Joshua beamed upon her. "You speak sooth, señora. Bold! Ay, a very panther. We laugh at fear. That's for lesser men. I shall uncord these bundles, gracious lady, so it please you." "What is he? What is his birth?" Dominica asked. "Is he base or noble?" Joshua bent a frown of some dignity upon her. "Would I serve one who was of base birth, señora? No! We are very nobly born. The knighthood was not needed to mark our degree. An honour granted upon our return from Drake's voyage round the world. I allow it to have been due, but we needed it not. Sir Nicholas stands heir to a barony, no less!" "So!" said Dominica with interest. "Ay, and indeed. He is own brother to Lord Beauvallet. A solid man, señora, lacking our wits, maybe, but a comfortable wise lord. He looks askance at all this trafficking upon the high seas." Joshua forgot for a moment his rôle of admiring and faithful servant. "Well he may! Rolling up and down the world, never at rest--it is not fit! We are no longer boys to delight in hare-brained schemes and chancy ventures. But what would you? A madness is in us; we must always be up and about, nosing out danger." He rolled up the cords he had untied. "I leave you, señora, Ha! we cast off!" He hopped to the porthole, and peered out. "In good time: that hulk is done. I go now to see the noble señor safely housed. By your leave, señora!" "Where is my father?" Dominica asked. "Hard by, señora. You may rap on this bulkhead, and he will hear. Mistress----" he looked austerely at Maria--"see to the noble lady!" "Impudence!" Maria cried. But the door had shut behind Joshua Dimmock. "An oddity," said Dominica. "Well--like master, like man." She went to the port, and stood on tiptoe to look out. The waves were hissing round the sides of the _Venture_. "I cannot see our ship. That man said she was done." She came away from the port. "And so here we are, upon an English ship, and in an enemy's power. What shall come of it, I wonder?" She did not seem to be disturbed. "Let them dare to touch you!" Maria said, arms akimbo. "I am not locked in my cabin twice, señorita!" She abandoned the fierce attitude, and began to unpack my lady's baggage. She shook out a gown of stiff crimson brocade, and sighed over it. "Alas, the broidered taffety that I had in my mind for you to wear this night!" she lamented. Dominica smiled secretly. "I will wear it," she said. Maria stared. "Your finest gown to be wasted on a party of English pirates! Now if it were Don Juan----" Dominica was impatient suddenly. "Don Juan! A fool! A beaten braggart! He strutted, and swore he would sink this ship to the bottom of the sea, and take the great Beauvallet a prisoner to Spain! I hate a man to be beaten! Lay out the gown, girl. I will wear it, and the rubies too." "Never say so, señorita!" cried Maria in genuine horror. "I have your jewels safe hid in my bosom. They would tear them from your neck!"