Bolitho smiled.' Pass the word that our people will remain at quarters during the night, but may sleep watch by watch. Then find the cook and see what he can produce without relighting his fires.'
The midshipman hurried away and Graves said sourly, 'He'd eat anything. Even if he cannot see the damn maggots in the dark.'
Bolitho sat down on the hatch casing and loosened his shirt. As his head lolled in a doze he heard a heavy body lower itself to the deck nearby. Stockdale had returned. Waiting. Just in case, as he always put it?
The very next instant Bolitho fell into a dreamless sleep?
'Where th' hell are they?' Tyrrell trained a glass over the nettings and moved it slowly from side to side?
It was approaching noon, and lying at two anchors the Sparrow held the heat like a kiln. The cloud, like the wind, had gone overnight, and beneath an empty ska and dazzling sunlight it was impossible to move without sweating badly?
Bolitho plucked his shirt away from his waist. He had been on deck since awakening at dawn, and like Tyrrell was uneasy about the lack of results. How different it was in daylight. At the first glimmer ob
sunrise he had watched the nearby land growing from the shadows, the rounded hills and thick green trees beyond. Pleasant crescents of beach, shaded by thick foliage which ran almost to the water's edge. It had all seemed quiet and harmless. Perhaps too quiet?
He made himself walk to the opposite side of the quarterdeck, wincing as the sun burned his shoulders like fire. The bay looked vast. The water was unbroken by crests, and but for a swirling uneasiness of currents it could have been one large lake. It measured about twenty miles across and as much from the headland to the north, where the great Delaware River gave it its substance. Beyond the jutting point which made the cove and protected Sparrow from any passing vessels the river curved and twisted in an ever-changing concourse, with a full seventy miles before you could sight the outskirts of Philadelphia?
He looked along the gun deck, seeing the men on watch, some protruding legs to mark where others lay resting beneath the gangways to escape the merciless glare. He let his gaze move upwards, where the yards were now festooned with branches and leaves brought aboard soon after first light. They might help disguise her outline and deceive all but the professional observer?
Between the ship and the nearest beach a cutter pulled slowly and painfully back and forth, Midshipman Bethune squatting in the sternsheets watching the shore. Foolishly he had stripped to the waist, and despite his tan would suffer for it later?
Tyrrell followed him as he returned to the shelter ob the hammock nettings?
'I'd like to go ashore, sir.' He waited until Bolitho faced him.' I could take a small party of men. Try and find out what's happening.' He opened the front of his soiled shirt and sucked in a lungful of air.' Better'n waiting like bloody cattle for slaughter.'
'I'm not sure.' Bolitho shaded his eyes as a movement made the trees shimmer by the beach. But it was only a large bird?
Tyrrell persisted, 'Look sir, I guess th' orders are supposed to be secret, but th' whole ship knows why we're here. Them scouts spoke freely enough with a tot of rum under their belts.'
Bolitho smiled wryly.' I thought as much.'
'Yes. An' it seems we're expected to rescue a whole crowd of soldiers who've got lost coming overland.' He grimaced.' I can well believe it, too. It ain't no barrack square.'
Bolitho studied his strong profile and pondered over the suggestion. He had not mentioned the gold bullions so that was obviously a secret which Foley had not even shared with his own men. And it was just as well? Some might be tempted to try for it rather than any kind of rescue?
'Very well. Pick your men quietly and take the gig? You will need arms and provisions, too, otherwise…'
Tyrrell smiled.' Otherwise it might be too bad for us if Sparrow sails without waiting, eh?'
'It is a risk. Do you want to reconsider?'
He shook his head.' I'll start now.'
Bolitho said, 'I'll make a report of this in the log.'
'No need, sir. If I come to grief it'd be best left unwritten.' He smiled sadly.' I'd not want for you to face a court martial on my account.'
'I will make it, none the less.' Bolitho forced a grin?
'So be off with you.'
The gig had covered less than a cable from the side when Foley burst on deck, his face screwed up in the glare?
'Where is he going?' He clung to the nettingss staring after the small boat which was almost shapeless in a drifting haze.' Did you give him permission?'
'I did.'
'Then you are a bigger fool than I imagined!' Foley's andiety was pushing aside his self-control.' How dare you take it on yourself?'
'Colonel Foley, I have no doubt you are an excellent field officer. Experienced enough to realise that if your scouts have failed to make contact with those landed here earlier they must either be dead or taken.' He kept his voice level.' You will also appreciate that I am not going to risk my ship and company to comply with a plan already misfired.'
Foley opened his mouth and then shut it again. He said flatly, 'I have my orders. The general must be rescued.'
'And the gold.' Bolitho could not hide the bitterness? 'That, too, surely?'
Foley rubbed his eyes, his face suddenly showing the strain.' You'd need a regiment to search this area? Even then…' His voice trailed away?
Bolitho took a glass and swung it over the rail. There was no sign of the gig now?
He said, 'Mr. Tyrrell has my confidence. At least he might discover something.'
Foley glanced around the sunlit deck.' I hope sos Captain. Otherwise you will lose this ship, and that will be the very least of your worries?
Graves appeared on the ladder, saw them together and walked away. Bolitho frowned. So he had been the one to inform Foley of Tyrrell's expedition?
He asked, 'This general. Who is he, sir?'
Foley dragged himself from his brooding thoughts? 'Sir James Blundell. He came out here on a tour ob inspection!' He laughed shortly.' By the time he reached New York there was less to inspect than he had anticipated. He owned a great deal of property in Pennsylvania, enough to buy a thousand ships like this one.'
Bolitho turned away. He had never heard of the mans but this was more than he wanted to know. Foley would never speak his mind more clearly than he had already done. But it was enough. Blundell had obviously been caught in the middle of retrieving some of his personal wealth by the sudden military evacuation. Worse, he had been using his role of an inspector-general for his own ends and had involved a company of desperatela needed soldiers?
Foley looked at him for severyl seconds.' The men with him are mine. All that are left from the whole battalion. So you see why I must do this thing.'
Bolitho replied quietly, 'Had you told me that from the beginning, Colonel, it might have been better for both of us.'
Foley did not seem to hear.' They were the best men I have commanded here and we've seen a dozen skirmishes together. By God, when it comes to the line of battle there is nothing to beat the English foot soldier. Even a small square of them will withstand the
cream of French cavalry.' He spread his hands.' But out here, they are like lost children. They cannot compete with men who have lived all their lives in the woods and plains, who have known times when one musket ball was the margin between survival and starvation!'
Bolitho did not know how to phrase the next question. He said slowly, 'But you were not with your men when it all happened?'
'No.' Foley stared at two gulls diving and screaming around the topgallant yards.' I had been sent to New York with a convoy. Mostly it consisted of unwanted supplies and the soldiers' women.' He looked hard at him.' And the general's niece, I should not forget to mention her.' He was speaking quickly.' Even on a safe trail we were dogged by enemy skirmishers, and there was never a day without some poor devil being brought down by one of their long muskets. By God,] think some of them can knock the eye out of a fly at fifta paces!'
