Band of Brothers

doubts.

‘We’ll board her now, before the boats come back. This wind will carry us out. After that we can stand clear and wait for Hotspur.’

‘Suppose the tide gets other ideas, sir?’

Bolitho put a face to the voice. Perry, an experienced seaman who had been with him when they had found the dead boat’s crew. Tough, withdrawn. But observant. If the wind dropped, the lugger would run hard aground as soon as the cable was cut.

Price said, ‘I’ve seen boats like this one before, sir. No keel to speak of – they use the leeboards if they need steerage way. Used to watch the Dutchmen when I was over on the Medway and they came across the Channel.’

Another voice. His name was Stiles. Younger, and aggressive, said to have been a bare-knuckle prizefighter around the markets until he had decided to sign on. In a hurry, it was suggested.

‘Will there be a reward?’

Bolitho felt the winter wind in his face, wet sand stinging the skin. At any moment the chance might desert them. At best they might be able to drift clear of the shore until Hotspur up-anchored and made an appearance. The lugger would provide enough evidence for any future action.

He said bluntly, ‘It’s our duty!’ and almost expected the man to laugh.

Instead, Stiles replied, ‘That’ll ’ave to do, then!’

The remaining seaman was named Drury, a sure-footed topman like Keveth. He had been flogged for insolence, and Bolitho had seen the old scars on his back once when he had been working in the shrouds aboard Gorgon. Curiously, he had been among the first hands selected by Tinker for the passage crew. As boatswain’s mate, Tinker himself had probably dealt out the punishment.

Drury said thoughtfully, ‘Might get a tot o’ somethin’ to warm our guts if we make a move right now!’

Bolitho felt someone nudge him. It was Keveth.

‘See, sir? They’m good as gold when you puts it like that.’

Bolitho faced the sea and tried not to hear the hiss of spray along the beach. Then it was surging around his legs, dragging at him like some human force as he strode toward the lugger.

They would fall back, leave him to die because of his own stupid determination. And for what?

It was like a wild dream, the icy sea dragging at his body, and surging past the lugger which seemed to be shining despite the darkness, mocking him.

He slipped and would have been dragged down by the current, out of his depth, but for a hand gripping his shoulder. The fingers were like iron, forcing him forward. And suddenly, the blunt hull was leaning directly over him, the pale outline of the leeboard just as Hooker had described it, and the loose hoisting tackle dragging against him, caught on the incoming crests. Like those other times, in training or in deadly earnest, he was scrambling up the side, using the hard, wet tackle and kicking every foot of the way. He felt metal scrape his thigh like a knife edge, and almost cried out with shock and disbelief as he lurched to his feet. He was on the lugger’s deck.

‘Cut the cable!’

But the cry of the wind and the surge of water alongside seemed to muffle his voice. Then he heard a thud, and another, someone yelling curses, and knew it was Price’s boarding axe taking a second swing.

He felt the deck shudder and for an instant thought they had run ashore. But the hull was steady, and somehow he knew it was moving, free from the ground.

A figure seemed to rise from the very deck, arms waving, mouth a black hole in his face. Yelling, screaming, unreal.

And then a familiar voice, harsh but steady. ‘Oh, no, you don’t, matey!’

And the sickening crack of a heavy blade into bone.

Bolitho gasped, ‘Fores’l!’ But he should have recognised the confusion of wet canvas, already breaking into life.

He staggered across the deck, toward a solitary figure grappling with the long tiller-bar. It was Drury, with a cutlass thrust through his belt.

‘Steady she is, sir!’ He laughed into the wind. ‘Almost!’

There was a small hatch, and Bolitho saw that he had nearly fallen into it. Two more figures were crouched on a ladder, shouting; perhaps they were pleading. Only then did he realise that the hanger was in his hand, and the blade was only a foot away from the nearest man.

He yelled, ‘You two, bear a hand! Now, damn you!’

His words might have been lost in the noise of wind and flapping canvas, but the naked blade was clear in any language.

Price was calling, ‘She’s answering, sir! We’ll tackle the mains’l now!’

Bolitho stared at the sky, and saw the big foresail swaying above him like a shadow.

‘Are we all here?’ He wanted to laugh or weep. Like madness.

Keveth shouted, ‘Large as life, sir!’

There was a muffled splash and he added. ‘That ’un won’t bother us no more!’

Bolitho tried to sheathe the hanger in its scabbard, but felt Keveth take it gently from his hand.

‘Don’t need this for a bit, sir.’ He was grinning. ‘We’ve taken th’ old girl!’

Bolitho moved to the side and stared at the choppy wavelets below him. He was shaking badly, and not because of the cold. Or the danger. And it was hard to think, and make sense of it. They would winch up the mainsail and steer a course clear of this rocky coastline.

At first light… But nothing would form clearly in his mind, except, we did it.

Below deck they might find more muskets, evidence which would justify Hotspur’s actions.

And ours.

Tomorrow… He looked at the stars. He was no longer shivering. And it was tomorrow now.

He heard someone else, ‘Too bloody late, you bastards!’ and the immediate crack of a musket. But even that was distorted by the wind and rigging.

Then Keveth, sharp, angry, ‘Get under cover an’ reload now, you mad bugger! You’ll ’ave a dead charge on your ’ands with the next shot!’

There were shouts and another shot and Bolitho remembered that the boats were out there, lost in the swell as they pulled toward the beach. Another few minutes and they would have foiled any attempt to board the lugger, and there would be corpses rolling in the tide to mark their folly. He ran to the side and peered past the tiller. It was not imagination. He could see the vague outline of the ridge, edged against the sky, where before there had been solid blackness. Clouds, too, but the stars had gone.

Keveth called, ‘That’ll show the bastards!’ But he was staring after the one who had fired his musket. ‘They’ll be comin’ for us – they’ve nowhere else to turn to!’ He waved his fist to drive the point home. ‘Listen!’

The rattle and creak of loose gear seemed to fade, and in a lull in the wind Bolitho could hear the slow, regular clink, clink, clink, like that last time, when they had left Plymouth. The pawls of a capstan, men straining every muscle against wind and tide to break out the anchor. The brig was making a run for it. Those in the boats, even their own hands, were being abandoned. There were no rules for the smuggling fraternity but save your own neck first. He banged his fist on the bulwark, the pain steadying him.

The brutal truth was that Hotspur might still be at anchor, unwilling to risk any dangerous manoeuvre on the mere chance of an encounter. He recalled Verling’s parting words. No heroics.

He joined Drury by the tiller-bar and leaned his weight against it. He could feel the heavy shudder, the power of the sea, and tried to guess at their progress. Without more sail and time to work clear of the bay… He shut his mind to the ifs and the maybes. They had done better than anyone could have expected. Hoped.

‘The brig’s weighed, sir!’ Another voice said, ‘Cut ’er cable, more like!’

Either way, the smuggler was making sail. If she worked around Hotspur or avoided her altogether, her master would have the open sea ahead, and every point of the compass from which to choose his escape.

And even if there was further evidence below deck, what would that prove? The two cowering wretches who had pleaded for mercy when Keveth and his mates had swarmed aboard would certainly go to the gallows, or hang