The Captain`s Vengeance

Lieutenant.'

'We'll have four more hands, at any rate, sir,' Lt. Adair glumly told them, still disappointed to not play a larger role. 'The men Mister Pollock loaned you off his brig… once word got round that we could be in the way of substantial prize-money, those four asked to speak with me and ended up taking Ship's Articles. Since they already had their chests and kits, their guinea Joining Bounties are all profit to them too, sir.'

'In at the kill, Lewrie!' Capt. Nicely cheered. 'They desire to be in at the kill! As to your request for your own Lieutenant and Midshipman to accompany you aboard the shalope, I say 'done, and done,' ha ha!' Nicely slapped the desktop with his palm as if to seal the bargain. 'And a full bumper with all of you, gentlemen, from my own stock of wines… a toast to our complete success!'

Which boisterous slap and cry elicited ominous hissing, moaning, and some spits from Toulon and Chalky, now well hidden 'neath the starboard side settee.

They even despise the sound of him, by now, Lewrie sardonically thought as Aspinall produced a brace of claret bottles; Either that, or we're in for a whole lot o ' trouble!

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

They're there, sir,' Lt. Langlie told him once he'd gained the deck. 'Two big schooners anchored off the tip of Grand Terre, on the West side of the channel. Mister Jugg recognised the black'un, that set him and our party on the Tortugas, but the other is even bigger, a tops'l schooner that we didn't recognise, sir.'

Sop to his ego and career prospects, Lewrie told himself; The bold, unsupported probe, but not the lion 's share of any battle. Damn! They did take a prize. Just one, so it must be a rich'un. Talk about your silver fever! For I think I've caught it!

'How close did you get, sir?' Lewrie quickly asked, just about shaking himself to clear his mind of avaricious images. 'Did you see any preparations dug? Batteries or watchtowers?'

'We grounded on the beach, sir,' Lt. Langlie proudly announced, glorying in his small but risky part of the endeavour boldy done. 'On those flat-topped Indian mounds, we could see a few sentries. We got within about half a cable, I'd reckon it, before we feared their firelight might expose us, sir. They're celebrating, sir! Three sheets to the wind, as drunk as lords… lots of caterwauling and fiddling, capering and dancing.' Lt. Langlie snickered, his teeth shining in the darkness as he broadly grinned. 'Long as we observed 'em, the sentries atop the earth mounds came and went, spent half their time jawing with their shipmates down below, and sneaking swigs from crocks or bottles when they thought no one was looking. No batteries, sir, no entrenchments that we could spy, though Mister Jugg thought he saw springs set on the black-hulled schooner's bower and kedge cables.'

'So, an hour 'fore dawn, and they'll most-like be falling-down drunk and insensible,' Lewrie surmised. 'Better and better! A grand night's work, Mister Langlie. Damned fine!'

'Thank you, sir!' Langlie gladly replied. 'And thank you for the opportunity, to-'

'No one saw you and your party, d'ye think?' Lewrie fretted of a sudden.

'Don't think so, sir, no.' Lt. Langlie told him, pensive for a moment. 'No hue and cry, that's for certain.'

'Well, that's fine, then,' Lewrie decided, letting out a much-relieved sigh. 'And thank you, Mister Langlie, for an arduous task, nobly done.'

'Er… aye, aye, sir.'

'If you will, sir, I'd admire the shalope fetched alongside, so I may go aboard her,' Lewrie ordered, turning stiffly formal. 'I give you charge of Proteus 'til my return, or the completion of our little enterprise, sir. Get her as deep into the channel as you think practicable, Mister Langlie, and her guns well within range, even the carronades if that's possible.'

'Directly, sir!' Langlie assured him.

'Damme, I like this frigate hellish-fine, Mister Langlie! Just as she is… paintwork included, hmm?' Lewrie declared, chuckling as he clapped his First Lieutenant on the shoulder.

'I'll take good care of her, sir. No worries.'

'I have none, sir,' Lewrie replied. 'Especially knowing that any scrapes and such'd be your sad task to repair, once back in port!'

Boudreaux Balfa and his son, Fusilier, toiled away on the dark bay side of the captured Spanish schooner, shifting kegs from her entry-port to the sole of a dowdy, paint-peeling, and flat-bottomed lugger, a single-masted boat that could go almost anywhere up the bayous or the coulees that a pirogue could go… if one knew the maze of waterways like the palm of one's hand, as did Balfa, his son and several of his neighbours who'd come along on the raiding cruise. Kegs of silver were shifted from the lugger to their flat-bottomed boats and pirogues, their shares for participating… as well as 'a little something extra' that Balfa and his neighbours would rather not have the others know a thing about.

Chere, mo lem-me toi, oui, mo lem-me toi,

avec tou mo coeur, mo lem-me toi, chere,

comme tit cochon lem-me la boul!

He sang softly, covertly, perhaps to hide the sly guffaw at the trick he was playing on all of them, else he would be roaring out loud.

Dear, I love you so, yes, I love you so.

With all my heart, I love you, dear,

like the little pig loves mud! Hee hee heel

'Papa, the others,' Fusilier Balfa fretted in a whisper. 'If we steal dem blind, dey come after us an' kill us!'

'Naw, Fusilier. Come dawn, ever'body gonna shinny up dere own side, I tell ya,' Boudreaux softly snickered. 'We just takin' our own shares a little early, is all. For safekeepin'. Comprends, mon fils?'

'I don' know,' Fusilier timidly objected, counting off a new keg as it was manhandled across their lugger to a waiting pirogue; that would make twenty kegs so far, he reckoned. And more was coming.

Just in case a Spanish guarda costa or one of those perfidious British men-o'-war ran across them before they'd reached the safety of Barataria Bay, over eight hundred kegs had been put aboard Le Revenant, so if one ship was taken, the cruise wouldn't be a total loss for the survivors. Fusilier's papa had told him on the sly that the take was nowhere near what their buccaneers expected, but that he was to shut his mouth about that until the whole cargo was broken out and the truth revealed… in the morning, when their crew would be groggy and hungover, perhaps gullible enough to settle for what was in hand.

There was enough rum and arrack, enough barricos of rough Mexican wine, to keep the men pliable and 'hot' enough to work the ships back to Grand Terre, but not sober enough to wonder where the rest of the money was. Dread of being taken by a passing warship had sped their labours in shifting some of the cargo, then breaking off suddenly and setting sail homeward, with the rest soon to be 'discovered.'