intercept us, and have passed us close at hand. She might even now be creeping up on the unsuspecting Revenge.
He reached a decision, and called to Kumrah, 'Heave the ship to, and warn every man to keep his eyes peeled and his ears open.'
1 hey lay dark and silent, and another hour passed, measured by the soft slide of the sand in the hourglass. The rain abated, and the freshening breeze veered into the north, bringing with it the spicy odour of the desert, which was still not far off. The rain ceased. Mansur was about to give the order to set sail again, when a flickering glow lit the
darkness far over their stern. It played like candlelight on the underbelly of the lowering cloud masses. Mansur held his breath and counted slowly to five. Then came the sound, the unmistakable rumbling roar of the guns.
The Arcturus has slipped by us and she has found the Revenge. They are engaged,' he shouted. 'Wear ship and bring her round on to the port tack.'
With the night breeze on their quarter the Sprite tore through the darkness, both Mansur and Kumrah straining to coax every knot of speed from her. Ahead of them the flickering light and rumble of gun salvos grew brighter and louder as they sailed towards them.
'God grant we are in time,' Mansur prayed, and as he stared ahead the wind of their passage in his face brought tears to his eyes, or it may have been some other emotion. The two persons he loved most were caught up in that maelstrom of shot and flame, and he was still powerless to intervene. Even though the Sprite lay well over and ran before the breeze like a stag hard pressed by the hounds, she was still too slow for Mansur's heart.
Yet the distance between them narrowed steadily and, standing in the bows, balancing to the ship's urgent motion, Mansur was at last able to make out the shapes of the two ships. They were locked in conflict, lit by the muzzle flashes of their cannon.
Mansur saw that they were on the opposite tack to the Sprite, crossing their bows at an acute angle, so he yelled to Kumrah to bring the Sprite round two points on to an interception course. Now the range began to close more rapidly, and he could make out the more intimate details of the battle.
In the Revenge, Dorian had somehow wrested the weather gauge from Captain Cornish, and was holding him off, frustrating his efforts to bring the Arcturus alongside and to board him. But Cornish was blocking any effort that Dorian might make to bring the Revenge before the wind on ' to her best point of sailing and to run away from his superior adversary. In this formation the two ships were almost perfectly matched for speed, and the Revenge could not evade the bigger ship for much longer. In a | duel of attrition like this the heavier weight of cannon must tell in the | end.
However, the Sprite was closing rapidly, and soon she would throw her own weight into the unequal contest. The balance then would swing in their favour if Mansur could reach them before the Arcturus grappled and boarded the smaller ship.
Closer and closer Mansur edged the Sprite towards the two ships Even though his impulse was to rush in recklessly and hurl himself at
the Arcturus, he restrained his warlike instincts, and manoeuvred across the wind.
He knew that he was still shrouded in the night, invisible to the captains and crews of either ship. He must take the utmost advantage of the surprise element. There were many minutes still before he was in position to put up his helm and charge out of the darkness, to cross the Arcturus's stern, then to grapple and board her from across her port quarter. Mansur watched the development of the conflict through the lens of his spyglass.
Although the guns were firing steadily, the range was still too long for them to inflict telling damage on each other. He saw that a number of the Revenge's shots had smashed holes in her opponent's hull above the waterline. The shattered timbers were bright with fresh splinters. There were rips and holes in some of her sails, and a few spars had been knocked away in her rigging, but all her guns were firing steadily.
Opposite her the Revenge was in no worse a case. In the light of the cannons, Mansur could pick out his father's figure in the distinctive green robes as he directed his gunners. Batula stood beside the helm, endeavouring to milk the last turn of speed from his ship.
Then Mansur turned his glass back on the quarter-deck of the Arcturus. With dread he searched for a glimpse of Verity's tall slim figure. He felt a small lift of relief when he could not find her, although he guessed that Sir Guy had confined her below decks where she would have some protection from the screaming round-shot.
Then he picked out Captain Cornish's face, red and angry in the glare of gunfire. He was pacing his deck with ponderous dignity, occasionally shooting a glance at his adversary, then turning back to harangue his gunners through the speaking trumpet he held to his lips. Even as Mansur watched, a lucky shot from the Revenge took away a spar in the Arcturus's rigging and her main course came billowing down across the quarter-deck, smothering officers and helmsman under its heavy canvas folds.
There were a few moments of pandemonium as the crew rushed to hack away the flapping canvas. The fire from her batteries dwindled, and the blinded helmsman allowed her head to pay off a point before the wind as he tried to struggle out from under the sail. Then, from the far side of the quarter-deck, Mansur saw Sir Guy Courtney run forward into Cornish's place, and take command. Mansur heard faintly his shouts and saw that order was being swiftly restored. He must act at once to take advantage of the moment. He called an order to Kumrah, who was already poised for it. The Sprite turned like a polo pony and charged out of the darkness. She passed close under the stern of the
Revenge and Mansur jumped up in the shrouds and called across the narrow gap of water to Dorian, 'Father!' Dorian spun round with a startled expression as the Sprite appeared miraculously out of the darkness so close at hand. 'I will cross his bows and rake him. Then I will board him from his port side. Do you close from the other hand and split his force.' Dorian's features lit with the old battle madness and he grinned at Mansur as he waved acknowledgement.
Mansur ordered the guns run out as he steered boldly across the Arcturus's bows. For almost five minutes, which seemed a lifetime, he came directly under her fire, but her gun-crews were still in disarray and only three balls crashed into the Sprite's upper deck. Although they ripped open the heavy planking and the splinters buzzed like a swarm of hornets, not a single man of the Sprite's crew was struck down. Then he was under the Arcturus's bows and screened from her fire by her own hull.
Mansur ran forward as his guns began to bear, then walked back along his battery, making certain that each one was aimed true before he gave the order to fire. One after the other the huge bronze weapons bellowed flame and shot, then crashed back against their tackles. Every ball struck home.
Mansur had cut his attack a shade too fine, and he passed so closely under Arcturus's bows that the larger ship's bowsprit snagged in the Sprite's mizzen mast shrouds and snapped off, but the hulls missed each other by only an arm's length before the Sprite was past.
Immediately he was clear Mansur spun the Sprite round and laid her neatly alongside the Arcturus. The lids of the gun ports on her port side were still closed, for the Arcturus was unprepared for an attack from this quarter. As the grappling irons were hurled over the Arcturus's bulwarks and the two hulls were lashed together, Mansur fired another point' blank salvo from his starboard battery, then led his men across in a howling berserker rush. The gun-crews of the Arcturus turned to face them, but no sooner were they locked in the desperate hand-to-hand fighting than the Revenge took advantage of her weather gauge and came gliding in to grapple on to her starboard side. The Arcturus's batteries on that side had not been reloaded after the last discharge, and the crews had abandoned them to meet Mansur's attack. The Arcturus was caught in the jaws of the barracuda.
The fighting raged back and forth across the main deck, but the combined crews of the two schooners outnumbered that of the larger Arcturus and slowly they began to wrest the upper hand. Mansur sought | out Cornish and the two locked blades. Mansur tried to drive him back across the deck, and pin him against the shrouds. But Ruby Cornish was
a wily old dog sailor. He came back at Mansur hard and fast, and they circled each other.
Dorian killed a man with a quick thrust, then looked around for Guy. He was not certain what he would do if he found him. Perhaps, deep in his heart, he longed for a battlefield reconciliation. He could not see him in the ruck of fighting men, but he realized that the battle was swinging in their favour. The crew of the Arcturus were giving up the fight. He saw two throw aside their weapons and, quick as rabbits, scuttle down the nearest hatchway. When a crew ran below decks they were beaten.
'In God's Name the battle is ours,' he exhorted the men around him. 'Have at them!' His voice filled them with fresh strength and they threw themselves at the enemy. Dorian looked for Mansur, and saw him on the far side of the deck. He was heavily engaged with Cornish. There was blood on his robe but Dorian hoped that it was not his own. Then he saw Ruby Cornish break off, and run back to attempt to rally his fleeing men. Mansur was too exhausted to follow him and rested on his sword. In the light of the battle lanterns, sweat shone on his face and his chest heaved with the effort of breathing. Dorian shouted across the deck to him, 'What happened to Guy? Where is my brother? Have you seen him?'
'No, Father,' Mansur shouted back hoarsely. 'He must have run below with the rest of
