Stirling turned toward the big mate, who stood under the shadow of a long, white whaleboat. "I’ll join," the Ice Pilot said, simply. "Let’s go below and see Marr. It’s six bells and more. Like as not he and I can get along. I ain’t a hard man to please. Only, this has got to be an honest voyage. I ain’t in for anything downright crooked. It ain’t my nature!"
"Mine, neither," said Cushner. "Come on!"
Stirling followed the second mate across the deck to an ornate companion close by the taffrail, and they descended by turning, in the manner of seamen the world over. Stirling removed his cap and stood rooted in the doorframe as his eyes gathered in the details of the cabin.
A soft electric cluster shone overhead, and walls and bulkheads were hung with draperies. The deck was covered with Persian carpets, while here and there—scattered in haphazard fashion—gleamed the tawny yellow pelts of wild animals.
Athwart the ship, from inner skin to inner skin, the cabin extended, with staterooms fore and aft of the companion stairway. The round portholes, covered with silken curtains, alone remained to tell that the room was upon a ship.
Stirling blinked his eyes, then opened them wide and drank in the details of wealth and luxury. He stared at shelves of morocco-bound books, their titles stamped in gold; he noted a baby-grand piano—the first he had ever seen—lashed with silken cords to the after bulkhead. Upon it music lay in well-bound sheaths.
Cushner advanced and gripped the Ice Pilot’s elbow. "Come on," he whispered, pointing toward an alcove between two bookcases. "The captain is sitting there."
Half hidden by a portière, stretched three quarter length upon a divan, Marr reclined, deep in a book of modern verse. He lifted his legs and dropped them to the deck, laid the book down, and rose with a quick thrust of his hand toward Stirling. "Be seated," he said, clasping the Ice Pilot’s hand with a nervous grip then indicating a long, cushioned seat.
Stirling followed the second mate’s example and sat down on the nearest cushion, stretching out his long legs, hitching up his trousers, and fingering his cap. He raised his chin and met Marr’s eyes, studying the clean-cut nostrils of the little captain. He gauged the mentality of the man, and thrashed the events of the night over in his mind as he held a steady poise.