“I am in ignorance of your intentions still, but I am willing to believe that you are bent upon no desperate or unjust enterprise.”
“Desperate it may prove,” she said proudly, “but unjust it is not. No, no, believe me, sir, if there is any cause which would claim the sympathy of a brave man it is this upon which I am set.”
She rested her fingers on his arm, and looked at him earnestly with eyes dewed with unshed tears.
What emotion could it be, he thought, so powerful as to move one by nature so proud and self-reliant? He felt that further suspicion on his part would be contemptible.
“I am no seaman, madam,” he said, “but I may be of some service.”
“Mr Webster, will you tell Mr Hume in what way he may best assist us?”
“Ay, ay, madam.”
“Then I leave the ship in your hands, gentlemen, until Captain Pardoe has rested.” She bowed her head and left the bridge.
“So, after all, you’ve taken up arms against your lawful sovereign, and all for the smile of a woman, with not so much to show as the Queen’s shilling. Shake, my son!”
“Don’t talk rot, and tell me what I’m to do.”