The Hawk (41 page)

'Mr Abey! We will get under way, if you please! Let us
clear all wreckage and put it over the side, and reload our
guns! We are in a chase!'

'Hands to make sail!'

The calls, and renewed bustling activity. Captain Rennie
appeared.

'There you are, sir.'

'I helped to carry some of the wounded people below,
James. What is my duty?'

'Eh? Duty?'

'Give me a task.'

'Very well, sir, I will. Y'may help put Mr Dumbleton over
the side, that has been killed, forrard. And then y'may captain
a carronade.'

Hawk
had been damaged and had lost men, but she was no
worse injured than
Lark
, and was as swift – swifter – so that
soon she began to gain on
Lark
. The dawn light had become
full morning, broad and clear, the Needles and the Isle of
Wight to the east.

When after a further glass it became apparent that
Hawk
would likely run
Lark
down, the black-painted, dark-sailed
cutter came about and prepared to meet the challenge. She
would not run any more, she would stand and fight.

James tacked and ran sou'-west close-hauled, as if sailing
away from the
Lark
. Then as
Lark
herself began to run sou'-
west, briefly the predator, James brought his cutter about
once more, and flew on the starboard tack, with the wind on
his quarter, straight at
Lark
. He had kept the wind gauge, and
now was very close, well within range before
Lark
could
counter. On James's instruction, as
Hawk
now abruptly
swung to starboard, the larboard battery was brought to bear
as one gun. In giving this instruction earlier, he had added:
'We will aim to dismast him again, Mr Abey. We cannot

allow him first fire, else he will likely smash us altogether. We
must dismast him, throw his people into desperate confusion,
and lay alongside before he can recover. Every man to have a
cutlass and a pair of pistols as we board. Colonel Macklin?'

'I am here.'

'I will lead the first group, boarding at the bow. Will you
lead the second, boarding aft with your marines?'
'Very good.'

'And remember – we must take her master alive.'

'What will you like me to do, James?' Rennie, anxious to be
of active use.

'Take command of
Hawk
, sir, if y'please, as soon as I am
out of her.'

'You will not like me to board
Lark
with you?'

'No, sir.'

'Well well, very good, as you wish.' Disappointed.

And now they ran at the
Lark
in a tight curve, Mr Love
acting as sailing master in Garvey Dumbleton's place. A
creaking, heeling moment, then:

Richard Abey: 'Larboard battery . . . on the lift . . . fire, fire,
fire!'

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM-BOOM

Belching orange fire, the hiss of roundshot, a storm of
sulphurous smoke.

Lark
faltered. Even as her own guns thudded, she faltered.

Her mainsail shivered, and slumped. Shrouds, stays, foresails,
yards, all tipped tangling and tumbling from the great stick of
her mast, and with a rending, splintering, quivering crash the
mast fell away over her starboard side into the sea.

A ragged cheer from the Hawks.
Lark
's broadside had gone
wide. She was at their mercy.

'Lay me alongside her, Mr Love!' James bellowed.
'Prepare to board!'

Resistance at first was fierce on
Lark
's tangled deck. There
was hand-to-hand fighting, bloody, yelling, and hard.
Attempts were made by the defenders to fire canister-loaded
swivels into the advancing boarders. Both attempts were
thwarted by quick action and the swivels thrown overboard.
As the two boarding parties fought towards each other, faces
blacked, pistols cracking, cutlasses hacking and thrusting, the
hapless crew of the boarded vessel, caught between them, saw
that the position would soon become hopeless, and rather
than surrender their lives they surrendered their weapons
instead, and capitulated.

'Now then, where is he?' James strode through the
kneeling men, and went aft. 'Where is her master?'

He went below, and found only wounded seamen, and
much bloody confusion. The great cabin was empty. James
came again on deck, and stood by the binnacle, surveying the
damage. Richard Abey came to him, his hat off.

'If you please, sir. There is a man lying under the broken
mainsail boom, part covered by canvas. I think he is dead.'

'I will look at him, Richard.' And he followed the boy
across the deck. At the place James pulled away bloodsoaked
canvas and a tangle of cable-laid rope, and gazed
down at the motionless figure. A heavy splinter protruded
from his throat in a welter of blood. His eyes were open,
staring sightless.

'Yes, he is dead. – Jump aboard
Hawk
, Richard, if y'please,
and say to Captain Rennie with my compliments that I will
like to see him here.' Sheathing his sword.

'Aye, sir.'

A few minutes after, Rennie came aboard, stepping over
debris, and stood beside James. 'Why did not you allow me to
board and fight, James? We have always – '

'Because this was my fight, sir.' Over him. 'I did not wish
to see you risk your life untoward.'

'Untoward! Surely we are – '

'Is that the man, sir?' Again over him, pushing aside bloody
canvas with his foot.

Rennie looked, sniffed in a breath, and let it out as a sigh:
'Yes, that is Aidan Faulk.'

'So it has all been for nothing, has it not?' And he covered
the dead man's face.

'Never say that, James.'

'What, then? What should I say? That we have won?'

And he stepped away to the rail, and stared out over the
lifting sea.

'Escaped!' Major Braithwaite was both furiously dismayed
and extremely sceptical, and his face said so. '
Both
of them
escaped?'

'No, sir.' James, very correct, his back straight. 'Mr Scott
has escaped. Faulk – was killed.'

'Damnation and hellfire! You gave me your word that
Scott would be took! And now you bring me this wretched
intelligence!'

'You may imagine our very considerable regret that Aidan
Faulk – '

'Candidly, Mr Hayter, candidly I do not much care about
Mr Bloody Faulk, now! You have allowed Scott to give you
the slip, that is the – '

'Major Braithwaite. Sir.' Rennie took a step forward with a
polite but firm little smile, and a brief nod to James. 'We have
suffered very heavy losses in the action we fought earlier
today. Men are dead, and gravely injured. Mr Hayter and I
was lucky to escape death ourselves. We did not know Scott
had escaped until half a glass after, and then it was too late
altogether.
Hawk
lay near crippled in the sea, there was handto-
hand fighting, and – '

'Christ in tears, Rennie, could not your damned lookouts
have kept a better watch? Was not the entire purpose of this
battle at sea to capture Scott?'

'In course it was, Major, in course it was. Scott and Faulk
both. And as sea officers we did our utmost to achieve that end.
However, Scott and several others had escaped in a boat, and –'

'You failed! Failed, sir! When I had put at your disposal all
my resource, and you gave me your solemn oath!'

'Our solemn oath that we would do everything in our
power. But anything may happen – '

'I warned you what I would do if you failed me, did not I?
That I would place you under arrest!'

'Anything may happen at sea, as I was about to say.'

Rennie, very firmly, over him in turn. 'We are only human
men, not gods, and men may only do their best.'

'You call this dismal outcome your best?'

'Honourably do their best, as we have done today, at great
cost.'

'Hah!'

'You scoff, sir?' Rennie, his eyes narrowed. 'You question
my honour?'

'A man of your reputation, Rennie, had better not talk
about honour.' Glaring at him.

James now took his cue, and re-entered the fray: 'I do not
think it wise in you, Major Braithwaite, to question Captain
Rennie's honourable intent, and his best efforts in your
behalf, since that would be to question his courage.'

'I have only said – '

'To do so would mean, in course – that you doubted my
own courage.' A hint of menace.

'What damned nonsense is this?' Major Braithwaite was
now less sure of himself. 'What I said was that I – '

'Sea officers that have just fought a bitter, bloody action
will not like to hear their courage questioned ashore,
nor their honour maligned.' James placed a hand on the hilt
of his sword. 'They will likely take that very hard, you
know.'

'Do you presume to threaten me, sir?' His anger
reasserting itself.

'Will you look out of the window, Major? The officer you
see standing under the tree is Colonel Macklin of the Corps
of Marines. Should I have cause to signal for his assistance, he
will summon his men, and come in. I hope that will not be
necessary?' Raising his eyebrows.

'Good God, sir. You do threaten me!'

'No, sir. I merely point out – that you had better not
threaten me.'

'I have not threatened you.' Very stiff, containing his
anger. 'I have done nothing of the kind.'

'Did not you say something about arresting us both . . . ?'
Including Rennie with a glance.

'Perhaps I did. I may have been hasty.'

'Hasty . . . ?'

'I did not mean it.'

James looked at him a long moment, then he smiled, and
removed his hand from his sword.

'Very well, Major, thank you. I am glad that we understand
each other.' A polite bow. 'And now I must look to my
wounded people, and see to their comfort. Your servant, sir.'

'Servant.' Major Braithwaite gave him the briefest of nods.

Rennie glanced at James, bowed in turn to the major, and
the two sea officers retired.

All of Major Braithwaite's dreams of making an important
arrest, and perhaps being party to even greater events –
events of national significance – had been dashed. He was
dissatisfied, agitated, angry, suspicious, almost certain that he
had been lied to and used, was nearly consumed by a desire to
be vengeful – and knew in his heart that he could do nothing.

'God damn and blast them to the burning fires of hell!'

'What was that dishwater about Colonel Macklin, James?' As
they came away in their gig.

'I knew Braithwaite would not go to the window to look
out. He was too proud. He attempted to bluster and intimidate.
I was obliged to respond in kind.'

'Hhh-hhh, he did not like it.'

'Nay, he did not. D'y'think he will stir up trouble for us?'

'About Scott? Hhh-hhh, nay. Even if he felt that he'd been
hoodwinked, he is too vain to say so. Nay, he is not the fellow
we must fear now.'

'Hm. Greer, d'y'mean? About Faulk?'

A glance. 'I do, James.'

'We had better go there, I expect, and get everything
settled.' They drove on through the evening a moment or
two, then: 'D'y'think he will ask to look at the body, to be
certain?'

'Faulk's corpse?'

'Very probably he will insist on seeing it, will not he? I
should not have allowed them to put him over the side. I
should have insisted that his body was brought into
Hawk
.
There was such damned confusion after the action. And I
should not have put poor Garvey Dumbleton over the side,
neither . . .'

'Now then, James, y'must not allow y'self to sink into a
condition of gloom and guilt. We fought a bloody action, and
there was not room in our vessel for all of our wounded, and
theirs, and – '

'I should have insisted, though, insisted. I was lamentably
at fault. It is all a wretched mess.'

'Now, James, this will not do – '

'Garvey Dumbleton was a married man. His widow will
wish that she could visit her husband's grave.'

'Well well.' A shrug, and a reluctant, sighing sniff. 'She
cannot, and there it is. You must not – '

'She will feel that it was a very heartless, cruel thing to have
put him over the side. I will write to her. That is the least
thing I can do.'

'It is always a good thing to write to the bereaved.' A nod.

'And to young Wallace's family, that was injured.'

'He will recover, though, will not he? He is at the Haslar?'

'Aye, under Thomas Wing. But many others will likely . . .

not recover.' A deep sigh, and when Rennie glanced at his
companion he saw that James had tears in his eyes. For a
moment he thought of saying something encouraging or
consoling – and then he did not. A commanding officer who
has lost men in battle will always grieve, thought Rennie, and
that is fitting, that is right; if he did not he would not be worth
anything as a commander, nor as a man.

They drove on in silence, and after half an hour came to
Kingshill, in gathering darkness.

'A great many bluffs have been called, sir, in this affair.' As
they reached the urn-flanked stone entrance. 'We have
exhausted the supply between us. There can be no attempt to
do anything, inside, other than to tell the plain facts. Hey?'

'I reckon that is true, James.'

'You need not go in with me, you know. I am able to – '

'Not go in by your side?'

'You are not attached to me official, sir. You have already
suffered much at Sir Robert's hands. I am willing to bear all
of his – '

'We was in this together, James.' Rennie, shaking his head.

'We are in it together yet. Let us walk in, heads held high –
together.'

'Very good, sir.'

They went in.

Sir Robert turned from his fireplace.

'I had half expected it. Half expected that he would elude
us. You brought the body ashore?'

'No, Sir Robert. His people disposed of the corpse at sea.'

'Ah. – So there is not even the possibility of verifying his
death?'

'I can vouch for it, Sir Robert.' Rennie had been silent
until now, allowing Lieutenant Hayter to make his report in
full. 'The man I saw lying dead upon the cutter's deck was
Faulk.'

Sir Robert's black gaze. 'You are certain?'

'Yes.'

'Very well.' He walked to his desk, a little stiffly, thought
Rennie. There he tied a sheaf of papers into a leather fold,
and placed the fold in a drawer, which he locked.

'This is a dark day, gentlemen.'

'It has certainly been a dark day for me, Sir Robert.' James.
'I have lost several men killed.'

'I do not mean this one trivial battle, Lieutenant Hayter.'
He turned and walked from the desk to the window, stared
out a moment at the night, then drew the curtains there. 'I
meant that it is a dark day for us all.'

James did not like the word 'trivial', and would have said
so, but Sir Robert continued:

'The Prime Minister, Their Lordships at the Admiralty,
the Secret Service Fund – all of us wished Aidan Faulk took,
in order that he might be converted.'

'Converted, Sir Robert?'

'Aye, his mind turned again into that of an Englishman,
rejecting his radical foreign beliefs, returning to the truth
known by his father, and his father's father, and all his
antecedents. That if England is lost – so is the world.'

Rennie and James exchanged a glance.

'Aidan Faulk has brought into this country several and
many spies. An whole secret clan of alien men, working
against our interests, sending intelligence back to France. It
was our hope that we could return him to his original beliefs,
so that he would betray these men to us. Betray them, and
then begin to act in turn as our own spy in France. And now
he is dead, and we will never discover these evil creatures that
hide among us.'

'Surely – was you to capture only one, might not he lead
you to the others?' Rennie enquired.

'Faulk was the key. Without him our task is infinitely
harder.' Sir Robert returned to the desk, and leaned on it.
'We needed such a man in France – several men – else place
everyone in these islands, from His Majesty himself down to
the humblest yeoman, at risk from dark, vile, poisonous
tribulation. It is not too much to say that all of Europe faces
a new Dark Age.'

'Really, Sir Robert – ' began James.

'You think I exaggerate, gentlemen? You think I overstate
my case?' Over him. 'I assure you, I do not.'

'In least if we cannot persuade Faulk now, Sir Robert –
since he is dead – then he cannot bring any more of these
fellows into England,' said Rennie. 'And ain't it probable that
without his guiding hand, those that are here will now find
themselves at a loss – and thus of very little use to their
masters in France.'

'You are an optimist, hey?' Sourly.

Rennie was about to say that he was not, that in usual he
was the opposite, but Sir Robert:

'You may wish to brighten this black circumstance,
Rennie, and you, Lieutenant Hayter, but it cannot be done.'

'Surely all is not quite lost as yet, Sir Robert?' said James.
'England is strong. And there are many of us to defend her,
was she to be attacked.'

'She is already under attack.' Grimly. 'And I have failed.
Failed altogether.'

'Does that mean you think I have failed altogether? As a sea
officer?'

'Nay . . . nay . . . I placed too much upon your shoulders.
I should have known you was not up to the task, Lieutenant.
Neither you nor Rennie, that are merely pawns in the
game.'

James began to bristle. 'I think perhaps you have forgotten,
Sir Robert, that the task – as you call it – was not given me by
yourself, but by Their Lordships. I will place myself at their
disposal, if blame is to be apportioned in this.'

'Yes, yes, yes, Lieutenant, you are aggrieved.' A black
glance. 'You do not like to be called a little man. We are all
little men now. We have failed, and must face the
consequence.'

A week passed, and Rennie and James were still at
Portsmouth, at the Marine Barracks. A message had come to
them from London, requiring both men to remain where
they were until otherwise advised.

Admiral Hapgood had sought out Lieutenant Hayter
there, and James had been obliged to endure a very uncomfortable
interview with the Port Admiral at his office:

'You have took a prize, I hear?'

'I have not, sir.'

'What? You deny y'took a cutter out of the Channel? The
Lark
cutter?'

'I was obliged to defend my own cutter against attack by
smugglers, sir. We towed the smuggler in, dismasted.'

'Where is that cutter now?'

'I believe she lies at Bucklers Hard, sir.'

'By whose authority?'

'She was turned over to the Board of Customs, sir. To a
Major Braithwaite, I believe, that requested it – and since the
Board is the proper – '

'Yes, yes, very well. I was not informed, in course. Where
is your own cutter, now?'

'At the Dockyard, sir.'

'Why? Why have not ye rejoined the fleet?' &c., &c.

Then, on the eighth morning, another message came from
London, addressed to James. When he broke the seal and
unfolded it, he read:

Whereas the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty,
having determined, at Board, that the undernamed
officers shall attend on them in the matter of the
Lark
cutter, and all associated Questions pertaining to that
vessel, Their Lordships require that Lieutenant James
Rondo Hayter RN, commanding HM
Hawk
cutter, 10;
and William Rennie (late Post Captain RN); shall
present themselves upon the date hereunder named, to
answer for their Actions in all Particulars related to &
concerning the said cutter
Lark
.