Part 26 (1/2)

Ben crouched down low and scurried towards the cabin, confident that he and Winter could ransack the place unmolested, at least for the time being. He raced forward and then pulled up sharply as he collided with a heavy weight which was swinging in the air directly before him.

A cry of horror left him involuntarily as he realised the weight was a man's body, swinging from the yardarm. Worse than that, it was the body of Isaac Ashdown, his face bloated and black, his purple tongue protruding sickeningly from his open mouth. A viciously tight noose was wrapped around his broken neck.

So, Stanislaus had rumbled them, he thought, and tortured the truth out of the only decent man in his crew, just as O'Kane had said.

Filled with bitter anger, Ben ran towards the captain's cabin. A light was blazing within and Ben positioned himself as close to the little window as he dared.

Inside, he saw a sight that made his heavy heart sink further still. Winter stood behind the desk, her hands raised above her head, being covered with a pistol by G.o.dley.

Another man, all in black, whom Ben did not recognise, stood by the cabin wall, a thin smile on his skeletal features.

'Quite a prize!' G.o.dley was saying. 'Wait until the captain returns. It seems he had no need to board your s.h.i.+p. You were in too much of a hurry to come here!'

Winter scrutinised him closely. 'Mind your tongue, lad, lest you lose it.'

G.o.dley c.o.c.ked the pistol and levelled it coolly at Winter's face. 'You don't scare me, you she-ape. I've faced down far more dreadful apparitions than you.'

Again Winter looked at the young man and this time her weathered, powder-pocked face a.s.sumed a puzzled frown. 'Do I not know you, sir?'

G.o.dley smiled, almost, thought Ben, like some actor stopped for his autograph. But then the handsome fellow shook his rich curls. 'I think not, Captain. Unless you have seen me in your nightmares!'

Winter shook her ma.s.sive head. 'No. I think it would have been somewhere altogether more corporeal.'

G.o.dley seemed a little unnerved by her attention and glanced quickly at the other man. 'Where is that idiot Pole?'

he hissed. 'We must get him word that the Demeter Demeter's mistress is our prisoner.' The stranger nodded but made no move to help. 'Well?' thundered G.o.dley. 'Away, man! 'Sblood! Must I do everything myself?'

For the first time, the curious man spoke and Ben found himself physically recoiling, even with the window between them.

'I am not concerned with this pettiness. I have work elsewhere.' The voice was dry as dust and Dutch in accent.

Ben suddenly realised that this must be the man Stanislaus and G.o.dley had visited in Amsterdam.

G.o.dley raised his pistol as though to strike the man and Ben took his chance. He hurled himself through the window, which exploded inward, and landed flat on his face on a carpet of shattered gla.s.s.

Winter reacted at once, sliding her bulk over the desk and smas.h.i.+ng G.o.dley's wrist against the woodwork. Again and again she moved until the pistol fell from the young man's grip.

Ben jumped to his feet and stood there, breathing heavily as Winter pointed the weapon at G.o.dley and the Dutchman.

'Well, my boys, seems the boot's on the other foot, now, eh?' cackled Winter.

G.o.dley sighed. 'If you think you can get off this s.h.i.+p, peg leg, then you're a bigger fool than you look.' He smiled nastily. 'And you look pretty foolish.'

Winter's face darkened. 'I give you one minute to tell me who you be. Then I'll plaster these four walls with your brains.'

G.o.dley seemed entirely unfazed. 'My name is Robert G.o.dley. I have some business with the captain. If I realised how he supplemented his commissions I should certainly have gone elsewhere.'

Winter waved her hand. 'Never mind that. What is this package you were to bring back?'

A flicker of fear fluttered over G.o.dley's face. He licked his lips and couldn't help but glance at his companion.

Ben turned to him. 'Perhaps you know, Dutch? Eh?'

Winter grunted her agreement. 'Yes, surely this fellow knows. Did they not pick up the package from you?' Suddenly the captain's eyebrows lifted and a gleam of excitement came into her good eye. 'Or... or are you the package yourself?'

Ben looked at her. 'What?'

Suddenly there were shouts outside, and the sound of feet tramping closer.

'Stanislaus!' cried Ben. 'It must be Stanislaus coming back!'

Winter looked rapidly round the cabin. 'Well, well. No time for answers. This treachery ends here.'

She pointed the pistol towards a coil of rope which was swinging from the wall. 'Ben. Tie them up.'

Ben dashed to the wall and, within seconds, had secured G.o.dley and the Dutchman together by their wrists.

Winter hustled Ben to the door and then kicked G.o.dley in the small of the back, sending him and the strange Dutchman sprawling into the corner.

She bowed low and raised the pistol.

'Farewell, gentlemen,' she said with a flashy smile.

G.o.dley screwed up his face in expectation of the shot but instead Winter pulled a small, round object, which looked to Ben like a cricket ball, from her coat. It was like a hard leather sack and had a long, tapering cord trailing from it.

With a throaty laugh, she struck a flint and set light to the cord, which immediately began to burn.

Then she placed the bomb carefully on Stanislaus's desk and dashed out of the cabin.

Despite her clumsy gait, the captain moved quickly and she and Ben were soon on to the ropes and back aboard the Demeter Demeter, where, from a safe distance, they watched Stanislaus and a dozen of his men marching back towards the cabin.

The Demeter Demeter began to pull away and Winter stood on her deck in the pitch dark, waving her hat above her head. began to pull away and Winter stood on her deck in the pitch dark, waving her hat above her head.

'They've been beat!' she screeched. 'My brave lads have fought 'em off.'

Ben looked quickly around. He could see much devastation, but most of the crew seemed to be intact and had lined up alongside their captain, grinning and sweating with exertion, their swords hanging slackly at their sides.

'Now, Pole!' cried Winter. 'Let's see how you like that!'

There was a long pause and Ben wondered what the strange woman was going on about.