of the gangway between himself and the quarterdeck ever since a memorable day in Simon's Town, when the Commodore had had a private word with him, if private is quite the term for an explosion of honest rage that resounded from the after-cabin to the cutwater, filling the ship's company with mirth, glee, and apprehension, evenly mingled.
Covered once more, Mr Farquhar hooked himself into the rigging at Stephen's side; and as he gazed about him the corpse-like appearance faded from his face: the Boadicea was leaning over so that her lee chains were under the tearing white water and her weather side showed a broad streak of new copper; ahead of her the Siiius, under the same cloud of sail, kept as precisely to her station as though the two ships were joined by an iron bar; and together they were racing away to the north-east in the track of the Nereide to join the Magicienne and the Iphigenia off Port-Louis. They had already passed the Leopard, which had had two days' start (and which, since her captain was related to the Admiral, was strongly suspected of being present only to share in any prize money that might be going), and they were cracking on as though they meant to run off the two thousand miles and more in under a fortnight--a real possibility, they having picked up the powerful trade so soon. 'Celerity is everything, in these operations,' he said, 'and here we have celerity given form. How we fly! It is exhilarating! It is like a race for a thousand pound! It is like wrestling with a handsome woman!'
Stephen frowned; he disliked Mr Farquhar's warmer similes. 'Sure celerity is all,' he said. 'Yet a great deal also depends upon our finding the other ships at the rendezvous. The sea is so uncommonly vast, the elements so capricious, the instruments for finding the latitude so imperfect, or so imperfectly used, that I have known a vessel cruise ten days and more without finding her consorts.'
'Let us put our trust in the Commodore's mathematical powers, 'said Mr Farquhar. 'Or his luck: or both. I believe, Dr Maturin, that if you would so far indulge me, I could relish a little, a very little, of your portable soup again, with just a sippet of toast; and I promise that if ever I come to govern my island, my first care, after the new constitution, shall be to repay you in turtle.'
Their trust was not misplaced. The day after they had seen the mountains of La Reunion piercing the white trade-clouds far to the leeward the two frigates went north about Mauritius, and there, true to the appointed coordinates, they found the rest of the squadron. Lambert, the senior captain, came aboard at once: the position in Port-Louis was just what they had expected, with the Vinus, the Manche, and the Entreprenant corvette lying snug in port and the Bellone and Minerve still far away; but on the other hand Clonfert, sent to cruise off the south-east of the island, had discovered a new French frigate, the 38-gun Astrie, moored under the batteries of the Rlviere Noire in an impregnable position, obviously aware of the blockade of Port-Louis and unwilling to emerge. He had also cut out a four-hundred-ton merchantman from Jacotet spiking the guns of the little batteries and taking some officers prisoner. It was true that the ship had proved to be a neutral, an American, one of the many Americans who used these seas, almost the only neutrals and almost the only source of casual information available to either side: but even so, said Lambert, it was a most dashing affair.
'This is a damned unfortunate object for dashing at and a damned odd moment to choose for dashing,' said Jack afterwards. 'If the Nereide had been knocked about in this cutting-out lark (for it was no more), we should have been put to our shifts to cover the landing, above all now that they have the Astrie. I wonder at Lambert, sending him off alone: though indeed it is plain that he knows these waters, and that he don't want conduct. Jacotet is a hellish awkward anchorage to get into. However, I think we must take Clonfert with us to Rodriguez as soon as we have watered, to keep his ardent spirits out of the way of temptation until there is a proper scope for 'em. He may dash till he goes blue in the face, once the real battle is engaged.'
They watered at Flat Island, and the Boadicea and the Nereide stretched away to the cast for Rodriguez, leaving Pym in command with orders to fade imperceptibly away by night with the Iphigenia and Magicienne, leaving the Leopard and two avisoes off Port-Louis to bring instant warning if the Bellone and Minerve should return from the Bay of Bengal. 'For there's the rub,' said Jack. 'If those two heavy frigates, together with Vinus, Manche and Astree were to fall on our rear at the wrong moment, with the troops half on shore and half off, we should be like Jackson, hard up in a clinch, and no knife to cut the seizing.'
Ordinarily Rodriguez presented the appearance of a desert island; perhaps somewhat larger than the ideal desert island, being a good ten miles long, and perhaps somewhat greyer and more sterile inland than might have been wished, though pleasant enough after a long voyage with no sight of land; but now the bay was crowded with shipping, and on the shore exactly squared streets of tents stretched away in all directions, while in these streets hundreds and even thousands of men moved about, their red coats visible from a great way off.
Jack was first ashore, taking Stephen and Farquhar with him: to his intense relief he found that Keating was still in command--no glum, over-cautious general had superseded him. The two commanders instantly and with great goodwill plunged into the details of moving soldiers, ammunition, stores, provisions, arms, and even some howitzers in due order to the scene of action, and Stephen slipped silently away. 'The solitaire could never have borne this,' he reflected as he made his way through the crowded camp. 'And even the tortoise-park is sadly diminished.'
He had not gone a hundred yards before a voice behind him called out, 'Doctor! Doctor!'
'Not again?' he muttered angrily, walking faster among the screw-pines and drawing his head down between his shoulders. But he was pursued, run down; and in his overtaker he instantly recognized the tall, lank, and still very boyish form of Thomas Pullings, a shipmate from his first day at sea. 'Thomas Pullings,' he cried, with a look of real pleasure replacing the first malignant glare. 'Lieutenant Pullings, upon my word and honour. How do you do, sir?'
They shook hands, and having inquired tenderly after the Doctor's health and the Commodore's, Pullings said, 'I remember you was the first that ever called me Lieutenant P, sir, back in dear old Pompey. Well, now, if you chose to tip it the most uncommon civil, you could say Captain.'
'You do not tell me so? And are you indeed a captain already?'
'Not by land, sir; I am not Captain P by land. But at sea I am the captain of the Groper transport. You can see her from here, if you stand from behind the tree. Hey, you, the lobster there,' he called to an intervening soldier, 'your dad worn't no glazier. We can't see through you. There, sir: the brig just beyond the snow. She's only a transport, but did you ever see such lovely lines?'
Stephen had seen just such lines in a Dutch herringbuss, but he did not mention the fact, saying no more than 'Elegant, elegant'.
When her captain had gloated over the squat, thick object for a while he said, 'She's my first command, sir. A wonderful brig on a bowline; and she draws so amazing little water, she can run up the smallest creek. Will you honour us with a visit?
'I should be very happy, Captain,' said Stephen. 'And since you are in command, might I beg the favour of a shovel, a crowbar, and a stout man of fair average understanding?'
The Commodore and the Colonel worked on their plan of campaign; the staff officers worked on their lists; the soldiers polished their buttons, formed in squares, formed in fours, and marched off by the right into the boats, filling the transports and the frigates until the harassed sailors could scarcely holystone the decks, let alone come
