I did some quick thinking. If there was a woman pirate it was her ship that Deverell commanded, I was sure. If I accepted his invitation I might go the way of other men whom, if the reports I had heard were to be trusted, she had picked up, and who never returned. Whether she was a “Devil” or whether it was her ship from which the invitation came I could not ask without showing some apprehension that would be impolite. Besides, I had previously been requested by Deverell to ask him no questions about himself or his ship and I inferred that this inhibition was still in force; if he had wanted me to know more than he had indicated he would have volunteered the information. It was an uncanny proceeding, yet the very mystery of it attracted me as a magnet does steel. Furthermore, here was a brand new adventure, right within my grasp, and if it was to end my career then it was because my time had come, and that was all there was to it.
With my thoughts running in that channel a decision was quickly reached and I told Deverell I would be glad to go with him. I packed my bag and turned it over to a man whom Deverell summoned from the street. Ah Fen was instructed to watch for the “Surprise,” rejoin the “Leckwith,” and report to Norton what he had told me, and tell him to have me picked up at Hong Kong in a month or six weeks. Late in the evening we went to the Bund where a boat that was waiting at an out-of-the-way landing up near the native quarter took us out to the ship, which was lying fully six miles offshore, well beyond the usual anchorage. It was the same ship I had seen several times before but her rig had been so altered, by taking the rake out of her stack and shortening her spars, and by changing her upper works, that I could not have recognized her if I had seen her under any other conditions. Her sides were discolored and dirty, due to the skilful use of paint, and she looked like an old tramp. But on board of her were all the comforts and conveniences of a yacht, with the discipline of a warship. She was about the size of the “Leckwith,” registering probably five hundred tons net, and with the removal of her dummy superstructure which concealed six carronades, her deck was clear, except for the wheelhouse and the captain’s room behind it. The gun deck below was devoted entirely to living quarters arranged with an eye to comfort. Those for the crew ran back to amidships, for she carried all of a hundred men. Abaft of them were the officers’ quarters and in the stern, cut off from the rest of the ship, were the rooms of the real commander, which were large and sumptuously furnished.
As soon as we were on board it was “Up anchor and full speed to sea.” Appropriately enough, I was given the cabin of the surgeon, who had died recently, to which fact I owed my presence on the ship. Deverell took me into his room and we talked until midnight. Soon after we got under way he satisfied my silent impatience by throwing open a panel and exposing a life-size painting of the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
“Is that the Beautiful White Devil?” I asked, unable longer to restrain the questions that were choking me.
“That is our Queen,” he replied gravely, “and it is by that name alone that she is known to us and spoken of on this ship.”
“She certainly is entitled to the first part of the name by which she is known ashore, whether or not she deserves the last section of it,” I said, with open admiration.
His answer left no doubt as to whose ship I was on. “That picture may do partial justice to her face but it is impossible that it could portray the beauty of her heart. Instead of being cold-blooded and bloodthirsty, as you seem to have heard, she is tender and sympathetic and she has devoted a great part of her money to the relief of suffering humanity. She deprecates killing even villainous Malays and Chinks, but she will not be defeated, cost what it will. Never since I joined the ship have I seen a wanton act of cruelty.”
“What is her life, and what is the motive of it?” I asked.
“She will have to tell you that herself, but before you see her I want to warn you. Every man who sees the Queen falls in love with her, and if you think you are going to be like the rest you had better go over the side right now.”
“How is one to keep from falling in love with her?” I inquired, with some anxiety, still lost in admiration of the lovely face on the canvas.