to settling-day," he said to the players. "Luck may
swing all round the compass before then, boys. All right, Rainey, you
needn't wait."

Rainey ignored the omitted "Mister." He held the respect of the sailors,
since he had shown his ability, but he knew that the hunters regarded
him with an amused tolerance that lacked disrespect by a small margin.
To them he was only the amateur sailor. Rainey fancied that the doctor
had contributed to this attitude, and it did not lessen his score
against Carlsen.

The captain did not make his appearance for that day, the next, or the
next. The men began to roll eyes at one another when they asked after
his health. Carlsen kept his own counsel, and Peggy Simms spent most of
her time in the main cabin with her eyes always roving to her father's
door. Rainey noticed that Tamada brought no food for the sick man.
Carlsen was the apparent controller of the schooner. Lund was quick to
sense this.

"We got to block that Carlsen's game," he said to Rainey. "There's a
nigger in the woodpile somewhere an' you an' me got to uncover him,
matey, afore we reach Bering Strait, or you an' me'll finish this trip
squattin' on the rocks of one of the Four Mountain Islands makin' faces
at the gulls.

"I wish you c'ud git under the skin of that Jap. No use tryin' to git in
with the crew or the hunters. They're ag'in' both of us--leastwise
the hunters are. The hands don't count. They're jest plain hash."

Lund spoke with an absolute contempt of the sailors that was
characteristic of the man.

"You think they'd put a blind man ashore that way?" asked Rainey.

"Carlsen would. In a minnit. He'd argy that you c'ud look out for me,
seein' as we are chums. As for you, you've bin useful, but you can't
navigate, an' you've helped train Hansen to yore work. You were in the
way at the start, an' he'd jest as soon git rid of you that road as enny
other. He don't intend you to have Bergstrom's share, by a jugful."

Lund grinned as he spoke, and Rainey felt a little chill raise
gooseflesh all over his body. It was not exactly fear, but--

"They don't look on us two as _mascots_," went on Lund. "But to git back
to that Jap. Forewarned is forearmed. He ain't over an' above liked, but
they've got used to him goin' back an' forth with their grub, an' they
sort of despise him for a yellow-skinned coolie.

"Now Tamada ain't no coolie. I know Japs. He's a cut above his job.
Cooks well enough for a swell billet a