think I can evaluate the extent of this information!' He turned again to Trevenen. 'Are you sure now?'
The wrinkled head nodded violently. 'No mistake about it, sir!' He looked up, his faded eyes filling his face. 'In all my years, sir, I never..
'I know, Mr. Trevenen, you just told us.' Bolitho added to Vibart sharply, 'Have the casks checked for yourself, Mr. Vibart. Separate the fresh ones from the others, and see that the salt water is drained away and the wood cleaned off.'
He strode to the chart and leaned across it, his face set in a deep frown. 'We are here.' He tapped the chart with the heavy dividers. 'Fifty miles south-west of Guadeloupe, give or take a mile.' He picked up his ruler and ran it across the thick parch ment. 'There are some small islands to the south of us. Uninhabited and useless except for wrecking the unwary sailor.' He made a small cross on the chart and stood up. 'Call the hands and prepare to wear ship, Mr. Vibart. This breeze, slight though it is, will suit our purpose.'
He looked across at Trevenen. 'Whatever the reason for this, be it seepage or sheer carelessness, we must have water, and quickly! So prepare your party to take on a fresh supply.'
Trevenen blinked at him. He looked like a man who had just heard of a miracle at first hand.
Bolitho continued, 'We should make a landfall within two days, sooner if the wind finds us again. I have visited these islands before.' He touched the scar beneath the dark forelock of hair. 'There are streams and quite reliable pools on some of them.'
Vibart said heavily, 'The admiral gave no orders about leaving our station, sir:
'Would you have the men die of thirst, Mr. Vibart?' Bolitho stared down at the chart again. 'But if you are worried I will have my clerk make an entry in the patrol report today.' He smiled wryly. 'Should I vanish again, you will have the necessary shield from Sir Robert's anger!'
Ellice said dreamily, 'I was in a ship once when this 'appened. Two of the seamen ran amuck for want of water!'
Vibart snarled, 'Well you at least will be untroubled by that, I imagine!'
Bolitho smiled in spite of his. troubled thoughts. 'Carry on, Mr. Vibart. Have the hands mustered to their stations. I will be up directly.' He watched the door quiver in its frame and then said to Ellice, 'You asked for that, Mr. Ellice!'
The surgeon was unmoved. 'With all due respect to the first lieutenant, sir, but he was too long aboard a- slaver, if you ask me. To 'im men is just bloody extra cargo!'
'That will do, Mr. Ellice.' Bolitho glanced at the decanter.
As if by magic it had emptied during his talk with Trevenen.
'I suggest you take a turn around the maindeck.'
Ellice peered at him uncertainly. Then he grinned. 'Aye, sir. So I will. It'll give me a fair appetite!' He ambled away, his shabby coat hanging around him like a sack. Rain or fine, sun or sheeting, squalls, Ellice was never dressed differently.
Some had even suggested he slept in his clothes.
Bolitho dismissed him from his mind as the pipes shrilled and the decks thudded with bare feet as the men ran to their stations for wearing ship.
Within an hour the Phalarope had gone about, her sails flat and listless in the relentless glare. But in spite of the outward stillness there was enough power in the breeze to cause a small ripple beneath her gilt figurehead, and at the mainmast truck the commissioning pendant flapped and whipped with lonely agitation, as if it commanded the only strength the wind had to offer.
Lieutenant Herrick walked slowly aft along the maindeck, his eyes moving from side to side as he watched the men flaking down ropes and putting a last tautness in sheets and braces. He knew that they were discussing the news about the contaminated water, and other things beside, but as he passed even the usually friendly ones fell silent. The past two weeks of heat and dull discomfort were showing their teeth now, he decided. No one complained or grumbled any more. That was the worst sign of all.
He halted as Midshipman Maynard appeared below the quarterdeck and leaned heavily on a twelve-pounder. Beneath his tan his thin features were as bale as death, and his legs looked as if they were near collapse.
Herrick crossed to his side. `What is it, lad? Are you ill?'
Maynard turned and stared at him, his eyes opaque with fear. For a moment he could not speak, then the words poured from his dry lips in a flood.
`I've just come from below, sir.' He screwed up his face. 'I was sent down to the orlop to fetch Mr. Evans.' He swallowed hard and tried to speak coherently. 'I found him in his cabin, sir.' He retched,and swayed against the gun.
Herrick gripped his arm and whispered fiercely, 'Go on, lad! What the hell is wrong?'
'Dead!' The word was wrung from his lips. 'My God, sir! He's been cut to pieces!' He stared at Herrick's grim features, reliving, the nightmare of his discovery. He repeated faintly, 'Cut to pieces.'
'Keep your voice down!' Herrick struggled to control his shocked thoughts. In a calmer tone he called, 'Mr. Quintal! Take Mr. Maynard aft and see that he is kept alone!'
The boatswain, caught in the act of reprimanding a seaman, stared from one to the other. He touched his forehead and said gruffly, `Aye, aye, sir.' Then he asked quietly, 'Is somethin' up, sir?'
Herrick looked at Quintal's broad, competent face and answered flatly, 'It seems that the purser is dead, Mr. Quintall' He saw the quick start of alarm in the man's eyes and added, `Show no sign! This ship is like a tinderbox as it is.'
Herrick watched the boatswain leading the young midshipman into the shadow of the quarterdeck and then glanced quickly around him. Everything looked as it had two minutes earlier.
Lieutenant Okes had the watch and was standing at the quarterdeck rail, his eyes up at the topsails. Further aft Herrick could just see the captain in conversation with Vibart and Rennie, while at the wheel the two helmsmen looked as if they had been at their posts since time began.
Herrick walked slowly towards the lower cabin hatch. He made himself move calmly, but his heart felt as if it was in his throat.
With all hands employed trimming sails the lower deck was deserted and strangely alien. A few lanterns swung on their hooks, and as he began to climb down the second and last ladder Herrick could sense an air of menace and danger. Even so, he was totally unprepared for the sight in the purser's tiny cabin.
Deep in the hull of the ship the stillness was all the more apparent, and the solitary lantern on the low deckhead cast a steady circle of light on a scene which made Herrick's throat choke with bile. Evans, the purser, must have been secreting a, bag of flour for his own private uses when his assailant had struck him down. He lay spread-eagled on the upended sack, his eyes bright in the lamplight, while from his severed throat a great torrent of dark blood seeped and congealed in the scattered flour. There was blood everywhere, and as Herrick stared with fixed horror at the corpse at his feet he saw that Evans had been stabbed and slashed as if by some crazed beast.
He leaned against the door and touched his face with his hand. His palm felt cold and clammy, and he thought of young Maynard alone with this appalling spectacle. No one could have blamed him if he had rushed screaming to the upperdeck.
'My God!' Herrick's voice hung in the gloom in a mocking echo. He almost cried out again as a foot rasped on the ladder behind him, but as he groped blindly for his pistol he saw that it was Captain Rennie, his scarlet coat like reflection of the blood on the cabin deck.
Rennie brushed past him and stared fixedly at the corpse. Then he said coldly, `I'll put two of my best men on guard here. The cabin must be sealed until there has been an investigation.' He eyed Herrick meaningly. `You know what this means, don't you?
Herrick felt himself nod. `I do.' He pulled himself together. `I'll go and tell the captain.'
As he climbed up the ladder Rennie called quietly, `Easy, Thomas. There will be at least one guilty man watching your face on deck!'
Herrick glanced back at the open cabin door, making himself form a final picture of the murdered man. `I suppose I was expecting something like this.' He bit his lip. 'But when it comes, it's still a shock.'
Rennie watched him go and then stepped carefully over the glaring corpse. Ignoring the thing by his polished boots he began to search methodically amongst the scattered souvenirs of the purser's life.
Herrick's face was like stone as he crossed to the weather side of the quarterdeck to where Bolitho was still
