the gaff.' Mr. Dalkeith! Have your helpers move those wounded men to the larboard side.' He silenced his unspoken protest with, 'Better now than when we are in real trouble.'
Graves came running aft along a gangway.' Run outs sir?'
'No.' He looked up as another ball fanned above the deck.' Load the starboard battery. Double-shotted and with grape for good measure.' He ignored Graves 's puzzled expression and added to Foley, 'if we must fire it will have to be the one broadside. You have been below yourself. You know we cannot indulge in close action with the hull filled to its brim with sick men.'
Foley looked away.' I am sorry, Captain.'
Bolitho studied him gravely.' Do not be. My orders said little of fighting. Transportation was the ideal arrangement.' He forced a smile.' Unfortunately, the Frenchman has not read them also!'
He turned to watch the wounded being carried to the opposite side, while Graves and Yule, the gunners supervised the slow loading of every starboard gun which was not impeded by either passengers or cargo?
Graves came to the ladder eventually and called, 'All but four guns loaded and ready, sir.' He broke off with a gasp as the air overhead came alive with a long-drawn-out shriek, as if a thousand devils had been freed from the sea itself?
Rigging and shrouds jerked savagely, and men ducked holding their hands above them as torn cordage and severyl severed blocks hurtled amongst them?
Bolitho gripped his hands together behind him still tighter until the pain helped to steady him. Langridge shot, as used by the big Bonaventure. It was vicious and very dangerous. Consisting of fragments of iron bound together, it could cut away rigging and tear down spars with ease. But unlike chain-shot, which was more generally used, it could also do terrible damage to men otherwise hidden by gangway or bulwark. The Frenchman obviously wanted to dismast Sparrow and take her and cargo intact. The gold would pay for many requirements in the future, and Sparrow would make a valuable addition to the enemy's fleet. It had happened before. Within the hour he might see it happen again. To him?
The bowchaser threw out a spurt of smoke and the Sparrow's main course burst open with a searing explosion, the great sail ripping itself to a hundred fragments in the wind even before the enemy's iron had finished falling alongside?
Bolitho could feel the difference instantly, the heavier motion between each lift and plunge, the increase ob turns on the wheel as Buckle's helmsmen fought to hold her on course?
Yet again that demoniac scream of whirling fragments, the thud and clatter of failing rope and halliards. Men were working feverishly far above the decks to make good the severed rigging, but the frigate was much nearer, and as Bolitho swung round he saw three of her foremost guns belching fire and smoke, proof that she was overhauling rapidly to bring more of her armament to bear?
Balls shrieked and whimpered overhead and one ripped through the mizzen topsail with the slap of a whip against wood. Men yelled and cursed to control it as once again the wind explored the damage, tearing the shot- hole in an uneven gash from head to foot?
Bolitho gripped the rail hard. If only there was sight of a friendly sail, anything which might make the frigate lose heart or change tack even for a few moments?
He saw a ball skipping across the wavecrests, its progress clearly marked by the leaping feathers ob spray; winced as the deck jumped beneath him as the shot slammed into the lower hull?
From below the gun deck he heard muffled cries, and pictured the sick and wounded, some with limbs only just cut away by Dalkeith, enduring the menacing roar of gunfire, the increasing accuracy of each successive shot?
Bethune came running from the ladder.' Captain, sir0 The general wishes to be kept informed…' He
ducked as a ball burst through the taffrail and hurled two seamen in a tangle of writhing limbs and horrifying spurts of blood?
Bolitho turned from the sight. He had been speaking to one of them just minutes ago. Now he was less than a man. Nothing?
'Tell the general to stay below and…'
He broke off as with a splintering crash the main topgallant canted over, the sail whipping madly in a web of parted rigging, while the yard itself snapped into equal halves before pitching towards the deck? Men ran in confusion until the avalanche of wood and cordage had draped itself over the larboard gangway to trail alongside in a maelstrom of spray. A man, it must have been the lookout, was hurled bodily to the topsail yard, and even above the din Bolitho heard his shrill scream, saw him roll over and fall the rest of the way to the gun deck?
Another ragged burst of cannon fire, and Tilba dashed amongst the struggling seamen, his arms flailing as he pushed and drove them with their axes to free the ship from its torn rigging?
Tyrrell shouted, 'We will have to alter course, sir!' He was yelling to make himself heard as men rushed past him, faces screwed into tight masks, their eyes blind even to the butchered corpses beside the nettings?
Bolitho stared at him.' How much water is there over those bars?'
Tyrrell seemed to think he had misheard.' At this time? Next to nothing!' He peered wildly at the sails as more jagged iron screamed amongst them?
A topman had slipped and was being suspended by his hands by two of his companions while his legs kicked helplessly in the air. Sweat, fear or a flying splinter cut the contact, and with a brief cry the man fell head over heels, seemingly very slowly, until he hit the sea by the hull. Bolitho saw him passing below the quarterdeck, arms outspread, his eyes very white as the water closed over them?
'I must risk it!' He was shouting aloud without realising it was more than a murmur.' Tack either way and that frigate will rake us!'
Tyrrell nodded jerkily.' As you say! I'll get a leadsman in th' chains and…'
Bolitho seized his arm.' No! Do that, or shorten sails and that bastard will know what we're about!' He shook him violently.' If I fall, you must try to take her through.'
A ball crashed into the nettings and sliced behind him. Splinters and fragments filled the air, and he saw Foley throw one hand to his shoulder where the epaulette had been torn cleanly away?
He faced Bolitho and said, 'Warm work, Captain.'
Bolitho stared at him, feeling that same fixed grin on his mouth and jaw like a cruel vice. Like him, the ship was acting like something beyond control, the remaining sails driving her onwards towards the hidden menace of those hard sandbars. He was banking everything on Tyrrell's knowledge, and the hope that the Frenchman was ignorant of his dangers or so blinded by all else but Sparrow's closeness to defeat that he was totally absorbed?
Yet in spite of the intermittent gunfire, the responding crashes and thuds of balls striking home, he was able to see small but important details on every side?
A badly wounded seaman, his shoulder mashed to bloody pulp, was being held in the arms of a wounded soldier. The latter was blinded from some previous fight and his face covered by bandages. But his hands seemed to stand out even in all the confusion around him. Moving and calming, shielding the sailor and groping for a flask of water to ease his suffering. And Dalkeith, his wig screwed into one pocket while he knelt beside another injured man, his fingers like scarlet claws as he felt the extent of the wound, while his eyes rested on the next victim, and the one after that?
And through it all Graves walking behind the loaded guns, chin on chest, pausing only to check a particular crew or to step astride a corpse or fallen rigging?
From forward came the frightened cry, 'I kin see the bottom!'
Bolitho ran to the nettings and pulled himself above the tightly stowed hammocks. In the bright sunlight he saw the spray bursting from the rounded bilge, trailing ropes and a complete section of a broken cutter dragging alongside. Then he saw the darting, shadowy shapes gliding deeper still, weed and rock clusters, some of which seemed to be rising towards the keel like disturbed monsters?
If she struck now the masts would be ripped out ob her, and she would plough forward, grinding and breaking open to the waiting sea?
He turned to seek out the enemy. How near she looked. Less than three cables off the quarter, her complete battery run out in readiness to finish the contest?
Buckle muttered hoarsely, 'By the living God, the Frenchie's in a safe channel!' There was a break in his voice. The bastards have done for us!'
Bolitho looked at Tyrrell.' Get the t'gallants off her.' He could not hide the despair this time?
As the men swanned aloft to shorten sail, Tyrrell shouted, 'There was nothing else you could do…'
