when the anchor should be heaved, Kate withdrew to one side with Mr.
Newcombe. "You must believe," said she kindly, "that everything between
us is just as it was when we used to sit on the shady bank and look out
over the ripples of the river. There will be waves instead of ripples
for us to look over now, but there will be no change either the one way
or the other."

Then they shook hands fervently; more than that would have been
unwarrantable.

The King and Queen dropped down the stream, and Master Newcombe stood
sadly on the pier, while Kate Bonnet waved her handkerchief to him and
to her friends. Dame Charter sat and smiled at the town she was leaving
and at the long stretches of the river before her. She knew not to what
future she was going, but her heart was uplifted at the thought that a
new life was opening before her son. In her little cottage and in her
little fields there was no future for him, and now to what future might
he not be sailing!

As for Dickory, he knew no more of his future than the sea-birds knew
what was going to happen to them; he cared no more for his future than
the clouds cared whether they were moving east or west. His life was
like the sparkling air in which he moved and breathed. He stood upon the
deck of the vessel, with the wind filling the sails above, while at a
little distance stood Kate Bonnet, her ribbons floating in the breeze.
He would have been glad to sing aloud, but he knew that that would not
be proper in the presence of the ladies and the captain. And so he let
his heart do his singing, which was not heard, except by himself.

CHAPTER VIII

BEN GREENWAY IS CONVINCED THAT BONNET IS A PIRATE

"But how in the name o' common sense did ye ever think o' becomin' a
pirate, Master Bonnet?" said Ben Greenway as they stood together. "Ye're
so little fitted for a wicked life."

"Out upon you, Ben Greenway!" exclaimed the captain, beginning to stride
up and down the little quarter-deck. "I will let you know, that when the
time comes for it, I can be as wicked as anybody."

"I doubt that," said Ben sturdily. "Would ye cut down an' murder the
innocent? Would ye drive them upon an unsteady plank an' make them walk
into the sea? Could ye raise thy great sword upon the widow an' the
orphan?"

"No more of this disloyal speech," shouted Bonnet, "or I will put you
upon a wavering plank and make you walk into the sea."

Now Greenway laughed.

"An' if ye did," he said, "