The directors of the L. M. S perhaps relieved that they were not to pay for her passage nor the expense of relocating Robyn in the African interior, in a flush of extravagance decided to continue her stipend during the period she was away, and made a guarded promise to review the position at the end of that time. If she proved herself capable, then there would be a permanent post in Africa thereafter. It was more than she had ever expected, and she had thrown herself wholeheartedly into assisting Zouga with the preparations for departure. There was so much to do that six weeks was barely sufficient, and it seemed only days had passed before the mountain of the expedition's equipment was being swayed down into the holds of the big graceful Baltimore clipper.
The Huron proved as swift as she looked, another wise choice by Zouga Ballantyne, and under Mungo St. John's skilful navigation she made good her westings before attempting to cross the belt of the doldrums at their narrowest point. They were becalmed not a single day and sped across the line at 29' west and immediately Mungo St. John put her on the port tack to stand down across the south east trades. Huron clawed her way southwards with the flying fish sailing ahead of her, close on the wind until she broke from their grip at last with 11ha da Trinidade on the horizon. The north-wester came howling at them and Huron fled before it, under low, sullen, scudding skies day after day that denied them sight of sun or moon or stars, until she almost hurled herself ashore 200 miles up the west coast of Africa from her destination at the Cape of Good Hope. Mr. Mate! ' Mungo St. John called in his clear carrying voice as Huron settled down to reach across the wind, pulling swiftly away from the land. Captain! ' Tippoo bellowed back from the foot of the mast great blurt of sound from the bull chest. Take the name of the masthead watch.'
Tippoo ducked his cannon-ball head on its thick neck like a bare-knuckle fighter taking a punch, and looked up the mast, slitting his eyes in the heavy folds of flesh. Twenty minutes more and he would have had us on the beach. ' St. John's voice was cold, deadly. 'I'll have him on the grating before this day is out, and we will get a peep of his backbone.'
Tippoo licked his thick lips involuntarily, and Robyn, standing near him, felt her stomach heave. There had been three floggings already on this voyage and she knew what to expect. Tippoo was half-Arab, half-African, a honey- coloured giant of a man with a shaven head that was covered with a mesh of tiny pale scars from a thousand violent encounters. He wore a loose embroidered, high-necked turdc over his huge frame, but the forearms that protruded from the wide sleeves were thick as a woman's thighs.
Robyn turned quickly to Zouga as he came down the deck towards her. We had a good look at the land, Sissy. Our first definite fix since 11ha da Trinidade. If this wind holds we will be in Table Bay in another five days. 'Zouga, can't you intercede with the Captain? ' she demanded, and Zouga looked startled. He is going to flog that poor devil. 'Damn right too, Zouga growled. 'The man nearly had us on the rocks. 'Can't you stop him? 'I wouldn't dream of interfering with his running of this ship, and nor will I allow you to. 'Do you have no humanity at all? ' she demanded of her brother coldly, but there were bright hot spots of anger on her cheeks, and her eyes snapped clear angry green. 'You call yourself a Christian. 'When I do, I speak softly though, my dear. ' Zouga made the reply he knew would annoy her most. 'And I don't flaunt it at every turn in the conversation.'
Their arguments were always sudden as summer thunderstorms on the African veld, and as spectacular.
Mungo St. John sauntered forward to lean his elbow on the railing of his quarterdeck, a long Havana cheroot of coarse black tobacco held between white teeth. He mocked her silently with those flecked yellow eyes, infuriating her further, until she heard her own voice going shrill and she turned from Zouga, and rounded on him. The man you had flogged last week could be crippled for life, she shouted at him. Doctor Ballantyne, how would you like Tippoo to carry you down and lock you in your cabin? ' Mungo St. John asked. 'Until you regain your temper and your manners.'
You cannot do that, she flared at him. I can, I assure you, that and much more. 'He's right, Zouga assured her softly. 'On this ship he can do virtually anything he wants. ' He laid his hand on her upper arm. 'Steady now, Sissy. The fellow will be lucky to get away with the loss of a little skin.'
Robyn found she was panting with anger and a sense of helplessness. If you are squeamish, Doctor, I will excuse you from witnessing punishment, Mungo St. John mocked her still. 'We must make allowance for the fact that you are a woman. 'I have never asked for consideration on that score, not once in all my life. ' She tried to get her anger back under control, and she shook off her brother's hand and turned away from them.
She walked with stiff back and squared shoulders up into the bows, trying to maintain an aloof dignity, but the ship's motion was awkward and her damned skirts fluttered around her legs. She realized she had thought the word, and she would ask forgiveness later, but not now, and suddenly she said it aloud. Damn you, Captain Mungo St. John, damn you to hell! ' She stood in the bows, and the wind pulled her hair out of the neat chignon at the nape of her neck and flicked it in her face. It was her mother's thick silken dark hair, shot with tones of russet and chestnut, and as a pale ray of greenish sunlight at last broke through the cloud cover, it turned to a glowing halo around her small neat head.
She stared ahead angrily, hardly noticing the hellish beauty of the scene about her. The co green waters, smoked with mist banks, opened and closed about the ship like pearly curtains. Wisps of mist trailed from the sails and yards as though she was on fire.
In patches, the surface of the sea simmered and darkened, for these waters were rich in microscopic sea life, which supported vast shoals of sardine that rose to the surface to feed, to be fed on in turn by flocks of shrieking seabirds that plunged upon them from high above, hitting the water in little cotton puffs of spray.
A thicker bank of mist took the tall ship in its damp cold grip so that when Robyn glanced back she could only just make out the ghostly figures of the Captain and her brother on the quarterdeck.
Then just as suddenly they plunged out again into open sea, and sunny skies. The clouds which had covered them for all these weeks rolled away towards the south while the wind itself increased in strength and veered swiftly into the east, whipping the tops from the waves in graceful ostrich plumes of curling spray.
At the same moment Robyn saw the other ship. It was startlingly close, and she opened her mouth to shout but a dozen other voices forestalled her. Sail oh! 'Sail fine on the port quarter.'
She was close enough to make out the thin, tall smoke stack between the main and mizzenmasts. Her hull was painted black with a red line below her gunports.
gain each side.
The black hull had a sinister air to it, and the pile of her canvas was not shimmering white as that of Huron, but was sullied dirty grey by the belchings from her smoke stack.
Mungo St. John played the field of his telescope swiftly over her. Her boilers were unlit, there was not even a tremble of heat from the mouth of her stack. She was under easy canvas only. Tippoo! ' he called softly, and it seemed that the mate's bulk appeared beside him with the magical speed of a genie. Have you seen her before?
Tippoo grunted and turned his head to spit over the lee rail. Lime-juicer, he said. 'I seen her last in Table Bay
