Havoc`s Sword

despite the opened windows, coach-top, and wind-scoops; where several men ceased their conversation and rose to greet him. Lewrie blinked to adapt to the dimness of the cabins, after the harsh brightness of the deck.

'Captain Lewrie, thank you for responding to my request for a conference so quickly,' Capt. McGilliveray said, coming forward to take hands with him. He gave Lewrie no time to explain that he had not gotten McGilliveray's note, but began to introduce the others present.

There was another U.S. Navy officer off the hermaphrodite brig, an almost painfully tall and gaunt, dark-visaged fellow in his middle thirties, named to him as one Captain Randolph, of the Armed Brig USS Oglethorpe.

'Proudly commissioned in Savannah, Captain Lewrie, suh,' Capt. Randolph told him with a warm smile, 'an' named f r one of your English lords, James Oglethorpe, who founded th' Georgia colony, he said in addition, and in a liquid drawl even rounder and deeper than South Carolinian McGilliveray's, were such a thing possible.

'And ya know what they say, Randolph,' McGilliveray japed him, 'that all the rogues went t'Georgia', ha ha!'

'Proud of it, suh, proud of it!' Randolph happily rejoined.

'And Captains Ezekiel Crowninshield and Gabriel Crowninshield, McGilliveray continued, indicating a pair of stouter and younger men who were, at first glance, as alike as a pair of book-ends; gingery-

haired and florid. 'Their schooners are outta Mystic, Connecticut, magnificent and fast sailers, the Iroquois and the Algonquin.'

'Twins, as well, sirs?' Lewrie asked of them after a greeting.

'Built side-by-side in the same yard, Captain Lewrie,' he was gladly told in a much harsher 'Down-East Yankee' nasal twang. 'First swam within a week of each other, too.' One brother said.

'Raced him hyuh,' the other boasted. 'Beat him all hollow.'

'And last but not least,' McGilliveray said further, 'Captain Grant, off the Sarah and Jane. Captain Grant, Captain Lewrie, of the Proteus frigate.'

'Your servant, sir,' Lewrie politely said, though the name was nagging at him; the ship and her captain, both, as he stepped closer to take Grant's hand. 'Oh! 'Tis you, sir. Well met, again.'

'Why, bless my soul, if it ain't that little pop-in-jay laddy, who gave me so much grief in the Bahamas!' Grant exclaimed. 'Ruint a whole cargo o' Caicos salt on me, too… eighty-six, was it? Just a Lieutenant, then, ye were, in yer little converted bomb-ketch…?'

'Alacrity, Captain Grant,' Lewrie supplied him. 'But, then… you'd not have lost so dearly, had you obeyed the Navigation Acts and steered wide o' me. And the salt wouldn't have been used for bulwarks and your ship not commandeered as bait if you'd stayed in the Turks Islands and testified 'gainst Calico Jack Finney's pirates as I asked you to.' Lewrie still held Grant's hand, though they were done shaking; his smile could have been mistaken for courteous, but there was a definite frost to his voice.

'Well, we live an' learn, do we not, Captain Lewrie,' Grant at last said with a wintry smile of his own, almost pulling himself free.

'We do, indeed, sir,' Lewrie replied.

'Whatever happened t'Calico Jack Finney?' Grant had to enquire.

'I chased him into Charleston harbour and killed the bastard,' Lewrie told him in a casual, off-hand way, still grinning.

'Dear Lord, that was you, Captain Lewrie?' Capt. McGilliveray said with a gasp of wonder. 'Why, I watched the whole thing from the Battery! My my my, will wonders never cease. That we've crossed each other's hawses, if ya will, more than once. In so many things, well!'

'Life is funny that way, aye, Captain McGilliveray, I grant ye,' Lewrie answered, glad to turn his direction and dismiss Grant.

'Ever'body says that,' Capt. Randolph of the Oglethorpe mused. 'but usually with long faces when they do,' he japed, solemn-faced.

'If you'll have a seat and join us, Captain Lewrie. A glass of something cool? We've cold tea, or…' McGilliveray offered.

'Cold tea'd be capital, thankee, sir,' Lewrie said as he seated himself. 'I take it that you were discussing some matter concerning a mercantile nature, sirs?'

'Missing ships, sir,' McGilliveray intoned as his cabin servant fetched Lewrie a tall tumbler of tea, with the unheard-of luxury of a chunk of ice in it!

'Walsham, Massachusetts,' one of the Crowninshields boasted to him. 'The Dons an' the Dutchies're mad for th' stuff, our New England ice. Can't pack it outta the Andes mountains 'fore it melts, I guess. Mule train's too slow.'

'Too-small packets, 'Zekiel,' the other Crowninshield quibbled. 'Has t'be stowed in bulk, in chaff an' sawdust outta sunlight. Keeps itself frozen, ya see.'

'We've lost a ship, mebbe two,' the brother Lewrie now knew to name Ezekiel baldly announced, stealing McGilliveray's 'thunder,' as the Yankee Doodles would say in their colourfully colloquial way.

'Down South,' the one dubbed Gabriel stuck in. 'Sailed behind us. Had 'em in sight for a piece…'

'Older schooners. Slower'n ours,' Ezekiel chimed in. 'And we were racin' each other, like I said, so we sailed 'em under. Mohican was t'put in at Saint Lucia, but that'd only delay her two days or so, no more, and…'

'And Chippewa was t'come inta Roseau t'meet us,' Gabriel grumbled, 'but we've laid over almost a week now, and there's neither hide nor hair o' either one of 'em, Cap'm Lewrie, and we're getting worried, I'll lay ya. Coasted up hyuh t'ask of 'em, but…'

'Powerful worried,' Ezekiel Crowninshield butted in. 'Wasn't a speck o' foul weather on our passage, and nary even a squall astern of us did we see t'upset 'em.'

'Trusted, salty masters and mates, good an' true Mystic lads in the crews, too, so…' Gabriel Crowninshield interrupted, shrugging in mystification.

'So, no mutiny or buccaneering,' Lewrie surmised, sipping at his tea, already suspecting the worst.

'Gentlemen, I fear that those ships have been taken by French cruisers,' Lewrie was forced to tell them. 'When I took my prize last night, we learned some things from our prisoners. That captain of whom I spoke, Captain McGilliveray, that Guillaume Choundas? We took away his best frigate a few weeks ago, but he still commands two corvettes and now has converted a schooner and a brig as privateers, and our captives told us he'd sent 'em South, to prey on American ships in particular. To hurt your commerce as sorely as you've hurt theirs. And make himself and their Governor-General, Victor Hugues, a pile of 'tin.' If he can't challenge American warships round Hispaniola, and further up North, he intended to put all four vessels to sea beyond your immediate reach, and purge you from the oceans, as you made passage home with all those rich cargoes of yours. Sorry.'

And who 'd prefer lumber, ice, and barrel staves to sugar, coffee, and cocoa? Lewrie thought, scorning American exports and the products of their limited industries. Well, they do ship rum, and decent beer!

'Onliest place they can take 'em is Guadeloupe!' Captain Grant spluttered, breaking the stunned, sad silence following Lewrie's revelation. 'Bless my soul, can't ya blockade 'em, can ya not dash back an'… try to…'

'Intercept 'em, ayup,' one of the Crowninshields supplied.

'Aye, intercept 'em,' Grant gravelled. 'Catch 'em before they fetch 'em into Basse-Terre or Pointe-a-Pitre. Get word t'your other warships, Cap'm Lewrie. Ya can't be th' only frigate in these parts!'

'Three days, into the teeth of the Trades to Antigua, and then what, sirs?' Lewrie demanded, spreading his hands at the futility. 'I am heartily sorry for your losses, gentlemen, but do I haunt either or both harbours in hopes of re-capturing your ships, any Americans taken as prizes, I'm not fulfilling my proper duty. Better I…'

'Damn my eyes, Lewrie!' Grant exploded. 'And here I thought ya were a fire-eatin' scrapper!'

'Better I take Proteus South, sir,' Lewrie reiterated with his teeth on edge, 'for do I lurk close inshore of Guadeloupe for weeks, what's happening to a dozen, two dozen other American merchantmen down South? How many ships will make it here to form a