"Yes, my dearest, but not by ships, as I have all along told you. A chance will offer, and be you sure, Imogene, it will find me ready. Wondrous is God's ordering! Think, my dear, that in the very Curse that rests upon this ship has lain our salvation! Suppose this vessel any other craft and boarded by those villains, negroes of the Antilles, and white ruffians red-handed from the Spanish Main--'tis likely they were so and are cruising here for the rich traders--by this time where would my soul be? and _you_--ay, there is a virtue in this Curse! It is a monstrous thought--but, indeed, I could take Vanderdecken by the hand for the impiety that has carried you clear of a destiny as awful in its way as the doom these unhappy wretches are immortally facing." She shuddered and wept a little, and looked at me with eyes the brighter for those tears which I dared not kiss away in that public cabin. CHAPTER IV. MY LIFE IS AGAIN ATTEMPTED. Vanderdecken and the mate came below soon after this, and Prins set a bowl of punch before them. The captain seated himself in his solemn way, and the mate took Imogene's place--that is, over against my seat--she being at my side. They filled their pipes and smoked in a silence that, saving Vanderdecken's asking me to drink, would, I believe, have remained unbroken but for Imogene. She said: "Captain, there is no fear, I hope, of those pirates attempting to board us again in the darkness?" "Did Herr Fenton tell you they were pirates?" he replied, with the unsmiling softness of expression he was used to look upon her with. "Surely they were pirates?" she cried. "Be it so, my child," said he, "what doth it signify? They are gone; I do not fear they will return." Being extremely curious to know what sense he had of this strange adventure, I exclaimed, "It is very surprising, mynheer, that a score of ruffians, armed to the teeth, should fling themselves into this ship for no other purpose, seemingly, than to leap out of her again." "They imagined us English, Herr Fenton," said Van Vogelaar, with a snarl in his voice and a sneer on his lip. I did not instantly catch the drift of his sarcasm. "Doth any man suppose," said Vanderdecken, rearing his great figure and proudly surveying me, "that the guns of our admirals have thundered in vain? You seek an interpretation of the Frenchman's behaviour? Surely by this time all Englishmen should understand the greatness of the terror our flag everywhere strikes! Twice you have witnessed this--in the hasty retreat of your man-of-war, and this night in the conduct of the French schooner. Tell me," he cried, with new fires leaping into his eyes, "how I am to resolve the panic-terror of the boarding party, if I am not to believe that until they were on our decks, had looked round them and beheld our men, they knew not for certain the nation to which the Braave belonged?" I bowed very gravely as I acquiesced.