rest of the crew and Rennie's marines, Onslow was still in a position of king. Even a handful of men could keep boats at bay with the frigate's guns loaded with grape. He glanced at the sun. It would be hours yet before Okes started on the long march back to the beach.
He said slowly. `So it was you all the time.'
Another man, small and stinking of rum, capered round the two officers. `He done it all! Just as 'e said 'e would!'
Onslow snarled, `Stow it, Pock!' Then more calmly, `Your clerk told me when the ship was nearing land. All I had to do was foul the fresh-water casks with salt.' He laughed, amused by the very simplicity of his plan. `Then, when you headed this way, I killed that rat Evans.'
Bolitho said, `You must have been afraid of Aliday to incriminate him with murder!'
Onslow glanced along the deck and then said calmly, 'It was necessary. I knew if the bullocks were still aboard some of my white-livered friends might not be so willing to sieze the ship!' He shrugged. `So I had Allday released, and the bullocks went charging off after him. Just as I knew they would!'
`You've damned yourself, Onslow!' Bolitho kept his voice level. `But think of these other men with you. Will you see them hanged?'
Onslow shouted, `Shut your mouth! And -think yourself lucky I've not had you strung up at the mainyard! I'm going to barter the ship for our freedom! No bloody navy'll catch us after that!'
Bolitho hardened his tone to hide his rising despair. `You are a fool if you believe that!'
His head jerked back as Onslow struck him across the face with the back of his hand. `Silence!' Onslow's shout brought more men pressing around. Herrick was dragged to his feet and his hands were pinioned behind him. He was still dazed, and his face was streaming with blood.
Bolitho said, `You can send the officers ashore. They are nothing to you, Onslow.'
'Ah now, Captain; you're wrong there!' Onslow's good humour was returning. `Hostages. You may fetch a good price, too!' He laughed. `But then you must be getting used to that!'
Pook yelled, `Why not kill 'em now?' He waved a cutlass. `Let me have 'em!'
Onslow looked at Bolitho. `You see? Only I can save you.1 'What have you done with the first lieutenant? Bolitho saw
Pook nudge another seaman. `Have you killed him, too?' Pook sniggered. `Not likely! We're savin' 'im for a bit o' sport later on!'
Onslow flexed his arms. `He's flogged enough of us, Captain. I'll see how he likes the cat across his fat hide!'
Herrick muttered between his clenched teeth, `Think of what you're doing! You are selling this ship to the enemy!'
`You're my enemy!' Onslow's nostrils flared as. if he had been touched with a hot iron. `I'll do what I like. with her, and with you, too!'
Bolitho said quietly, 'Easy, Mr. Herrick. There is nothing you can do:'
`Spoken like a true gentleman!' Onslow gave a slow grin. `It's best to know when you're beaten!' Then sharply he called, `Lock them below, lads! And kill the first bugger who tries anything!'
Some of the men growled with obvious disapproval. Their lust was high. They were all committed. Bolitho knew that Onslow's careful plan was only half clear in their rum-sodden minds.
Onslow added, `As soon as the wind gets up, we're off, lads! You can leave the rest to Harry Onslow!'
Herrick and Bolitho were pushed along the deck and down into the dark confines of a small storeroom. A moment later Midshipman Neale and Proby, the master, were thrust in with them and the door slammed shut.
High up the side of the cabin was a small circular port, used to ventilate the compartment and the stores it normally contained. Bolitho guessed that the mutineers had already dragged the contents elsewhere for their own uses.
In the darkness Neale sobbed, `I-I'm sorry, sir! I let you down! I was on watch when it all happened!'
Bolitho said quietly, `It was not your fault, boy. The odds were against you this time. It was just ironic that Onslow stayed aboard because he could not be trusted off the ship!'
Neale said brokenly, 'Mr. Vibart was in his cabin. They seized him and nearly killed him! Onslow stopped them just in time!'
Herrick said bleakly, `Not for long!' Then with sudden fury, `The fools! The French or the Spanish will never bargain with Onslow! They won't have to. They'll seize the Phalarope and take the whole lot prisoners!'
Bolitho said, `I know that, Herrick. But if the mutineers began to think as you do, they'd have no reason for sparing our lives!'
`I see, sir.' Herrick was peering at him in the gloom. `And I thought..
`You imagined that I had given up hope?' Bolitho breathed out slowly. `Not yet. Not without a fight!'
He stood up on an empty box and peered through the small vent hole. The ship had swung slightly at her cable and he could see the far end of the little beach and a low hill beyond. There was no sign of life. Nor had he expected any.
Proby muttered, `Two of the mutineers I know well. Good men, with no cause to follow scum like Onslow and Pook!' He added thickly, `It'll do 'em no good. They'll be caught and hanged with the rest!'
Herrick slipped and cursed in the darkness. `Damn!' He groped with his fingers. `Some old butter! Rancid as bilge water!'
Bolitho cocked his head to listen to the sudden stamp of feet and a wave of laughter. `They've taken more than butter, Mr. Herrick. They'll be too drunk to control soon!' He thought of the knife's glitter across Neale's throat. Soon the second phase would be enacted. The mutineers. would get bored with merely drinking. They would have to prove themselves. To kill.
He said, `Can you come up here beside me, Neale?' He felt the midshipman struggling on to the box. `Now, do you think you could get through that vent?'
Neale's eyes flickered in the shaft of sunlight. He replied doubtfully, `It's very small, sir.' Then more firmly, `I'll try!'
Proby asked, `What do you have in mind, sir?'
Bolitho ran his hands across the circular hole. It was barely ten inches across. He controlled the rising excitement in his heart. It had to be tried.
He said, `If Neale could slip through…: He broke off. The butter! Quick, Neale, strip off your clothes!' He reached out for Herrick. `We'll rub him with butter, Herrick, and ease him through, like a sponge in a gun barrel!'
Neale pulled off his clothes and stood uncertainly in the centre of the storeroom. In the faint glow from the vent hole his small body shone like some discarded statue. Bolitho took a double handful of stinking butter from the deck and ignoring Neale's cry of alarm slapped it across his shoulders. As Herrick followed suit Bolitho said quickly, 'The loyal men, Neale, where are they?'
Neale's teeth were beginning to chatter uncontrollably but he replied, 'In the cable tier, sir. The surgeon and some of the older hands as well.'
'Just as I thought.' Bolitho stood back and wiped his palms on his breeches. `Now listen. If we get you through this hole, could you climb along the forechains?'
Neale nodded. 'I'll try, sir.'
'The others will be locked in the tier by staple. If I can distract the guards you open the door and release them.' He rested his hand on the boy's shoulder. 'But if anyone sees you, forget what I said and jump for it. You could swim ashore before anyone could catch you.'
He turned to the others. 'Right, lend a hand here!'
Neale felt like a greasy fish, and at the first attempt they nearly dropped him.
Herrick suggested, 'One arm first, Neale, then your head.'
They tried again, with the room plunged into total darkness as the struggling, wriggling midshipman was forced into the vent hole.
The boy was gasping with pain, and Proby said, 'Lucky he ain't no fatter.'
Then, with a sudden rush he was through, and after a few agonising seconds, while they all waited for a shouted challenge from the deck, his eyes appeared outside the vent hole. He was scarlet in the face and his shoulder was bleeding from the rough passage.
