The ball took him fairly in the chest as he started to rise, and I turned swiftly as a second man heaved a bottle. Dodging the bottle I sprang past the table. He came up, cutlass in hand. Then he looked across his blade at me and suddenly threw his weapon down.
'No,' he said, 'I'll be damned if I do! I'll not fight for Duval. I'll not risk my neck.'
'Then out upon the deck, man, and take that with you.' I indicated the body.
'There's more outside.'
Flemish galleon she was, the forem'st stepped forward of the forecastle as on most galleons, decks narrower than her sides because of the Danish tax, which charged according to the width of the deck. A good, solid vessel which I liked not so well as the fluyt, but almost as much.
Her topm'sts had been taken down so she'd not show above the trees and could be looted in security. She carried thirty guns, and how she had been taken I could not guess, for the pirate vessel opposite carried only twelve, although obviously a fast sailer.
From behind the mainm'st I looked over at the pirate vessel, scarcely a cable's length off. She looked dark and sullen, low upon the water as if crouched to spring. There was no sign of Pike, nor of any of the others, nor was there movement upon the shore opposite.
I turned upon Hanberry. 'How is it to be, Captain? Do you follow my lead in what happens now? Or, when your men are free once more, will you leave us?'
He flushed somewhat. 'Do you think me ungrateful? We shall carry on, although my men are not schooled in fighting.'
'If they trade in these waters, they'd better be,' I replied.
Beyond the pirate ship the pines were a dark huddle against the white of the sand-a thicker patch and deeper than those we'd come through to capture Duval.
Was that where Pike waited? Was the watch kept so well he dare not attempt an attack?
Well, then. If we could attract the attention of those aboard the pirate craft, then he might have his chance.
'Open the ports,' I said, 'and run out your guns. First, make sure they are charged.'
'You'd fight here?' Hanberry's voice shook a little. 'In this cove?'
'Why not? At such close quarters both ships will be battered to kindling, and they know it. And we've fifteen guns to their six. Charge every gun, six with chain and grapeshot to clear the decks, nine with heavy shot. Four to aim at the gun deck, five at their waterline.'
Hanberry's face was pale, but as his men streamed on deck, he gave the order.
They rushed to the gun deck and their guns.
'What's her name, Captain? I cannot see it from here.'
'The Haydn.'
'Ahoy, Haydn!' I called. 'Surrender at once or be blown out of the water!'
There was a long moment of silence. Then a voice called out, 'Who speaks? Where is Captain Duval?'
'Barnabas Sackett is the name, and your Duval hangs from the pine yonder, where you will hang also unless you give up the ship.'
A man stepped into the rigging in plain sight. 'I'll see you in hell first!' he shouted. 'We took your ship once and we'll do it again!'
There was no sign of Pike.
'Is that what you all say?' My voice carried easily across the narrow gap between the vessels. 'If you don't want to die for the man who spoke, then throw him into the water. If he isn't in the water by the time I count three-!'
From over the bulwark I could see crouching men running to man the guns.
'Just a minute here,' he called. 'Let's talk this over!'
'Fire!' I replied.
The galleon jolted sharply with the concussion and the broadside's recoil rolled us over, then back. Bracing myself, hand gripping a stay, I peered through the billowing smoke.
'Load numbers three, four, and five with grape,' I ordered, 'and stand by to fire.'
Hanberry rushed to me. 'They'd have surrendered!' he shouted angrily. 'They were ready to surrender!'
'They were preparing to fire,' I replied shortly, 'while he talked.'
A man ran forward and dove into the water, then two more.
As the smoke lifted somewhat we could see that the mainm'st was down, that portions of the rigging had been carried away, and that great, gaping holes had been ripped in the gundeck. Five holes at the waterline were pouring water into the hold.
'Damn you!' Hanberry shouted. 'Damn you for a scoundrel! They'd have surrendered!'
Pike and other men were rushing from the pines toward the shore. Beyond our view, and along the shore, there was a sudden clash of arms, the sound of guns and yells.
As suddenly as they began, the sounds ceased. Then moments later, a boat appeared around the stern of the Haydn.
Turning to Hanberry, I covered him with a pistol. 'I will take your weapons, Captain,' I said politely. 'After this is over they will be returned.'
'I'll be damned if you do!' he said.
'Would you rather be aloft there?' I asked mildly.
Swearing, he handed over a pistol and his sword. It was a gentleman's dress sword, hardly what one needed in such a place as this. Still, it was a weapon.
Pike and the others had reached our deck. 'Sorry for the delay, Captain Sackett, but they had a party on the beach there, and we'd have lost men trying it. As you wished, I waited.'
There was still no sign of the fluyt. 'Gather all the weapons,' I said. 'Do what you can for the wounded.'
They worked swiftly. Turning to look about me at the galleon, I could see no evidence of damage. Duval and his men seemed to have taken the Flemish ship without a struggle.
The Haydn was listing heavily to the starboard.
Pike returned. 'What happened to the fluyt, Cap'n? Did she na come around?'
'We'll find her, Pike. Let us speak with Hanberry, and do you stand beside me when the talking is done.'
It was no easy thing to sort out what remained. The Haydn was a wreck, not that good seamen could not put her into some kind of shape, but it would take much time, and much hard work.
A dozen or so of the Haydn's men had been killed in the broadside we loosed upon them, and most of those killed were the ones who had rushed to line their guns upon us. A dozen and a half were wounded, more or less, and some of the Flemish lads had cuts and scrapes from the fighting, but nothing to speak of.
Hanberry was in no good mood when we sat down together. 'This is foul treatment!' he protested. 'I am an honest merchant, with an honest crew. Who are you, anyway, Sackett?'
'For the moment, a pirate, it would seem. A privateer, perhaps, although I confess I have no letter of marque.'
'Return my ship to me or I shall see you hang!'
His remark made me smile, for was I not already in risk of my neck? The problem facing me was a perplexing one, and I was in no mood for problems. I wished only to have a good ship under me and to be again on my way to Raleigh's land. But the only available ship was Hanberry's vessel. With it in my possession, I might retake the fluyt, rescue Lila-if she needed it-and then be on the way to our rendezvous with Abigail and Captain Tempany.
'Return your ship?' I said. 'You have no ship, Hanberry. It was taken from you, and when I came here you were in danger of being skinned alive. You had lost your ship, Captain. You had almost lost your life, and the lives of your men as well. I took not the ship from you, but from Duval, who hangs up above us.
'You have water for blood, Captain. You were afraid to fight, afraid to fire, afraid to resist or not to resist. I suggest when next you come to shore, if you live to do so, that you stay there. That you find yourself a shop in a town that has a good night watch, and always be under cover with the doors locked by sundown.
'Understand this, Captain. You lost your ship. You have no ship. Duval had it, now I have it. What happens to you now depends upon what I decide, and I may leave you here with Duval, to settle it between you.'
Oh, he hated me! He hated me not only for what I said but for what I had done that he had not done.
Whether I was a good man I did not know. I knew I was a man who wished to survive, and that to survive I
