The King - Dewey Lambdin

"Aye, sir. Want t' tack an' pursue 'em now, sir?"

"Wait until we're safely over this broken reef first, then lay her on the starboard tack," Lewrie replied. "Break out the water-butts for anyone as thirsty as I feel for now. Gun crews stand easy."

"Aye, sir."

"Sail ho!" the lookout called.

"Where away!"

"Due south, sir!" the man replied. "Four points off the larboard beam! Full-rigged ship, sir!"

"Damme, d'you think Mister Choate finally got here, sir?" Murray asked. "Now between us, we'll put paid t' these motherless buggers!"

Lewrie took up his telescope and went up the mizzen shrouds to almost the top platform. He raised it to his eyes once he had an arm and leg threaded through the ratlines and stays to keep himself from falling, and took a look for himself.

Three masts, pale tan sails, coming on for the island from the sou'west with the wind large on her starboard quarter. Already almost hull up. Good lines. Frigate-built, he thought. Ayscough chose well.

A large swell over the broken reef wall lifted Culverin higher for about half a minute. Far off, another swell raised the stranger as well. Lewrie could espy a pale ochre hull with what looked to be a wide white gunwale stripe.

"Poisson D'Or!" he cursed. "Choundas!"

Why did he have to arrive now, of all times? Huge clouds of gunpowder hung over Spratly Island. Artillery still fired on those praos yet trapped in harbor or trying to run the gauntlet to sea.

To see a strange ship giving chase to a pack of pirates fleeing to the east would be the final straw. They could not lure Poisson D'Or into harbor. Choundas would be wise to the game, and sail off for parts unknown, as sure as Fate!

"Goddamn your bloody luck, you rotten shit!" Lewrie almost wept with frustration. Here he'd just won two battles in a fortnight, done away with pirates by the battalions, had sunk Frogs left, right and center, and all for nothing!

What to do now, he pondered. One course of action was to go back to seal the entrance to the harbor, so most of the pirates could end up slaughtered. Or, he could pursue the eight who were getting away. If he did continue the chase, he might be able to lure Choundas into action, but the man had long-ranged guns to his short-ranged carronades. Stout as Culverin was, she'd be pounded to bits while he would be lucky to inflict even minor damage to Choundas.

He raised his telescope again to peer at his foe. Poisson D'Or altered shape. She was turning north, putting all her masts in line, heading somewhere to the east of Spratly Island. To interpose between Culverin and Choundas' fleeing allies.

"Bastard!" Lewrie growled. For little danger, Choundas would appear to have saved that terrified remnant, driven off an English ship and restored his luster among the Mindanao pirates. And, he would end up escaping, after all, to some port where they had no hope of finding him. "Bastard!"

Chapter 9

And you could not pursue him?" Mr. Twigg demanded, sounding as if he did not believe one word of Lewrie's report.

"Once we'd convinced the rest of the praos to surrender, sir," Lewrie replied, striving to keep a cool head in the face of Twigg's unspoken sneering, "after I had returned to harbor and blocked their escape, I did sail off to the east'rd, for two days, sir, but found no sign of him or the pirates who did get out of harbor. After that two days, I felt it my duty to return to Spratly and defend it until Lieutenant Choate arrived with Cuddalore to relieve me, sir."

They held their conference on Telesto's poop deck, under the canvas awnings with lots of liquid refreshments, instead of the airless great cabins below, for the day was sunny, hot but breezy.

"And the estimable Lieutenant Choate is where, sir?" Twigg inquired.

"Off the coast of Borneo, sir," Lewrie stated. "He unloaded his cargo of supplies, then told me to remain here as harbor-guard. He would scout to the sou'east, up to windward, from the Rajang River delta to Balabac Strait. He took along one of the captured praos in tow, sir, so he could go close inshore."

"Good thinking, that," Ayscough said of his first lieutenant.

"A bit too late, that," Twigg retorted.

"Let me remind you, Mister Twigg, that you were still of the opinion that Choundas would be here by mid-June, and in that you were dead-wrong!" Captain Ayscough rumbled deep in his chest, arms folded over his stomach. "I also get the sense that you disapprove of Mister Lewrie's actions here on Spratly. Well, let me tell you, I have read his full report, even if you have not, and as a commission Sea Officer I find no fault with his conduct of our campaign so far, nor with any decision he has made. My report shall contain my highest approbation for his actions, actions in the very best traditions of the Sea Service!"

"Hmmpf!" Twigg sniffed loftily. "Two sea-dogs whelped from the same litter. Your approval is only natural, but a chance was missed!"

If anything, the already strained relationship between Twigg and Captain Ayscough had grown even more testy in the weeks since Alan had last seen them, going past gentlemanly conduct to the words and sneers that back home would have resulted in a pre-dawn duel. Choate had warned him to expect the worst of them, and had expressed worries that their acrimony was bad enough to jeopardize the future conduct of their expedition. Perhaps that was why Choate had been so eager to get back to sea, so he would not be there when they arrived. They had come into port at Spratly three days earlier, the fifteenth of May. Choate had brought Cuddalore, a fine twenty-gunned merchantman, across the bar on the first of May, and had departed in a haste such as if all the imps of Hell were chasing him. Which, in a way, Alan realized, they were. He'd rather be anywhere than around these two headstrong men whose relationship had degraded to an open feud!

"Why, thankee, Mister Twigg." Captain Ayscough beamed. "That was a pretty compliment, to my lights, and I do take it as such! I would like to think I'd been as successful had I been in this lad's shoes. The island taken with minimum casualties, a French cartel ship captured and burned. And not just any hired vessel, but one of Choundas' outright ownership! A cartel ship, I might remind you, we were not even aware of, and she moored not a quarter-mile ahead of us for six months at Whampoa!"

"Hmmpf!" Twigg reiterated, turning beet-red from that insult to his intelligence-gathering powers, his lips going twine-thin.

"The harbor fortified and provisioned as good as any, and the encampment improved, though I am sure we have Sir Hugo's skills as a soldier to thank for that as well," Ayscough continued, inclining his head toward Lieutenant-Colonel Willoughby, who was sprawled in a canvas deck-chair with a glass of brandy in hand, booted feet up on the rickety deal table. Sir Hugo raised his glass and smiled beatifically.

Lewrie could not help but swell with pride as his praises were sung so nicely. If Ayscough were any more complimentary, he imagined they'd commission a Te Deum Mass at St. Paul 's and lay on fireworks!

"An entire pirate fleet destroyed, sir," Ayscough went on, hammering gaily away at Twigg's arguments. "Ten out of eighteen Lanun Rover praos sunk, taken or burned, sir, and over twelve hundred cut-throats dead or made prisoner. Why, these Mindanao pirates haven't suffered such a bloody check in a hundred years! Wiped from the face of God's blue seas. As you demanded back at Bencoolen, sir."

"One might also mention the harbor properly surveyed for the first time in living memory, and the island's exact location corrected, sir," Sir Hugo prompted. "The late Captain Cook could have done no less in these waters, I shouldn't doubt."

"And that American whaler freed, too," Ayscough concluded.

"Yes, that American whaler," Twigg drawled. "Now off in Manila, shouting to high heaven. Letting the world in on our little secret! Did it not occur to you, Mister Lewrie, that our mission out here is secret?"

Twigg got to his feet to pace his anger off.

"It cannot be known publicly by any other power that England had disguised warships in these waters, or the recent treaty is violated, and we might face another disastrous war with France. Or any other nation that might decide to side with them. Those Yankees saw a battalion of East India Company troops, and a vessel flying Royal Navy colors, do battle with the French, sir! Now how secret do you believe our mission is any longer? You should have kept them here, found any excuse to delay their departure, until I could arrive so no one could learn of this, but no! You…"

"Oh, bloody Hell!" Sir Hugo snapped, slamming boots on the deck. "Did it never occur to you, Mister Twigg, that there may have been a tad too much bloody worry about secrecy?"

"I beg your pardon, Sir Hugo?" Twigg snarled back.

'Two years ago, when our first ships started going missing, it would have made eminent sense to raise the hue and cry with every seafaring nation out here and make a concerted campaign to defend trade. Not just our trade, but everyone's. Let the world know there's need to chastise every bloody pirate in the Far East," Sir Hugo went on. "But that may have been too much good sense for our masters back in London. Seems to me, sir, this exposure at last, with our American cousins shouting the loudest, is just the thing for us. In a year, the world'll know it was this Choundas, and the Frogs, backing these pirates. Now, our work's four-fifths done, and public pressure, and an end to all this bloody sneaking and hiding, will do the rest for us, without getting any more good men killed. I say, it's time the wraps came off this bloody business. And as for freeing those Yankees, refitting their ship and all, well, that'll stand us in good credit with those new United States. And should another war break out, we'll need all the good credit we can stand, else they'd side with their former allies."

"I would not normally expect," Twigg said after a long sigh, "such perspicacity in a military man, Sir Hugo. And in private, I might be able to agree with you. But the Crown decided otherwise. And it's not simply about piracy, you see. It's not even about this fellow Choundas, when you get right down to it, sir. It's about laying combinations out here for the next war."

"Oh, bugger," Sir Hugo growled.

"You consider another war with France inevitable, Sir Hugo, as much as I. At this very instant, there may be three dozen schemes in play such as ours, and even I have no knowledge of them, and shouldn 't unless one of the others impinges upon mine. All to see that future foes have no strength or credit here in the Far East, nor any allies or secret bases that could threaten England. To put too much light on ours, sir, to expose any of them, would be to expose all of them, eventually. The best mushrooms, I am told, are grown in the dark."

"The best roses need the most cow-shit, too," Ayscough huffed.

"Nevertheless, sir," Sir Hugo smiled, a disarming, lazy smile that Lewrie knew of old was one of eminent menace, "I do trust that when you come to write of this campaign, you shall sound at least the slightest bit grateful for what we've done for you so far. And commending."