`Begging your pardon, sir.' Stockdale looked at Bolitho sadly. 'They've already got a strong anchor party in the bows looking out for trouble!'
Bolitho smiled coldly. `I'm not surprised.' He gestured to the others. `Come, we have little time.' As they crept along the passageway he added, `Remember that nine-pounder on the forecastle, Mr. Farquhar?'
Farquhar nodded, his eyes gleaming. `Yes, sir. One of the bow-chasers!'
Bolitho paused below a narrow ladder, straining his eyes towards the hatch above. It might just work. They would all die for their efforts, but he knew that each man now understood that well enough.
He said quietly, `The gun was lashed there while the rail was being repaired from Phalarope's mauling. If it were cut loose now, in this gale, it would run amuck like a maddened bullock!'
Belsey sucked his teeth. 'My God! A nine-pounder weighs well over a ton! It'd take a bit of holding down!'
Bolitho said, 'If I cut the lashings, Stockdale, could you…’
The man grinned down at him. `Say no more, Captain!' He swung the heavy axe. `Just a few minutes is all I'd need!'
`A few minutes are all you'll get, my lad!' Bolitho eased himself up the ladder and peered through the hatch. Again the whole deck area was deserted. He stared up the next and final ladder and then said, `You can stay behind, Belsey. You can't fight with one arm.'
`Nor can I sit an' do nothin', sir!' Belsey eyed him stubbornly. `Never mind me, sir. I can still do a bit.'
Any sound made by their stealthy. footsteps was drowned by the creak of spars and the thrumming rattle of shrouds and rigging. Bolitho peered quickly at the nearest line of lashed guns and the shadowed shapes of their crews. Most of the men were lying on the deck or resting against the bulwark, and only a few were still on their feet. And they were watching outboard, their eyes only just raised above the hammock nettings.
Bolitho saw the solitary nine-pounder, its long outline jutting aft towards the maindeck. He could hear it creaking gently, as if angered by the lashings which held it tethered and impotent beside the capstan.
Bolitho brushed the sweat from his eyes and cursed the painful beating of his heart against his ribs. It was now or never. At any moment they would be seen for what they were and the gesture would have been in vain. While the others 'watched him with fixed fascination he stood up and sauntered openly towards the gun. Then he seated himself noisily on the deck and folded his arms across his chest as if trying to sleep.
Farquhar said between his teeth, `God, look at him! Surely one of those men will realise who he is?'
But the very openness of Bolitho's movements seemed to have killed any immediate interest, and while the Andiron rolled from one sickening arc to another the ship's forecastle remained quiet and undisturbed.
Belsey turned on his side by the hatch roaming and croaked, `Look! There's an officer coming!'
They watched in stricken silence as the blue and white shape of a ship's lieutenant made its way slowly forward from the maindeck towards the forecastle ladder. The officer had to pause halfway up the ladder as a heavier squall than usual struck the ship's side with a crash of spray which made the foremast vibrate like a young tree.
Then Stockdale who had turned his gaze back to Bolitho said, `He's done it!'
As the frigate's bows lifted and yawed against her anchor cable the nine pounder began to move. At first the movement was hardly noticeable, then with its small chocks squealing it thundered down the full length of the forecastle to smash with shivering force against the foot of the foremast.
Everyone was yelling and shouting at once. Some of the shouts changed to cries of fear as the gun swung malevolently as if controlled by invisible hands and then charged crazily back across the sloping deck.
The lieutenant called, `You men! Get handspikes and fresh lashings! Lively there, or it'll smash through the sidel'
The anchor watch rose from their concealed positions and ran back from the bows to join the stampede of men at the break of the forecastle. In the centre of the confusion, jubilant and deadly, the long nine pounder turned its muzzle as if to sniff out new havoc, and then careered squeaking and rumbling towards the opposite side. It crashed against another gun and scattered a shot rack like loose pebbles. The rolling cannon balls added to the pandemonium, and some could be heard thudding on to the deck below.
A braver seaman than some leapt across the gun's breech, his hands already fastening a rope's eye around the muzzle. But as the gun trundled back again he screamed and fell against the bulwark to receive the twenty-six hundredweight of wood and metal full on his chest.
Bolitho seized Farquhar's arm-and snapped, 'Look! They've got a wedge under the carriage! We've not long now.'
Even as he spoke some of the seamen around the gun turned and stared, their expressions of shock and disbelief changing to cold fury. Bolitho and his two companions slowly retreated towards the bows, the wind and sea at their backs, a converging mass of men driving towards them, all the more terrible because of their complete silence.
Then, to break the spell, a man bellowed, 'Kill them! Cut the bastards down!'
Pressed on by the men behind, the whole mob swept forward, only to sway to an uncertain halt as something like a gunshot. echoed around the deck, followed instantly by Stockdal's great shout of triumph.
'It's parted! The cable's cut!'
For a moment longer the Andiron's seamen stared at one another, and then as the realisation of their unexpected peril dawned on their minds they hesitated no longer. An officer was yelling from the maindeck, and the cry was carried forward by men who had still managed to keep their heads.
'Hands aloft! Hands aloftl Loose tops'ls!'
From aft Bolitho heard his brother's voice magnified and hardened by his speaking trumpet. 'Man the wheel there!' And then as the ship trembled from stem to stem like a released animal he shouted, 'Mr. Faulknerl Drive those men to the braces!'
Bolitho leaned against the rail, the dirk still held across his body as the frigate heeled still further and began to fall away. Men were running wildly up the shrouds, and already a small patch of canvas was billowing and flapping against the dark sky.
The speaking trumpet called again. 'Cover those men on the fo'c's'le! Shoot them down if they try to escape!'
Belsey wiped his forehead and muttered, 'If our lads is out there they'll not want to try an' board!' He peered at Bolitho's tense face. 'I can die in peace now, sir! I reckon we did right well tonight!'
Bolitho saw his face light up with a bright orange glow, and as he turned in surprise the air around him seemed to come alive with the searing whine of gunshot. Stays and halyards parted, and beyond his feet the deck planking splintered and cracked as a thousand balls swept across the forepart of the ship.
Farquhar pointed. `Look! The battery has fired on us!' He waved his hat. `The stupid fools have fired on their own men!'
Bolitho pulled him down. 'And us! So keep your head lowered, Mr. Farquhar. You may have use for it still!'
There was no further gunfire, but the one, carefully loaded salvo was sufficient. The prompt action by the Andiron's officers and the quick response of her more level-headed sailors might have taken her clear of danger. But as the whining barrage of grapeshot swept her shrouds and yards free of men and cut down some of the hands still cramming her maindeck, the last opportunity was lost. The black outline of Dogwood Point appeared to grow double in size until the ship was dwarfed beneath it. Even then it looked as if the wind and tide would carry her clear, but as Bolitho pulled his gaping companions to the deck the Andiron gave a long-drawn-outshudder, followed instantly by a tremendous crash which threw the remaining seamen from their feet.
Belsey stared up at the sky and crossed himself. 'The mainmast is fallin'! My God, so is the mizzen!'
Fascinated, Bolitho watched the two great masts shiver and then bow very slowly towards the starboard side. Then as stays parted and the angle became more acute the masts thundered down in a flapping tangle of spars and torn sails to plunge eventually into the white-crested water alongside.
Another crash and yet another shook the bull, and while the deck tilted more and more towards the sea Bolitho dragged himself to his feet and shouted, 'She's hard on the sandbar! She'll break her back and capsize in minutes!'
He could hear guns tearing themselves from their lashings and charging across the deck to carve through the screaming, struggling remnants of their late masters. There was to hope of lowering a boat, and nobody even attempted it. Already some were leaping overboard, to be swept away instantly in the strong current. Others ran below as if to find safety in the darkness, and all around voices cried and pleaded, threatened and cursed as their
