With All Despatch

Chesshyre rapped, 'Keep your voice down for Christ's sake, man.'

Bolitho gripped his arm; it was shaking so violently that he knew the man was terrified.

'Where is the blind man? Did he not come?'

'Yes, yes!' He was babbling. 'He's here, right enough. I did just what the major told me-now I'm off afore someone sees me!'

A seaman strode along the path. ''Ere 'e is, sir.' He directed his remarks to the master but they were intended for Bolitho.

'Don't go too close, sir. 'E stinks like a dead pig.'

Bolitho walked away from the others, but heard Chesshyre following at a careful distance.

The blind man was squatting on the ground, his head thrown back, his eyes covered by a bandage.

Bolitho knelt beside him. 'I am Captain Bolitho. Major Craven said you would help me.'

The man moved his head from side to side, then reached out and held Bolitho's arm. Through the coat sleeve his fingers felt like steel talons.

'I need your aid.' Bolitho's stomach rebelled, but he knew this contact was his only hope. The blind man stank of filth and dried sweat, and he was almost grateful for the darkness.

'Bolitho?' The man moved his head again as if trying to peer through the bandage. 'Bolitho?' He had a high piping voice, and it was impossible to determine his age.

Chesshyre said thickly, 'The poor bugger's off his head, sir.'

Bolitho retorted, 'Wouldn't you be?'

He tried again. 'That night. When they did this to you.' He felt the hand jerk free, as if it and not its owner was in terror. 'What did you see? I wouldn't ask, but they took a friend of mine-you understand?'

'See?' The blind man felt vaguely in the grass. 'They took a long while. All th' time they laughed at me.' He shook his head despairingly. 'When the fire was lit they branded my body, an'- an' then-'

Bolitho looked away, sickened. But he was so near to Allday now. This poor, demented creature was all he had. But he felt as if he were applying torture, as they had once done to him.

'I used to watch for 'em. Sometimes they come with pack-horses-bold as brass, they was. Other times they brought men, deserters. That night-'

Chesshyre said, 'He knows nowt, sir.' He peered around at the trees. 'He should be put out of his misery.'

The man turned as if to examine the Telemachus's master, then said in a flat, empty voice, 'I bin there since, y'know.' He wrapped his arms around his ragged body and cackled. 'I was that well acquaint with the place!'

Bolitho kept his voice level. 'What place? Please help me. I shall see you are rewarded.'

The man turned on him with unexpected venom. 'I don't want yer stinkin' gold! I just wants revenge for what they done to me!'

Chesshyre bent over him and said, 'Captain Bolitho is a fine an' brave officer. Help him as you will, and I swear he'll take care of you.'

The man cackled again. It was an eerie sound, and Bolitho could imagine the small party of seamen drawing together nearby.

Chesshyre added, 'What's your name?'

The man cowered away. 'I'm not sayin'!' He peered towards Bolitho and then seized his arm again. 'I don't 'ave to, do I?' He sounded frantic.

'No.' Bolitho's heart sank. The link was too fragile to last. It was another hope gone wrong.

In a surprisingly clear voice the blind man said, 'Then I'll take you.'

Bolitho stared at him. 'When?'

'Now, o' course!' His reply was almost scornful. 'Don't want the 'ole o' Sheppey to know, does we?'

Chesshyre breathed out loudly. 'Well, I'll be double-damned!'

That, too, was what Herrick said when he was taken aback.

Bolitho took the man's filthy hand. 'Thank you.'

The bandaged head moved warily from side to side. 'Not with nobody else though!'

Christie the boatswain's mate murmured, 'Not bloody askin' for much, is 'e?'

Bolitho looked at Chesshyre. 'I must do as he asks. I must trust him. He is all I have.'

Chesshyre turned away from his men. 'But it's asking for trouble, sir. He may be raving mad, or someone might have put him up to it, like the fellow who brought him here, eh, sir?'

Bolitho walked to the men who were guarding the messenger. 'Did you tell anybody about this?' To himself he thought, more to the point, will he tell someone after he has left us?

'I swear, sir, on my baby's life-I swear I've told nobody!'

Bolitho turned to Chesshyre. 'All the same, take him aboard when you leave. I think he is too frightened to betray anyone at the moment, but should the worst happen and you discover it, see that he is handed to Major Craven's dragoons.' His voice sharpened. 'He can join the other felons at the crossroads if it comes to that.'

Chesshyre asked desperately, 'What shall I say to Mr Paice, sir?'

Bolitho looked at him in the darkness. Then he raised his voice and saw the bandaged head move towards him again. 'Tell him I am with a friend, and that we are both in God's hands.'

Chesshyre seemed unable to grasp it. 'I just don't know, sir. In all my service-'

'There is always a first time, Mr Chesshyre. Now be off with you.'

He watched as the sailors began to fade away into the shadows and noticed how they seemed to pass him as closely as they could before they groped their way to the fox's path. To see for themselves, as if for the last time.

Chesshyre held out his hand. It was hard, like leather. 'May God indeed be at the helm this night, sir.' Then he was gone.

Bolitho reached down and aided the man to his feet. 'I am ready when you are.'

He felt light-headed, even sick, and his mouth was suddenly quite dry. This man might only think he knew where he was going, his mind too broken to distinguish fact from fantasy.

The blind man picked up a heavy piece of wood, a branch found somewhere in the course of his despairing ramblings.

Then he said in his strange, piping voice, 'This way.' He hesitated. 'Watch yer step. There's a stile up yonder.'

Bolitho swallowed hard. Who was the blind one now?

An hour later they were still walking, pausing only for the bandaged head to turn this way and that. To gather his bearings, to listen for some sound, Bolitho did not know. Perhaps he was already lost.

He heard dogs barking far away, and once he almost fell with alarm as some birds burst from the grass almost under his feet.

The blind man waited for him to catch up, muttering, 'Over yonder! Wot d'you see?'

Bolitho stared through the darkness and discovered a deeper blackness. His heart seemed to freeze. A different bearing, but there was no doubt about it. It was the same sinister copse, which they were passing on the opposite side.

The blind man could have been studying his expression. He broke into a fit of low, wheezing laughter. 'Thought I'd lost me way, did ye, Captain?'

About the same time, Chesshyre was explaining to Paice and his first lieutenant what had happened, the jolly- boat's crew lolling on the deck like dead men after the hardest pull they had ever known.

Paice exploded, 'You left him? You bloody well left the captain unsupported!'

Chesshyre protested, 'It was an order, sir. Surely you know me better than-'

Paice gripped his shoulder so that the master winced. 'My apologies, Mr Chesshyre. Of course I know you well enough for that. God damn it, he wouldn't even let me go!'

Triscott asked, 'What shall we do, sir?'

'Do?' Paice gave a heavy sigh. 'He told me what I must do if he sent back the boat without him.' He glanced at Chesshyre sadly. 'That was an order too.' Then he gazed up at the stars. 'We shall haul anchor. If we remain here, dawn will explain our reasons to anyone who cares to seek them.' He looked at the messenger who was sitting wretchedly on a hatch coaming under guard. 'By the living Jesus, if there is a betrayal,