John Drake - Skull and Bones

"And a pirate?"

"Don't know. But I'll not be a slave again!"

"No."

"And what do you want?" he said, and Selena frowned.

"I want what I can't have."

"That Mr Blackstone and the big house?"

"Yes… no… I don't know. But if I could go there now…I would!"

"But you can't."

"No. Perhaps there will be another ship. I don't know."

"What about them two?" He looked astern. "Cap'n Silver and Mr Flint? They know where the treasure is. They'll be rich men when we lift it! They want you real bad. And Cap'n Silver… you're his wife. Don't you want him?"

She said nothing. Not yes, nor no, nor even I don't know.

"I got to go," he said. He went out.

Selena watched him go… and wondered.

Seven bells of the morning watch 5th March 1754 Aboard Walrus The Atlantic

The storm blew for seventy days of constant noise, constant wet, crushing misery and grinding labour. The ship was tired, the crew were tired and all aboard were driven to the limit of endurance, so it was no surprise when seventy- one days out of London, in the vast and empty ocean, a dreadful enemy crept aboard.

"It's scurvy, Captain!" said Cowdray, braced on the quarterdeck in his storm clothes. "There's two men in their hammocks with their gums swollen, and loose teeth, and bruises all over their bodies."

"Oh no!" said Silver, wiping the salt spray from his face. The storm raged unabated, the ship plunged under bare poles, and Flint and Billy Bones stood with Silver by the helmsmen. "But what can we expect?" he said. "We've been that long at sea!"

"Are you sure it's scurvy?" said Flint. "Not just idle lubbers that need the toe of Mr Bones's boot to help them turn out?" Billy Bones nodded.

"No," said Cowdray, "one has an old wound that's breaking open afresh." He looked at Flint. "Believe me," he said, "I know scurvy when I see it!"

"Damnation!" said Flint. "I was with Anson on his circumnavigation. We lost half our people to scurvy!"

Silver sighed. "The men are weak enough already," he said. "If they gets the scurvy, we'll not be able to work the ship!"

"Aye," said Billy Bones, "them what it don't kill, gets drownded 'cos they can't stand to their duties… and the ship founders under 'em!"

"What can we do?" said Silver. "What can you give 'em, Doctor?"

"There is something…" said Cowdray. "But they'll not take it."

"Why not?" said Silver. "What is it?"

"Lemons," said Cowdray. "But the juice is sour and hurts their gums."

"Lemons?" said Silver. "What use is them?"

"I read a book, new published, when we were in London," said Cowdray, "by a Scots physician called Lind. He has cured men with lemon juice. Men with the scurvy."

"Bah!" said Silver. "Not that old tale! That's been tried before."

"Wait!" said Flint. "I was never affected when I was with Anson."

"No?" they said.

"No. I had my own supply of preventives against the scurvy: malt, sauerkraut, oil of vitriol… and lemons. I had a barrel of lemons."

"There!" said Cowdray. "It was the lemons that saved you. Dr Lind has proved it! And I have some barrels of lemons that I brought aboard… but the men won't take the juice."

"Huh!" said Silver. "Put it in their grog with a drop o' sugar. Then they'll take it!"

Two weeks later, and miraculously to the seamen, there was no scurvy in the ship, and the crew proclaimed united blessings upon Cap'n Silver… with unfortunate consequences…

"Why should be get the credit?" said Flint, privately, to Billy Bones. "It was Cowdray brought the lemons aboard."

Billy Bones felt his guts twist. He did so very much want to believe that his master was re-born but this could be the first turning from the light.

"Never mind that, Cap'n" he said, which honorific he applied to Flint, whatever his rating aboard ship. "It's yourself that all hands looks to, to bring us safe to port. There ain't none to match you at that!"

"Yes," said Flint, allowing himself to be flattered, while Billy Bones sighed with relief, and hoped he'd made all things right.

And it seemed that he had, when, a few days later, the storm eased and the ship's navigators took their first noon observation for weeks, and made their calculations, and met in the master's cabin.

"Youngest first, Mr Flint last," said Silver.

"Aye!" they said, for that way none would be tempted to copy Flint.

"Here," said Mr Joe, pencilling a cross on the chart.

"Here," said Billy Bones.

"Here," said Warrington.

"Huh!" said Silver. "What a precious art it is, this quadrant-walloping!"

For the crosses were vastly far apart. But even Silver knew this was nothing unusual after so long a period with only dead reckoning for guidance. Now everyone looked to Flint, who shook his head in surprise.

"Well done, Mr Joe," he said, and placed a cross almost exactly beside that of the nineteen-year-old, once an illiterate slave, and now – through talent and hard work – the best navigator in the ship… apart from himself of course! Flint smiled, "Like you, Mr Joe, I think we are almost exactly in thirty-seven degrees of latitude, and some hundreds of miles to the east of America, off the mouth of Chesapeake Bay and the Colony of Virginia." He opened a pair of dividers, set them to scale, and stepped them across several charts, to measure distance. "We should count ourselves lucky to be alive," he said. "But we are so far off course, and the ship and her people so enfeebled, that we must put into port soon, and I would suggest Alexandria, on the Potomac River. There are other possibilities, but it is a major port. More important, it is a place where we shall not be known."

"Aye!" they said, and the word went round the ship, and all aboard rejoiced at the coming end to their perils, with a run ashore, and fresh food and warm bread. The whole ship was merry and the weather stayed calm… with further unfortunate consequences.

Selena was deadly, utterly bored with being cooped up below by the storm. Moreover, she'd now put Flint and Silver in their place, and there was no creature aboard that did not know her view on being snatched away from London. That being done… it wasn't natural for a girl of her youth to sulk forever, especially a girl so ready to make best use of such opportunities as life presented. After all, it wasn't that much worse being an object of reverence aboard ship than being mistress to an ugly old man, however charming, and at least she didn't have to share his bed!

So: when the weather eased she dressed herself smart and went on deck, and all hands smiled to see her; and touched their brows, and she smiled in return, delighting in the fresh air, and talking to Dr Cowdray and Israel Hands. And as for Joe Flint and John Silver, she'd heard of their friendship, and the great change in Flint, and she saw their careful smiles at herself… and so… by stages… she began to smile back, as they tried to please her.

Thus Silver told silly stories…

"The Chinese, ma'am?" he said. "They eat everything from dog's pizzle to octopus-bollock soup, beggin' your pardon!"

And Flint courted her in French…

"Bonjour, et comment vas tu, ma petite princessef"

And Billy Bones watched, and felt the first dreadful fear of the old rivalry, which, like the coast of America, was just under the horizon.

Two days later, Walrus came in sight of land and all aboard looked to see the black shoreline creep slowly upon them. The rain was drizzling under dull clouds, but the sea was kind, the wind fair for landfall, and the crew stood in their winter clothes, and smiled as best they could, and smelled the land: that indescribable scent that all seafarers know, after a long voyage.

Messmates stood together, Flint with Billy Bones, Long John with Israel Hands.