I knew about where to find the “Florence.” We picked her up in a few days and I boarded her and made sail to meet the “Leckwith” at the rendezvous. Kate went on to Singapore, where she took the next ship for England. Six months later I received word that she had died suddenly there, before she had applied for a pardon, and the course of my life was changed again. CHAPTER IX A DEATH DUEL WITH A PIRATE KING When I rejoined the “Leckwith,” after having started the Beautiful White Devil, who was a devil no longer but the one woman in the world for me, on her way to England to secure a pardon for her piracies which would open the way to our marriage, Frank Norton was very inquisitive as to where I had been and the reason for my sudden disappearance from Hong Kong. He had of course heard from Ah Fen of the woman pirate, who was mistakenly blamed by the real pirates for some of our raids on them, while we were held responsible for some of hers, and I could see that his keen mind had conceived the suspicion that it was her ship whose commander I had attended, in my capacity as a surgeon, after our joint fight with the Malays on the deck of the British bark, and that she was at the bottom of my absence, but I declined to discuss the matter at all or give him any information on the subject. I told him simply that I had been away on strictly private business. With even my most intimate friends I am naturally secretive regarding my purely personal affairs, and the “Beautiful White Angel,” as I now knew her to be, had become so sacred in my enraptured vision that I did not wish to talk about her with any one, and least of all with the cynical Norton. I knew he would base his estimate of her on her altogether undeserved reputation among people who had never seen her, and that he would say something which would make me want to kill him. There really was no need for that sort of a finale to our semi-partnership, so I remained silent. Norton was annoyed by my refusal to take him into my confidence and went away in a huff, but he was astounded, a day or two later, when I told him I had decided to sell the “Florence” and “Surprise,” divide up the profits with him, and quit the business we were in. “What is the matter?” he asked in amazement. “Have you lost your mind?” “On the contrary,” I replied, “I have only just come into my right mind.” “But look at the money we are making,” he protested. “Is there any other place where you can make as much money so easily?” “There is nobody who gets more satisfaction out of money than I do,” I said, “but after all it isn’t the only thing in the world. I came out here for the adventure more than for the money.” “Well, isn’t the supply of adventure equal to the demand?” he asked with a tinge of sarcasm.