Part 18 (1/2)

Tyrrell glanced at Keen and said, 'Don't like me much, that one.' He sounded worried, less confident.

Bolitho asked, 'Are you still certain, Jethro?'

'She could have gone elsewhere.' He pounded his fist on the rail. 'But several friends told me she'd been usin' one of the inlets as a restin' place. She's nothin' to fear from the Dons. They know know what she's about, I'm certain of that too.' what she's about, I'm certain of that too.'

Bolitho looked at him thoughtfully. 'We're inside their waters now. I've no authority even to be here unless that d.a.m.ned s.h.i.+p is sheltering behind the Spanish flag.'

Keen returned, his face expressionless. 'We shall have to change tack again shortly, sir.' He purposely ignored Tyrrell. 'After that it will be a hard beat up to the Mona Pa.s.sage. The wind is poor enough, but it seems intent on holding us back.'

Even as he spoke the fore-topsail flapped and banged against the shrouds and men scurried to the braces to retrim the yards yet again.

Tyrrell said suddenly, 'I know of a place. Give me a boat.' He was speaking quickly as if to stifle his own arguments against his suggestion. 'You don't believe me. I'm not even sure myself.'

They looked up as a lookout yelled, 'Deck there! Sail to the nor'-west!'

Keen murmured, 'b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l! It'll be a patrol boat out of Santo Domingo!'

Tyrrell regarded him bleakly. 'They'll have been watchin' your fine s.h.i.+p for days, Captain, I'll wager a bounty on it!'

Keen looked away and retorted, 'You'd know about bounties right enough!'

Bolitho said sharply, 'Enough.'

He looked up at the masthead. A fine, clear day, the lookout would see better than anyone.

He cupped his hands and shouted, 'What s.h.i.+p?'

Bolitho was aware that several of the seamen nearby had stopped work to stare. An admiral, even a junior one, shouting? It must seem like heresy.

The lookout shouted down, 'Frigate, sir, by the cut of her!'

Bolitho nodded. A frigate. Keen was probably right. There was not much time. Two hours at the most.

He said, 'Heave to, if you please, and lower a cutter. Lieutenant in charge, and have the boat armed.'

Voices yelled around him and feet pounded across the sun-dried planking as Achates Achates came reluctantly into the wind even as the boat was hoisted jerkily above the starboard gangway. came reluctantly into the wind even as the boat was hoisted jerkily above the starboard gangway.

Knocker hovered at Keen's elbow and muttered, 'The inlet is a mere scratch, sir. Never get a s.h.i.+p in there!'

Tyrrell replied heavily, 'Your chart says that. I say different!'

Bolitho watched Scott, the third lieutenant, hastily buckling on his hanger while the wardroom servant followed him with his pistol and c.o.c.ked hat. From fretting torpor to urgent activity, how often Bolitho had known and shared that.

'Cutter alongside, sir!'

There was a thud as a swivel-gun was mounted in the boat's bows, and two seamen began to ram a charge down its muzzle.

Bolitho said quietly, 'Did you always know about this inlet, Jethro? These past two weeks and before, you knew this was the place? Yet in a moment or two we would have changed tack and the opportunity would have been lost.'

Tyrrell said, 'You wanted that s.h.i.+p. I kept a bargain.'

Then he was gone, swinging his wooden leg in great strides as he made for the entry port.

Bolitho knew the truth at that moment, but something made him hurry to the nettings and call, 'Take care, Jethro! And good luck!'

Tyrrell paused, his big hands grasping the lines of the stairs down the tumblehome as he stared aft at the quarterdeck, his eyes watering in the sunlight. For just a few moments the years fell away and they were back in Sparrow. Sparrow. Then Tyrrell swung himself out and down into the cutter, his wooden stump jutting out like a tusk. Then Tyrrell swung himself out and down into the cutter, his wooden stump jutting out like a tusk.

Keen murmured, 'I wonder.'

The cutter pulled quickly away from the side, the oars rising and dipping to a fast stroke, her c.o.xswain standing upright behind the lieutenant as he headed for the sh.o.r.e.

Bolitho bit his lip. 'I trusted him. Perhaps it was too strong for him in the end.”

Keen shook his head. 'I don't understand, sir.'

Bolitho watched the boat swinging round in a tight arc as Tyrrell's arm pointed to larboard in a new direction. He could see the swirl of an insh.o.r.e current, the way the trees and thick scrub ran down to the water's edge. It was hard to believe that the inlet was other than the chart had described.

There was a far-off bang and then the lookout called, 'Frigate's fired a shot, sir!'

Knocker remarked dourly, 'Couldn't hit Gibraltar from there!'

Bolitho glanced at Keen. Was it a warning to Achates Achates to quit Spanish waters or a signal to someone else? to quit Spanish waters or a signal to someone else?

He said, 'I suggest you beat to quarters. Clear for action without delay.' He turned to watch the cutter's progress. 'We'll not be caught a second time.'

Around him men stood stiffly like crude statues, unable to believe what they had heard.

Then, as the drums rattled and voices barked hoa.r.s.ely between decks, the truth became clear to everyone.

Keen folded his arms and looked down the length of his command. Men hurried along either gangway, tamping down the tightly packed hammocks in the nettings, while s.h.i.+p's boys dashed among the guns and spread sand which might prevent a man from slipping if the blood started to flow. Big Harry Rooke, the boatswain, was yelling at some of his own party as they scrambled along the yards to rig chain-slings to prevent the spars from falling on the men below. Others tore down screens between decks to transform the great s.p.a.ce from small, individual messes and cabins into one open battery from bow to stern.

Quantock looked up from the gun-deck and touched his hat.

'Cleared for action, sir!' He had learned Keen's ways by now. Just as Keen had once learned them under Bolitho's command. 'Nine minutes, sir!'

Keen nodded. 'That was well done, Mr Quantock.'

But there was nothing between them, and neither smiled because of the small compliment.

Bolitho raised a telescope and watched the distant cutter. What Lieutenant Scott and the others must be thinking he could only guess. The roll of drums as Achates Achates beat to quarters, the bang of a cannon, and all the time they were pulling further and further from their s.h.i.+p, their home. beat to quarters, the bang of a cannon, and all the time they were pulling further and further from their s.h.i.+p, their home.

He heard Allday give a discreet cough and saw him holding out his coat for him while Ozzard fussed around behind with his sword. Adam was here too, clear-eyed and looking incredibly young and anxious.

'Orders, sir?'

Bolitho allowed Allday to clip on the old sword and was saddened by Adam's formality.

He said, 'I am sorry, Adam. I should have known. You have every right to be proud. In your place I would have felt the same.'

The youthful lieutenant took half a pace towards him. 'I would cut off a hand rather than hurt you, sir. It was just that ...”