Sea of Grey

'Aye, sir,' Langlie replied, a foolish expression of awe, mixed with both relief and joy on his face. 'Beg pardon, sir, but that deed was… just about the boldest, damnedest thing, ever I did see! You went for him without a blink, a thought for your safety…!'

Lewrie made the appropriate, and expected, deprecating gestures and clucking sounds, as if it was really nothing much, though all the while thinking: S posed t'be safe as houses. Un-thinking is the word for it! Damme, there must be easier ways t'keep a good name! Got to get aft…fore I squit my breeches!

'Don't quite know, myself, Mister Langlie,' Lewrie said with a shake of his head, as if puzzled, heading sternward along the gangway. 'Thank God for Mister Towpenny, or we'd have had this man aboard for years, all unknowing. Thought his story was queer, but…' Lewrie shrugged again.

'I'd admire to shake your hand, sir!' Langlie earnestly cried.

'Well, if you must, Mister Langlie,' Lewrie answered, trying on a humble chuckle as he took hands with him, keeping a pleasant grin on his face, though he was, by gastric necessity, rather impatient.

'Three cheers for the Captain, lads!' Lt. Catterall yelled, not to be outdone. 'Hip hip…!'

HMS Proteus trembled with the strength of their enthusiasm, the cheers almost feral in their intensity. And Lewrie caused a further outburst, when he drew out his pocket watch, noted the time, and said that after such a strenuous and rewarding morning's work, once they'd shaped course for Jamaica, the rum cask would be got up and everyone would 'Splice The Mainbrace,' with full and honest measure for all.

He did not stay on deck to share rum with them, though. He got the retrieved musket from a Marine private and stepped down to the gundeck to return it to Ordinary Seaman Fawcett, who had lost it.

'Not loaded, was it?' he hissed, almost in the lad's ear, as he leaned close. 'Not charged or primed, hey?'

'Oh Gawd, sir, I'm sorry!' Fawcett gulped, eyes abrim with tears and shaking like a leaf. 'I thought 'twas, oh Jesus…!'

'You're an idiot, Fawcett! The blitherin' sort!'

'Yessir?' the sailor cringed in dread and sorrow.

'Oh, for God's sake,' Lewrie relented, stepping back, his urgent needs denying him a good and proper rant. 'Go get your rum, and we'll say no more about it. But, by God you'll never, ever fetched a loaded weapon back aboard, again… will you.'

He went up the ladder to the quarterdeck, stiff-legged and his buttocks pinched; struck a 'captainly' pose for a second, hands behind his back, then ducked aft quickly. Bounding down the stern ladder to his cabins, he stripped off hat, coat, waistcoat, sword and belt, and dashed into his private quarter-gallery, slamming the door on Aspinall and a welcoming brandy. Even so, he barely made it. Fear, belated or not, worked its way on him better than an enema from Mr. Durant's clysters; so loose, rank, and gaseous that he had to fan the air.

After a moment or two, though, he had to laugh out loud. 'God, people get knighted for less, and…!' Captain Alan Lewrie, RN, wheezed, biting on a fist to keep from braying, for all the world to hear.

'Don't know how fame and glory strike other people,' he giggled, 'but by God, they have an effect on me! Hee hee!'

'Out in a bit, puss!' Mewl Toulon cried, pawing the door.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Lewrie had Lieutenant Langlie and Lieutenant Catterall in for a working supper, with Mr. Durant to aid in the translations. They had captured a brace of hogs from the brig Sycamores manger, quickly run over to Proteus in the cutter, and done to a crackly turn by their new ship's cook. Being a Yankee brig, she'd also carried several sacks of cornmeal which had gone into skillets to bake sweet, chewy muffins or pone bread for all hands, to replace hard ship's biscuit for a day or two. Mushy peas with melted cheese sauce, and breaded and fried onion accompanied the tender pork roast, making a fine victory feast, with promise of a piping-hot apple dowdy to come. It was only after a round oн port, with some biscuit and cheese, that the papers from the French privateer Incendiare were fetched out for study.

The bulk of it was dry, boresome, and innocuous; lists of needs and expenses for cordage, spars, canvas and tar, shot, powder and cartridge flannel (all pleasingly hard to come by on Guadeloupe at present, they noted), and the problems among her crew; the everyday life of a working ship.

Much more interesting were the former captain's letters from at least three ladies of Guadeloupe, all dated within days of each other, of a blue-hot ardent and salacious nature, which had them all guffawing, along with the former captain's attempts at draft letters that tried to keep them sorted out without repeating himself. Even racier was an unfinished and forlorn missive to his wife in Bordeau, practically weeping blue ink over missing her so grievously!

A good supper, fresh bread (of a sort), and the promise of prize money to come had them all in an expansive mood, Lewrie noted. Even Mr. Durant seemed to have laid aside his disenchantment over Hudson's place as the senior Surgeon's Mate, for the nonce, and joined in the mirth, holding up his end of the table conversation and putting down a fair and manly share of wine, even cracking droll jests before they got down to the business at hand. And in that business, letters that Incendiare s captain had received provided bright gems of interest.

'This'n from his wife, sir,' Lt. Catterall said, holding up a page for better light from the four-lanthorn chandelier that swivelled and swayed over Lewrie's glossy dining table, 'she writes that things are hotting up in the Mediterranean. An Admiral de Brueys-sounds as if her family knows his-has taken command of a three-decker by the name of L'Ocean, and a large number of line-of-battle ships… uhm, accompanied by over an hundred transports, for an expedition bound for somewhere.'

Durant hid a snicker behind his port glass; it was true, then, that Catterall could read French, but couldn't pronounce it worth a tinker's damn, as he tried to expand eruditely. After two bottles' worth, he should have known better, Lewrie thought.

'In his journal, zere is similar mention,' Mr. Durant stated, setting down his glass and opening a salt-stained book of ruled pages. 'Ah… he speculates about zis armada, sirs. He is certain zat some tremendous victory will be won, and… rumour gained from Guadeloupe officials about one possible aim being ze island of Malta.'

'Damme, that'd cut the Mediterranean in half,' Langlie said. He refilled his port glass from the decanter that circled larboardly round the table as he spoke. 'And with no help from the neutral and beaten Italian states, and Austria out of things, that'd leave Admiral Jervis where he was two years ago… chased back to Gibraltar or Lisbon.'

'He regrets zey do not come to ze West Indies, sirs,' Mister Durant read on, 'and retake Martinique, or other former colonies… ah! Apparently, a General Bonaparte is in charge, and has a grander scheme in mind. He writes that perhaps the Balkans are the aim-'

'Bonaparte?' Lewrie grumbled, slapping the table. 'Why, I've met the little bastard, in '93! Ran me out of the Adriatic, too, when he invaded Italy in '96, and beat the Austrians and Piedmontese like a dusty rug. Almost bagged me on the Genoese coast once, too. He's a dangerous man, I tell you. Never trust the dwarfish, gentlemen. He's no bigger than a minute, but slipp'ry as an eel…'

It need not be said that Lewrie was, by then, most cheerily in his cups, since he'd-By God-earned it, and was damned grateful to have breath in his body for use between sips. Unloaded? Jesus!

'Well, if he's busy conquering someplace Dago-ish, we'll not be plagued by him this summer at least,' Catterall snickered, only a wee bit sozzled. His robust constitution came with a 'hollow-leg.'

'No ships to spare to oppose us. Good,' Langlie contributed.

'And with their Atlantic ports blockaded so close, where else'd the Monsieurs get frigates or corvettes, with their Toulon fleet busy?' Catterall snorted.

'So the West Indies'll be safe 'til our 'liners' come back from Halifax, at the end of hurricane season,' Lewrie reasoned out.