Meanwhile the bo'sun signalled to the Jamaica ships to send a boat,
and the men in the waist broke their ranks and went noisily flocking
to line the bulwarks and view the great stately vessels that were
racing down towards them.
As Ogle left the quarter-deck, Blood turned, and came face to face
with Miss Bishop. She had been observing him with shining eyes, but
at sight of his dejected countenance, and the deep frown that scarred
his brow, her own expression changed. She approached him with a
hesitation entirely unusual to her. She set a hand lightly upon
his arm.
"You have chosen wisely, sir," she commended him, "however much
against your inclinations."
He looked with gloomy eyes upon her for whom he had made this
sacrifice.
"I owed it to you - or thought I did," he said.
She did not understand. "Your resolve delivered me from a horrible
danger," she admitted. And she shivered at the memory of it. "But
I do not understand why you should have hesitated when first it was
proposed to you. It is an honourable service.
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