smoking slow-match only inches from the flash-hole. 'Hold your fire!' Mansur roared at him, and the man lifted his hand. All the gun captains turned to look back at Mansur. He took Verity by the hand and led her to the rail. He raised the speaking trumpet to his lips.
'Guy Courtney! You are saved only by the intervention of your daughter,' he called across.
That treacherous bitch is no daughter of mine. She is naught but a common street whore.' Guy's face was livid, the clotted blood upon it dark crimson in contrast. 'Filth and filth have found their own level in the cesspool. Take her, and a black pox on both of you.'
With an effort that strained all his natural instincts, Mansur kept his temper from boiling over again. 'I thank you, sir, for your daughter's hand in marriage. A boon so graciously granted is one I will guard with my life.' Then he looked to Kumrah. 'We will leave them here to rot. Lay the ship on a course for Sawda island.'
As they drew away Ruby Cornish touched his forehead in a salute,
silently acknowledging his defeat and Mansur's compassion in holding his fire.
They found the Revenge lying at anchor in the tiny bay, enclosed by the cliffs of Sawda island. This grim buttress of black rock reared three hundred feet sheer from the deep waters at the edge of the continental shelf, six miles off the coast of the Arabian peninsula. Kumrah had chosen it for good reasons. The island was uninhabited and isolated from the mainland, secure from casual discovery by an enemy. The bay was sheltered from the easterly gales. The enclosed waters were calm, and the narrow beach of black volcanic sand made a good platform on which to careen a ship's hull. There was even a secret seep of sweet water from a cleft at the foot of the cliff.
As soon as they dropped anchor, Mansur had himself and Verity rowed across to the Revenge. Dorian was at the entry-port to welcome him aboard.
'Father, there is no call for me to present your niece Verity to you. You are well enough acquainted already.'
'My greetings and respect, Your Majesty.' Verity dropped him a curtsy.
'Now at last we are able to converse in English, and I can greet you as your uncle.' He embraced her. 'Welcome to your family, Verity. I know there will be much opportunity for us to come to know each other better.'
'I hope so, Uncle. But I realize that now you and Mansur have much else to do.'
Standing on the open deck they swiftly devised a plan of action, and at once set it in motion. Mansur brought the Sprite alongside his father's ship and they lashed the hulls together. Now all the pumps of both ships could be applied to pumping out the flooded hull. At the same time they dragged a sheet of the heaviest canvas under the Revenge's hull. The pressure of the water held it firmly in place, plugging the underwater shot hole. With the inflow choked off they were able to dry out the hull within a few hours.
Then they hoisted all her heavy cargo out of her cannon, powder and shot, spare canvas, masts and spars and deck-loaded the Sprite. Relieved of her burden the Revenge floated high and light as a cork. With the boats they towed her on to the beach and, with the help of the tide, careened her over so that the shot damage was exposed. The carpenters and their mates fell to work.
It took two days and nights working by the light of the battle lanterns
for them to complete the repairs. When they had finished, the replaced section of timber was stronger than the original. They took the opportunity to scrape the weed from her hull, recaulk her joints and renew the copper sheeting that kept the shipworm from attacking her underwater timber. When they floated her off she was tight and dry. They warped her out into the bay, reloaded her cargo and remounted her weapons. By evening they had topped up all the water-kegs of both ships from the spring, and were ready to sail. However, Dorian decreed that the crews had earned a respite of two days to celebrate the Islamic festival of Id, a joyous occasion when an animal is sacrificed and the flesh shared among the celebrants.
That evening they assembled on the beach, and Dorian killed one of the milk goats that were kept in a cage on board the Revenge. Its meagre flesh provided only a mouthful for each of them, but they supplemented it with fresh fish roasted on the coals while the musicians among the crews sang, danced and praised God for their escape from Muscat, and their victory over the Arcturus. Verity sat between Dorian and Mansur on silk prayer mats spread on the black sand.
Like most people who came to know Dorian, Verity couldn't resist the warmth of his spirit, his quiet humour. She empathized with the tragic loss of his wife, and the sadness with which it had marked him.
He was equally taken by her lively intelligence, the courage she had demonstrated so amply, and her forthright, pleasing manner. Now, as he studied her in the firelight he thought, She has inherited all the virtues of both her parents her mother's beauty before it was marred by gluttony, Guy's bright mind. She has been spared their failings Caroline's shallow, famous personality, and Guy's avaricious and vicious instincts, his dearth of humanity. Then he put aside deep thoughts and picked up the light mood. They laughed and sang together, clapping and swaying in time to the music.
When at last the musicians faltered, Dorian dismissed them with thanks and a gold coin for their trouble. But the three were too elated for sleep. They were to sail on the morrow for Fort Auspice. Mansur began to describe to Verity the life they would live in Africa, and the relatives she would meet there for the first time. 'You will love Aunt Sarah and Uncle Tom.'
Tom is the best of us three brothers,' Dorian agreed. 'He was always the leader, while Guy and myself--' He broke off as he realized that Guy's name would throw a pall over their mood. The awkward silence drew out and none of them knew how to break it.
Then Verity spoke: 'Yes, Uncle Dorian. My father is not a good man, and I know that he is ruthless. I cannot hope to excuse his murderous
behaviour when he fired on the longboat. Perhaps I can explain why it happened.'
The two men were silent and embarrassed. They stared into the coals of the fire and did not look at her. After a while she resumed, 'He was desperate that no one should discover the cargo he carries in the main hold of the Arcturus.'
'What cargo is that, my dear?' Dorian looked up.
'Before I answer, I must explain to you how my father has amassed such a fortune as to exceed that of any potentate in the Orient, save perhaps the Great Mogul and the Sublime Porte in Constantinople. He is a power-broker. He uses his position as consul general to enthrone and dethrone kings. He wields the power of the English monarchy and the English East India Company to deal in armies and nations as some men deal in cattle and sheep.'
Those powers you speak of, the monarchy and the Company, are not in his gift,' Dorian demurred.
'My father is a conjuror, a master of illusion. He can make others believe what he wants them to believe, although he cannot even speak the languages of his client kings and emperors.'
'For that he uses you,' Mansur interjected.
She inclined her head. 'Yes, I was his tongue, but his is the gift of political perception.' She turned to Dorian. 'You, Uncle, have listened to him and you must have understood how persuasive he can be and how uncanny his instincts are.'
Dorian nodded silently, and she went on, 'Had you not been forewarned you would have been eager to sample his wares, even though his fee was exorbitant. Well, Zayn al-Din has paid many times more than that to him. The sheer genius of my father is that not only was he able to milk Zayn but the Sublime Porte and the East India Company have paid him almost as much again to act as their emissary. For the work he has done in Arabia during these last three years my father has received fifteen lakhs in gold specie.'
Mansur whistled, and Dorian looked grave. Tis almost a quarter of a million guineas,' he said softly, 'an emperor's ransom.'
'Yes.' Verity dropped her voice to a whisper. 'And all of it is stored in the main hold of the Arcturus. That is why my father would have died rather than allow you to board his ship, why he was prepared to strike his powder magazine when that cargo was threatened.'
Sweet heavenly angels, my love,' Mansur whispered, 'why did you not tell us this before?'
She looked steadily into his eyes. 'One reason only. I have lived all my adult life with a man whose soul is consumed by greed. I know full
well the effects of that corrosive affliction. I did not want to infect the man I love with the same disease.'
'That would never happen,' Mansur said hotly. 'You do me an injustice.'
'My darling,' she replied, 'if you could but see your own face at this very moment.' Shamefaced Mansur dropped his eyes. He knew that her arrow had struck close to the mark, for he could feel the emotions she had warned of churning in his guts.
'Verity, my dear,' Dorian intervened, 'would it not be a rich justice if we could use Zayn al-Din's blood-soaked gold to topple him from the Elephant Throne and set his people free?'
This is what I have been brooding on endlessly since I threw in my lot so irrevocably with you and Mansur. The reason I have told you about the gold on board the Arcturus is because I reached the same conclusion as you. Please, God, that if we seize that blood money, we use it in a noble cause.'
From afar they saw that much of the Arcturus's damaged rigging
