and tell his father he wished to see him alone, and when he was shown into the study he found the big man there, looking concerned, surprised, but welcoming.
'I am delighted to see you in my house, Captain Aubrey,' he said. 'Pray sit down, and take a glass of port. I do hope and trust that this is not imprudent, in such a fog, with your...'
'Mr Herapath, sir,' said Jack, 'I am come to your house, because you are a man I trust and esteem. I am come to ask you a service, and I know that if you cannot do it, if you must decline, you will not blab.'
'You do me honour, sir,' said Herapath, looking at him hard, 'and I am obliged to you for your confidence. Please to name the service: if it is a matter of discounting a bill, even an important bill, set your mind at rest.'
'You are very good, but it is far more than any bill that I could draw.' Herapath looked grave. Jack considered for a moment and said, 'You showed me two fine barques of yours, Mr Herapath, tied up not far from the Asclepia. Now when they were sailing, before this accursed war, I dare say your masters did not care to have all their best hands impressed. I dare say they had their hiding-holes.'
'That may be so,' said Herapath, his head cocked to one side.
'And knowing you, sir, I dare say they were about the best hiding-holes that could be devised.' Herapath smiled. 'Now I will not beat about the bush: I will tell you straight out, my friend Maturin is beset by a gang of Frenchmen who mean to kill him. He is gone to ground at Franchon's hotel, and he cannot stir. I mean to get him out, and with your leave, I mean to hide him in one of your barques.' He saw agreement and relief flood over Herapath's enormous purplish face. 'But that is not all. I must be quite open and candid with you. He has also knocked a couple of them on the head: the others do not know it yet, I am sure, but it cannot be long concealed. He also wishes to take an English lady with him, a cousin of my wife's, to whom he is contracted in marriage, Mrs Villiers.'
'Dr Maturin is to marry Mrs Villiers and take her away with him?' cried Herapath, perfectly aware that if Diana were to vanish Louisa Wogan would take her place; that Louisa was at present in the country with Johnson; and that Johnson would wish to have no part of his Caroline.
'Yes, sir. And what is more, Mr Herapath, what is more, I wish to go with them myself, to try to get them clear in a boat, when tide and weather serve, if you can let me have one: for you will observe, sir, that I have not given my parole. I am not a prisoner on parole. A dory would do. Stephen Maturin is a very learned man, but I would not trust him to cross a horse-pond in any kind of craft whatsoever, and I must go with him. There, sir: I have given you a plain, straight-forward account, and upon my honour I do not believe I have misrepresented anything, nor concealed any risk.'
'I am sure you have not,' said Herapath, walking up and down with his hands behind his back. 'I have a great respect for Doctor Maturin ... I am amazed at what you tell me. .
'Do you wish to consider on it for a while?'
'No, no. I am only slow in answering because I cannot make up my mind which is best of Orion or Arcturus - the hiding-holes, I mean. A lady and two gentlemen: Arcturus it must be - so much more space. I have a fool of a ship-keeper aboard ... that's of no consequence. But tell me, sir, how do you propose to get him out?'
'I thought of reconnoitring the place - backstairs, stables, servants' quarters and so on, before making any plan. All I know of the position is what your son has told me, and what I learnt from Maturin's brief note. I know that he is in Mrs Villier's rooms - your son saw him there - but I do not know the nature of the terrain at all.'
'Let us have the boy in,' said Herapath. 'Michael, whereabouts in Franchon's are Mrs Villiers's rooms?'
'They are on the first floor, sir, in front, giving on to the long balcony.'
'The balcony?' said Jack. A light grapnel and a line could answer very well, on balconies. But there were other things to consider first. 'Tell me, did the Frenchmen below seem concerned, agitated, upset? Were they armed, busy with the people of the hotel or with officials?'
'Not at all, sir,' said young Herapath. 'They were laughing and talking as though they were in a caf?or a club. As for arms, the officers had their swords, but I saw no others.'
Jack asked him to draw a plan of the hotel: a slow, unsatisfactory performance, as young Herapath had no gift that way, nor any visual memory. From time to time his father, who knew the hotel intimately, added a corridor or a flight of stairs, but after a while he left them to it while he paced up and down or stared out of the window at the fog.
'I have it,' he cried at last, interrupting them. 'I have it. It has come to me. The buck-basket and burnt cork. Doctor Maturin don't weigh above nine stone. Captain Aubrey, my ship-keeper in the Arcturus is a black man: let us cork your face and hands, so that you can take his place. I shall send him off to Salem or Marblehead, and no one will notice the odds or think twopence of it if they do. Othello!' he cried. His face was lit up, bright red with excitement and a kind of wild prospective triumph; his eyes, from oyster-like, had grown sparkling and young. Too young perhaps, thought Jack and his son, looking at him with astonishment; too young, and even drunk. Yet not a glass had been poured from the decanter; his hand and step were ready, if not his voice. 'Othello! And you have already smoked my Falstaff, sir, I am sure? Ha, ha, we shall confound the Frenchmen yet, God damn their knavish tricks. I have the greatest respect for Doctor Maturin.'
'I am not wholly with you, sir,' said Jack.
'Why, Falstaff and the buck-basket, don't you recall? They took him out in a buck-basket in the play, though he weighed five times the Doctor. We have just such a basket - huge. Michael, run and ask your aunt where the huge basket is. God love me,' he said, 'I feel like a young man again. We carry him out under their poxed French noses. From her... her acquaintance with Mr Johnson, I take it the lady is in no danger? I beg pardon, if I am indiscreet.'
'I believe she can walk in and out just as she pleases,' said Jack. 'At least until Johnson returns; and I understand he is engaged tonight.'
They understood one another, they understood the nature of Johnson's engagement, and they looked oddly false when Michael Herapath came back. The basket could not be touched: it was in the laundry, full of dirty clothes. 'Toss 'em out and bring it here,' said Mr Herapath. 'No. First tell Abednigo I want the coach - I shall drive myself -and then run down to the Arcturus and send Joe to Salem: give him some urgent message to John Quincy, to be taken at once: see him out of the ship and take his set of keys. Tell him to go aboard the Spica and stay there till I send for him. There, sir, what do you think of my plan? Plain, simple, straightforward, eh? But then I am a plain man myself, and like things simple and straightforward: much as you do yourself, I believe.'
'A very pretty plan indeed, sir,' said Jack. 'And it has great advantages - a great deal to be said for it. But you will give me leave to alter it on a view of the terrain, if some new point arises. I have some notion that the balcony
