Command a King's Ship (12 page)

Just over a year back he had been an enemy. One Bolitho would have killed in battle had he not called for quarter. He smiled to himself. Or the other way round. He was a powerful man, that was certain, and much of his counsel he kept to himself. But Bolitho trusted him. The ship's company, for the most part, had also accepted him as their own. Like Allday, who had long given up trying to pronounce his name, they called him
Mister Pigsliver.
But they said it with something near to affection.

Puigserver regarded him with quiet amusement.

“My dear
Capitan,
he is like a watchdog. He fears for his wife, what
she
will do, rather than what others will do to her!” He chuck- led, the sound rising from his belly. “She, I think, is beginning to enjoy the game, knowing that every man aboard sees her in a dif- ferent eye. She stands proudly, a tigress in our midst.”

“You seem to know a great deal about her,
Señor.
”

The smile broadened. “You know your ships,
Capitan.
Unlike me, I fear you still have much to learn about women, eh?”

Bolitho made to protest and then changed his mind. The memory was still too painful to leave room for a denial.

6
A
TTACK
OVERLAND

“W
ELL
, T
HOMAS
, what d'you make of it at close quarters?” Bolitho's voice was hushed, as with the others around him he stared towards the shore.

They had made a careful approach since dawn, seeing the land gaining shape and substance, and then as the sun had found them again, they had watched the colour, the endless panorama of green.

With two experienced leadsmen in the chains, and under minimum canvas,
Undine
had felt her way towards the land. It had looked like an untouched world with jungle so thick it seemed impossible for anything to move freely away from the sea.

Herrick replied quietly, “The master seems satisfied, sir.” He trained his telescope over the hammock nettings. “As he described it. A round headland to the north. And that strange-looking hill about a mile inland.”

Bolitho stepped on to a bollard and peered down over the nettings.
Undine
had finally dropped anchor some four cables off- shore to give her sea-room and a safe depth at all times. Nevertheless, it looked very shallow, and he could even see the great shadow of
Undine
's coppered hull on the bottom. Pale sand. Like that on the various small, crescent-shaped beaches they had seen on their cautious approach.

Long trailers of strange weed, writhing to the current far be- low the ship as if in a tired sort of dance. But to larboard, as the ship swung to her cable he saw other shapes, browns and greens, like stains in the water. Reefs. Mudge was right to be so careful. Not that anyone would need reminding after
Nervion
's fate.

Alongside, the first boats had already been swayed out, and Shellabeer, the boatswain, was gesticulating with his fists at some Spanish seamen who were baling one of them. It would do the frail hulls good to be afloat again, Bolitho thought.

He said absently, “I shall go with the boats, and you will keep a good watch in case of trouble.”

He could almost feel Herrick's unspoken protest, but added, “If anything goes wrong ashore it might help some of our people if they see I'm sharing it with them.” He turned and clapped Herrick's shoulder. “Besides which, I feel like stretching my legs. It is my prerogative.”

On the gun deck Davy was striding back and forth inspecting the men mustered for the boats, checking weapons and the tackle for hoisting and lowering water casks when the work was begun.

Overhead the sky was very pale, as if the sun had boiled the colour from it and had spread it instead across the glittering stretch of sea between ship and shore.

Bolitho marvelled at the stillness. Just an occasional necklace of white surf along the nearest beach and at the foot of the headland. It was as if it was holding its breath, and he could imagine a thou- sand eyes watching the anchored frigate from amongst the trees.

There were loud thumps as the swivel guns were lowered into the bows of launch and cutter, and more shouted orders while the bell-mouthed musketoons found their proper mountings in gig and pinnace. The jolly boat was to remain with the ship. It was too small for the great casks, and might be needed in an emergency.

He rubbed his chin and stared at the land. Emergency. It ap- peared safe enough. All the way along the coast, as they had slipped past one bay or inlet after another, and all of which had seemed identical to everyone but Mudge, he had waited for some sign, a hint of danger. But not a boat drawn up on the sand, not a wisp of smoke from a fire, not even a bird had broken the stillness.

“Boats ready, sir!” Shellabeer tilted his swarthy face in the glare.

Bolitho walked to the rail and looked down at the gun deck. The seamen seemed altered yet again. Perhaps because of their cutlasses, the way they glanced at each other, their torment of thirst momentarily put aside. Most of them were very different, from the men who had first joined the ship. Their bared backs were well browned, with only an occasional scar of sunburn to mark the foolish or the unwary.

He called, “Over yonder is Africa, lads.” He felt the rustle of excitement expanding like a wind over corn. “You'll be seeing many more places before we are homeward bound again. Do as you are bid, stay with your parties, and no harm should come to you.” He hardened his tone. “But it is a dangerous country, and the natives hereabouts have had little cause to like or trust the foreign sailorman. So keep a good watch, and work well with the casks.” He nodded. “Man your boats.”

Mudge joined him at the gangway as the first men swung their way down the side.

“I should be a'goin' with you, sir. I've told me best master's mate, Fowlar, what to look for, an' 'e's a good man, that 'e be.”

Bolitho lifted his arms as Allday buckled on his sword.

“Then what troubles you, Mr. Mudge?”

Mudge scowled. “Time was when I could swim 'alf a mile an' then march another with a full load on me back!”

Herrick, grinned. “And still have the wind to bed a fine wench, I'll be bound!”

Mudge glared at him. “Your time'll come, Mr. 'Errick. It ain't no pleasure, gettin' old!”

Bolitho smiled. “Your value is here.”

To Herrick he said, “Rig boarding nets during our stay. With only an anchor watch and the marines at your back, you might be in bother if someone tries to surprise you.” He touched his arm. “I know. I am over-cautious. I can read your face like a chart. But better so than dead.” He glanced at the shore. “Especially here.”

He walked to the entry port. “The boats will return two by two. Send the rest of the men as soon as you can. They'll tire easily enough in this heat.”

He saw Puigserver wave to him from the gangway, and Raymond watching from right aft by his wife's little canopy. He touched his hat to the side party and climbed quickly down into the gig where Allday waited by the tiller.

“Shove off!”

One by one the boats idled clear of the frigate's shadow, and then with oars moving in unison turned towards the land. Bolitho remained standing to examine his little flotilla.

Lieutenant Soames with the launch,
Undine
's largest boat, every inch of space filled with men and casks, while in the bows a gun captain crouched over the loaded swivel like some kind of fig- urehead. Then the cutter, also deeply laden, with Davy in control, his figure very slim against that of Mr. Pryke,
Undine
's portly car- penter. As was proper, Pryke was going ashore in the hopes of finding timber suitable for small repairs about the ship.

Midshipman Keen, accompanied by little Penn, had the pin- nace, and Bolitho could see them bobbing about with obvious excitement as they pulled steadily across the water.

Bolitho glanced astern at his ship, seeing the figures on her deck already small and impersonal. Someone was in the cabin, and he guessed it was Mrs. Raymond, watching the boats, avoiding her husband, probably neither.

Then he looked down at the men in the gig, at the weapons between their straddled legs, at the way they avoided his scrutiny. Right forward he saw a man moving the musketoon from side to side to free the mount from caked salt, and realised it was Turpin, the one who had tried so desperately to deceive Davy at Spithead. He saw Bolitho watching him and held up his arm. In place of his hand he had a hook of bright steel. He called, “The gunner had it fixed up for me, sir!” He was grinning. “Better'n the real thing!”

Bolitho smiled at him. He at least seemed in good spirits.

He watched the slow moving hulls. About eighty officers and men with more to follow when he could spare the boats. He sat down and shaded his eyes with his hat. As he did so he touched the scar above his eye, remembering that other watering party he had been with so long ago. The sudden charge, screams all about him, that great towering savage brandishing a cutlass he had just seized from a dying sailor. He had seen it only for a second, and then fallen senseless, his face a mask of blood. It had been a close-run thing. But for his coxswain, it would have been the end.

Herrick probably resented his landing with this watering party. It was work normally given to a lieutenant. But that memory, like the scar, was a constant reminder of what could go wrong without any sort of warning.

“Cable to go, Captain!” Allday eased the tiller bar slightly.

Bolitho started. He must have been dreaming.
Undine
looked far away now. A graceful toy. While right across the bows and reaching out on either hand like huge green arms, was the land.

Once again Mudge's memory proved to be sure and reliable. Within two hours of beaching the boats and sorting the hands into working parties, the master's mate, Fowlar, reported finding a little stream, and that the water was the freshest thing he had tasted for years.

The work was begun immediately. Armed pickets were placed at carefully chosen vantage points, and lookouts sent to the top of the small hill, below which Mudge's stream gurgled away into the dense jungle. After the first uncertainty of stepping on to dry land, with all the usual unsteadiness to their sea-legs, the sailors soon settled down to the task. Pryke, the carpenter, and his mates quickly assembled some heavy sledges upon which the filled casks would be hauled down to the boats, and while the cooper stood watchfully at the stream the other men were busy with axes, clear- ing a path through the trees under Fowlar's personal supervision.

With Midshipman Penn trotting at his heels to act as messen- ger, Bolitho retained contact between beach and stream, making several journeys to ensure the operation was working smoothly. Lieutenant Soames was in charge of the beach, and of allocating more men to the work as they were ferried ashore. Davy had the inland part, while Keen was usually to be seen with some armed men at his back trudging around the labouring sailors to make sure there were no unwelcome visitors.

Fowlar had discovered two native fireplaces almost immedi- ately. But they were decayed and scattered, and it seemed unlikely that anyone had been near them for months. Nevertheless, as he paused to watch over the progress of each party, Bolitho was con- scious of a feeling of menace. Of hostility, which was hard to define.

On his way inland to the stream yet again he had to stand aside as a heavy sledge, hauled by some two dozen blaspheming seamen, careered past him, shaking the undergrowth, and making several, great red birds flap between the trees, squawking discordantly. Bolitho watched the birds and then stepped back on to the crude trail. It was good to know something was alive here, he thought. Beneath the trees, where the sky was hidden from view, the air was heavy, and stank of rotting vegetation. Here and there, something clicked and rustled, or a small beady eye glittered momentarily in filtered sunlight before vanishing just as swiftly.

Penn gasped, “Might be
snakes,
sir!” He was panting hard, his shirt plastered to his body from his exertions to keep up.

Bolitho found Davy beneath a wall of overhanging rock, mark- ing his list as yet another cask was sealed by Duff for the bumpy ride to the beach.

The second lieutenant straightened his back and observed, “Going well, sir.”

“Good.” Bolitho stooped and cupped his hands into the stream. It was like wine, despite the rotten looking roots which sprouted from either bank. “We will finish before dark.”

He looked up at a patch of blue sky as the trees gave a stealthy rustle. It was unmoving air below the matted branches, but above and to seaward the wind was holding well.

“I am going up the hill, Mr. Davy.” He thought he heard Penn sigh with despair. “I hope your lookouts are awake.”

It was a long hard walk, and when they moved clear of the trees for the final climb to the summit, Bolitho felt the sun searing down on his shoulders, the heat through his shoes from the rough stones, like coals off a grate.

But the two lookouts seemed contented enough. In their stained trousers and shirts, with their tanned faces almost hidden by straw hats, they looked more like castaways than British seamen.

They had rigged a small shelter with a scrap of canvas, behind which lay their weapons, water flasks and a large brass telescope.

One knuckled his forehead and said “ 'Orizon's clear, Cap'n!”

Bolitho tugged his hat over his eyes as he stared down the hill. The coastline was more uneven than he had imagined, water glitter- ing between the thick layers of trees to reveal some inlet or cover not marked on any chart. Inland, and towards a distant barrier of tall hills, there was nothing but an undulating sea of trees. So close-knit, it looked possible to walk upright across the top of them.

He picked up the telescope and trained it on the ship. She was writhing and bending in a surface haze, but he saw the boats mov- ing back and forth, very slowly, like tired water-beetles. He felt grit and dust under his fingers, and guessed the telescope had spent more time lying on the hillside than in use.

He heard Penn sucking noisily at a water flask, and could sense the lookouts willing him to leave them in peace. Theirs might be a thirsty job, but it was far easier than hauling casks through the forest. He moved the glass again. All those men, sledges and casks, yet from here he could see none of them. Even the beach was shielded. The boats, as they drew near the shore, appeared to van- ish into the trees, as if swallowed whole.