shouting, but his voice was matched by the surge ob water alongside.' You were worried about Fawn?' He cursed as his foot slipped and then clapped his hands to his thigh?
Bolitho supported him and waited for the hull to sway upright again?
'Easy, Jethro! Is it painful?'
Tyrrell showed his teeth.' Dalkeith said there might be some small splinters left in th' bone. Them pistol balls can split open when they cut into a man.' He stood up gingerly and grimaced.' Not too bad.'
Bolitho watched the topmen slithering down stays and shrouds and then said, 'Yes. I suppose I did want it. I cannot explain my fears.' He shrugged and added. 'So I will not try.'
He pushed his uncertainties away.' Now, Jethro, I want our people to have breakfast and a tot ob blackstrap. No sense in waiting for daylight, and] imagine they are too well drenched to sleep just now.' He ticked off the points on his fingers.' Then have the fires doused, and muster the hands at quarters. We will not clear for action, but I intend that every available man is on deck when we cross the bar.'
Tyrrell was watching him intently.' What about Heyward? Are you going to log him?'
Bolitho shook his head.' He's learned his lesson, so there's no harm done. When I was a junior lieutenant] once fell asleep on watch.' His teeth showed white in the darkness.' I'm not proud of the fact, but by God] never did it again!'
He moved to the hatch cover and paused.' I will go below and get into some clothes. It'll never do for our people to see their captain like this in daylight.' He laughed, the sound carrying up to a solitary man working on the mainyard.' I may live like a savage, but] see no cause to look like one!'
Tyrrell turned back to the rail, easing his leg as the pain lanced through it. He had just seen yet another Bolitho. Naked to the waist, his black hair plastered over his forehead, he had looked as young, if not younger than Heyward. In such a moment Tyrrell had been touched by his concern for the hands as he had been impressed by his cheerful recklessness over the approaching sandbars?
Heyward came from the gun deck and waited to resume his duty?
Tyrrell said, 'Dismiss th' watch below. Then have the petty officers lay aft for instructions.'
Heyward asked glumly, 'Will this go badly for me?'
Tyrrell clapped him on the arm.' God, boy, no!' He laughed at his astonishment.' You did th' cap'n a favour! If you had called him earlier he'd have been forced to change tack. Your mistake allowed him to take another course of action.' He strolled away whistling to himself, his bare feet slapping on the spray-drenched planking?
Heyward walked up the tilting deck and joined Buckle by the wheel?
'I don't think I understand.'
Buckle studied him dubiously.' Well, don't you try, that's my advice.' He shuffled towards the hatch and added, 'An' next time you feels like playing God with my ship, I'd be obliged if you'd pass the word first.'
Heyward glanced at the compass and crossed to the weather side. There was more to being lieutenant of the watch than holding a commission, he decided wearily. He looked at the taut mainsail and grimaced. It had been a near thing, and at one time he had felt stricken by the swift change of events, so that he had imagined the ship was running wild, carrying him and all aboard like some uncontrollable juggernaut. Now, in these last moments, he had learned something. If it all happened again he would know what to do. Of that he was quite certain?
Stockdale was waiting in the cabin with Bolitho's shirt, and after handing him a towel asked, 'Did you really fall asleep on watch, sir?'
Bolitho rubbed his chest and arms, feeling the salt drying on his lips like another skin?
'Almost.' Was nothing secret from Stockdale? 'Bu?
we have to embroider things a little sometimes.'
He stepped out of his sodden breeches and threw them across the cabin. As he continued to towel his naked body he listened to Heyward's measured tread across the deck above?
Then he added quietly, 'I once knew of a lieutenant who beat a man for giving a false report from the masthead. After that the seaman was too frightened to say anything, and when there was danger he held his tongue for fear he would get another beating. As a result, the ship was driven ashore and the lieutenant drowned.'
Stockdale watched him warily.' Serve 'im right.'
Bolitho sighed. Moralising was wasted on Stockdale?
The big coxswain shook out a clean pair ob breeches and handed them across. For another minute or so he did not speak, but his forehead was wrinkled in thought?
Then he asked, 'An' wot 'appened to the seaman, sir?'
Bolitho stared at him.' I am afraid he was flogged for neglect of duty.'
Stockdale's battered face lit up in a broad grin?
'Proves me point then, don't it, sir? There ain't no justice in th' world for any of us!'
Bolitho sat down, one leg still tangled in the breeches. As was often the case, Stockdale had had the last word?
12. A Twist Of Fate
LIEUTENANT Tyrrell gripped the quarterdeck rail and peered fixedly along the starboard gangway?
'God damn this mist!' He leaned across the rails straining his eyes forward in an effort to see beyond the forecastle.' And God damn our luck!'
Bolitho said nothing but moved to the opposite side of the deck. Since before dawn, when with leads going and every ear and eye pitched to the shouted depths, the sounds of distant surf and the occasional feather ob warning spray in the darkness, he had been aware ob
the thickening sea mist. It was not unusual in these waters at the time of year, but he had expected it to pass quickly, to clear with the first hint of morning sunlight?
Now, as he stared abeam, he knew it was thicker than ever. Moving steadily with the wind, it wreathed between the shrouds and seemed to cling to the rigging like pale weed. Above the topsail yards he could see nothing, and apart from a clear patch ob water below the quarterdeck, the sea was equally hidden. Keeping pace with the ship's cautious progress, the mist cut away all impression ob movement, so that it felt as if Sparrow was suspended in cloud like some phantom vessel?
A voice below the quarterdeck called, 'By th' mark five!'
The seaman's call was hushed as the sounding was passed from mouth to mouth from the leadsmen in the forechains. Once over the bar, Bolitho had ordered the ship to be cleared for action, and with the enfolding mist shutting out both sight and sound, it was necessary to take every precaution?
He glanced at the maintopsail again. It was drawing quite well, taking the sloop steadily across the shallows, the flapping canvas shining with moisture in the grey light to show that somewhere above the mist there was a sun and maybe a sight of land, too?
'Deep four!'
Bolitho walked aft to the wheel where Buckle stood with his men, the mist moving through his splayed legs and making him appear like a spectre?
He stiffened as Bolitho approached and reported, 'She's holding well, sir. Sou' by east as afore.'
From the gun deck came a scrape of wood, and when he turned Bolitho saw one of the long sweeps swaying above the water before coming into line with the rest. He had ordered the sweeps to be run out an hour earlier, for if the wind dropped or they came upon some unexpected shoal, they would be the only means of working clear?
'Deck there!' The masthead's voice seemed to come from the mist itself.' Ship on th' starboard quarter!'
Bolitho stared upwards, aware for the first time that the mist was tinged yellow like a North Sea fog?
Sunlight at last. Far above the deck, isolated by a layer of mist, the lookout had sighted another vessel?
He saw Tyrrell and the others watching him, caught in their various attitudes by the lookout's sharp call?
Bolitho said, 'I shall go aloft, Mr. Tyrrell.' He unbuckled his sword and handed it to Stockdale? 'Keep good watch and ensure that the anchor can be dropped instantly if need be.'
He hurried to the gangway, his mind torn between the unexpected sighting of a strange ship and his rising
