Skull and Bones

by John Drake

  "What am I to do, Doctor?"

  "In what respect?"

  "Taking prizes? Winning dollars? Choosing allies?" Silver shook his head. "All of it, Doctor. Living my bleedin' life! What soddin' life? What am I? Who am I?"

  "Oh!" said Cowdray. He was a surgeon, but like any medical man he knew that men can be wounded in the mind as badly as in the body, and that such wounds could be severe. He glanced at Silver. To Cowdray, Silver was still young: thirty- two? Thirty-three? Cowdray could almost have been his father; moreover he liked Silver and wanted to help. He thought of something to say, to get Silver talking… to explore the wound.

  "You let the prize go," he said, "Venture's Fortune. Why did you do that?"

  "Had to," said Silver morosely, "or we'd not be refitting in that dockyard yonder."

  "Is that arranged?"

  Silver nodded. "It was just a matter of money," he said. "And plenty of it."

  "Why didn't you keep the prize?"

  Silver shrugged. "We'd get away with that once or twice, but he'd find out in the end."

  "Sir Wyndham Godfrey?"

  "Aye. He issues these Protections. I saw one in Cap'n Higgs's desk." Silver shook his head irritably. "You see," he said, "if we… I… am to follow this life, we need a port."

  "Like this one?"

  "This is the only bloody one, damn near! So we can't upset him what owns it."

  "King George, you mean?"

  Silver laughed and the parrot squawked loudly.

  "And that's another thing," said Silver. "I've got to choose between them two under hatches aboard ship: Lord fancy- drawers-McBollock, and Mr Bow Street Norton, both of 'em reckoning they've a king behind 'em. So which do we favour?"

  "You took Norton as a navigator…"

  "Aye, but he might be useful as a go-between with the law."

  "I see," said Cowdray. "And in the meantime you stole Bonnie Prince Charlie's dollars…"

  "And how long would I've been cap'n if I hadn't?"

  "Hmm," said Cowdray. "Of course, Allardyce is for McLonarch."

  "Him and others! They worship the paper he wipes his arse on."

  "What do you think?" said Cowdray.

  Silver sighed heavily. "See here, Doctor, there could be pardons in this for all hands. McLonarch has offered one, but only if Prince Charlie comes home… while maybe we could get one out of King George for handing McLonarch over - if Allardyce would let us." Silver shook his head, and took another hefty pull from his tankard. "And there's civil war brewing if McLonarch gets home, and no way of knowing which side might win… or even if we should try to stop it, for the bloodshed it would mean for all England."

  "I see," said Cowdray. "But why need there be a decision now? We could take both men to England, ask questions when we get there, and decide then what to do with them." He bowed his head in thought. "The great prize would be a pardon. That would be precious beyond riches." He looked up, the evidence weighed, a decision reached: "We should go to England! Then, at worst, if the matter proves too complex, we could set Norton and McLonarch ashore in two different places - thus keeping Allardyce happy and ourselves still holding the dollars."

  "Bugger me blind!" said Silver, tipping back his hat and gazing at Cowdray in admiration. "Where have you been all these months, Doctor? You never speak at our councils and yet here you are, the sharpest man aboard!"

  "I never thought the hands would listen to a sawbones," said Cowdray.

  "Well, I'm damned," said Silver. "You almost persuaded me."

  "Oh? Will you not go to England?"

  "I don't know. The risk is so great. We might be found out. We might be taken…" He looked around King William Square. "This place might be up for bribes, but the Port of London won't be. And the seas'd be thick with navy."

  "Well," said Cowdray, looking sideways at Silver, "England is where your wife has gone…"

  Silver groaned and rubbed his face with his hands, for that was the heart of his troubles, not the choice between McLonarch and Norton. It was the unspoken pain that not even Cowdray had dared mention until now.

  "Did you hear what she said to me?" said Silver. "Aboard the prize?"

  "No. I was down below, reducing Mr Miller's fracture of the tibio-fibula."

  "Oh. How's he doing?"

  "Nicely, Captain. I am pleased to say that he will walk again on two legs!"

  "Huh!" said Silver.

  "Oh!" said Cowdray, mortified. "I do apologise. How thoughtless. I am so sorry."

  Silver sighed again.

  "I tried to stop her," he said. "Told her what I thought. Then she told me what she thought, which was 'no more gentleman o' fortune'… and so we fell to hammer and tongs again, and then that pretty-faced cow stepped up and took her part, and said she'd carry my girl off to England and make a great actress out of her. And she believed it, and so she went."

  "What pretty-faced cow?"

  "The actress. She's supposed to be famous in England."

  "Who told you that?"

  "Cap'n Fitch and the rest, aboard Venture's Fortune."

  "What was her name?"

  "Cooper. Mrs Katherine Cooper of Drury Lane. Said my Selena was so beautiful - which she is - that she must succeed upon the stage." He smiled sadly. "I hope she does."

  Cowdray shot bolt upright in his chair.

  "Captain," he said, "was this a small, very pretty woman in her fifties?"

  "Aye. That'd be her."

  "And her name was Katherine Cooper?"

  "Aye."

  "Katty Cooper?"

  "I did hear that was her name… among friends."

  "Friends?" said Cowdray. "Friends be damned! Katty's her professional name. She's no actress! She's Cat-House Cooper, the procuress! She ran the biggest brothel in the Caribbean, and made a speciality of importing fresh young black girls from the plantations. God help us… we've sent Selena to London to be made a whore!"

  * * *

  Chapter 10

  An hour after dawn (there being no watches kept nor bells struck)

  2nd April 1753

  Aboard Oraclaesus

  The Atlantic

  Billy Bones ran from end to end of the lower deck. He'd already checked the hold.

  "Ahoy!" he roared. "Shake out and show a leg!" And he beat a drum roll on the ship's timbers with a belaying pin, brought down for the purpose. Finally he stopped to listen: there was silence except for the ship's own creaking and sighing, almost as if she knew what was coming. "With me!" he said, and ran up to the main deck with two men in his wake, and roared out the same challenge.

  He bellowed and yelled from end to end of the ship, past the silent guns, staggering under the sickening motion of the rolling, hove-to vessel that clattered its blocks and rattled its rigging and complained and moaned.

  "Ahoy there! Show out, you lubbers!" cried Billy Bones. But nobody answered. The ship was empty except for him and his two men. Finally they checked the quarterdeck, the fo'c'sle and the tops… all of which they already knew to be empty. But Billy Bones checked them anyway. Only then did he give the order, and one of his men opened the lantern kept secured on the quarterdeck and took a light from the candle within, and lit the three torches: long timber treenails with greasy rags bound about their tips. Taking the torches, Billy and his accomplices doubled to the three carefully prepared fire points in the hold.

  In each place a pile of inflammables had been assembled: crumpled paper, leading to scraps of small timber, leading to casks of paint, and linseed oil ready broached, and finally to stacked heaps of canvas and small spars: a vile mixture aboard a wooden ship, and one which made Billy Bones's flesh crawl, for the time he'd done the same aboard Long John's ship, Lion, for which action he was deeply ashamed. Old Nick would surely claim him for that deed when the time came.

  But this was different. They were burning a plague ship under Captain Flint's orders, to save poor mariners from certain death should any come upon her afloat and the miasma of the sickness still ab
oard - which, from the stink of her, it certainly was. Bones and his men had already set Jumper aflame for the same reason, and now it was the frigate's turn.

  Billy's face glowed in the firelight as he waited a minute to see that the fire was really under way. Then, with the crackling flames eating hot upon his cheeks, he cried: "All hands to the boat!" And he leapt to his feet and got himself smartly up on deck. Not running, for that might unsettle the hands, but moving at a brisk pace to get away from the flames now roaring down below. And he was right not to run, for the two men were waiting on deck with round eyes and mouths open in superstitious dread of what they'd done.

  Billy Bones took one last look - fore, aft, aloft - at the great and beauteous work of man that they were destroying: the soaring masts, the wide yards, the sweet-curving coppered hull and the mighty guns; the cables, anchors, boats and spars; the stores of beef, beer and biscuit, of oil, pitch and tar, of candles, tallow, rope and twine. God knows what she'd cost the king and the nation!

  More than that, a ship was a community afloat, bearing the cooper's adze, the tailor's shears and the chaplain's bible, together with all the small and beloved goods of her people: their books, letters and locks of true-love's hair.

  By Flint's orders, all possible goods and stores had been taken off, including the squadron's war chest of two thousand pounds in gold. All else had been left behind - including the personal wealth of her officers: their purses, pistols, jewels, watches and wines - for even when it came to such precious items as these, there was a limit to what could be crammed into a sloop one quarter the size of the big frigate. And in any case, so far as Billy Bones was concerned - now increasingly believing that he served the king once more - it was grave-robbing and an unclean deed to pillage the sea-chests of brother officers.

  So all these wonders were put to the flames, including the contents of the ship's two magazines: which - even leaving aside the ready-made, flannel cartridges - contained two hundred ninety-pound, copper-bound kegs holding a total of eight tons of powder.

  "Go on!" said Billy, and the two hands were over the side at the main chains and scrambling down into the boat that was bumping and rolling alongside. It was a launch, chosen for speed, and six nervous men were waiting at the oars. Billy Bones's two men made eight: enough to make the launch fly. He sighed, and followed at the dignified pace of the senior man. "Give way!" he cried at last, and the oarsmen threw their weight - heart, soul, mind and strength - upon the oars in their eagerness to escape the doomed ship and her brim- full magazines.

  It was woven into Billy Bones's nature to tell any crew of oarsmen to put their backs into it; to spur them on, just as a matter of principle… but even he could see that it wasn't needed on this occasion. The hands were terrified and pulling like lunatics. For one thing, they could see what was happening astern. They could see the red flames pouring out of Leaper's hatches, and the smoke curling up from Oraclaesus. But Billy Bones thought it beneath his dignity to look back, and he steered for the distant Bounder where Flint awaited with the new crew, and the new future.

  They were nearly alongside of her when the first explosion came, and the oarsmen lost stroke as they gaped at the ghastly sight. Now even Billy Bones couldn't resist looking, and he turned in time to see Oraclaesus break her back: stern and bow drooping, and midships blown clear out of the water by the enormous violence of an explosion that threw flame and smoke and fragments of smashed gear tumbling high into the air, including - hideous to see - the entire, massive, one- hundred-and-eighty-foot mainmast - topmast, t'gallant and all - hurled its own length and more, straight up, with the great yards snapping like cannon-fire and trailing a tangle of rigging and sailcloth… only to hang… and curve… and fall smashing and rumbling down into the blazing wreckage of the ship, throwing up sparks and flame and ash.

  Billy Bones sobbed. He was a seaman born and bred, an embodiment of the sea life, and he couldn't bear to see a ship - especially so fine a ship - come to such an end. As for the oarsmen, they'd served aboard Oraclaesus and she'd been their home and their pride: they threw their faces into their hands and wept… and the launch lost way and rolled horribly, with her oars to all points of the compass.

  Soon after, Jumper exploded, the flames for some unfathomable reason taking that bit longer to find her powder. But there were no more tears, only dull misery, for Billy Bones had his men pulling again, and running alongside Bounder, where he went up the side and was received by tars saluting. Having lifted his hat to the quarterdeck, he made his way aft to report.

  Flint - who didn't share Mr Bones's views on grave-robbing - was immaculate in a cocked hat and the gold-laced uniform coat of a lieutenant, with a fine sword at his side. He was standing at the windward side of the quarterdeck with his officers clustered in his lee as tradition demanded. These were Lieutenant Comstock, a lad of twenty, lately in command of Leaper and now rated first lieutenant; the red-coated Lieutenant Lennox, who was even younger; and finally Mr Baxter, ship's carpenter, but rated a watch-keeping officer by Flint. There was also the equivocal Mr Braddock, who was no seaman at all. He'd been Captain Baggot's band-master aboard Oraclaesus, and being in the captain's personal service was excused fighting and flogging, and considered himself a gentleman.

  Billy Bones looked at Braddock and sniffed. The lubber was full of himself and needed taking down. Then Billy glanced at the hands in the waist, and nodded in approval. Having combined the surviving crews of three ships, Flint now had a total of thirty-three men aboard Bounder, including twenty-five able seamen, one sergeant of marines, and two marine privates: a full and satisfactory number to work a two-hundred-ton, two-masted sloop and sail her anywhere in the wide world, especially as she was now provisioned to bursting point. Nonetheless, thirty-three was only a small complement should ever it be necessary to man her twelve six-pounders.

  "I'm come aboard, Cap'n!" said Billy Bones formally, giving a smart salute.

  "Well done, Mr Bones!" said Flint. "It is a sad task, that with which you were charged, but a needful one, and you have acquitted yourself well."

  Billy Bones bathed in the warmth of his master's approval, and also in pride at his master's splendour and all that he had recently achieved. Flint had saved all aboard Oraclaesus, and made the hard decision to abandon the frigate and concentrate all hands aboard Bounder, and to fire the other ships. He'd persuaded the men to follow him, and had acted in so fine and officer-like a manner as to prove that he was indeed the matchless leader that Billy Bones knew him to be… enabling Billy Bones - despite hideous and recent experience - to hope that his beloved master had changed for the better and become - once again - the man who'd won his undying allegiance all those years ago.

  The dog-like expression on Billy Bones's face was bad enough, but when Flint turned to his officers he nearly ruined his entire performance… for the two young lieutenants and the elderly carpenter stood to attention and touched their hats the instant his eye fell upon them. And as for the hands in the waist, standing with their hats in their hands, awaiting his orders: Flint didn't dare look at them.

  What dupes they all were! What credulous morons! He'd won them round in a few days, with a bit of seamanship, an absolute denial of guilt, and a firm protestation that all the tales against him were spite and lies - which phrase he'd lifted bodily from Billy Bones without bothering to say thank you: not for that nor for the superb job Billy Bones had done in extracting innocent praise for Captain Flint out of Ben Gunn, thus commencing Flint's redemption.

  So Flint fought hard not to give way, he really did, for here he was, in front of them all, posing as a loyal sea-service officer with two lieutenants calling him sir, and Billy Bones in raptures of joy, and the lower deck ready to eat out of his hand if he filled it with nuts. And so, and so… Flint frowned magnificently, and dug the nails of his right hand into the palm of his left, where they were clasped behind him, so that the pain should kill his sole and only admitted fault: the unfortunate reaction that his inferiors
drew from him on moments like this: a desire to laugh hysterically in their faces.

  But… hmmm, thought Flint, that fine gentleman Mr Braddock - that blower of horns, that performer upon the sackbut and dulcimer, and in all probability the Jew's harp as well - he had a frown upon his face. Flint recalled that Mr Braddock had been the most reluctant of all to set aside Captain Flint's past activities. Indeed, he'd been most decidedly insolent, and had made reference to a store of "wanted" posters - now thankfully incinerated aboard Oraclaesus - that the squadron had brought out to the Colonies to be pasted on every wall between New York and Savannah, denouncing former lieutenant Flint as a pirate and mutineer!

  Yes, Flint nodded to himself, it would soon become necessary for Mr Braddock to suffer a tragic-and-ever-to-be- regretted accident such as - sadly - was all too common in the dangerous confines of a small ship upon the mighty ocean.

  Meanwhile:

  "Gentlemen!" said Flint.

  "Aye-aye, sir!" they cried, and Flint suffered agonies in choking the mirth.

  "Our course is to England, and Portsmouth!"

  "Aye-aye, sir!"

  "Mr Comstock!"

  "Sir!"

  "You are officer of the watch."

  "Aye-aye, Cap'n!"

  That nearly did it. So nearly that Flint had to pretend to cough and to splutter before recovering himself. The fool had actually called him Captain.

  "A-hem!" said Flint. "You have the watch, Mr Comstock, to be relieved by Mr Baxter and he by others according to the standing orders I have drawn up."

  "Aye-aye, sir!"

  Then Flint drew upon his memories of another captain whom even Flint recognised to be a true leader of men: a man who had once been his dear friend and whom - in the dark depths of his mind - he still admired. Flint asked himself how John Silver would have behaved at that moment, and the answer came back bright and clear.

  "Now then, my boys!" he cried, stepping towards the lower-deck hands. "We've come through bad times. We've come through fire and pestilence and we've seen good comrades die…" He paused to let the dreadful memories drag them down, then judged his moment and lifted them up: "But now," he cried, "we've forged a new crew. We've a good ship beneath us, and home lies ahead! So here's to new times and new luck aboard the good ship Bounder. For the ship, lads: for her and all aboard of her: hip-hip- hip -"