It took Ramage only a few seconds to consider his answer. 'I do not permit my officers to duel.'
'But sir, I have no choice. I can't pay up seven hundred guineas and I can't refuse the challenge.'
'Let me be sure I understand you, Hicks. You've been accused of cheating, you owe seven hundred guineas, and you've been called out?'
'That's it, sir. If I don't fight I'll be branded a cheat and still owe seven hundred guineas.'
'Who has challenged you?'
'The second lieutenant of the Hyperion frigate, sir. He's famous as a duellist,' he added uncomfortably.
'And the weapons?'
'Pistols, sir, at ten yards.'
'If you accept the challenge, you're a dead man, Hicks, and more important I'm short of a fifth lieutenant.'
'I know, sir,' the young man said, sounding trapped. 'The trouble is that this isn't the only gambling debt I have, and he's threatened to go to my father - after the duel.'
'After you're dead, you mean.'
'Probably, sir. But quite a few people have been to my father, and he's refused to pay any more debts.'
'I can't say I blame him. Gambling like this is a disease, Hicks. How long have you been at it?'
'Two or three years, sir. I won at first.'
'By cheating?'
'Well, taking every advantage I could,' Hicks said lamely.
Ramage said, his voice cold, 'This means my new fifth lieutenant is a cardsharper who has been caught out cheating and called out. And you have the thundering cheek to ask me if you can leave the ship for an hour at dawn tomorrow morning!'
'But I don't have any choice, sir: my luck has run out.'
'That will teach you to rely on luck. Any man who does that is a fool. That will be all. Tell the sentry to pass the word for the first lieutenant.' Hicks waited, as though he had more to say, and then, white-faced, turned on his heel and left the cabin.
When Aitken arrived Ramage, who had resumed sitting on the breech of the 12-pounder, said: 'This new fifth lieutenant: a bad bargain, I'm afraid.'
'How so, sir?'
'He's a cardsharper who has been caught by a lieutenant from the Hyperion frigate and called out. He's due to fight at dawn tomorrow.'
'So we'll need a new fifth lieutenant,' Aitken said unsympathetically. 'Well, we've got on quite well so far without one.'
'This fellow has been in Portsmouth for days. He's been staying at the Star and Garter, gambling away some prize money. He lost seven hundred guineas, cheated and was caught. Not his only gambling debt, he tells me.'
Aitken groaned. 'Why do we have to get him? We've been lucky up to now.'
'Well, we have two problems. How to prevent him fighting this duel, and how to get him changed.'
Aitken said grimly: 'Let him fight the duel and the second problem might solve itself, sir: with him dead the Admiralty have to replace him.'
'No officer of this ship is going to fight a duel,' Ramage said stubbornly. 'Not even a grubby cardsharper. The question is how we stop him. We have to do it in such a way that it isn't a question of him refusing the challenge, though why we should be concerned with his squalid honour I don't know. He was sitting gambling at the Star and Garter with orders to join the Dido stuffed in his pocket.'
'How many days, sir?'
'I don't know. Three or four, I think.'
'That's disobeying a direct Admiralty order.'
Ramage glanced at Aitken. 'So I should put him under an arrest, and apply to the admiral for a court martial?'
The first lieutenant shrugged his shoulders. 'It would keep him in the ship, and if we have to sail no doubt the admiral can find us another fifth lieutenant. Most admirals have a favourite close under their lee.'
'Very well. Put him under arrest and confine him to his cabin. I'll pass the word to the captain of the Hyperion - it's his second lieutenant who is concerned. And a letter to the port admiral asking for a court martial. It's a lot of trouble, just to save that young fool's life ...'
Admiral Rossiter was in his office, and as soon as he had greeted Ramage he held up a letter. 'Your orders have arrived from the Admiralty. How is everything progressing?'
'We need another couple of days, sir; then we'll be ready to take on our powder. Oh yes, we do have one problem - our new fifth lieutenant.'
Rossiter raised his eyebrows. 'Why, the last time I saw you, you were waiting for him to arrive.'
'He was in trouble as soon as he arrived,' Ramage said shortly, handing over the letter he had written. Rossiter put the letter down and said: 'Tell me about it.'
Briefly Ramage described the situation, and went on to tell the admiral how Hicks had been staying at the Star and Garter gambling, instead of joining the Dido.
'Duelling, eh? I don't want any duels fought in my dockyard, and I'm sure the Commander-in-Chief would not take kindly to any of his officers duelling. Who has called him out?'
'The second of the Hyperion, sir. I've little doubt he had good enough reasons - Hicks admits he has other gambling debts, and as good as admitted to me that he cheated - 'taking every advantage that he could' were his words.'
'If he is court-martialled, he won't be able to sail with you. In fact, come to think of it, you won't be able to sail until after the trial. He can't be tried in less than a week.'
'The main thing is that I want him confined under an arrest so that he can't fight the duel tomorrow morning, sir.'
Rossiter shrugged his shoulders. 'You can keep him under an arrest for a few days and then decide not to press charges . . .'
'I don't want the fellow on board, sir,' Ramage said bluntly. 'He's obviously a bad influence, and as he's a compulsive gambler, he's going to come to a sticky end.'
The admiral tapped his desk with Ramage's letter. 'I can send him to the guardship and give you another fifth lieutenant,' he said slowly. 'I am prepared to do that because I know you have your old ship's company with you, and obviously it's an efficient one. This fellow could be the one bad apple in the barrel.'
'That would be the best way, sir: I don't want to hang about for a court martial, but I do want to get rid of this fellow.'
Rossiter gestured at the letter Ramage was holding. 'Why don't you read your orders?'
Ramage broke the seal and opened the single sheet of paper. The orders were brief and simple: after provisioning for six months and completing the fitting out of his ship to the satisfaction of the port admiral, Ramage was to sail to the West Indies, placing himself under the command of Rear-Admiral Samuel Cameron, the Commander-in-Chief of the Windward Islands Station at Barbados. Ramage managed to avoid giving a sigh of relief: he had not been told to escort a convoy, the dreariest task he could think of.
'Well?' asked Rossiter. 'To your liking?'
'Barbados, sir. I always like going back to the West Indies.'
'Yes, nothing wrong with the place, as long as you avoid yellow fever, malaria and blackwater . . . You've been lucky so far, if my memory serves me. I seem to remember various Gazette letters from there.'
'Indeed, I've been lucky,' Ramage admitted. 'Both in dodging disease and finding action.'
'Very well,' the admiral said briskly. 'I take it you don't want to go ahead and bring this fellow to trial as long as I can replace him?'
'No, sir. I'm very grateful to you.'
Rossiter tore up the letter he was still holding. 'By the way, you can sleep on shore for another couple of days. Then you'll be ready to take on powder and sail.'
Ramage arrived on board the Dido next morning with Sarah, and was pleased to find that there were three carts alongside the ship and seamen were already busy carefully hoisting on board his furniture, using the stay tackle. The dining table, desk and drawers were packed in straw, which had been tied round the polished woodwork to protect it. The chairs looked as though they were growing out of a cornfield.
Sarah commented on the care that the shop had taken, and Ramage said: 'Wait until the crockery and cutlery arrives. It's another shop, and they may not have dealt with a ship before.'
They went to the cabin and a few minutes later sailors arrived carrying the table, having cut off the straw on deck. Ramage indicated where he wanted it put just as more men arrived with chairs. Within a quarter of an hour the rest of the furniture had been carried down and put in its place, and Ramage sat in one of the armchairs. 'Comfortable enough,' he told Sarah. 'You made a good choice.'
'The owner of the shop wasn't used to having ladies come in and choose this sort of furniture. He was most concerned when he heard you commanded the Dido, and promised to change anything you did not like.' Sarah laughed and added: 'I told him that you would like anything I chose - and he was most impressed. At least, I think he was. He may not have believed a word I said!'
The contrast between the pieces of furniture and the two 12-pounders was dramatic. The two barrels of the guns, which seemed to be crouching on their carriages, black and shiny like serpents, were in stark contrast to the yellow and white covers that Sarah had chosen for the settee and armchairs.
Ramage had not been sitting down more than a few minutes before the carpenter arrived, asking permission to fit eyebolts to the deck and the underside of each piece of furniture, so that the light chairs could be attached to stop them sliding about the cabin when the Dido rolled in a seaway. Soon the cabin seemed to be full of the carpenter and his mates as they up-ended each piece of furniture and started drilling for the screws to hold the eyeplates. Finally they shackled on the chains and left.
CHAPTER SIX
