not a stranger, but a well-liked man surrounded with shipmates, and they helped him. After a year or so of this - for he was a quick learner - he had a fair notion of sailing a ship as well as navigating her. But he was very happy when Inflexible went into dock for repair and Oakhurst asked his captain to rate Daniel master’s mate in the old Behemoth. And then, of course, like most men-of-war Behemoth was paid off in the peace; and after a while on the shore - anything for a berth - he joined a privateer fitting out to pursue and take pirates on the Barbary coast, but in no way suited for the task. One of the first pirates they met, a Tangerine, so battered her that she only just reached Oran, where she grounded and bilged. A Genoese tartan let him work his passage back to Mahon, where he hoped he might find someone he knew, but they stripped him of all he possessed. He had barely a shirt to his back when I saw him sitting under the arcades. But now returning to our dinner, I shall have a word with my cook; and if Mr Wright agrees, we could play him the Zelenka fugue that the three of us ran through again on Sunday - a most uncommon piece.’
The frigate’s dinner for Mr Wright was surprisingly successful: the captain’s cook, with all the delights of Minorca at hand, had put himself out, and they ate nobly, drinking a great deal of a light local red from Fornells and then some ancient Madeira; but what particularly pleased Stephen was the way in which the great engineer, ordinarily a difficult guest and apt to be sullen, took to Jack Aubrey and even more to Jacob. They had a lively discussion on the local varieties of modern Greek and the curious versions of Turkish that had come into being among the subject nations of the immense Turkish empire. ‘I was a fair hand with Homer at school,’ said Wright, holding up his glass, ‘- athesphatos oinos, by the way - but when I was desired to build the wharves and breakwater at Hyla I found to my dismay that my Greek was no good to me, no good at all, and I was obliged to employ a dragoman at every turn. No doubt you, sir, were better prepared for the Eastern Mediterranean?’
‘Why, sir, it was not so much prescience or virtue on my part as the pure good fortune of having spent my tender years - the years when a language flows into your mind with no intellectual effort - among Turks, Greeks and people speaking many varieties of Arabic and Berber as well as the archaic Hebrew of the Beni Mzab Jews. My people were jewel-merchants, based mostly in the Levant but travelling very widely indeed, even to Mogador on the Atlantic coast on the one hand and Baghdad on the other.’
‘Surely, Doctor,’ said Jack, ‘it must be a perilous business, rambling about mountains and deserts with a parcel of jewels in your pocket or your saddle-bag? I mean quite apart from the wild beasts - lions ravening for their prey - there are likely to be bandits, are there not? One hears sad tales of the Arabs: and I well remember that in the Holy Land, where people were no doubt a great deal better than they are now, the Good Samaritan came upon a poor fellow beaten, wounded and robbed on the highway. While a little later in this watch I am going to send off two convoys, heavily armed, to see some merchantmen safe into London river, laden with no more than Smyrna figs and the like - never so much as a pearl or a diamond between the lot of them. For my part I should never dare wander about a desert carrying a stock of gem-stones without a troop of horse at my back.’
‘Nor, unless I had a soul triply bound in brass, should I ever dare to put to sea in a frail wooden affair drifting as the wind chooses: but as you know, sir, better than I, a little use makes it seem almost safe, even commonplace. To be sure, both mountain and desert can be mortal for one not brought up to them; but after some generations they seem little more dangerous than a journey to Brighton.’
A midshipman came, walked to Commodore Aubrey’s side and discreetly conveyed Mr Harding’s duty together with the news that the officer commanding the convoy desired leave to part company.
‘Forgive me, gentlemen,’ said Jack, rising. ‘I shall not be long.’
Long he was not, but already the talk had flowed on, and Jacob was repeating the word ‘Mzab’ with some emphasis to Mr Wright, who leant forward, one hand cupping his ear.
‘Forgive me, sir,’ said Jacob, ‘I was just explaining how generations of nomadic jewel-trading teach one to survive - the network of trusted associates, often related - the custom of travelling in small family groups - middle-aged women, young children - few guards and those few at a distance - a modest drove of indifferent horses or camels as ostensible property. I particularly stressed the young and preferably dirty, shabby children: they do away with any idea of wealth. And I did so partly to explain to Dr Maturin how I came to be acquainted with the Zeneta dialect of Berber and the archaic Hebrew of Mzab.’
‘An acquaintance I envy you,’ said Jack.
Jacob bowed and continued, ‘I had been taken along by some Alexandrian cousins, playing the part of unwashed child to perfection; but when we came to their usual resting place among the Beni Mzab a camel gave me so severe a bite - a bite that would not heal - that they were obliged to leave me and a great-aunt and travel on to an important rendezvous a great way off. It was there that I learnt the double guttural of the Beni Mzab Hebrew and that I became thoroughly at home with the triliteral roots of the Berber.’ He gave a good many examples of the Hebrew in question and of Berber grammar, illustrating them with quotations from Ibn Khaldun.
‘By your leave, sir,’ cried Killick, to Jack’s relief, for not only was he thoroughly set up for a reasonable quantity of spotted dog, but he was afraid that Mr Wright’s interest in archaic Hebrew, never very strong, was waning fast.
His interest in food, however, was as eager as
