Alexander Kent - Command a King`s Ship

'Aye, aye, sir!' He sounded jubilant.

'And mount a guard on them. I want no fanatic opening the bilges to the sea before we can even make sail!'

He followed Allday down the ladder, the sea-noises suddenly muffled and lost.

A seaman kicked open the cabin door and darted inside with a levelled pistol.

'Nothin', zur!' He swung round as a shadow moved beyond an upended chair. 'Belay that, zur! There's another rascal 'ere! I'll get 'im for 'ee!'

Then he fell back in horror. 'By Jesus, zur! 'E's one of us!'

Bolitho stepped into the cabin, ducking low between the deckhead beams. He could appreciate the seaman's shocked surprise. It was a small, cringing wreck of a man. He was on his knees, fingers interlocked as in prayer while he swayed back and forth in time to the ship's motion.

Bolitho sheathed his sword, stepping between the quivering creature and his fierce-eyed-seaman.

'Who are you?'

He made to move closer and the man threw himself bodily at his feet.

'Have mercy, Captain! I done nothin', sir! I'm just an honest sailorman, sir!'

He gripped Bolitho's shoes, and when he reached down to pull him to his feet Bolitho saw with horror that every nail had been torn from his fingers.

Allday said harshly, 'On your feet! You are speaking to a King's officer!V

'Easy.' Bolitho held up his hand. 'Look at him. He has suffered enough.'

A seaman dropped his cutlass and lifted the man into a chair. 'Oi'll get 'im a drink, Cap'n.'

He dragged open a cupboard and gaped as the little man screamed wildly, 'Don't touch! 'E'll flay you alive if you dare lay yet 'ooks on it!'

Bolitho asked, 'Who will?'

Then he seemed to realise what was happening. That it was not part of another in a whole procession of living nightmares. He stated at Bolitho's grave features, tears running unheeded down his sunken cheeks.

'Mu jadi!'

Carwithen muttered, 'What, here?'

The creature peered around Bolitho, his terrified eyes search

ing the crowded passageway, the dead seaman below the hatch. 'There! 'Is son!'

Bolitho turned swiftly and stooped above the man brought down by Lincoln's knife. Of course, he should have seen it. Instead of congratulating himself on being spared a horrible death.

The man was still alive, although the seaman's blade had laid open his neck and shoulder in a great, gaping wound. Must have missed the artery by a whisker and no more.

He was naked to the waist, but his loose trousers, now blotchy with his own and the seaman's blood, were of the finest silk. His eyes were tightly shut, his chest moving in quick, uneven thrusts.

Carwithen said, 'Let me finish the bastard, sir!' He was almost pleading.

Bolitho ignored him. The man was not aged much more than twenty, and around his throat he wore a gold pendant in the form of a prancing beast. Like the one on Muljadi's flag. It was just possible.

He snapped, 'Bind his wound. I want him to live.'

He turned to the ragged figure in the cabin. 'My men will take care of you, but first I want…'

The figure edged nearer the door. 'Is it really over, sir?' He was shaking violently and close to collapse. 'It's not a cruel trick?' Allday said quietly, 'This is Captain Bolitho, matey. Of His Majesty's Ship Undine.'

'Now tell us who you are?'

The little man sank down to the deck again. Like a cowed dog. 'I was sailmaker, sir. In the Portuguese barque Alvares. Took on in Lisbon when I lost me own ship. We was carryin' a mixed cargo from Java when we was attacked by pirates.'

'When was this?' Bolitho spoke carefully, very aware of the other man's confusion.

'A year back, sir. I think.' He dosed his eyes with the effort.

'We was taken to Muljadi's anchorage, wot there was left of us. Muljadi's men killed most of 'em. Only kept me 'cause I was a sailmaker.'

'I tried to escape once. Didn't know I was bein' 'eld on an island, y'see. They caught me before I'd been free an hour. Put me to torture.' He was shaking more violently now. 'All of 'em sat there watchin'. Enjoyin' it. Laughin'.' He lurched to his feet and threw himself towards the door, snatching up a cutlass as he screamed, 'Pulled out all my nails with pincers, an' worse, the bloody bastards!'

Lincoln caught his wrist and turned the cutlass away from the unconscious figure in the passageway.

'Easy, mate! You could cause a mischief with that, eh?' The man's cheerful voice seemed to steady him in some way. He turned and looked at Bolitho very steadily. 'Me name's Jonathan Potter, once of Bristol.'

Bolitho nodded gravely. 'Well, Jonathan Potter, you can be of great service to me. It will not bring back your friends, but it may prevent others suffering in the same manner.' He

glanced at Allday. 'Look after him.'

He walked from the cabin, grateful for the clean air which greeted him on deck, the sense of purpose as Davy's men prepared to get under way. Potter had probably been the only Englishman aboard the Portuguese barque. For that, and no other reason, had his life been spared. Kept like a slave, a downtrodden creature less than a man. From what he had heard of Muljadi it seemed a far more truthful reason.

Davy crossed to his side. 'I am about ready to weigh, sir.' He paused, sensing Bolitho's mood. 'That poor devil must have suffered terribly, sir. He is scars and scabs from head to toe. Little more than bones.'

Bolitho studied his pale outline thoughtfully. 'Something kept him alive, Mr. Davy. Fear of death, a need for revenge, I know not which.' He grasped a stay as the deck swayed restlessly in the swell. 'But whatever it was, I intend to use it to good purpose.'

'And the schooner's master, sir?'

'If he is really Muljadi's son we have a catch indeed. But either way I want him kept alive, so pass the word to that effect.' He thought of Carwithen's eyes. 'To all hands.'

He peered abeam at the small islet where so much had happened. The craggy distortions were lost in deep shadow. It was a whale once again.

'We will run to the sou'-east directly and gain sea-room. I am not yet acquainted with these waters. By dawn we should be able to come about and make contact with Undine.' He looked at the men hurrying about the schooner's deck. 'She's a fine little prize.'

Davy stared at him and then at the vessel, the realisation coming to him apparently for the first time.

'I see, sir. A prize.' He nodded happily. 'Worth a good price, I'll be bound.'

Bolitho walked to the opposite side. 'I thought that might interest you, Mr. Davy.' He added, 'Now, have the capstan manned and break out the anchor while the wind holds.' He thought of Herrick. 'We are no longer beggars.'

Davy shook his head, not understanding. Then he looked at the helmsman and at the others gathering at the capstan bars and grinned broadly.

A prize at last. Perhaps the first of many.

Noddall hovered by the cabin table and bobbed his head with satisfaction as Bolitho pushed his empty plate aside.

'More like it, sir! A man works the fairer on a full belly!'

Bolitho leaned back in his chair and let his eyes move slowly around the cabin. It felt good to be back aboard Undine, and with something to show for their efforts.

The lantern above the table seemed much dimmer, and when he glanced through the stern windows he saw that dawn had already given way to an empty sky, the horizon slanting across the thick, salt-stained glass like a thread of gold.

In the captured schooner he had rejoined Undine at almost the same hour as this, the previous day, the strain and tension of their short, bitter fight lost momentarily in the cheers from the watching seamen and marines.

Herrick had been almost beside himself with pleasure, and had insisted that Bolitho should go to his cabin without delay and rest.

The schooner had once been under the flag of the Dutch East India Company, although it was impossible to tell how long she had been in the pirates' hands. But from her filthy condition and disorder between decks it seemed likely it had been a considerable while since Dutch sailors had manned her.