over the whole stretch of sea between Mauritius and La Reunion.
'At least we are tolerably well acquainted with our enemies,' said Jack to Seymour and the quarterdeck in general, when the lights of Saint-Denis bore south-west two miles, and all hope was gone.
'Yes, sir,' said Seymour. 'We could have given them topgallants at any time. Dirty bottoms, no sort of doubt.'
'Manche was precious slow, shifting her sheets over the stays,' said Trollope. 'I remarked it twice.'
'Surely, sir, they are not what you would call enterprising?' said Johnson.
'Slowbellies,' said an unidentified voice in the darkness.
In the cabin, over a late supper, Jack said to Stephen, 'Here is Fellowes' list of our requirements. May I beg you to go to Farquhar, tell him how things lie, and ask him to rouse out all that can possibly be found and have 'em down by the waterside at St Paul's in the morning? Make no excuses--I have a thousand things to do--he will understand.'
Before Stephen could answer, Spotted Dick walked in and said, 'You sent for me, sir?'
'Yes. Mr Richardson, you will take the Pearl aviso with four good hands and run up to Port-Louis, find the Staunch, and bring her down. Mr Peter has her orders ready for you to take.'
'So much responsibility for that pimply lad,' observed Stephen, through his Welsh rabbit.
'Aye,' said Jack, who had brought a prize hermaphrodite into Plymouth from far off Finisterre before his voice had broken. 'We must depend on our small fry now, men and ships. If we had had the Otter or even the Staunch with us today, we could have made a dash at that unhandy Manche, you know.'
'Could we, indeed?'
'Lord, yes,' said Jack. 'And I trust we shall tomorrow. I have sent Seymour galloping over to St Paul's to bid Tomkinson leave the Otter where she lies, shift all his people into the Windham, and join me in the roadstead. With this wind getting up, Hamelin will stand off and on tonight, I am very sure.'
Hamelin was more off than on in the light of dawn when the Boadicea ran down to St Paul's, and the Venus and the Manche were a mere flash of topsails against the western sky. But they were there, and once he had settled that fact beyond any hint of a doubt, Jack Aubrey turned his glass to the distant shipping in the road.
'What in Hell's name is the Windham thinking off he cried. 'She has not even crossed her yards. Mr Collins: Windham proceed to sea immediately, with a gun; and give her another gun every minute until she weighs. God rot the . . . ' He clapped his mouth shut, and clenching his hands behind his back he paced up and down. 'His face is darker than I have ever seen it,' observed Stephen, looking at him from the taffrail. 'Up until now, he has borne these reverses with a singular magnanimity, greater by far than I had looked for. Not a word about Clonfert's disastrous folly; nothing but sympathy for his wounds, and a hope that the French hospital may set him up. No reflection upon Pym's dogged stupidity. Yet there is no greatness of mind without its limits: is this breakingpoint?'
'Shot the next gun,' said Jack, stopping short in his stride, with a furious glare at the far-off Hamelin.
'Sir,' said Trollope timidly, 'a transport is rounding the point. The Emma, I believe. Yes, sir, the Emma.'
The Emma she was, and quite apart from her signal it was evident that she wished to speak the Boadicea as she hovered there, backing and filling in a black fury of impatience; for the slab-sided transport had already spread a great press of sail.
'Captain come aboard pendant, Mr Collins,' said Jack.
The Emma's stern-boat splashed down, pulled across, hooked on, and Pullings came up the side. 'Mr Pullings,' said Jack, 'what is this caper?'
'I beg pardon, sir,' said Pullings, pale with- emotion. 'I have Windham's guns aboard: Captain Tomkinson declined the command.'
'Come below and explain yourself,' said Jack. 'Mr Seymour, carry on: course nor'-nor'-west.'
In the cabin it appeared, from Pullings' nervous, involved, embarrassed statement that Tomkinson, having looked into the Indiaman's condition, had refused to take her to sea until she should be made seaworthy, and had returned to the immobilize Otter. Pullings, a witness of this, had come to an agreement with the Emma's captain, sick ashore; had moved his men and a score of volunteers into her, she being in a better state than the Indiaman, and by inhuman labour all through the night had shifted the Windham's guns and his own carronades across, helped by Colonel Keating, who had also given him gunners and small-arms men.
'This Tomkinson,' cried Stephen, who could speak openly before Pullings, 'must he not be hanged, or flogged, or at least dismissed the service, the infamous whore?'
'No,' said Jack. 'He is a poor creature, God help him, but he is within his rights. A captain can refuse a command, on those grounds. Tom,' he said, shaking Pullings' hand, 'you are a right sea-officer; I am obliged to you. If you can get eight knots out of your Emma, we shall have a touch of those Frenchmen out there, before long.'
The two ships bore away in company, steering a course that would give them the weather-gage in a couple of hours, well north of the island, where the wind came more easterly. But in far less time than that it became apparent to all hands that the Emma could not keep up. Six or at the most seven knots was her utmost limit, even with the wind abaft the beam--studdingsails aloft and alow, and even kites, strange sails without a name, all set and drawing- and once they had hauled their wind three points, even six was beyond her power, driven though she was with all the resources of seamanship and an able, willing crew. The Boadicea had to take in her topgallants to keep the Emma in sight at all; while on the other hand, Hamelin, the necessary complement of a quarrel, kept steadily ahead, with never a sign of reducing sail, still less of heaving-to to wait for them.
Yet for all that, Hamelin had now run so far to the westward that he would have to go up to Port-Louis rather than Port South-East, which was something gained, since it would allow Jack to look into the Ile de la Passe again: and the Emma was there to perform a most important task that should have fallen to the Otter.
'Back the foretopsail, Mr Johnson, if you please,' said Jack, just before the hands were piped to dinner; and when the Emma had come labouring up he hailed Pullings, directing him to make for Rodriguez, acquaint the military with the situation, and then to cruise between that island and 57' East to warn any King's or Company's ships he saw, at the same time taking all appropriate measures. 'And Mr Pullings,' he added, in his strong voice, 'I
