She did not understand. "Your resolve delivered me from a horrible
danger," she admitted. And she shivered at the memory of it. "But I do
not understand why you should have hesitated when first it was proposed
to you. It is an honourable service."

"King James's?" he sneered.

"England's," she corrected him in reproof. "The country is all, sir;
the sovereign naught. King James will pass; others will come and pass;
England remains, to be honourably served by her sons, whatever rancour
they may hold against the man who rules her in their time."

He showed some surprise. Then he smiled a little. "Shrewd advocacy," he
approved it. "You should have spoken to the crew."

And then, the note of irony deepening in his voice: "Do you suppose now
that this honourable service might redeem one who was a pirate and a
thief?"

Her glance fell away. Her voice faltered a little in replying. "If he...
needs redeeming. Perhaps... perhaps he has been judged too harshly."

The blue eyes flashed, and the firm lips relaxed their grim set.

"Why... if ye think that," he said, considering her, an odd hunger in
his glance, "life might have its uses, after all, and even the service
of King James might become tolerable."

Looking beyond her, across the water, he observed a boat putting off
from one of the great ships, which, hove to now, were rocking gently
some three hundred yards away. Abruptly his manner changed. He was like
one recovering, taking himself in hand again. "If you will go below, and
get your gear and your woman, you shall presently be sent aboard one of
the ships of the fleet." He pointed to the boat as he spoke.

She left him, and thereafter with Wolverstone, leaning upon the rail,
he watched the approach of that boat, manned by a dozen sailors, and
commanded by a scarlet figure seated stiffly in the stern sheets. He
levelled his telescope upon that figure.

"It'll not be Bishop himself," said Wolverstone, between question and
assertion.

"No." Blood closed his telescope. "I don't know who it is."

"Ha!" Wolverstone vented an ejaculation of sneering mirth. "For all
his eagerness, Bishop'd be none so willing to come, hisself. He's been
aboard this hulk afore, and we made him swim for it that time. He'll
have his memories. So he sends a deputy."

This deputy proved to be an officer named Calverley, a vigorous,
self-sufficient fellow, comparatively fresh from England, whose manner
made it clear that he came fully in