, and an elderly negro slave presented himself. Would his excellency
receive Miss Bishop?

His excellency changed colour. He sat quite still, staring at the negro
a moment, conscious that his pulses were drumming in a manner wholly
unusual to them. Then quietly he assented.

He rose when she entered, and if he was not as pale as she was, it was
because his tan dissembled it. For a moment there was silence between
them, as they stood looking each at the other. Then she moved forward,
and began at last to speak, haltingly, in an unsteady voice, amazing in
one usually so calm and deliberate.

"I... I... Major Mallard has just told me...."

"Major Mallard exceeded his duty," said Blood, and because of the effort
he made to steady his voice it sounded harsh and unduly loud.

He saw her start, and stop, and instantly made amends. "You alarm
yourself without reason, Miss Bishop. Whatever may lie between me and
your uncle, you may be sure that I shall not follow the example he has
set me. I shall not abuse my position to prosecute a private vengeance.
On the contrary, I shall abuse it to protect him. Lord Willoughby's
recommendation to me is that I shall treat him without mercy. My own
intention is to send him back to his plantation in Barbados."

She came slowly forward now. "I... I am glad that you will do that.
Glad, above all, for your own sake." She held out her hand to him.

He considered it critically. Then he bowed over it. "I'll not presume to
take it in the hand of a thief and a pirate," said he bitterly.

"You are no longer that," she said, and strove to smile.

"Yet I owe no thanks to you that I am not," he answered. "I think
there's no more to be said, unless it be to add the assurance that Lord
Julian Wade has also nothing to apprehend from me. That, no doubt, will
be the assurance that your peace of mind requires?"

"For your own sake--yes. But for your own sake only. I would not have
you do anything mean or dishonouring."

"Thief and pirate though I be?"

She clenched her hand, and made a little gesture of despair and
impatience.

"Will you never forgive me those words?"

"I'm finding it a trifle hard, I confess. But what does it matter, when
all is said?"

Her clear hazel eyes considered him a moment wistfully. Then she put out
her hand again.

"I am going, Captain Blood. Since you are so generous to my uncle,
I shall be returning to Barbados with him. We are not like to meet
again--ever. Is