was really enduring.
He said, 'Your All-day is a remarkable fellow, eh? With a few hundred of his kind I might think again about a campaign in the South Americas.'
Bolitho sighed. 'He worries too much.'
Puigserver opened his eyes and smiled. 'He seems to think you are worth worrying about, Capitan.'
He leaned forward, his face suddenly intense. 'But before Raymond and the others come amongst us, I must speak. I want your opinion about the wreck. I need it.'
Bolitho walked to the bulkhead and touched the sword with his fingers.
He said, 'I have thought of little else, Senor. At first I believed the brigantine to be a pirate, her captain so confused or so in dread of his crew as to need a battle to keep them together. But I cannot believe it in my heart. Someone knew of our intentions.'
The Spaniard watched him intently. 'The French perhaps?'
'Maybe. If their government is so concerned at our movements it must mean that when they sank the Fortunate they did indeed capture her despatches intact. It would have to be something really vital to play such a dangerous game.'
Puigserver reached for the wine bottle. 'A game which did work.'
'Then you, too, are of the same mind, Senor?' He watched the man's outline, paler now against the darkened windows.
He did not reply directly. 'if, and I am only saying if, this someone intended such a course of action, he will have known we were two ships in company.' He paused and then said sharply, 'A reaction, Capitan! Quickly!'
Bolitho said, 'It would make no difference. He would realise that this is a combined mission. One ship without the other makes further progress impossible, and…
Puigserver was banging his hip with the goblet, wine slopping over his leg like blood.
He shouted excitedly, 'And? Go on, Capitan! And what?'
Bolitho looked away and replied firmly, 'I must return either to England or to Teneriffe and await further orders.'
When he looked again at the Spaniard he saw he was slumped back on the seat, his square features strained, his chest heaving as if from a fight.
Puigserver said thickly, 'When you came to Santa Cruz, I knew you were a man of thoughts and not merely of words.' He shook his head. 'Let me finish. This man, these creatures, whoever they are, who would let my people die so horribly, want you to turn back!'
Bolitho watched him, fascinated, awed by his strength. 'Without you being here, Senor.' He looked away. 'I would have had no option.'
'Exactly, Capitan.'
He peered at Bolitho over the rim of the goblet, his eyes shining in the lantern light like tawny stones.
Bolitho added, 'By the time I returned to England, and new plans were made and agreed upon, something might have happened in the East Indies or elsewhere which we could not control.'
'Give me your hand, Capitan.' He groped forward, his breathing sharper. 'In a moment I will sleep. It has been a wretched day, but far worse for many others.'
Bolitho took his hand, suddenly moved by Puigserver's obvious sincerity.
The latter asked slowly, 'How many have you in this little ship?'
Bolitho pictured the riffraff brought aboard at Spithead. The ragged men from the prison hulks, the smartly- dressed ones fleeing from some crime or other in London. The gun captain with only one hand. All of them.
He said, 'They have the makings, Senor. Two hundred, all told, including my marines.' He smiled, if only to break the tension. 'And I will sign on those of your men who have survived, if I may?'
Puigserver did not seem to hear. But his grip was like iron as he said, 'Two hundred, eh?'
He nodded grimly. 'It will be sufficient.'
Bolitho watched him. 'We go on, Senor?'
'You are ey Capitan now. What do you say?'
Bolitho smiled. 'But you know already, Senor.'
Puigserver gave a great sigh. 'If you will send that fool Raymond in to me, and your clerk, I will put my seal on this new undertaking.' His voice hardened. 'Today I saw and heard many men die in fear and horror. Whatever made that foul deed necessary, I intend to set the record right. And when I do, Capitan, I will make it a reckoning which our enemies will long remember.'
There was a tap at the door and Midshipman Armitage stood outlined by the swinging lantern in the passageway.
'Mr. Herrick's respects, sir. The wind's freshening from the nor'-east.' He faltered, like a child repeating a lesson to his tutor.
'I will come up directly.'
Bolitho thought suddenly of Mudge, how he had prophesied a better wind. He would be up there with Herrick, waiting for the night's orders. Armitage's message told him all that and more. Whatever was decided now might settle the fate of the ship and every man aboard.
He looked at Puigserver. 'It is settled then, Senor?'
'Yes, Capitan.' He was getting more drowsy. 'You can leave me now. And send Raymond before I sleep like some drunken goatherd.'
Bolitho followed the midshipman from his cabin, noting how stiffly the sentry at the door was holding his musket. He had probably been listening, and by tonight it would be all over the ship. Not merely a voyage to display the Navy's reach in foreign parts, but one with a real prospect of danger. He smiled grimly as he reached the quarterdeck ladder. It might make gun drill less irksome for them in future.
He found Herrick and Mudge near the helm, the master with a shaded lantern held over his slate, upon which he made his surprisingly neat calculations.
Bolitho walked up the weather side, looking aloft at the bulging canvas, hearing the sea creaming along the hull like water in a mill sluice.
Then he returned to where they were waiting and said, 'You may shorten sail for the night, Mr. Herrick. Tomorrow you can sign on any of the Nervion's people you find suitable.' He paused as another frantic cry floated up from the orlop deck. 'Though I fear it may not be many.'
Herrick asked, 'We are not going about then, sir?'
Mudge exclaimed, 'An' a good thing, too, if I may say so, sir.' He rubbed his bulging rump with one hand. 'Me rheumatism will sheer off when we gets to a 'otter climate.'
Bolitho looked at Herrick. 'We go forward, Thomas. To finish what was begun back there on the reef.'
Herrick seemed satisfied. 'I'm for that.'
He made to walk to the rail where a bosun's mate awaited his orders, but Bolitho stopped him, saying, 'From this night on, Thomas, we must keep our wits about us. No unnecessary pauses for fresh water if prying eyes are nearby. We will ration every drop if necessary, and stand or fall by our own resources. But we must stay clear of the land where an enemy might betray our course or intentions. If, as I now believe, someone is working against us, we must use his methods against him. Gain ourselves time by every ruse we can invent.'
Herrick nodded. 'That makes good sense, sir.'
'Then I hope it may seem so to our people.' He walked to the weather side. 'You may carry on now.'
Herrick turned away. 'Call the hands. We will shorten sail.'
As the shouts echoed between decks and the seamen came dashing on to the gangways, Herrick said, 'I almost forgot, sir. Mrs. Raymond is worried about her accommodation.'
'It is arranged.' He paused and watched the hands scampering to the shrouds. 'Don Puigserver will sleep in the main cabin. Mrs. Raymond can retain her own cot with the maid.'
Herrick sounded cautious. 'I doubt she will like that, sir.'
Bolitho continued his pacing. 'Then she may say so, Mr. Herrick. And when she does I will explain what I think of a woman so pampered she will not lift a finger to help a dying man!'
A master's mate strode along the gangway. 'All mustered, sir!'
Herrick was still watching the pacing figure, the open white shirt clearly etched against the nettings and the sea beyond. In the next few weeks Undine would get much smaller, he thought.
