"At last!" says I.
"Anan, pal?" he questioned, but looking where I looked. "Aye," he nodded, "'tis my Lady Brandon, and mighty despondent by her looks as I told ye, Mart'n." All unconscious of me she crossed the deck slow-footed and coming to the lee bulwark, paused there, her lovely head down-bent upon her hands.
Now watching her as she stood thus, my eager gaze dwelling on every line of the beloved shape, I was filled with such overmastering emotion, an ecstasy so keen, that I fell a-trembling and my eyes filled with sudden, blinding tears; and bowing my face on my hand, I sat thus a while until I had composed myself. Then I arose and made my way towards her on stumbling feet.
Suddenly she turned and espying me, started and fell a-trembling, even as I.
"Martin," said she below her breath. "Oh, Martin!"
"Damaris!" I muttered. "Beloved--!"
Now at this she gave a little gasp and turned to gaze away across the placid waters, and I saw her slender hands clasp and wring each other.
"Have you no word of greeting for me?"
"I rejoice to--to see you well again, Martin!"
"Have you no word of--love for me, after all these years, Damaris?" At this she shrank away and, leaning 'gainst the bulwark, shook her head, and again I saw that hopeless gesture of her quivering hands.
"Is your love for me dead, then?" I questioned, coming a pace nearer.
"Ah, never that, Martin!" she whispered. "Only I have--buried it deep--within my heart--where it shall lie for ever hid for thy sake and her sake and--and that--which is to be--this poor Joanna hath told me--"
Now hereupon I laughed and caught her hands and kissed them and they, the pretty things, trembling 'neath my kisses.
"God love thee for sweet and noble woman, my Damaris," said I, sinking to my knees before her, "and now, thus kneeling in the sight of God and thee, hear me swear that hateful thing of which you speak never was and never shall be!" Here I clasped my arms about her, felt her yield and sway to my embrace, saw a dawning glory in her eyes.
"Martin," said she, quick-breathing, "if this be so indeed--"
"Indeed and indeed, Joanna spake a shameful lie--a woman prone to every evil, being a murderess and--"
"A murderess, Martin?"
"Aye, by her own confession, and I do know her for a pirate beside, more desperate and resolute than any, known to every rogue along the Main as Captain Jo."
Now here my lady stirred in my embrace and looked down on me with troubled gaze.