 down his black cheeks; and his mouth was cut 
 and bleeding. His shirt was torn away from 
 one shoulder and arm . . . 
 
 "Good man," said Joel, between his pant- 
 ing blows. "Good man !" 
 
 Across the deck, one who had run forward 
 for a handspike swept it down on young Dick 
 Morrell's brown head. Morrell dodged, but 
 the blow cracked his shoulder and swept him 
 to the deck. The man who had fought beside 
 him spraddled the prostrate body, and jerked 
 an iron from the boat on the davits at his back 
 and held it like a lance, to keep all men at a 
 distance. A sheath knife sped, and twisted in 
 
 [194] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 the air, and struck him butt first above the eye, 
 so that he fell limply and lay still . . . 
 
 Mark Shore had been forced against the rail 
 near where Jim Finch was pinned. Big Finch 
 was howling and weeping with fright; and a 
 little man of the crew with a rat's mean soul 
 who hated Finch had found his hour. He was 
 leaping about the mate, lashing him mercilessly 
 with a heavy end of rope; and Finch screamed 
 and twisted beneath the blows. 
 
 So swiftly had the tumult of the battle arisen 
 that all these things had come to pass before 
 the harpooners asleep in the steerage could wake 
 and reach the deck. When they climbed the 
 ladder, and looked about them, they saw Mor- 
 rell and his ally prostrate at one side, Joel and 
 the cook holding the galley door against a half 
 dozen men; and big Mark's towering head 
 amidst a knot of half a dozen more. And one 
 
 [195] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 of the harpooners backed away toward the waist 
 of the ship, watchful and wary, taking no part 
 in the affair. 
 
 But the other . . . He was a Cape Verder, 
 black blood crossed with Spanish; and Mark 
 Shore had tied him to a davit, once upon a 
 time, and lashed him till he bled, for faults 
 committed. He saw Mark now, and his eyes 
 shone greedily. 
 
 This man crouched, and crossed to a boat 
 his own and chose his own harpoon. He 
 twisted off the wooden sheath that covered the 
 point, and flung it across the deck; and he poised 
 the heavy iron in his hands, and started slowly 
 toward Mark, moving on tiptoe, lightly as a 
 cat. 
 
 Mark saw him coming; and the big man 
 shouted joyfully: "Why, Silva! Come, 
 you . . ." 
 
 He flung aside the men encircling him. One 
 
 [196] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 among them held the handspike with which he 
 had struck down Morrell ; and Mark smote this 
 man in the body, and when he doubled, 
 wrenched the great club from his hands. He 
 swung this, leaped to meet the harpooner. 
 
 They came together in mid-deck. The 
 great handspike whistled through the air, and 
 down. An egg-shell crunched beneath a heel 
 . . . Silva dropped. 
 
 Mark stood for an instant above him ; and in 
 that instant, every man saw the harpoon which 
 Silva had driven home. Its heavy shaft hung, 
 dragging on the deck; it hung from Mark's 
 breast, high in the right shoulder; and the point 
 stood out six inches behind his shoulder blade. 
 It seemed to drag at him; he bent slowly be- 
 neath its weight, and drooped, and lay at last 
 across the body of the man whose skull the 
 handspike had crushed. 
 
 There were, at that moment, about a dozen 
 
 [197] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 of the men still on their feet; but in the instant 
 of their paralyzed dismay, two things struck 
 them; two furies . . . Dick Morrell, tottering 
 on unsteady feet, brandishing a razor-tipped 
 lance full ten feet long. He came upon the 
 men from the flank, shouting; and Joel, when 
 he saw his brother fall, left his shelter in the 
 galley door and swept upon them. The fat 
 cook, with the knife, fought nobly at his side. 
 
 The men broke; they fled headlong, for- 
 ward; and Joel and Morrell and the cook pur- 
 sued them, through the waist, past the trypots, 
 till they tumbled down the fo'c's'le scuttle and 
 huddled in their bunks and howled . . . 
 
 A dozen limp bodies sprawled upon the deck, 
 bodies of moaning men with heads that would 
 ache and pound for days. . . . Joel left Mor- 
 rell to guard the fo'c's'le, and went back among 
 them, going swiftly from man to man. . . . 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Silva was dead. The others would not die- 
 save only Mark. The iron had pierced his 
 chest, had ripped a iung . . . 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 HE died that night, smiling to the last. 
 He was able to speak, now and then, 
 before the end; and Joel and Priss were near 
 him, at his side, soothing him, listening . . . 
 
 He asked Joel, once: "Shall I tell you 
 where pearls ..." 
 
 Joel shook his head. "I do not want them," 
 he said. "They have enough blood to turn 
 them crimson. Let them lie." 
 
 And Mark smiled, and nodded faintly. 
 "Right, boy. Let them lie. . . ." And his 
 eyes shone up at them ; and he whispered pres- 
 ently: "That was a fight to tell about, 
 Joel. . . ." 
 
 In those hours beside Mark, Priss completed 
 the transition from girl to woman. She was 
 [200] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 very sober, and quiet; but she did not weep, and 
 she answered Mark's smiles. And Mark, 
 watching her, seemed to remember something, 
 toward the last. Joel saw his eyes beckon ; and 
 he bent above his brother, and Mark whispered 
 weakly : 
 
 "Treasure Priss, Joel. She's worth all. 
 . . . Kissed her, but she fought me . . ." 
 
 Joel gripped his brother's hand. "I knew 
 there was no harm in you or in her," he said. 
 "Don't trouble, Mark . . ." 
 
 When old Aaron had stitched the canvas 
 shroud, they laid Mark on the cutting stage; 
 and Joel read over him from the Book, while 
 the men stood silent by. Chastened men, heads 
 bandaged, arms in slings . . . Big Jim Finch 
 at one side, shamed of face. Varde, sullen as 
 ever, but with hopelessness writ large upon him. 
 Morrell, and old Hooper . . . 
 [201] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 Joel finished, and he closed the Book. 
 "Unto the deep . . ." The cutting stage 
 tilted, and the wave leaped and caught its bur- 
 den and bore it softly down. . . . The sun was 
 shining, the sea danced, the wind was warm on 
 fair Priscilla's cheek . . . 
 
 And as though, the brief, dramatic chapter 
 being ended, another must at once begin, the 
 masthead man presently called down to Joel the 
 long, droning hail : 
 
 "Ah-h-h-h ! Blow-w-w-w-w !" 
 
 And he flung his arm toward where a misty 
 spout sparkled in the sun a mile or two 
 away. Minutes later, the boats took water; 
 and the Nathan Ross was about her business 
 again. 
 
 Joel wrote in the log that night, with Pris- 
 cilla be^de him, her fingers in his hair. Pris- 
 [ 202 ] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 cilia had been very humble, till Joel took her 
 in his arms and comforted her . . . 
 
 He set down the ship's position ; he recorded 
 their capture, that day, of a great bull cacha- 
 lot; and then: 
 
 ". . . This day Mark Shore was buried at 
 sea. He died late last night, from wounds re- 
 ceived when he fought valiantly to put down 
 the mutiny of the crew. Fourth brother of the 
 House of Shore . . ." 
 
 And below, the ancient and enduring epi- 
 taph: 
 
 " 'All the brothers were valiant.' " 
 
 Priscilla, reading over his shoulder, pointed 
 to this line and whispered sorrowfully: "But I 
 called you coward, Joel." He looked up at 
 her, and smiled a little. "I know better now," 
 she said. "So give me the pen. . . . And 
 close your eyes. . . ." 
 
 [203] 
 
All the Brothers Were Valiant 
 
 He heard the scratch of steel on paper; and 
 when he opened his eyes again he saw that Pris- 
 cilla had underscored, with three deep strokes, 
 the first word of that honorable line. 
 
 PRINTED IN THE VNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 [204] 
 
TOBED AT NBLF 
 
PS3545.I5115A7 
 
 3 2106 00215 5775 
 
 Ben Ames ffilliams 
 
 013