She pushed back her chair, and he turned, hearing the sound, and he was smiling at her, and she laughed at him in return, flushing guiltily, like a spoilt child.
"That is better, is it not?" he said.
"Yes," she answered, "how did you know?"
"Because the master of a ship makes it his business to know these things," he said, "and a cabin-boy must be broken in to piracy rather more gently than the rest of my crew.
And now to business."
He picked up the chart he had been studying and she saw that it was a plan of Fowey Haven, and he placed it before her on the table.
"The main anchorage is there, in deep water, opposite the town," he said, putting his finger on the plan, "and Rashleigh's vessel will be lying about here, where his vessels always lie, moored to a buoy at the entrance of this creek." There was a cross in red upon the plan to indicate the buoy. "I am leaving part of the crew on board La Mouette," he said, "and if you wish to, you know, you can stay here with them."
"No," she said, "a quarter of an hour ago I should have said yes, but not now, not any more."
"Are you certain about that?"
"I have never been more certain about anything in my life."
He looked down at her in the flickering candle-light, and she felt gay suddenly, and absurdly light-hearted, as though nothing mattered, nothing at all, and even if they were caught and brought to justice and both hanged from the tallest tree in Godolphin's park, it would be worth it, for first there would be this adventure they would have together.
"So Lady St. Columb has returned to her sick-bed?" he said.
"Yes," said Dona, and she looked away from him, down to the plan of Fowey Haven.
"You will remark," he said, "there is a fort at the entrance of the haven, which is manned, and there are two castles, one on either side of the channel, but these will not be guarded.
In spite of the dark night it would be unwise to attempt the passage by boat.
Although I have a fair knowledge of your Cornishman by now, and he is a great fellow for sleeping, I cannot guarantee that every man within the fort will have his eyes shut for my benefit.
So there is nothing for it but to go overland."
He paused, and fell to whistling under his breath, considering the plan as he did so.
"This is where we are lying," he said, pointing to a small bay a mile or so to.the eastward of the haven, "and I propose going ashore here, on this beach. There is a rough path up the cliffs, and then we strike in-shore and come to a creek - something similar to the creek we have left at Helford but possibly less enchanting - and at the entrance to the creek, in the face of the town of Fowey, we shall find Rashleigh's ship."
"You are very sure of yourself," she said.
"I could not be a pirate if I were not.
Can you climb cliffs?" he said.
"If you would lend me a pair of your breeches I could climb better," she said.
"That is what I thought," he told her, "there is a pair belonging to Pierre Blanc on the bunk there, he keeps them for Saints' days and confession, so they should be clean enough.
You can try them on directly. He can lend you a shirt too and stockings and shoes.
You will not need a jacket, the night is too warm."
"Shall I cut off my hair with a pair of scissors?" she said.
"You would look more like a cabin-boy perhaps, but I would rather risk capture than have you do it," he answered.
She said nothing for a moment, for he was looking at her, and then,
"When we reach the shores of the creek, how do we get to the ship?" she asked.
"We will get to the creek first and then I will tell you," he said.
He reached down for the plan, and folded it up, throwing it back in the locker, and she saw he was smiling to himself in his secret way. "How long will it take you to change your clothes?" he asked.
"Five minutes or longer," she said.
"I will leave you then.
Come up on deck when you are ready.
You will want something to tie up those ringlets."
He opened a locker drawer, and ruffling there a moment, drew out the crimson sash he had worn round his waist the night he had supped with her at Navron.
"Lady St. Columb becomes a highwayman and a mountebank for the second time in her life," he said, "but this time there won't be any old lady for you to frighten."
Then he went out of the cabin, shutting the door behind him.
When she joined him, some ten minutes later, he was standing by the ladder that had been thrown over the ship's side.
The first party had already gone ashore, while the rest were now assembled in the boat below.
She went towards him a little nervously, feeling small and rather lost in Pierre Blanc's breeches, while his shoes cut her heels, a secret she must keep to herself.
He ran his eye over her and then nodded briefly.
"You will do," he said, "but you would not pass in moonlight," and she laughed up at him, and climbed down into the boat with the rest of the men.
Pierre Blanc himself was crouching in the bows of the boat like a monkey, and when he saw her he closed one eye, and put one hand over his heart.
There was a ripple of laughter in the boat, and one and all they smiled at her with a mingled admiration and familiarity that could not offend, and she smiled back at them, leaning back in the stern athwart and clasping her knees with a lovely freedom, no longer hampered by petticoats and ribbons.
The captain of La Mouette descended last, and he took his seat beside her, holding the tiller, and the men bent to their oars and the boat sped across the little bay to the shingle beach beyond.
Dona trailed her hand a moment in the water, which was warm, with a velvet softness about it, the phosphorescence gleaming like a shower of stars, and she thought, smiling to herself in the darkness, that at last she was playing the part of a boy, which as a child she had so often longed to be, watching her brothers ride off with her father, and she gazing after them with resentful eyes, a doll thrown aside on the floor in disgust.
The bows of the boat touched the shingle, and the first group of men, waiting there on the beach, laid their hands on either side of the gunwale and pulled the boat out of the wash.
They had disturbed the gulls again, and two or three pairs rose with a wailing cry, and a flapping of wings.