John Drake - Skull and Bones
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- Название:Skull and Bones
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He did that all day, for four consecutive days.
And on the fifth day he saw her! It was a hammer-blow. She was coming out of the shop. Her father was kissing her cheek. She was so lovely. So very, very lovely. The beautiful child was now a voluptuous woman… And all the tender feelings of Billy Bones's youth rose up from the deep of his soul as if no time had passed and he was a lad once more.
But he dared not go near her, so he ran away and hid. And then he followed at a distance. He followed her the brief, five-minute walk to a smart, respectable street where he saw her go into her smart, respectable house.
It wasn't far, and all the way he struggled to find something to say to her – but couldn't; or something to do – but couldn't. As before, in the end he gave up and returned to Sir Frederick's. This time, not even the utmost persuasion from Flint could draw the truth from Billy Bones, who growled at his master like a mad old dog that will stand the whip no more.
He went back the next day, and watched her house. He saw a man emerge, whom she embraced, and who must be her husband. He looked a decent fellow. And he saw the children that stood beside her and held up their hands to Daddy.
Billy Bones found that he wasn't jealous, and wondered why. He was much puzzled until, finally, it dawned on him that there was nothing here for him: only ghosts and dreams. And so he very nearly escaped unscathed.
But he waited too long, for he was still watching the house as she came out into the street a few minutes later with two of her youngest children. Billy Bones tried to step into a doorway, but it was no good. At a range of twenty yards she saw him… their eyes met… and Billy's heart stopped to see how she would receive him: the love of his childhood and hers… a faith kept and a promise cherished for over twenty years…
A brief second followed… then she shuddered in disgust, gathered her little ones in her arms, and walked past Billy Bones on the other side of the street.
She didn't know him. He was just a huge, rough man with a seaman's walk, a tarred pigtail and a mahogany face. If he wasn't exactly a monster, he was something precious close.
It pierced him to the heart and extinguished all hope of escape from Flint.
So he wept many tears.
He found a tavern and got drunk.
He thought of hanging himself.
And the only thing that stopped him was the sure and certain fear of Hell.
But others too faced agonies…
Chapter 20
1a.m., 24th June 1753 Lavery's Wharf, Bermondsey London
Even this late it wasn't quite dark. Not in late June. There was a glow in the sky, and Walrus's launch was clearly visible as she came quietly to rest among the rows of dark boats moored alongside the wooden pier. But nobody noticed her, and even if they had, they'd have not seen the two men carried as prisoners, blindfolded and bound and under orders to keep quiet else they'd be heaved over the side.
With Allardyce recovering but still unable to stand or speak, for the moment, the Jacobite interest aboard ship had lost its leader, and much of its passion. Spotting this change in the wind, like the good seaman he was, Silver had called a council of all hands, and persuaded them that it would be best to take McLonarch and Norton ashore to set them free – so he told them – and he made sure that he chose the right men for the job: men loyal to himself.
Thus the launch's crew shipped oars, and made all neat and tidy, and one man stayed aboard, while the rest got their awkward cargo up the stairs to the planking twenty feet above. The only sound was the steady, bump, bump, bump that a one-legged man must make as he climbs a set of wooden stairs with the aid of a wooden crutch.
"Long John!" said a figure looming out of the half-light from the little watchman's hut at the end of the pier.
"King Jimmy?" said Silver.
"Aye!" Jimmy looked at the bound, blind figures. "You brung 'em then."
"I did," said Silver.
"Good. Follow me."
King Jimmy led the way along the pier, past bollards, cranes and old casks, above the slopping, greasy water below, and the stinking squalor of old bottles, rotting food, dead cats, bog-paper and worse that lapped into quiet corners of the river. For the Thames was not only London's highway and water supply but its sewer and rubbish tip.
"In here," said King Jimmy, and light showed as a big warehouse door swung open and lanterns burned within.
"At the double!" said Silver, and eight men dashed forward, four to each prisoner, and brought them inside. The door swung shut, the newcomers blinked in the light, and Silver saw that he and his men were once again outnumbered by King Jimmy's. There were at least thirty mudlarks in the high- packed warehouse, and they were standing in groups, giving Silver the hard eye and looking to King Jimmy. They were all armed, though not so heavily as gentlemen o' fortune: cudgels and cutlasses aplenty, but few firelocks.
"Huh!" said Silver, wondering who'd win if it came down to it.
"Hmmm," said his men, and felt for their pistols.
"John! John!" said King Jimmy. "We're all pals together, here."
"Aye," said Silver.
"Come along o' me," said King Jimmy. Then, turning to his men: "See these kiddies?" He pointed to Silver's crew. "Give 'em a drop o' drink and some shrimps, and see if you can manage not to murder one another 'til I get back – and Gawd help the bugger what starts anything!"
"Yeah," said his men.
"Same goes for you!" said Silver, to his men.
"Aye-aye!" they said.
"Come on, John," said King Jimmy, and he took a lantern and led the way into a big office that ran down the side of the warehouse. "Here we are, old chum!" he said, lighting some candles and dragging two chairs to a table. Then he fished out some mugs and a couple of pots of shrimps. "Here you are, John," he said, and smiled.
But Silver was busy heaving a heavy load out from under his coat, where it had been slung on a strap across his shoulder. It was a canvas bag that clinked and clunked as it landed on the table.
"That's another lot on account – as agreed," he said, and King Jimmy's eyes gleamed. "And five times that, if you find her," said Silver.
King Jimmy laughed and felt the bag, and filled the mugs from the tap of a barrel. Then he shook his head.
"Which ain't yet," he said. "Sorry, John."
Silver sighed. He waved a hand as if he could brush pain away. He paused, gathered strength, and moved on.
"What about McLonarch?" he said.
"Ah!" said King Jimmy, taking a swig. "McLonarch, you say!" He whistled softly and shook his head. "That's the kiddy! That's the bouncing boy!" He nodded and looked at Silver. "He might do it, John. He really might. There's mad buggers like him all over England, keeping quiet since the Scotch got thrashed at Culloden, but who'd follow him given the chance."
"Would they?" said Silver.
"Aye! And especially in the old families, the Catholic families. I could take you to a dozen coves that make no secret of it. And that's not the worst of it!"
"No?"
"No. Here – have a drop."
"Not I," said Silver. "What is it?" He raised his mug, sniffing suspiciously.
"Beer."
"Ain't you got no rum?"
"No."
"Never mind, go on…"
"Well. McLonarch's been talking to the army."
"What?"
"Aye. He knows lots of colonels and such."
"And?"
"They're listening…"
Silver rocked back in his chair and reached for the parrot that wasn't there, because she was fastened to her perch in his cabin. She didn't like boats, and tonight's work was dangerous. He sniffed.
"So," he said, "he could start a war. But could he win it?"
"Dunno about that…"
"And what's he worth to King George?"
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