Sloop Of War

12. A Twist Of Fate

LIEUTENANT Tyrrell gripped the quarterdeck rail and peered fixedly along the starboard gangway?

"God damn this mist!" He leaned across the rails straining his eyes forward in an effort to see beyond the forecastle." And God damn our luck!"

Bolitho said nothing but moved to the opposite side of the deck. Since before dawn, when with leads going and every ear and eye pitched to the shouted depths, the sounds of distant surf and the occasional feather ob warning spray in the darkness, he had been aware ob

the thickening sea mist. It was not unusual in these waters at the time of year, but he had expected it to pass quickly, to clear with the first hint of morning sunlight?

Now, as he stared abeam, he knew it was thicker than ever. Moving steadily with the wind, it wreathed between the shrouds and seemed to cling to the rigging like pale weed. Above the topsail yards he could see nothing, and apart from a clear patch ob water below the quarterdeck, the sea was equally hidden. Keeping pace with the ship's cautious progress, the mist cut away all impression ob movement, so that it felt as if Sparrow was suspended in cloud like some phantom vessel?

A voice below the quarterdeck called, "By th' mark five!"

The seaman's call was hushed as the sounding was passed from mouth to mouth from the leadsmen in the forechains. Once over the bar, Bolitho had ordered the ship to be cleared for action, and with the enfolding mist shutting out both sight and sound, it was necessary to take every precaution?

He glanced at the maintopsail again. It was drawing quite well, taking the sloop steadily across the shallows, the flapping canvas shining with moisture in the grey light to show that somewhere above the mist there was a sun and maybe a sight of land, too?

"Deep four!"

Bolitho walked aft to the wheel where Buckle stood with his men, the mist moving through his splayed legs and making him appear like a spectre?

He stiffened as Bolitho approached and reported, "She's holding well, sir. Sou' by east as afore."

From the gun deck came a scrape of wood, and when he turned Bolitho saw one of the long sweeps swaying above the water before coming into line with the rest. He had ordered the sweeps to be run out an hour earlier, for if the wind dropped or they came upon some unexpected shoal, they would be the only means of working clear?

"Deck there!" The masthead's voice seemed to come from the mist itself." Ship on th' starboard quarter!"

Bolitho stared upwards, aware for the first time that the mist was tinged yellow like a North Sea fog?

Sunlight at last. Far above the deck, isolated by a layer of mist, the lookout had sighted another vessel?

He saw Tyrrell and the others watching him, caught in their various attitudes by the lookout's sharp call?

Bolitho said, "I shall go aloft, Mr. Tyrrell." He unbuckled his sword and handed it to Stockdale? "Keep good watch and ensure that the anchor can be dropped instantly if need be."

He hurried to the gangway, his mind torn between the unexpected sighting of a strange ship and his rising nausea at the prospect of a climb to the lookout?

Then he swung himself out on to the main shrouds and gripped the gently quivering ratlines with as much force as if the ship had been in a full gale. Through the ratlines he saw Graves below on the gun decks shoulders hunched, his eyes looking neither right nor left?

Bethune was close by him, one hand resting on a twelve-pounder, the other shading his eyes as he peered up at the mist. All along the ship men stood like crude statuary, bare backs shining with moisture, which dripped ceaselessly from the sails and rigging, so that they appeared to be sweating, as if they had just been in battle?

Here and there a checked shirt, or the darker blue and white of a gunner's mate, stood out from the rests as if the artist had found more time to complete their postures before passing on to some other part of the picture?

"By th' mark five." The chant came aft from the forecastle like a dirge?

In his mind Bolitho pictured the chart. The tide was on the turn now. Soon even the so-called safe channels between the shoals and sandbars would be drawn closer together, like great jaws closing around a capture?

He gritted his teeth and started to climb. When he paused to draw breath the ship had lost her outline in the mist. Only the guns and oblong hatchways stood out with any clarity, and aft by the taffrail Buckle and the others seemed to be cut in halves by the following tendrils of haze?

Up and up. At the maintop he swarmed quickly through the lubber's hole rather than tackle the additional agony of hanging by fingers and toes from the futtock shrouds. A seaman gaped at him as he passed and was still staring as Bolitho increased his rate of climb until he, too, was lost from view?

A few moments later Bolitho stared up at the main topgallant yard with something like awe. For there, above it, clean and empty of cloud, the sky was bright blue, and as he started up the last ratlines he saw the taut stays and shrouds shining like copper in the early sunlight?

The lookout, legs swinging carelessly from the crosstrees, moved over to allow his captain to climb up beside him?

Bolitho gripped a stay with one hand and tried to control his rapid breathing?

"Ah, Taylor, you have a good perch up here."

The maintopman gave a slow grin." Aye, sir." He had a soft North Country burr, and his homely voice did more than he would have dreamed possible to steady Bolitho's sickness?

He raised a bronzed arm." There she be, sir!"

Bolitho twisted round, trying not to look at the vibrating mast as it vanished below into the mist. For a moment longer he could see nothing. Then, as the sluggish wind stirred the mist into movement he saw the raked topmasts and flapping pendant of a frigate some three miles away on the starboard quarter?

He forgot his precarious position, the nausea of the dizzy climb, everything in fact but the other ship?

The lookout said, "There be breakers yonder, too, sir. I reckon that frigate's on t'other side o' the bar."

Bolitho looked at him gravely." You know her, don't you?"

The man nodded." Aye, sir. She's Bacchante, Cap'n Colquhoun's command flag is at the fore." He watched Bolitho's impassive face." Anyway, I was in 'er onces two years back."

Bolitho nodded. He had known it was Bacchantes too. Perhaps he had been hoping he was mistaken, that the mist and light were playing tricks?

But there was no doubting Taylor 's conviction. It was typical of such seamen as he. Once they had served with or aboard a ship they seemed to know her under any condition. Taylor had only seen the frigate's upper yards, but he had recognised her instantly?

Bolitho touched his arm." Keep a good watch on hers Taylor." He slung his leg over the edge." You've done well."

Then he was climbing and slipping downwards, his mind grappling with this new encounter. Once, when he peered over his shoulder he thought he saw hazed sunlight on the water, further away from the hull. So the mist was thinning after all. But it was too late now, if things went wrong?

Tyrrell was waiting for him by the quarterdeck rail, his eyes anxious as Bolitho jumped down from the shrouds and hurried towards him?

"It's Bacchante!"

Bolitho stared past him at the upturned faces on the gun deck, the faint leap of spray as the leadsman made yet another cast?

"Quarter less five!"

He turned to Tyrrell." Colquhoun must have stood well clear of land during the night. When the wind backed it caught him out, as it did us. He must have been driven miles along the Channel." He turned away, his voice suddenly bitter." The damn fool should have stayed closer inshore! Now he's useless out there beyond the shoals! It'd take him near half a day to beat back into an attacking position!"

Tyrrell's hand rasped over his chin." What'll we dot With the tide on th' turn we'll have to look sharp if we're to close with th' Frogs." He glanced at Buckle." Ma guess is we should stand away and try again later."

Buckle nodded slowly." Mine, too. If Cap'n Colquhoun's plan has gone off at half-cock then we can't be expected to do better."

Bolitho ignored him." Pass the word, Mr. Tyrrell? Withdraw sweeps and have the guns loaded and run out. Gun by gun, if you please, with as little noise as possible." He studied Buckle's dubious expression and added quietly, "I know the risk. So brail up the courses and have the bosun prepare a stream anchor in case we have to take the way off her directly." He thrust his hands behind his back." You can think me mad, Mr. Buckle." He heard the sweeps thumping inboard on to their racks and the slow rumble of trucks as the first cannon were hauled towards the ope[

ports." And maybe I am. But somewhere out there is a British sloop like ourselves. Thanks to others she is quite alone now, and God knows, if I am not mad then Fawn is going to need every bit of help she can get!"

The big main course rose billowing and protesting to its yard as men worked busily to bring it under control and lay bare the decks from bow to quarterdeck?

A gunner's mate called huskily, "Loaded an' run outs sir!"

Tyrrell strode aft, his speaking trumpet jammed beneath his arm?

Bolitho met his gaze and smiled briefly." You were faster this time."

Then together, with their backs to the helmsmen and an apprehensive Buckle, they leaned on the rail and stared directly ahead. The mist was still all around them, but thinner, and as he watched Bolitho knew it was at last outpacing the ship, moving stealthily through the shrouds and away across the lee bow? There was sunlight, too. Not much, but he saw it reflecting faintly from the ship's bell and playing on a black twelve-pounder ball which one gun captain had removed from a shot garland and was changing from hand to hand, testing its perfection or otherwise?

Bolitho asked softly, "How far now, in your opinion?"

Tyrrell raised his injured leg and winced." Th' wind stays regular from th' nor'-east. Our course is sou' by east." He was thinking aloud." Th' soundings have found no lie in th' chart." He made up his mind."] reckon we're about six mile from th' place where Fawn crossed through th' shoals." He turned and added firmly, "You'll have to put about soon, sir. You'll be hard aground if you keep on this tack much longer."

The chant seemed to float aft to mock him." By the mark three!"

Lieutenant Heyward, who was standing very still by the quarterdeck ladder, murmured, "Holy God!"

Bolitho said, "If the Frenchman is still there, then there must be ample room for him to work clear."

Tyrrell eyed him sadly." Aye. But by th' time we reach that far we'll be in no position to go about. Th' Frog can thumb his nose at us."

Bolitho pictured the disembodied masts and yards of Colquhoun's frigate and gripped his hands together to steady his nerves and restrain his rising anger. That fool Colquhoun. So eager to keep the spoils to himself he had failed to anticipate a change of wind. So keen to keep Sparrow out of the victory that he had now left the gate open for the enemy to run free if he so desired. Fawn could not bring her to battle even if she could catch her?

"An' a quarter less three!"

He grasped the nettings and tried not to imagine the sea's bottom rising slowly and steadily towards the keel?

It was no use. He swung away from the nettings, his sudden movement making Midshipman Fowler start back in alarm. He was risking the ship and the life ob everyone aboard. Fawn was probably anchored, or had already found the enemy gone. His apprehensions, his personal doubts would cut little cloth with the relatives of those drowned by his risking Sparrow for a whim?

He said harshly, "We will wear ship. I intend to cross the bar and rejoin Bacchante as soon as the mist clears." He saw Buckle nod with relief and Tyrrel"

watching him with grave understanding." Convey ma compliments to Mr. Graves and have the guns…" He swung round as severyl voices shouted at once?

Tyrrell said tersely, "Gunfire, by God!"

Bolitho froze, listening intently to the intermittent cracks and the heavier crash of larger weapons?

"Belay that last order, Mr. Tyrrell!" He watched as a shaft of sunlight ran down the trunk of the mainmast like molten gold." We will not be blind for long!"

More minutes dragged by, with every man aboard listening to the distant gunfire?

Bolitho found that he could see beyond the tapering jib-boom, and when he glanced abeam he saw a writhing necklace of surf to mark the nearest prongs ob reef. Perhaps it was the mist, or back echoes from the hidden land, but the gunfire did not sound right. He could pick out the sharper bark of Fawn's nine-pounders from the enemy's heavier artillery, but there were other explosions from varying bearings which seemed to tally at odds with the circumstances?

Sunlight swept down across the damp planking and raised more haze from the dripping shrouds and

hammock nettings, and then, like some fantastic curtain, the mist was drawn aside, laying bare the drama with each detail sharp in the morning light?

There was the tip of the island, hard blue against an empty sky, and the intermingled patterns of surf and swirling currents to show the nearness of the bar. And dead ahead of Sparrow's slow approach, her hull seemingly pinioned on the jib-boom, was Maulby's Fawn?

Further away, with masts and furled sails still shrouded in departing mist, lay the Frenchman, half hidden in shadow, the outline blurred into the landmass beyond. She was firing rapidly, her battery flashing long orange tongues, her flag clearly visible above the gunsmoke?

It was only then Bolitho realised that Fawn was still anchored. Sickened, he watched the sharp waterspouts bursting all around her, the occasional fountain of spray as a ball smashed hard alongside?

Buckle called hoarsely, "He's cut his cable, sir!"

Maulby's men were already running out the long sweeps to try to work clear of the murderous barrage, while from her own deck the guns maintained a brisk fire towards the enemy?

Bolitho gripped the rail as Fawn's foretopmast staggered and then reeled down in a great welter ob spray and smoke. He heard Tyrrell's voice as if in a dream, saw him pointing wildly, as more flashes sparkled, not from the Frenchman but from the headland and low down as well, probably on some small beach?

What a perfect trap. Maulby must have been caught by the mist, and after making sure the enemy was still apparently moored close inshore, had anchored to await Colquhoun's support. No wonder Bacchante's first lieutenant had reported so much activity. The French captain had taken time to land artillery so that any attacker would be caught in one devastating arc ob fire from which there was small chance of escape?

The sweeps were out now, rising and falling like wings, bringing the little sloop round until she was pointing away from the enemy and towards the bar and the open sea?

A chorus of cries and groans came from the gun deck as the larboard bank of sweeps flew in wild confusion, the splintered blades whirling high into the air before splashing around the ship in fragments?

Bolitho raised a telescope and held it trained on Fawn's quarterdeck. He saw running figures, faces magnified in the lens and made more terrible by distance and silence. Open mouths, gesturing arms as men ran to hack away the wreckage and keep at least some of the guns firing. A spar fell across his small encircled world, so that he flinched as if expecting to feel the shock of its impact on the deck. A seaman was running and stumbling along one gangway, his face apparently shot away, his terror agonising to watch as he fell and was mercifully lost alongside?

Someone had kept his head, and high above the deck Bolitho saw the maintopsail billowing free to the wind, the sudden response beneath Fawn's gilded figurehead as she began to gather way?

He felt Buckle shaking his arm and turned as he shouted desperately, "We must go about, sir!" He pointed frantically towards the glittering water and at a mass of brown weed which glided so close to its surface." We'll be ashore this instant!"

Bolitho looked past him." Prepare to anchor, Mr?

Tyrrell!" He did not recognise his voice. It was like steel against steel." Have the cutters swayed out and prepare to lay a kedge anchor directly." He waited until Tyrrell had run to the rail and the first dazed men had swarmed out along the yards." We will remain here."

Moving more slowly, Sparrow edged into the shallows, and when she passed above one sandbar it was possible to see her own shadow before the water deepened once more?

Bolitho continued to pass his orders, making each one separate and detached from the next while he forced himself to concentrate, to shut his ears to the gunfire, to shield his eyes from Fawn's slow and methodical destruction?

The cutters were lowered, and as ordered, Glasss the boatswain, took one of them to lay out a small kedge. With sails brailed up, and loosely anchored from bow and stern, Sparrow finally came to rest?

Then and only then did Bolitho raise his glass again and turn it on the Fawn. Listing badly, and all but her mizzen shot away, she was still trying to work clear ob the bombardment. It was hopeless, for although her rudder seemed intact, and the spanker and crossjack were giving her some sort of steerage way, she was badly hampered by a mass of dragging spars and canvas, and appeared to have few men left who were able to cut it adrift. She was hit again and again, the splintered sections of timber and planking plummeting in the shallows, floating with and astern of her like blood from a wounded beast?

She gave a violent lurch, and as her mizzen came down to join the rest of her spars, Bolitho knew she had driven aground. She was broaching to, her deck tilting towards him as the first savage spines ground into her bilges and keel. It was finished?

He closed the glass and handed it to someone nearby. He saw no individual faces, heard no voices he could recognise. His own was as strange and unnatural as before?

"The Frenchman lies on our larboard bow." How quiet it was now. The enemy had ceased fire, for as Fawn lay gripped on a shoal she was at last out ob reach from those guns. Smoke drifted above the headland, and Bolitho pictured the French artillerymen sponging out the muzzles, watching perhaps the unexpected arrival of another sloop. One more victim? "The range is less than a mile. He is well moored to present a perfect deception." He knew Tyrrell and the rest were watching him. Transfixed." Equally, he cannot hurt us. We on the other hand…" He turned despite his guard to see Fawn's beakhead and bowsprit tear away and drop into the swirling current beneath her stem. He continued tonelessly, "We can hit him, and hard!"

Graves was on the ladder, his face pale from shock or at seeing the other ship destroyed so cruelly?

Bolitho looked at him." Get the larboard bow-chaser to work. You will open fire when ready. Pass your requirements to the bosun. By using the anchor cables you will be able to traverse at will." He turned to Tyrrell? "Have the capstan manned at once."

Graves was halfway along the deck when Bolitho's voice brought him stockstill in his tracks?

"Fetch Mr. Yule! Tell him I want him to build a small furnace where he can heat shot for your gun. Take good care that it is done right and well." He shifted his eyes to the enemy ship." We have time now. Plenty ob it."

Then he walked to the nettings and waited for Tyrrel to come aft again?

Tyrrell said quietly, "You were right after all, sir. It was us they were after. Good God Almighty, it was us we just watched being destroyed!"

Bolitho studied him gravely." Aye, Jethro." He recalled with stark clarity Maulby's words to him at their last meeting. Of Colquhoun. That man will be the death of me.?

He swung round, his voice harsh again." What the hell is the delay?"

He was answered by a loud bang from forward, and was in time to see the fall of shot some half a cable from the enemy?

An order was passed down the deck and the men at the capstan bars took the strain, tautening the cable very slightly so that Sparrow's bows edged round to give Graves 's crew a better traverse?

Bang! The ball shrieked away, this time slapping down in line with the enemy's poop?

Bolitho had to grip his hands to steady himself. The next ball would strike. He knew it would. From then o[

… He beckoned to Stockdale?

"Away gig. Pipe for the second cutter to head for Fawn. We may yet pick up some of her people."

He saw Dalkeith below the ladder, already dressed in his long, stained apron?

Another bang came from the bowchaser, and he saw the brown smoke billowing through the beakheads hiding the actual fall of shot. But a voice yelled, "Got 'er! Fine on th' quarter!"

He said, half to himself, "Not pop-guns this time, Mr? Frenchman! Not this time!"

"Gig's ready, sir!" Even Stockdale sounded shocked?

"Take charge until I return, Mr. Tyrrell." He waited for him to drag his leg down to the entry port." We will work out of here on the next tide."

He heard dull hammering as Yule and his mates constructed a crude furnace. It was dangerous, even foolhardy under normal circumstances to consider heating shot aboard ship. A tinder-dry hull, cordage and canvas, tar and gunpowder. But this was not normal. Sparrow was anchored in sheltered waters. E floating gun-platform. It was merely a matter ob accuracy and patience?

Tyrrell asked awkwardly, "How long do we keep firing, sir?"

Bolitho swung himself out above the gently slapping cat's-paws and green reflections?

"Until the enemy is destroyed." He looked away? "Completely."

"Aye, sir."

Tyrrell watched Bolitho climb into the gig, the quick flurry of oars as Stockdale guided it towards the hulk which had once been Fawn?

Then he walked slowly to the quarterdeck rail and shaded his eyes to watch the enemy ship. There was little sign of damage, but the balls were hitting her regularly now. Shortly, the heated shot would be cradled from Yule's furnace, and then… he shivered despite the growing sunlight. Like most sailors he feared fire more than anything?

Hewyard joined him and asked quietly, "Did he mean it?"

Tyrrell thought of Bolitho's eyes, the despair and hurt when Fawn had been taken by the trap." Aye, he did."

He flinched as a gun fired from the Frenchman's deck, and saw the ball throw up a thin column almost a cable short. Seamen not employed on the capstan or boats were watching from the gangways and shrouds, some even made wagers as to the next shot. As each French ball fell short they cheered or jeered, spectators only, and as yet unaware that but for a twist of fate they and not Fawn's people would have died under those cannon?

Tyrrell continued, "Colquhoun brought us to this. If our cap'n had been given his rightful position to attack we'd have got clear." He banged his palms together? "Arrogant bastard! An' he just sits out there like some sort of god while we finish his mess for him!"

Another bang echoed across the water and he saw a spar fall from the enemy's mainmast. Very slowly, or so it appeared, like a leaf from a tree in autumn?

Midshipman Fowler called, "Our boats are standing off the wreck, sir!"

He was pale, but as he raised his telescope his hand was as steady as a gun?

Tyrrell looked at him coldly. And there's another one? Like Ransome, like Colquhoun. Without humanity or feelings?

Wreck was how he had described Fawn. Yet moments ago she had been a living, vital creature. E way of life for her people and those who would have come after?

Savagely he said, "Get aloft, Mr. Fowler, and take your glass with you! Keep an eye open for Bacchante beyond th' reef and watch for her signals."

If any?

Then as the gun banged out again he made himself walk to the opposite side leaving Heyward to his thoughts?

Bolitho heard the gun's regular bombardment even as the gig hooked on to Fawn's listing side, and with some of his men he climbed aboard?

"The cutter first!" He gestured to Bethune who was staring at the bloody shambles like a man in a trance?

"Full load, and then the gig."

Stockdale followed him up the slanting deck, over smashed boats and tangled rigging. Once as they passed a hatchway Bolitho saw a green glow, and when he peered below he saw the sea surging jubilantly through a great gash in the hull, the reflected sunlight playing on two bobbing corpses. Huge patches of blood, upended guns around which the dazed survivors staggered down towards the waiting boats. There seemed very few of them?

Bolitho wiped his face with his shirt-sleeve. Us, Tyrrell had said. It was not difficult to understand?

He paused on the quarterdeck ladder and looked down at Maulby. He had been crushed by a fallen spars his features frozen in the agony of the moment. There was a small smudge of blood on his cheek, and there were flies crawling on his face?

He said hoarsely, "Take him, Stockdale."

Stockdale bent down and then muttered, "Can't be done, sir. 'E's 'eld fast."

Bolitho knelt over the spar and covered his face with a scrap of canvas. Rest easy, old friend. Stay with you_

ship. You are in the best of company today?

The deck gave a quick shiver. She was beginning to break up. The sea, the tide and the unlashed guns would soon finish what the enemy had begun?

Bethune's voice came up from alongside where the cutter rose and plunged in a dangerous swell." All offs sir!"

"Thank you."

Bolitho heard the sea crashing through the deck below, swamping the wardroom and on into the stern cabin. One like his own. There was no time to retrieve anything now. He bent down and unclipped Maulby's sword?

He handed it to Stockdale." Someone in England might like it."

He made himself take one long glance around him? Remembering every detail. Holding it?

Then he followed Stockdale into the gig. He did not look back, nor did he hear the sounds of Fawn's final misery. He was thinking of Maulby. His drawling voice? Feeling his last handshake?

Tyrrell met him and then said, "Mr. Yule has the furnace ready, sir."

Bolitho looked at him emptily." Douse it, if you please."

"Sir?"

"I'll not burn men for doing their duty. The Frenchman is too badly holed now to get away. We will send a boat across under a flag of truce, I don't think he'll wish to prolong senseless killing."

Tyrrell breathed out slowly." Aye, sir. I'll attend to it."

When he turned back from passing the order to cease fire he found that Bolitho had left the deck?

He saw Stockdale carrying the sword and wiping it with a scrap of waste, his battered face totally engrossed in the task. He thought of Tilby's two model ships. Like Maulby's sword. Was that all that was left ob a man?

He was still pondering about it when Bacchante's topmasts hove in sight and she hoisted her first signal?

It was evening before Sparrow was able to close with the frigate. For almost as soon as she had worked clear of the bar the wind veered and gained considerably in strength, so that it was necessary to use every effort to beat clear of those treacherous breakers. In open waters again, with the darkening slab of Grand Bahama some five miles abeam, Sparrow reduced sail and hove-to within a cable ob Colquhoun's ship?

As he sat in the crazily tossing gig Bolitho watched the frigate and the last signal for him to repair on board being hauled down to the deck. It had been hoisted for some time, but like Colquhoun's previous ones, he had ignored it. Had not even made an acknowledgement?

Spray lanced back from the oars and dashed across his face. It helped to calm him, if only slightly. His sorrow was matched by anger, his self-control by an eagerness to confront Colquhoun?

The gig turned and rose dizzily on a steep swell, the bowman almost pitching overboard as he hooked on to the chains and made fast?

Bolitho clambered up the frigate's tumblehome, for once ignoring the sea which swirled along the hull as if to pluck him away?

Colquhoun was not at the entry port, and the first lieutenant said quickly, "By God, sir, I am sorry for what happened."

Bolitho eyed him gravely." Thank you. The fault was not of your making."

Then without another word or a glance at the swaying side party he strode aft to the cabin?

Colquhoun was standing by the windows, as if he had not moved since their last encounter. In the lanterns' yellow glare his face looked stiff and unsmiling, and when he spoke his tone was like that ob a much older man?

"It took you long enough! How dare you ignore ma signals!"

Bolitho faced him coldly. The anger in Colquhoun's voice was as false as his composure, and he saw one hand twitching badly against his white breeches?

"Your earlier signals were made to Fawn, sir." He saw him start and continued slowly, "But she was already in pieces and her people mostly killed in battle or drowned when she struck."

Colquhoun nodded jerkily, his brows tightening as if he was trying to keep a grip on his emotions?

"That is beside the point. You disobeyed my orders? You crossed the bar without permission. You…"

Bolitho said, "I did what I considered to be my duty." It was no use. He could feel his control slipping away like an icy yard beneath a topman." But for your lust after glory we would have taken the Frenchman together, without loss. We had all the advantage, for the enemy knew nothing of your full strength. She was after one prize only. Sparrow." He turned away, trying to hide his grief." Because of you, Maulby and his men were killed, his ship lost. Because of your senseless rigidity, your failure to see beyond prize money, you could not help when the time came." He swung round again, his voice harsh." Well, the Frenchman is taken0 What d'you want now, a bloody knighthood?"

Surprisingly, Colquhoun's voice was very low, and as he spoke he kept his eyes on some point away from Bolitho?

"I will ignore your outburst." He paused." Ah, I remember now, you have young Fowler aboard. It would have done no good to lose him in battle." He was speaking more quickly, the disjointed sentences falling from his lips in time with his thoughts." The admiral will expect a full report. I shall.?

Bolitho watched him, sickened." I have the written orders you originally gave me. The ones which were to send me as far from the point of attack as you could invent." Despite Colquhoun's pathetic explanations and excuses he forced himself to go on." If I had obeyed them, or the wind had remained constants Fawn would still have perished. What would you have done then? Sent the little Lucifer maybe?"

Colquhoun walked to his desk and pulled a decanter from its rack. Some of the brandy slopped over his hand but he did not seem to notice it?

"I received orders some while back. When we had run the French flute to ground, or given up the search, we are ordered to proceed to New York. The flotilla is to be reduced." He swallowed half a glass of brandy and had to fight to regain his breath." Bacchante will be returned to fleet duties."

Bolitho stared at him. Any compassion or pity he might have harboured behind his anger was gone with that admission?

In a low tone he asked, "All this while, and you knew we were to go to New York?" He listened to his own voice, wondering how he could sound so calm." You thought it was a last chance to prove yourself. A great show of victory, with you entering port, a fine fat prize under your colours! Yet because of your greed you could not see the real danger, and Fawn has paid dearly for your ignorance!"

Colquhoun lifted his eyes and watched him desperately?

"In New York things might seem different? Remember, I was the one who helped you…" He broke off and swallowed another drink." I needed that prize! I've earned it!"

Bolitho moved towards the door, keeping his eyes on Colquhoun's quivering shoulders?

He said, "I sent Fawn's remaining lieutenant to take charge of the flute. Surrender was arranged by Lieutenant Heyward." He made himself keep to the details, if only to stop Colquhoun from pleading." The French ship'll not be much use again. I suggest you send your marines to take charge and await the military, who'll wish to escort the prisoners elsewhere."

Colquhoun leaned against the stern windows, his voice muffled by the sounds of sea and rudder?

"It will mean a court martial." His shoulders stiffened? "You will be ordered to attend."

Bolitho nodded." It would seem so."

Colquhoun waved one hand towards the cabin without turning?

"All this gone. In just a moment of bad circumstances. Fate."

"Maulby probably thought that, too." Bolitho rested his fingers on the door?

Colquhoun pushed himself from the windows and lurched across the cabin?

"So you've won in the end, eh?" His voice cracked? "You and your bloody Sparrow!"

Bolitho saw the man's anguish and answered, "Three years ago when I was given Sparrow I thought command was everything, all a man could desire. Then maybe I would have agreed with your decisions, no matter what they entailed. Now I know better, perhaps after all, thanks to you. Command is one thing. But responsibility, the duty to those who depend on you, is the greater burden. We must share the guilt for Maulby's death." He saw Colquhoun staring at him incredulously but continued, "Your folly blinded you to everything but future advancement. My crime was pride. A pride which goaded the enemy into laying a snare for me, and one which cost Fawn's people dearly." He opened the door." I hope I never forget it? Nor you."

He walked quickly to the quarterdeck and heard the door slam behind him, the slap of a musket as the sentry returned to a more relaxed stance?

By the gangway he found the first lieutenant waiting for him. Across the heaving water, its crests and troughs already painted with shadows, he saw Sparrow swaying unsteadily against the first pale stars? A lantern gleamed from her taffrail, and he thought he saw the splash of oars to mark where Stockdale held the gig in readiness. He could have waited in vain? Colquhoun might have made one last gesture ba

throwing him under arrest for his outburst. That he had not was proof enough of his true guilt?

More, that Colquhoun was well aware of what he had done?

He said, "We are to rejoin the Flag at New York."

The lieutenant watched the gig bobbing towards the side and replied sadly, "I'll not be sorry to quit this place."

Bolitho sighed." Aye. A defeat is a bad business? But a victory can often bring the greater pain."

The lieutenant watched him climb into the gig and pull clear?

So young, yet with so much responsibility. Not for me. Even as the thought crossed his mind he knew it was a lie, and upon looking round the darkening deck he wondered if Colquhoun's error had brought him any nearer to his own promotion?