“Yes, in a light dinghy and you remember the difficulty and danger. They will never surmount it in that heavy cutter. They will not even attempt it, when they have seen it nearer, trust me.�
“But if there should be an opening?�
“I don’t believe there is one,� was my reassuring reply. “We know that there is not one on this side, since we examined it ourselves, and my careful inspection yesterday did not reveal any on the other, and with that conclusion the chart agrees, you remember. No, I have no fear that the crew of The Rose of Devon can get at us.�
“And we can’t get to them,� she answered more composedly.
“I have no wish so to do,� I laughed.
“You don’t understand me,� she persisted, “what keeps them out, keeps us in.�
“Yes,� I admitted, “that is true, but for the present I don’t mind being kept in, so long as they are kept out.�
She looked at me quickly and confessed afterward that my words begot some quick suspicion which she admitted was unworthy of her and unwarranted by any act of mine, but I looked so placid that it soon passed from her mind. As a matter of fact, I had not appreciated the significance of my words. I should have been perfectly willing, I should be still, to pass the rest of my life alone on that island, or anywhere else with my lady only. She was company enough for me and although we have ruffled it bravely together since then, and have even borne our part with dignity at the King’s court, I am happiest when she is by my side and no one else is near. I was happy then. I had got her to myself; my little mistress must look to me for everything. The haughty queen of the quarter-deck was now the humble dependent of the lonely island.
I did not know what dangers lay before us, what perils encompassed us. I could not foresee how we were to escape from the Island of the Stairs, for so we had named it. Those thoughts did not trouble me much. I had brought her safely from a ship filled with mutineers, pirates, and murderers; I had landed her safely on the island despite circling reefs and raging seas; the future could take care of itself. Sufficient unto the day was the evil thereof—aye, and the good, too!
We trudged along the sand parallel to the course of the boat which was following the outward edge of the barrier reef seeking what I knew they would not find, an entrance to the lagoon and thence to the island. The lagoon narrowed in places, until, had it not been for the roar of the waves on the barrier reef, a hail could easily have carried. I am ashamed to say that I used insulting gestures on occasion, whereat some of them stood up in the boat and shook their fists in our direction.