scything the air. James stepped neatly aside, feinted, dodged, and ran straight in again, stamping several steps, and thrust to the rais’s breast. At the last split second the rais’s blade deflected James’s, and he snarled in triumph, then tried to cut off James’s head with a wicked lateral swing, so swift and accurate that James had to duck almost to the deck to avoid it. He lost his balance slightly, and as he stood tall again the rais again sliced the air with a quick lateral chop, and caught James a glancing blow on the left arm.
James felt the blow, but did not know the extent of his injury at once. He stamped forward, thrust, and backed away, all in one darting movement, then thrust again
and this time caught the rais in the left breast, a savage, penetrating wound.
Even as the rais caught James on his arm a second time, cutting deep.
James felt this blow more keenly, and glanced down at his arm. Blood was welling and dripping from the wound, soaking his sleeve, and now he felt pain, sharp and excruciating.
The rais charged at him, swinging with lethal force, and again tried to take off James’s head. James feinted, and thrust, and the blade went deep into the rais’s abdomen.
He gave a groan of pain, faltered, dropped his weapon with a clatter on the deck,
and staggered to the larboard rail in a trail of blood.
And fell down.
James hesitated, then went to him.
The rais had fallen on his back, and his red turban had come loose and was partly unwound on the deck. He stared up at James, expecting to be killed without mercy.
James could not bring himself to do it. He dropped his scimitar and knelt down by his mortally wounded enemy.
‘Why do you not kill me, English ?’
‘Because you are a brave man. I will call for the surgeon.’
‘I do not want him. Kill me so that I may die with honour.’
‘I will not do it.’ Shaking his head. ‘Will you give me your hand?’
‘Why ?’
‘Because no brave man should die alone.’
He took the rais’s hand, and held it as light faded from the fierce eyes, that grew accepting, then briefly sad and then were empty.
James felt his eyes fill with tears, angrily dashed them away, and then let them fall.
At last he stood up.
Along the deck, down in the waist, and beyond on the fo’c’c’sle there was no more din, no more yelling and cursing, no more gunfire. Only a washing, creaking, uneasy quiet.
The battle was won.
‘That is a serious wound, James. Why in God’s name did y’not come to me before this?’ Dr. Wing, when James came below later and sought his help.
‘There was much to do, Thomas, much to assess. Men killed, damage to the ship,
all of the terrible cost .’
‘I know. It makes you sad.’ A nod.
‘What?’
‘You weep. It is fitting. All men should weep at such loss.’
‘I do not weep.’ Angrily, dashing away his tears. ‘I do not weep.’
‘Let me cut away your sleeve.’
Dr. Wing employed scissors to remove the sleeve, and examined James’s wound.
‘It is a deep wound. Ye’ve lost much blood. You should have come to me sooner. I wonder you have not fainted away.’
‘Fainted? I am a fighting man, not a fainting one, thankee.’
‘Brandy.’
‘Eh? I thought you did not drink ?’
‘Not for me, good heaven. For you, James. In the flask on the chest, there.’ Nodding in that direction.
James took up the flask and sucked down spirit. Felt its warmth flood down into him, and lift him.
‘I am going to sew you up, James. It will be painful. More brandy.’
‘I have been wounded before this. I am all right.’
‘More brandy, if you please.’ Firmly. ‘Unless you will like to faint ?’
‘Very well, very well.’ He sucked down more brandy, and began to feel better,
and stronger. Then, remembering Rennie’s own serious plight, that he had not thought of at all until now:
‘What of William? Is he ?’
‘Is he dead? Nay, he ain’t. He has overcome his difficulty, I believe. He will live.’
‘Thank God.’
‘If you wish. I think it was my physic, and my attention, but we will not quibble.
Are you steady? This will hurt very sharp, and you must remain still.’
‘I am steady.’ Sniffing in a deep breath.
‘Oh, yes .’ Dr. Wing paused. ‘Before I begin, James, there is something I must tell you.’
‘Tell me ?’
‘You will not like it, I fear.’
‘Well?’
‘Mr. Milson went on deck during the action, and was killed outright by a stray pistol ball to the breast.’
CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO
His left arm bandaged and in a sling, James went on deck and ordered the recovery of Expedient’s boats drifting in a tethered line a mile from the scene of the action then decided to set free the remaining two galleys that had attacked the ship. In the first he placed the surviving fighters, minus their weapons, which were thrown into the sea. The other galley was filled with freed slaves aside from three English seamen who had been captured by the corsairs a year earlier and chained up at the sweeps. These three men James took into Expedient, and entered their names on the ship’s books.
He set the galleys free one at a time, the first with the raiders, and their dead, and only a few of the sweeps. The other sweeps he had broken up for firewood.
He gave a warning to the raiders that if ever again they attempted to attack British ships he would return and behead them all. To emphasize his threat he swung the rais’s gleaming scimitar in a murderous slicing motion, then ostentatiously strode along the gangway with the weapon in his hand.
‘Let go!’
The lines holding the galley tethered were released, and the vessel drifted away from the ship and fell away astern.
Hours later, as sunset approached, he put the freed slaves into the second galley,
leaving them all of the sweeps and water and bread enough for several days. Many of them begged, in gesture and their native tongue, to be allowed to stay aboard Expedient, but James feared insurrection among them if he allowed them to remain.
Dr. Wing tried to argue with him about this, but James was adamant, and the galley was released.
In the great cabin afterward Dr. Wing continued to berate him for this action, and James lost patience:
‘Thomas, we have suffered greatly this commission, and lost the very man we came all this way to bring home to England. Those wretches we set free could well have decided had I allowed them to remain that in allowing their fellows to die chained to the sweeps in the galleys we sunk, we had committed murder.
They could have turned against us, rose up and killed us.’
‘That is nonsense, James, and I believe you know it. They were grateful we had saved their lives. They would never have turned against--’
‘Thomas, I cannot dispute this with you! They are alive, and set free. They are gone. My task now is to return to England without further loss of time, with my people and my ship, and make my report to--’
‘Your people, James? Your ship?’
‘What?’ Angrily.
‘Expedient is Captain Rennie’s ship ain’t she?’
‘Oh, well, yes. Yes, in course. I meant .all I meant was that I--’
‘What did y’mean, James? Hey?’
James turned in surprise from the table at the sound of that familiar voice. Rennie stood in the doorway of his sleeping cabin, dressed in shirt and breeches.
He was pale and gaunt, but he was on his legs and his eyes were alert and alive.
‘William. Thank God you are recovered.’
‘Captain Rennie.’ Dr. Wing moved anxiously towards him. ‘You should not have ventured out of your cot just at--’
/>
‘Pish pish, doctor. I am quite hale now, thankee. It is you that is wounded, James, I see. I hope your arm ain’t broke ?’ He came to the table and leaned on the back of a chair.
‘Nay, it ain’t it was a sword cut. Thomas has patched me up right well.’
‘Well well, gentlemen. Here we are. We have fought an action, and prevailed. Now then, I will like to hear your accounts, if y’please. You first, James.’
‘Very good. Before I begin there is a matter I must report to you--’
‘Yes yes, you are going to tell me Milson is dead. This I know. Dr. Wing has told me. Damned fool went on deck when he should not have done, and was hit by a stray ball. His own fault, entire.’
‘Ah. Very good.’ James took up some papers from the table with his good hand. ‘There is one other matter I must--’
‘Hm. Hm. Just a moment, James.’ Holding up a hand. ‘Dart! Ollary Dart, there!’
His steward appeared, and his face broke into a smile.
‘Captain, sir, I am right pleased you are up and about, sir. I was altogether certain you would recover, sir, and I--’
‘Yes yes, well well, I am a resilient fellow, but I am hungry. I will like tea, and a boiled egg. Two boiled eggs. And toast.’ He glanced at the doctor and James. ‘And for you, gentlemen ? A glass of something?’
‘Coffee, please.’ James.
‘Nothing for me.’ Dr. Wing.
As his steward departed Rennie made his way to the head of the table, drew out his chair, and: ‘Sit down, gentlemen, sit down. Where is Mr. Latimer? I will like to hear his report, also.’
‘He is in the sick bay, sir.’ Dr. Wing, as they all sat down at the table. ‘He took too much upon himself, too soon, and has suffered the consequence.’
‘Ah, poor fellow. Well well, we shall make do amongst ourselves, for the present.
James ?’
‘That other matter I was about to--’ Again taking up the lists.
Again Rennie interrupted him. ‘Do not think, by the by, that I dismiss the loss of Milson as a simple misfortune. It is a very grave loss indeed. No doubt we shall be blamed for it for not taking better care of the fellow. I wish to say now while we alone here in the cabin that I do not blame anybody in the ship. I must take and bear responsibility for what happened, and I--’
‘William, you are not responsible.’ James, heatedly. ‘Good God, you were ill. You nearly died.’
Rennie looked at him. The half smile. ‘Perhaps I should have done, and thus saved myself from the wrath to come. Hey?’
‘The other matter, William. I must tell you that while you lay ill we spoke to a despatch cutter, the Tallyho, bound for Falmouth from Malta. I sent a letter in her to their Lordships reporting all that had took place, including that we had Milson aboard, and his drawings, and thus could count the mission a success.’
‘Ah. Well well. Success.’ A brief grimace. ‘His loss will count against us all the harder, then.’
‘We have not lost the drawings, the designs.’
‘Without Milson himself I fear they are simply fanciful notions, James. Who will dare to present them in his place? Should you nor I attempt it, we should be ridiculed. The nation is at war, and such notions as these, well .’
‘I don’t suggest we should attempt it, William. If Milson’s designs are all he said, then others better placed will see it scientificals, and dock yard shipwrights.’
‘See it, James? See what?’
‘They will apprehend all of it, surely. When they see all of the drawings laid out before them. The furnace, and the wheels .’
‘And the iron ship, James? They would apprehend that, d’y’think?’ A sniff. ‘Nay, they would say what you and I both said, exact, when first we saw it. It is fanciful. It is lunatic. Such a ship would sink in moments.’ Shaking his head, and blowing out his cheeks. ‘Nay, nay, without Milson himself .none of it is plausible, nor practical, nor persuading, in time of war. None of it.’
‘I do not believe it.’ James, firmly. ‘I do not believe that all we have suffered and endured has come to nothing. We must find the men in England to go with us to the Admiralty, and lay it all before them.’
‘What men? Lay what before whom?’ Irritably.
‘Scientifical men, as I said. Dock yard officers. Men who will understand far better than can we the notion of steam powered ships. Men who can explain the notion to their Lordships, and the government. Then this commission will not have been in vain. All those lives will not have been lost to no purpose.’
‘You forget, James. Not only have we lost Milson. We have also lost Mr. Symonds. We have paid out five thousand guineas of Sir William Hamilton’s money. Money that the government did not send out with Symonds, you will remember. They wanted Milson in his person, in front of them in England, before they would pay out a penny.’
‘We have not lost the money. Surely it is in Milson’s cabin. We will recover it.’
Again Rennie shook his head. ‘In any event, we cannot show the drawings to anybody else, before they are received in London. We cannot.’
‘Not even scientificals, nor dock yard officers? Men that would understand--’
‘James, those drawings are secrets.’ Over him. ‘No matter they are works of genius, nor lunatic damned nonsense, they cannot be divulged to anybody outside a very narrow circle of influence. In least, not by us.’
He sighed, made a face, and: ‘I must take the blame for everything. And bear it on my shoulders alone.’
James opened his mouth to protest further, but Rennie held up a hand and stopped him. Then, to Dr. Wing:
‘I must ask that you repeat nothing you have heard here today outside this cabin, Thomas. I have you word on it?’
‘You may rely on my discretion, Captain Rennie.’
‘Very good, thankee.’ Turning to James again:
‘Now then, James. Pray make your report of the late action, if you please. In least that was not lost.’
CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE
When Expedient reached Portsmouth ten days later, without further incident, Rennie had begun to believe with James that things would perhaps come right, after all. Sir William Hamilton’s gold had been recovered. Perhaps the leather fold of intricate drawings and detailed explication would be enough to convince their Lordships, and indeed the government, that the commission had been a success even though both Milson and Symonds had been killed.
This was in part due to the fact that Rennie had recovered his health and most of his strength. James himself had recovered sufficiently from his wound to allow him to abandon the sling, and he was greatly looking forward to going home to Melton. However, before he did so, he must meet his final obligation.
‘Which of us should go to London in the mail coach tonight?’ he asked Rennie on the quarterdeck, as Expedient made her signals and reached her mooring num-ber at Spithead in mid-afternoon. ‘Or should we go together?’
‘We will both of us go up, James.’ Rennie, as the ship’s topsails were put aback and she hove to. ‘We was jointly charged with this task, and we have jointly completed it, and wrote our letter of report.’ Then he added:
‘And in course I will take and bear the responsibility for the deaths of Symonds and Milson.’
‘I think we should bear that together, William.’ Turning to look at him as a brief gust of wind made both men clutch at their hats, and seat them more firmly on their heads. Rennie was in his dress coat, and James again in a plain civilian frock coat.
‘You are not captain of the ship. The captain bears--’
‘I was captain of her, on two occasions and both at vital moments.’
‘Not altogether official, James. You was captain, so to say, as an expedient measure. Hey?’
A brief smile. ‘Howsomever, I will like to share the responsibility with you, altogether.’ Firmly.
‘Well well, under protest, James I will allow it. You there!’ To a duty midship-man. ‘Jump below and say to my steward that I want my
boat cloak.’
‘Aye-aye, sir.’ The boy ran forrard to the companionway ladder.
‘Mr. Latimer.’
‘Sir?’ Lieutenant Latimer, his own health restored, and his coat sleeve now pinned up round the stump of his left arm, attended him.
‘Sir James and I are going ashore. I shall want my gig.’
‘Aye-aye, sir.’ Turning forrard. ‘Mr. Catermole! Captain’s gig and four crew!’
Presently Rennie and James went down into the gig, with Sir William Hamilton’s recovered gold guineas, and went ashore. Rennie carried Milson’s leather fold containing the drawings and the letter of report. He had left instruction that Dr. Wing should take the wounded ashore to the Haslar Hospital in the launch; also that anchor watches should be kept until further notice. From the Hard he and James made their way briefly to the Port Admiral’s office, where they made their obedience and left the gold for safekeeping, and then went on to the Marine Hotel and ate an early dinner.
From the Marine they went to the George Inn on the High, and tried to reserve two inside places on the evening mail coach for London. There were no places to be had, either inside or on top. Rennie protested vigorously saying that he and James had important Admiralty business in London and was rebuffed. James offered to pay double to any two passengers who would delay their journey until the morrow, and was rebuffed.
‘Damnation!’ Rennie, in a fury of frustration as the coach set off at six o’clock, to the echo of the horn and ostlers’ shouts, the horses clattering away across the cobbles and leaving the two sea officers standing alone.
‘Nay, nay do not despair.’ James put a hand on Rennie’s shoulder. ‘There is a remedy.’
‘Eh?’
‘We shall hire a carriage and team, and drive up overnight like gentlemen.’
‘Hire a carriage? Will not that be ruinously expensive?’
‘A year ago I should have said: yes. Tonight I can say quite candidly: no, it will not. I can well afford it.’
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