Captain in Calico. George Fraser MacDonald

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СКАЧАТЬ disappointment, Bull with occasional angry rumblings in his throat and muttered imprecations, and Ben with unmoved attention. But there was no question that they believed him.

      When he had done Bull flung down on a bench and cursed Woodes Rogers with vicious fury. Malloy sat dejected, and Ben went over to the table and poured out a drink for Rackham. Holding out the pannikin he said: ‘You was lucky.’

      Rackham took the pannikin. ‘Lucky enough. As close to hanging as I ever hope to be.’ That at least was true.

      ‘Aye, well, and now what?’ Bull’s tone challenged him. ‘What’s to be done?’

      Rackham applied himself to his drink before surveying his questioner.

      ‘What else but to go back aboard the Kingston? To-night, when Bennett brings her in.’

      ‘Hell, and is that all? And we’re to sit here in this poxy kennel all day and wait for the sojers to nab us? Mebbe they’ll find our boat, by God, and then we’ll be on a lee shore proper.’ He swore and slapped the table. ‘We should never ha’ come: I knew it when there was first talk o’ this pardon. Pardon! What bloody hope was there we’d ever smell pardon?’

      Ben turned contemptuous eyes on the speaker but said nothing. Rackham answered calmly.

      ‘There was hope until we knew what manner of man this Governor was: others had been pardoned, and so might we if we had not carried such a wealth of silver in the Kingston. Now we know where we stand, and ye’ll remember it was I who found out, and came near paying for it with my neck while you sat snug here.’

      ‘Snug?’ Bull rose in a towering rage. ‘Ye’ll tell me, perhaps—’

      ‘Be still,’ said Rackham coldly. ‘The thing’s done and there’s an end. We’re no worse off than we were before, the soldiers won’t find us here if they hunt till doomsday, and there’s a boat-load of silver out yonder to play with when we’re clear away from here. So sleep on that and think yourself lucky.’

      Bull was silenced; as Rackham said, they had lost nothing and the risk had been his. While the three others might be disappointed they could accept the situation with the fatalism of their kind. It was the code by which they lived; gentlemen of fortune they styled themselves, and sudden success or failure were no more than tricks won or lost in a game which was unpredictable and in which there was no ultimate goal.

      To-morrow was another day, and would find them back at sea again. And they still had the silver. So the three slept soundly enough, while Rackham lay on the hard boards, staring up into the darkness, contemplating his treachery and finding that he felt not the least qualms about what he intended to do. As Rogers had said, his followers would never have hesitated to betray him, if their interests had demanded it. He had only to think of Kate, and the plot he had concerted with Rogers seemed morally right enough. So presently he too slept, while the eastern sky lightened outside, and the patrols which scoured the town left them undisturbed.

      They slipped out of a side door of the inn that evening, and made their ways separately to a little alley on the edge of the town. Before them spread the broad silver sweep of the beach, as smooth and dazzling as a snow-field. To the right it was washed gently by the surf; to the left it merged through varied-hued shadows into the inland undergrowth.

      The cove where their boat lay concealed was a mile to the westward and their path ran just within the belt of palms and bushes fringing the sand. Here they were hidden and could move swiftly and silently, Ben in the lead, Malloy and Bull together, and Rackham in the rear. Moonlight slanted in ghostly rays between the tangled stems, making little pools of silver in the darkness; it was very still, but there was a hint of wind coming from the sea, and before their journey was over the moon had slid behind the cloud-wrack.

      It was as well, Rackham thought. Woodes Rogers’ trap would spring all the better in the dark, provided his cutting-out party could find the Kingston when she stood in. It would take a good seaman to do that, but Rogers would have a good seaman.

      Counting his steps Rackham had reckoned just over sixteen hundred when a parrot squeaked in the darkness ahead. That was Ben signalling that he had reached the cove, and a few moments later the four of them were crouched in the lee of a little cliff with the water lapping at their feet. Between the two small bluffs at the end of the cove lay the open sea, and close by was their boat, beached beneath the overhang of a great boulder and artfully screened by loose bushes. Since they could hardly hope to float her without some noise they sacrificed silence to speed, flinging aside the branches and running the boat between them over the loose sand to the water’s edge.

      With Ben and Bull at the oars, Malloy in the bow, and Rackham in the stern, they poled the boat out of the shallows and were soon scudding out between the bluffs to the sea.

      With the exception of Malloy, who was to look out for the Kingston, they watched the shore receding behind them. The black mouth of the little creek grew smaller, flanked by the vaguely glimmering beach. Then darkness closed in on the little boat, bringing with it a sense of unprotected loneliness: Malloy fidgeted in the bows, casting anxious glances astern until Rackham bade him keep watch in front of him. Ben and Bull, pulling strongly, were sending the boat through the water at a fair speed, and when Rackham calculated that they must be fifteen hundred yards from the shore he ordered them to cease rowing. They rested on their oars, listening while the boat rode the light swell, their ears straining for the tell-tale creak of cord and timber which would herald the presence of the Kingston. But no sound came, save the gentle slapping of the waves against the boat and the occasional scrape of the oars in the rowlocks.

      Rackham felt the light drift of spray on his cheek. The wind was freshening and blowing almost dead inshore. Ben noticed it at the same moment.

      ‘It’s going to be easier for the Kingston to come in than to stand out again,’ he muttered.

      ‘What d’ye say?’ Bull’s head came up. ‘Bigod, ye’re right!’ He strained his eyes into the darkness seaward. ‘She’s beginning to blow, the windy bitch!’

      The little boat was beginning to rock appreciably now, and Rackham gave the order to commence rowing again. They must not drift inshore: if the wind strengthened they might find themselves hard put to it to stand out to the Kingston.

      ‘Where the hell are they?’ snarled Bull suddenly. He kept turning his head at the end of each stroke to watch for the Kingston.

      ‘Wait! In oars!’ Malloy, craning over the bow, flung out a hand behind him. ‘I hear something.’

      They ceased rowing, and Rackham, straining his ears against the noises of the sea, leaned forward between them.

      ‘Listen!’ Malloy turned his head towards them. ‘D’ye hear nothing?’

      Holding their breath, they listened, and sure enough from somewhere in the gloom ahead came the faint but unmistakable creak of a ship. Bull breathed a gusty sigh of relief.

      ‘Wait for the light,’ ordered Rackham. He alone knew that there were other vessels than the Kingston on the coast that night, and he was taking no chances.

      For several minutes they sat motionless, the little boat riding the swell, waiting to catch the flicker of a lantern from the ship. Then Malloy snapped his fingers and pointed, over to starboard. Following his finger they saw it: a single murky glimmer in the darkness which vanished almost as quickly as it had come.

      ‘Pull,’ СКАЧАТЬ