Captain Caution

by Kenneth Roberts

  CAPTAIN CAUTION 337

  women of many countries have so frankly shown me their pining. It is because I let them feel my consciousness of them. Afterward, they find it impossible to keep me from their thoughts. Then, to gild those thoughts, I tell them magnificent lies of myself, and even more magnificent ones of themselves; for that is what rabbits prefer above all else. Hal To make a rabbit believe you are a giraffe and she an eaglessP 'Oh, rapture,' she sighs! I could be as ugly as those sheep in the pens amidships, but unlike them, I would have a perfume that would be intoxicating!"

  Marvin scrutinised him carefully; then cleared his throat and resumed his study of the horizon.

  "I tell you, dear Marvin," Argandeau continued, "it may be that you have had a thought to obtain this rabbit for yourself; and if it is so, you must be soon about it, because Slade is with her at all hours, telling her she is a great captain. In a little time she will consider him the wisest man in the world."

  "What can I dog" Marvin asked. "I can't tell her she's a good captain, because it's against reason for a woman to be a good captain. Anyway, she thinks I'm a coward."

  "Then tell her sol" Argandeau murmured. "Tell her you have been the greatest coward on earth, but soon will begin to be great because she inspires you. She is still a rabbit, you see, and must never be told the exact truth about anything. It is better that you do it than somebody else. Also, she is not a bad captain. I have seen worse. She is better than most English captains I have seen. It was a good idea she had, sending down the topgallant sails and royals, so that we are sure to see any dangerous craft before we can be seen ourselves."

  "I see nothing good about the idea," Marvin objected. "If we wake up some morning to find we've blundered into an enemy vessel, we'll have small chance of escaping."

  Argandeau laughed and swung himself down onto the futtock shrouds. "She is ready for such a misfortune also. She has many other ideas for our safety. You believe what Lucien Argandeau tells you, dear Marvin: Think less about how the rabbit will not do properly, and more about this Slade."

  For a time it seemed to Marvin that Corunna's ideas would not be put to the test; for the Olive Branch came out of the blazing heat of the doldrums into the soft and pleasant cloudiness of the northeast trades, and slipped unmolested into the harbor of Las Palmas in Grand Canary Island for water, vegetables and such livestock as could be packed in her waist and between decks. From the Canaries

  338 CAPTAIN CAUTION

  she bore up, close-hauled, to the westward of Madeira; then set her course for the high shoulder of Spain and the Bay of Biscay.

  It was in that vast funnel-shaped ocean lane, the narrow neck of which is Gibraltar, that Marvin, overseeing the dry holystoning of the newly washed berth deck on a cool October morning, heard a thumping of feet on the planks above him, together with a hoarse bawling for the bos'n.

  Even as he swung himself over the hatch coaming his eye caught the gleam of a small white sail far away on the starboard beam; and from the look on the faces of the men who packed the bulwarks, staring first at the distant sail and then at the three figures on the quarter-deck, he knew as he ran aft that there was something about the sail that sat ill in the minds of all who had seen it.

  Slade turned to him as he came to the break in the poop, lifting his head somewhat as though his drooping eyelid had shut Marvin from his sight. "Pipe all hands below," he said in his hoarse voice; "all but the original crew of this barque. They'll work the vessel, and the rest of 'em we'll put under hatches and batten 'em down. If we should be boarded, we'll keep 'em hid until the prize crew's aboard; then when we're well away, well off hatches, rise against 'em and retake the vessel."

  Corunna, her telescope rested for firmness on a ratline, peered and peered at the distant sail as though Slade's words had found no lodging in her brain. Marvin stared from Slade to Corunna, and then to the far-off stranger.

  Argandeau, close behind Corunna, spoke softly in her ear, eyeing Slade's back as he did so. "For such a cautious man as our bos'n," he said, "it might be that this plan would seem too dangerous."

  Slade's laugh was as harsh as the scraping of a boat against a barnacled ledge. "Look sharp about ill" he commanded Marvin, and with that he turned from him to stand at Corunna's side once more.

  Corunna lowered the telescope, glancing quickly at Marvin. "Why, yes," she said, "it might be, but it's got to be done, whether he likes it or not."

  "Well," Marvin said, "I don't like it, and I'm not ashamed to say so. What will you do if she's a British cruiser, and she takes all of you aboard as prisoners?"

  "She won't," said Slade quickly; "not if we don't fight her."

  Marvin turned on him. "Why won't she? The British do any damned thing at all when they're at war! I never heard of anyone getting decent treatment from 'em unless their own ends were served by itl"

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  "Perhaps," Argandeau murmured, balancing himself on his toes "perhaps this boon who is so free with his criticism is able to make a better plan, though I do not think so, because he does not have an intelligent look." He met Marvin's angry stare with the faintest lift of an eyebrow.

  "There's nothing else to do but fight," Corunna said calmly, "and I somehow doubt that he likes to fight."

  "Fight!" Marvin exclaimed. "How can we fight when we're too slow to board anything but a tubl What we might be able to do is scare 'em."

  "Scare them?" Slade laughed contemptuously. "You'll make faces at them, no doubtl"

  Argandeau nodded his head for emphasis. "Of all the people im the world," he said softly, "the English are the most cruel, but they are not easy to frighten."

  "Maybe not," Marvin said, "maybe not; but I've never seen any- body yet that wasn't afraid of cholera!"

  Corunna whirled to look at him, while Argandeau opened his mouth wide in a soundless exclamation. "Cholera!" she whispered. "Cholera!"

  "Yes, cholera!" Marvin said. "What do you want to run from 'em for, once they've sighted you? It's as good as an invitation! Put about and run for 'em, and when we're within hailing distance, put me in a boat with two men to row and let me try it. If it doesn't work, you're no worse off than you'd be if you kept running."

  "What?" Slade cried. "Why, she'd rake us with her bow guns be- fore we had a chance to speak her."

  Marvin studied him carefully. "It appears to me you're a little hasty in your judgment," he said. "She'll do nothing of the sort if we run down to her under half sail and at loose ends, yawing as if we had a sick crew and helmsman, and making signals of distress to

  bOOt.n

  Slade's laugh was as discordant as it was sudden. "It appears to me," he said, "that you're bound to have us takent"

  Corunna closed her telescope with a snap. "All hands about shipl" she said to Marvin. Marvin snatched his whistle from his pocket and went to blowing on it as if to blow the bean through the air hole.

  Slade moved toward Corunna, who had taken her station at the weather gangway; but at the sound of a gentle laugh from Argan- deau, he stopped. "Down with the helml" she called. "Rise tacks and sheets!" With a creaking of yards and a slatting of rigging against fluttering canvas, the Olive Branch came about and bore off for the

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  sail that now showed itself to be a ship with topsails so lofty that Marvin knew they could only be handled by the large crew of a war craft.

  Half an hour later, the Olive Branch, with everything Iying aback, lay wallowing in the path of the oncoming ship, a wretched slattern of the sea with the French ensign half hoisted to her peak. There was a helmsman at the wheel, but he hung across it, more like a sack of meal than a man. In the shadow of the mainmast lay two still forms, and on the quarter-deck a single dejected figure sat as if helpless on a coil of rope. Off her starboard beam bobbed a small boat, in which two men rowed, while two others huddled in the stern sheets.

  The ship, a frigate of thirty-eight guns, came past the boat and rounded smartly into the wind,
to leeward of it, her starboard bulwarks studded with gun crews.

  The men in the boat gave way, pulling wearily toward the ship.

  A blue-clad figure on the quarter-deck bawled at them through a trumpet. "What barque is that?"

  Argandeau rose in the stern of the boat, holding to Marvin's shoulder. "La Petite Citoyenne de Douarnenez!" he called back, passing his hand weakly over his close-cropped head.

  "Speak Englishl" bawled the holder of the trumpet.

  Argandeau turned to Marvin, seeming to hold him in conversation, and the small boat came rocking closer to the tall black cruiser.

  The Frenchman turned to the quarter-deck again. His face was pale, and there was an unnatural redness to his lips. "I ask you, please, you give us opium."

  There was a running on the frigate's quarter-deck. "Halt, therel Arretezl Get to hell out of herel Get around under our lee quarter! Lee! Leel" The man with the trumpet waved it violently.

  Slowly the small boat rounded the high windows of the frigate's stern and came up under her lee quarter. On his feet once more, Argandeau lifted a pallid and imploring face to the taffrail above him. "Two men die this day," he said. "Five have sick, very much vomitl Maybe we all die unless we get opiuml"

  "Well, what is it?" the blue-coated man shouted, his voice somewhat shrill. "You got cholera on that barque? Hey? What you got cholera?"

  "I think yes," Argandeau said wearily. "You give opium?"

  "Sheer off, there!" the blue-coated man shouted. "Yes, we'll give you opium and laudanum! Here, clap onto this liner Hurry up with that line, therel"

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  A slender rope fell across the boat. Argandeau, crouched in the bottom, caught it and slowly hauled it in. Fastened to its end was a package. He rose to his feet as if to thank the frigate, but already her sails were filling and those on her quarter-deck too occupied, seemingly, to listen. Listlessly the small boat turned toward the Olive Branch. The frigate slipped rapidly to the westward so rapidly that the figures on her quarter-deck quickly shrank to featureless dots. Argandeau scooped up a handful of seawater and dashed it over his powdered face and reddened lips.

  "Hal" he said softly. "For a consideration I will give Monsieur Talma, of the Theatre Franc,ais, a lesson in acting, eh? Now I think we know how to come safe to France."

  XI

  RACKED by a southwest gale, the Olive Branch tumbled across the Bay of Biscay. In the cabin, Corunna, Slade and Argandeau bent low over a chart pinned to the cabin table and studied the ragged and inhospitable coast of France, while the bulkheads groaned and the hanging lamp plunged and jerked above their heads. Marvin, rewarded for his help in escaping the British frigate by the title of third mate, sat by himself on a locker.

  'When I sail the Formidable," Argandeau said, "I come gaily from far countries; and Sweeshl I vanish into La Rochelle like an arrow, no matter what wind I have. I am indifferent to lee shores in my beautiful Formidahle. Ah, ahl" He sighed heavily. "She mind me like a woman in the ecstasies of obedience to her first love. I have never been slow to make either vessels or ladies obedient."

  "It was she, was it not, who went up in smoke?" Corunna asked dryly.

  Argandeau made her a quick bow. "You interrupt!" he said. "I was about to say that I have not been slow to tell a woman what to do, once I learn what it is she wishes to do. Now I cannot tell what this barque wishes to do on a lee shore; and these lee shores of Normandy and Brittany, they are not affable. You look on this chart how the head of Brittany thrusts itself out to seal It is the head of a dragon, snarling at the ocean, eh? That is how she is, too a snarler! Me, I would run into La Rochelle, but maybe you find it more comfortable to sail around the dragon's head and come in under the land at Roscoff or Morlaix. They have a drawback, those ports they are close to England. For smugglers, that is good; for us, it might be bad."

  "The closer to England, the fewer her ships," Slade said.

  Argandeau raised his shoulder. "I hear Dominique Diron when he make that saying, and in return I make one of my own. Englishmen are where you find them. If it should be my business to fish for them, I would fish in any waters at all, and have better luck than those who say We will not fish in those waters, for the English never go there.'"

  "I'd go into Morlaix," Slade remarked hoarsely.

  "Morlaix is not bad," Argandeau admitted. "Me, I prefer Brest

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  maybe, or Lorient, where there are guns to get under, eh, in case a frigate thinks she would like to come in to sit beside you. There are no guns in Morlaix."

  Slade swept back his long hair. "But no frigate will ever make free with Morlaix," he said. "You couldn't get a frigate in there unless you Boated her in on a raft."

  "Do you know Morlaix?" Corunna asked Argandeau.

  "Do I know it? In Morlaix I have five brothers-in-law three of one family and two of another! To me it is like the face of my own neck, where I shave it each morning."

  "And we'd have no trouble landing our cargo?" she persisted.

  Argandeau laughed. "France and England, they are alike. Both countries are alive with thieves and politicians, which are the same things. Those who are not thieves or politicians are either smugglers, users of smuggled goods, fools or sailors. With a little money here and a little money there, you do as you like, oh?"

  "Then it's to Morlaix that we'll go," Corunna said. She looked ruefully at the elbows of her gray, water-stained Chinese jacket; elbows so crossed and recrossed by now with silken darns that they had the look, almost, of embroidered pads fixed to her sleeves. "And high time, too," she added, "unless I'm to do my sailing in a skirt with a band of grapeshot sewed to the bottom."

  Slade touched her arm gently. "All the finery in France," he assured her, "can be no more beautiful than this."

  She shook her head and smiled; and almost to Marvin's horror it came to him that there was a misty softness in her eyes that had not been there since the day her father died. He rose so noisily to his feet that both Corunna and Slade looked around at him in disapproval. "I'll go on deck," he said. "Somebody's got to be there if the rest of you want to talk dress all day."

  Argandeau, following him on deck, laughed softly at him. "I think you are all alike, you Americans without subtleness with your woment Look now what you have done] You have barked at this rabbit, so she will move her nose and sit where she is, to show you she does not wish to be barked all To me it is a strange thing, dear Marvin, that any woman in your country consents to become married to an American man, when even your language of love consists of barks and growls, eh? We in France, we are subtle! We hunt always for the heartstrings of a woman, and we play softly on them, so that she is moved to do our will. You should learn from well, I will not say from whom, but from someone whose words of love are like the whispering of spicy winds among roses."

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  "No doubtI"Marvin said bitterly. "No doubtl Slade must have taken lessons from a Frenchmant"

  Argandeau looked condescending. "Perhaps. He does very well, too, though one would never mistake the little chameleon for the superb tree he strives to imitate. However, ladies are sometimes pleased with those little creatures, the chameleons."

  There was anger in Marvin's voice. "You mean she's pleased with this one now?"

  'Well, she's taking her time to listen to him. No?"

  Marvin made no reply to this inquiry; and the two men, one meditative and the other moody, began to pace the quarter-deck in silence.

  The Olive Branch had rounded Ushant and stood off to the eastward along the brown-spired nose of the cruel dragon's head of Brittany before Corunna came on deck again.

  "Why not say it?" Argandeau said in a low voice to Marvin.

  "Why not say whatP"

  "What you are thinking, my friend. Eh? WhaYs that? Why, that I was right about that damned chameleon!"

  It was late afternoon of a chill October day when the barque skirted the tumbled rocks of Roscoff and, with h
er bulwarks and rigging studded thick with sea-weary sailors, ran close-hauled for the high-banked estuary at the end of which lies Morlaix.

  When darkness fell she lay at anchor three miles up the estuary. The stone walls of the Chateau du Taurau were far astern and the lights of the Happy Horse cabaret winked at her from the near-by shore. She was one hundred and forty-eight days from Canton and as even Marvin admitted safe at last.

  Corunna, coming on deck the following morning, found Marvin bargaining with the bumboat men whose small craft, laden with horse-meat, water kegs and newly-caught marine delicacies such as mussels and squid, were clustered at the waist of the Olive Branch like squash seeds floating beside a segment of their parent squash.

  Corunna gazed contentedly aloft and about her. The Olive Branch's yards were squared; a brilliant sun shone on the deck, still damp from holystoning, and on the brass-work at which the crew still scrubbed. The estuary lay glassy blue in the morning calm. At the small end of the estuary the town of Morlaix nestled peacefully at the bottom of a deep cleft in the green French hills a true haven,

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  Corunna thought, from the trials and dangers of a troubled world. Marvin, seeing her, came quickly to the quarter-deck. "If it's all the same to you, Corunna," he said, "I'd like to run out the sweeps and move a little nearer to the town. These boatmen say there's enough water closer in."

  "What's wrong with this anchorage?" Corunna demanded. "Mr. Slade and I settled on it last night. Perhaps it isn't safe enough for you, but it is for us."

  When Marvin was silent, she laughed scornfully. "You can't admit it, can you, Danl Just because I'm a woman, you won't give me credit for doing what you said I couldn't do! You said I wasn't a captain; but I've brought this vessel safe to port, and no captain could do more. Yet you're too stubborn to acknowledge itl"

  "No," he said slowly. "I'm not too stubborn. No man could have brought her in smarter, Corunna. Your cargo's safe, and there's no sick aboard. It's a miracle, almost."

  "A miracle!" she cried. "Why is it a miracle? Why can't you admit it was seamanship, and be done with it? Mr. Slade says - "