tent and made deep and respectful obeisance, first to the Prince and then to El Grang.
'Jesus love you, Colonel. I need you now to talk some sense into these two lovely laddies. This ape.' ' Curnbrae spurned the grovelling translator with his boot. 'This ape is blethering away, and making a nonsense of what I'm telling them.' He knew that Schreuder had spent many years in the Orient, and that Arabic was one of the languages in which he was fluent.
'Tell them that I came here to take prizes, not to match my Gull against a ship of equal force and have her shot away beneath my feed' the Buzzard instructed him. 'They want me to do battle with the Golden Bough.'
'Explain the matter to me more fully,' Schreuder invited. 'That way I may be able to assist you.'
'The Golden Bough has arrived in these waters we must presume under the command of young Courtney,' the Buzzard told him.
Schreuder's face darkened at the name. 'Will we never be rid of him?'
'It seems not.' Cumbrae chuckled. 'In any event, he is flying the white cross of the Empire, and whaling into El Grang's transports with a vengeance. He has sunk and captured twenty-three sail in the last week, and no Mussulman captains will put out to sea while he is in the offing. Single-handed he is blockading the entire coast of Ethiopia.' He shook his head in reluctant admiration. 'From the Cliffs above Tenwera, I watched him fall upon a flotilla of El Grang's war dhows. He cut them to pieces. By Jesus, he handles his ship as well as Franky ever could. He sailed circles around those Mussulmen and shot them out of the water. The entire fleet of Allah the All Merciful is all bottled up in port, and El Grang is starved of reinforcements and stores. The Mussulmen call young Courtney El Tam, the Barracuda, and not one will go out to face him.'
Then his grin faded and he looked lugubrious. 'The Golden Bough is bright and clean of weed. My Gulf has been at sea for nigh on three years. Her timbers are riddled with shipworm. I would guess that, even on my best point of sailing, the Golden Bough has at least three knots of speed on me.'
'What do you want me 'to tell his highness!' Schreuder asked scornfully. 'That you are afraid to meet young Courtney?' , 'I am afraid of no man living or dead, for that matter. But there is no profit in it for me. Hal Courtney has nothing I want, but if it comes to a single-ship fight, he could do me and my Gull fearful damage. If they want me to fight him they will have to sweeten my cup a little.'
Schreuder turned back to the Prince and explained this to him in carefully chosen diplomatic terms. Sadiq Khan Jahan stroked his falcon as he listened expressionlessly, and the bird ruffled out its feathers and hooded its yellow eyes. When Schreuder had finished, the Prince turned to El Grang. 'What did you say they called this red-bearded braggart?'
'They call him the Buzzard, your highness,' El Grang replied hoarsely.
'A name well chosen, for it seems he prefers to pick out the eyes of the weak and the dying and scavenge the leavings of fiercer creatures rather than to kill for himself. He is no falcon.'
El Grang nodded agreement, and the Prince turned back to Schreuder. 'Ask this noble bird of prey what payment he demands for fighting El Tazar.'
'Tell the pretty boy I want a lakh of rupees in gold coin, and I want it in my hands before I leave port,' Cumbrae replied, and even Schreuder gasped at the audacity. One lakh was a hundred thousand rupees. The Buzzard went on amiably, 'You see, I have got the Prince with his bum in the air and his pantaloons round his ankles. I intend to tup him full length, but not the way he likes it.'
Schreuder listened to the Prince's reply, then turned back to Cumbrae. 'He says that you could build twenty ships like the Gull for a lakh.'
'That may be so, but it won't buy me a pair of balls to replace the ones that Hal Courtney shoots away.'
The Prince smiled at this response. 'Tell the Buzzard he must have lost them long ago, but he makes a fine eunuch. I could always find a place for him in my harem.'
The Buzzard guffawed at the insult, but shook his head. 'Tell the pretty pederast, no gold and the Buzzard flies away.'
The Prince and El Grang whispered to each other, gesticulating. At last, they seemed to reach a decision.
'I have another proposition that the bold captain might find more to his taste. The risk he takes will not be so great, but he will receive the lakh he demands.' The Prince rose to his feet, and all his court fell upon their knees and pressed their foreheads to the ground. 'I will leave Sultan Ahmed El Grang to explain this to you in secrecy.'
He retired through the curtains at the back of the tent, and all his retinue went with him, leaving only the two Europeans and the Sultan in the cavern of silk.
El Grang gestured to both men to come closer and to sit in front of him. 'What I have to say is for the ears of no other living soul.' While he arranged his thoughts, he fingered the old lance wound that ran in a ridge of raised scar tissue from below his ear, down under the high collar of his tunic. half his vocal cords had been severed by that old injury. He began to speak, in his hoarse, wheezing voice. 'The Emperor was slain before Suakin and his infant son Iyasu has inherited the crown of Prester John. His armies were in disarray when there arose a female prophet who proclaimed that she had been chosen by the Christian God to lead his armies. She came down from the mountains leading fifty thousand fighting men and carrying before her a religious talisman that they call the Tabernacle of Mary. Her armies, inspired by religious fanaticism, were able to check us at Mitsiwa.'
Both Schreuder and Cochran nodded. This was nothing new. 'Now, Allah has given me the opportunity to seize both this talisman and the person of the infant Emperor.' El Grang sat back and lapsed into silence, watching the faces of the two white men shrewdly.
'With the Tabernacle and the Emperor in your hands, the armies of Nazet would dissolve like snow in the summer sun,' Schreuder said softly.
El Grang nodded. 'A renegade monk has come in to us, and offered to lead a small party commanded by a bold man to the place where both the talisman and the Emperor are hidden. Once the child and the Tabernacle have been captured, I will need a fast, powerful ship to carry them to Muscat before Nazet can make an attempt to rescue them from us.' He turned to Schreuder and said, 'You, Colonel, are the bold man I need. If you succeed your payment will also be a lakh.'
Then El Grang looked at Cochran. 'Yours is the fast ship to carry them to Muscat. When you deliver them there, there will be another lakh for you.' He smiled coldly. 'This time I will pay you to fly from El Tazar, rather than confront him. Are your balls big and heavy enough for that task, my brave Buzzard?'
The Golden Bough ran southwards, her sails glowing in the last rays of the sun, like a tower of gold.
'The Gull of Moray lies at anchor in Adulis Bay,' Fasilides' spies had brought the report, 'and her captain is ashore. They say he sits in council with El Grang.' But that intelligence was two days' stale.
'Will the Buzzard still be there?' Hal fretted to himself, and studied his sails. The Golden Bough could carry not another stitch of canvas, and every sail was drawing sweetly. The hull sliced through the water, and the deck vibrated beneath his feet like a living creature. If I find her still at anchor, we can board her even in darkness, Hal thought, and strode down the deck, checking the tackle of his guns. The white seamen knuckled their foreheads and grinned at him, while the squatting ranks of Amadoda grinned and crossed their chests with their open right hand in salute. They were like hunting dogs with the scent of the stag in their nostrils. He knew that they would not flinch when he laid the Golden Bough alongside the Gull and led them onto her deck.
The sun dipped towards the horizon and quenched its flames in the sea. The darkness descended and the outline of the land melted into it.
Moonrise in two hours, Hal thought, as he stopped by the binnacle to check the ship's heading. We will be into Adulis Bay by then. He looked up at Ned Tyler, whose face was lit by the compass lantern.
'Hoist our new canvas,' he ordered, and Ned repeated the order through the speaking trumpet. The new canvas was laid out on the deck, the sheets already reeved into the clews and earing cringles, but it took an hour Of hard, dangerous work before her white canvas was brought down and stowed away, and the sails that were daubed with pitch were hoist to the yards and unfurled.
Black was her hull, and black as midnight her canvas. The Golden Bough would show no flash in the moonlight when they sailed into Adulis Bay to take unawares the anchored fleet of Islam.
Let the Buzzard be there, Hal prayed silently. Please, God, let him not have sailed.
Slowly the bay opened to them, and they saw the lanterns of the enemy fleet like the lights of a large town. Beyond them the watch fires of El Grang's host reflected off the belly of the low cloud of dust and smoke.
'Lay the ship on the larboard tack, Mister Tyler. Steer into the bay.' The ship came around and bore swiftly towards the anchored fleet.
'Take a reef in your mains. Furl all your top-hamper, please, Mister Tyler.' The ship's rush slowed and the rustle of the bow wave dwindled as they went in under fighting canvas.
Hal walked towards the bows and Aboli stood up out of the darkness. 'Are your archers ready?' Hal asked.
Aboli's teeth flashed in the gloom. 'They are ready,
