H.M.S Valor
26 Sept 1808
17 Degrees 28 minutes N, 76 Degrees 11’ W
The looming feeling he was about to meet a grisly end still hung over Tim’s every thought. Being pulled from the debris field and the reach of the sharks improved his situation, though as Tim observed the demeanor of the sailors on deck, only slightly. He sat on a bench near the weather hatch under the vigilant glare of a duo of sentries. His treatment had been a degree better than if he were a prisoner, but Tim felt as if the men lingering on deck were imagining terrible ways to rid the ship of him. His panicked reactions during the rescue won him no friends aboard this vessel, everywhere he looked was a grim face or a menacing stare. Their leader, Mr. Cobb, seemed to appreciate Tim’s value to a certain degree. But only so far as it concerned the recovery of gold. This was an unfortunate problem as Cobb likely intended to take whatever riches they came across while Tim desperately needed to deliver that payment to the Order. The night air held a cool edge to it, the first notes of a retreating summer and a reminder of the timeline to which he was encumbered. A meeting of delegates would be held within a month in Charleston and if he failed to deliver, the consequences would be severe.
“If you’re being false with us, I won’t be able to stop this crew from tearing you to pieces. Nor would I try. Gold, Mr. Sladen, gold will be your salvation, or your doom should it not be there.” Cobb said climbing from the weather hatch.
“The payment was aboard the company ship Gazelle, Sir. If it is to be had at all, it will be aboard the Endurance and in the hands of traitors. Though I’m not sure why you are so interested, it is profits to the honorable lords in ownership of the East India Company and belongs to them as such.” Tim sighed in resignation, already knowing exactly what this Cobb was thinking.
“A prize sum will surely be awarded to the crew for the recovery. Unless you haven’t told me some detail, but you wouldn’t lie to a crew of men who rescued you from certain death, would you Tim?” Cobb cut sarcastically. “None of this makes any sense to me. The Admiral and Captain Grimes aside, why would a payment for the lords in ownership be ferried through the Caribbean? What aren’t you telling me?”
“Mr. Cobb, I can only tell you that you are getting yourself and your crew involved in matters far beyond your understanding. You would be well served to kill me here and now and forget everything I’ve told you. Make for some foreign shore and never speak of what I have told you, but you won’t.” Tim replied indignantly. “But you won’t, and that’s fine. However, this plays out, from here on, you’ve been warned.” Cobb’s eyebrows raised in a look of cautious apprehension.
“Right. I’ve been warned. You’re a nutty one. I mean to see the Endurance sunk, but for my own reasons. If there is gold aboard her to be had, all the better.” Cobb said with a dismissive wave to Tim’s warning.
“What reason have you to sink her?” Tim asked.
“The man assuming command of her is on some treasonous errand of the Admiral. We made port in Kingston and as you well know, something occurred there between the Admiral and the Governor. Half the fleet was sunk by our own fort battery. I suspect a coup of some sort, not that I can prove anything beyond what I’ve already told you. Something was afoot and if the men involved knew about the payment you are so eager to recover; I would consider that was likely their motive.”
Tim could not believe his ears; this man honestly had no grasp of the reality of his situation. He was clever, and Tim suspected there were motivations for sinking another navy ship that he was not sharing. Whoever Captain Grimes was he likely knew some of the details the Admiral had deduced. Mr. Cobb seemed ignorant so far as to the true nature behind the unfolding events. Tim fought a smirk while he thought it over, Cobb hadn’t even questioned how an American privateer would know the details of payments being shipped through the Caribbean. So long as there is something he is hiding, Tim thought, he will be reluctant to keep pressing me.
“Where do you intend to sail, once you have sunk the Endurance, Sir?” Tim asked.
“How did you know there was a payment aboard a specific vessel bound for Kingston?” Cobb shot back. Tim’s heart sank in his chest, he could feel the last strands holding his web slipping. Cobb looked down on him with an air of disdain as Tim sat huddled on the bench, still soaked through and beginning a shiver in the chill night breeze. “It’s obvious to me there is some deception you are attempting here, Tim. If that is even your true name. You can have it. But keep your questions to yourself. If at the end of this ordeal, we can both serve our own ends perhaps an arrangement can be made. Until then, I think it best you just go along with things as they were, lest I turn you over to my crew.”
“That seems reasonable, Mr. Cobb.” Tim said with a grudging sigh.
The night wore on with a stiffening breeze bringing another wave of chill over Tim’s body. The sliver of moonlight traced silvery edges along the crest of gentle swells contrasting the darkness of the seas. The winds slipping through rigging aloft and the gentle lapping of water against the wooden hull lulled Tim into a tranquil, dreamless doze as he sat on the bench. His guards seemed to relax as their watch drug into the early hours of the morning, nodding with heavy eyes where they stood. In between little jaunts of
