My lord would have had me bound hand and foot; but you were raving for water, and, taking you for a dying man, they were so humane as to leave my hands free to attend you.”

“My lord would have had you bound,” I said slowly. “Then it’s my lord’s day.”

“High noon and blazing sunshine,” he answered, with a rueful laugh. “It seems that half the folk on board had gaped at him at court. Lord! when he put his foot over the side of the ship, how the women screeched and the men stared! He ‘s cock of the walk now, my Lord Carnal, the King’s favorite!”

“And we are pirates.”

“That ‘s the case in a nutshell,” he answered cheerfully.