"Yes?" whispered Miss Raven.
I remembered then that if need arose she was to do unquestioningly anything I told her to do.
"Dress at once and come out," I said. "Be quick!"
"I've never been undressed," she answered. "I lay down in my clothes."
"Then come, just now," I commanded. "Wait for nothing!"
She was out of the room at once and by my side in the gloom. I laid a hand on her arm, giving its plump softness a reassuring pressure.
"Don't be afraid!" I whispered. "Follow me on deck. We're going."
"Going!" she said. "Leaving?"
"Come along!" said I.
I went before her up the stairway and out on the open deck. The night was particularly clear; the stars very bright; the patch of water between the yawl and the shore lay before us calm and dark; we could see the woods above the cove quite plainly, and at the edge of them a ribbon of white, the silver-sanded beach. And also, at the forward part of the vessel we were leaving I saw, or fancied I saw, shadowy forms—the Chinese were going to see us off.