“But you are risking your liberty, perhaps your life!”
“I’ve been risking that for more than twenty 168 years. The habit has become normal. All my life I’ve wanted a real adventure.”
She gazed at him in utter astonishment.
“An adventure? Why, you yourself told me that you had risked your life a hundred times!”
“That?”—with a smile and a shrug. “That was business, the day’s work. I mean an adventure in which I am accountable to no man.”
“Only to God?”
“Well, of course, if you want it that way. For myself, I’m something of a pagan. I have dreamed of this day. When you were a little girl didn’t you dream of a wonderful doll that could walk and make almost human noises? Well, I’m realizing my doll. I am going pearl hunting in the South Seas—the thing I dreamed of when I was a boy.”
“But why commit piracy? Why didn’t you hire a steamer?”
“Oh, I must have my joke, too. But I hadn’t counted on you. In every campaign there is the hollow road of Ohain. Napoleon lost Waterloo because of it. Your presence here has forced me to use a hand without velvet. These men expected a little fun—cards and drink; and some of them are grumbling with discontent. But don’t worry. In five days we’ll be off on our own.”