will offer me
their shadowy fingers in proof that they bear me no malice and are aware
that all was done according to honourable warfare. There is the blood of
no vindictive death upon my fingers. What blood there is was blood spilt
honestly, in a gentlemanly way, in a soldierly way; and there is a
blessed Blood that will cleanse me of its stain.

That I can make this boast I owe in all thankfulness to two women. To my
mother first, and then to the girl who came to me at the very turn of my
life. If I can say truthfully that year in and year out my life has been
a fairly creditable one for a man that has followed fortune by sea and
by land the Recording Angel must even set it down to the credit of
Marjorie.

CHAPTER XIII

TO THE SEA

From that out the days ran by with a marvellous swiftness. There was
much to do daily; in my humble way I had to get my sea-gear ready, which
kept my dear mother busy; and every day I was with Captain Marmaduke and
Lancelot and Marjorie, and every day we all worked hard to get ready for
the great voyage and to bring our odd brotherhood together.

It certainly was a strange fellowship which Captain Amber had gathered
together to sail the seas in the Royal Christopher.

Most of them were quiet folk of the farming favour, well set up,
earnest, with patient faces. There were men who had been old soldiers;
there were men who had served with Captain Amber. These were to be the
backbone of his colony. Some brought wives, some sisters; altogether we
had our share of women on board, about a dozen in all, including the
woman whose care it was to wait upon the Captain's niece.

But I did not see a great deal of them, for they lay aft, and it was my
Captain's pleasure that I should dwell in his part of the ship; and he
himself, though he carried them to a new world and to warmer stars, did
not mingle much with them on shipboard. For my Captain had his notion of
rank and place, as a man-at-arms should have. He passed his wont in
admitting me to his intimacy, and that was for Lancelot's sake.

As for the hands, the finding of them had been, it would seem, chiefly
entrusted to the hands of Cornelys Jensen. I saw nothing of them until
the day we sailed. What I saw of them then gave me no great pleasure,
for several reasons. Many of them were fine-looking fellows enough. All
were stalwart, sea-tested, skilled at their work; most seemed jovial of
blood and ready to tackle their work cheerily