THE GUN KETCH

having his head on a plate! And nailing Commodore Garvey's hide to my mainmast into the bargain!'

'You will have everything, Captain Lewrie,' Deveaux promised. 'But sail, sir? For where? Not Nassau, I beg you. It's too early to tip your hand, before Mr. Wylly finishes, his secret investigation.'

'Nay, sir, 'tis far too late, I'm thinking,' Alan countered, in a fever to be on his way. 'But not Nassau. Good Lord, sir, I'm banned from going there, am I not? But,' he concluded with a crafty smile, 'I don't recall Commodore Garvey saying a blessed thing to keep me from sailing south!'

'South, sir?' Deveaux was forced to query with a frown.

'To put my wits together with Commander Rodgers, sir,' Lewrie told him gaily. 'And after that, why… one never knows, sir!'

Chapter 5

Abeam the Trades, on a soldier's wind, Alacrity flew like some mythical courier, threading between Rum Cay and Watling's, and out to deep ocean, taking the outside passage nor'east of Samana Cay, a day's run of 160 nautical miles from one noon to the next When they 'shot' the sun, they'd gained 72°40' west and 23°30' north.

'Another day's run'll put us in Turks Passage, sir,' Lieutenant Ballard nodded happily as he stowed his sextant away after taking noon sights.

'Wish to God we'd done this months ago.' Lewrie paced, restless and impatient. 'Garvey might have relented. Whippet may no ' longer be in the Caicos.'

'He hadn't relented against us, sir, so why should he spare her before Alacrity' Ballard shrugged. 'I still can't absorb the fact our commodore is up to his neck in collusion with Finney and his pirates!'

'Money!' Lewrie snapped, scanning his masts to see if there was one more place where stuns'ls or stays'ls could be deployed that wasn't already being used. 'It all boils down to money. What happens to the crews of the pirated ships, he never sees, and it's no concern of his. Even if he did sometimes wonder 'bout it, then money is a great salve to one's conscience.'

God knows when I stole that French Commissary gold in '81, it, did a power o' good for mine, Alan confessed to himself with a rueful grin.

'Sails ho!' the mainmast lookout called from the cross-trees of the upper mast. 'Deck, there! Two ships beatin' nor'west, fine on the bows!'

'What's showing?' Ballard hallooed back in that deep, carrying voice which was a surprise for most to hear coming from such a small man.

'Tops'ls 'bove the horizon, sir! Courses, a corner! Under all plain sail!' the answer came wailing back.

'No one's running from pirates, then. They'd have their royals and t'gallants flying, else,' Lewrie speculated. 'Damme, as much as I hate to, we'll have to close 'em and speak 'em. They might be Yankee interlopers.'

'Shall we board them if they are, sir?' Ballard queried.

Alan tried to imagine how long a delay that would be-hours, a whole day, if they had to inspect cargoes and manifests, fetched-to!

'No, Mister Ballard, we'll close 'em, and see if they frighten off with a stern warning,' he announced. 'We can't spare the time!'

'Sir!' the lookout said after skinning down a stay to the deck. 'Capt'n, sir! I seen those ships afore. One's Whippet, sir. And the other's that Yankee merchantman we saved last year, the Sarah and Jane.'

'Whippet, by God!' Lewrie whooped with sudden delight. 'Thankee, Lord, thankee kindly! Mister Ballard, did you hear, sir? Wear us hard on the wind, get us up to windward of 'em so we may take station on 'em as they fetch us. And get my gig down and ready.'

'Aye, aye, sir!'

It was Whippet, shepherding the dowdy Sarah and Jane of the year before off West Caicos. As they came hull-up over the horizon and the distance between them shrank, Lewrie could make out a Yankee flag flying beneath the Red Ensign aboard Sarah and Jane as a prize. Alacrity reduced sail, and as they came abeam, hauled her wind to leeward, and rounded up a quarter-mile off Whippet's starboard side. All three vessels then fetched up into the winds, and Lewrie was in his gig and off towards Whippet before Rodgers could hoist 'Captain Repair On Board.'

'Damn my eyes, what the devil're you doin' down here, Lewrie?' Rodgers shouted, pumping his hand energetically after the salutes were done. 'You'd not be poachin' in my own game park, would ya now?'

'There's been wondrous news from Nassau, sir, so I…'

'News from Nassau?' Rodgers gawped, getting keener. 'Then you're leagues ahead o' me, Lewrie. I haven't gotten letter onefrom anybody since I fetched Turks Island! Thank God I stumbled over this Yankee clown, buyin' an' sellin', bold as brass, in Hawk's Nest Harbour, which gives me a legitimate excuse t'sail back to New Providence.'

'Aye, sir, but…' Lewrie tried to interject, but Rodgers was on one of his 'tears.'

'Damme, sir, Whippet's ready t'drop her quick-work, same as the Royal George, an' sink at her moorin's,' Rodgers ranted on. 'Copperin' or no, she leaks like a sieve, there's a forest o' weed on her, and I suspect I'm teredo-wormed! Thank Christ, here comes an interloper for me to arrest an' take back to Admiralty Court, so I may get her into a dockyard 'fore we keel over an' go under.'

'Sir, if you would but listen to me…'

'Well, if it ain't young Captain Lewrie!' Sarah and Jane's captain said, coming on deck to join them. 'Now you're here, young sir, I trust you'll tell Commander Rodgers how I aided the Royal Navy, and let me go 'bout me innocent occasions, as you did last year, sir. I've already give him enough threats 'bout false arrest and all. But will he heed me, sir? He will not!'

'I've noticed,' Alan snapped in exasperation. 'Captain Grant, I recall. Delighted to make your acquaintance again, sir. I did warn you, did I not; sir, that you should not return to Bahamian waters?'

'I'm but a poor merchant skipper, sir, and…'

'Later, perhaps, sir,' Lewrie cut him off. 'Commander Rodgers, I've abandoned my patrol area. There's news from Nassau, and we have to talk. It's urgent, sir!'

'Signal Ballard to get underway,' Rodgers nodded. 'And let us go below. Mister Cargyle? Get sail on her and resume our course!'

'Good Christ!' Rodgers sighed when Lewrie had finished. Hehad cut his hair much shorter for summer, close to the scalp as an urchin infested with lice and fleas, and he rubbed his stubble with two hands. 'The bastard! The son of a bitch! No, more'n a bastard, he's a bastardly gullion! In league with Finney an' his pirates? I always wondered how he could afford that palacio of his. Damn' near good as the Governor's mansion, an' filled with fine plate an' furnishin's. A commodore won't draw more a year'n a post-captain of a 1st Rate, an' Ј350 or so won't cover half his expenses, high's he's been livin'. Him an' that chick-a-biddy wife o' his, that semi-ugly daughter, an' good Chaplain Townsley an' his lawful blanket're sure to be expensive to keep as well. What'd ya wager, Lewrie, he banks with Finney's private merchant bank, an' there'll be no way your Mr. Boudreau and Solicitor-General Wylly'd ever smoke him out?'

'I hadn't thought of that, sir,' Lewrie deflated as he poured them more claret from Rodgers' much-depleted final stock. 'Surely, though, there must be something we can do, if the investigation can't convict them.'

'I'm tempted t'sail into Nassau Harbour, all guns blazin', myself,' Rodgers gloomed, knocking back half a glass.' 'Nother reason for action. Damme, but I'm outa champagne! Wish we knew which ships were patrolling where. That might give us a clue as to where to go.'

'Banned though we are from going north,' Lewrie commented with a sneer.

'We've this interloper Grant as a fine excuse,' Rodgers perked up, leaning his elbows on the table they shared. 'He has t'face the Admiralty Court for violatin' the Navigation Acts.'

'Not both of us, sir,' Lewrie counseled. 'You and Whippet, for certain. And the