When he came to the part where Petit fought with Dan and George on the island, Nora turned red and pale, and had to go out of the room for a while, which fact Tom duly noticed.
It was late that night when the adventurers retired.
Tom sat on the bed unlacing his boots.
“That girl!” he remarked to Dave, solemnly, “ought to be the queen of a pirate island. She’s too good an’ too pretty not to be.”
“She give me a pound note,” said Dave. “I reckon when we go piratin’ again an’ capture a treasure-ship we ought to stand to her.”
“Stand to her!” exclaimed Tom. “My word we will! If ever that girl gets carried off by another pirate an’ marooned on a desert island, because she won’t become his wife, let her send for me!”
“An’ me!” said Dave.
“For both of us. But I ain’t goin’ to wait for that!”
“How?”
Tom slowly drew off his sock. They had both been rigged out with new clothes by an admiring population.