It was.
Captain Beven had done his part well.
The second officer of the blockade runner appeared on the quarter deck with his usual bluff announcement.
"Gentlemen all, the captain has a visitor who desires to make your acquaintance in the cabin. He has brought over a basket of champagne with which to drink in memory of old days when he trod this deck in the duties that I now perform. Gentlemen all, will you be pleased to accompany me?"
Would they—Roderic could not but chuckle at the eager haste with which they bounded from their chairs, and apologizing to the lady for this necessity that tore them from her charming company, came down the ladder one after the other, to solemnly march toward the cabin.
The game had worked.
Roderic now had the coast clear and it would be his own fault if he failed to improve the golden opportunity a happy fortune had placed before him.