The Flashman Papers: The Complete 12-Book Collection. George Fraser MacDonald

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СКАЧАТЬ sea was as bare as a miser’s table. There was no British frigate in Tamitave roads. There wasn’t even a bl----d bumboat. And behind us, as I turned my frantic gaze in their direction, the Hovas were just coming in sight on the hillside a scant mile away.

      I can’t recall whether I screamed aloud or not; I may well have done, but if I did it was a poor expression of the sick despair that engulfed me in that moment. I know the thought that was in my mind, as I pounded my knee with my fist in an anguish of rage, fear, and disappointment, was: “But it must be there! It has to wait for her message!” and then Elspeth was turning solemn blue eyes on me and asking:

      “But Harry, where is the ship? You said it would be here—” And then, putting two and two together, I suppose, she added: “Whatever shall we do now?”

      It was a question which had occurred to me, as I stared palsied from the empty sea in front to our pursuers behind – they had halted on the far crest, which was an irony, if you like. They could crawl on their bellies towards us now, for all it mattered – we were trapped, helpless, with nothing to do but wait until they came up with us at their leisure, to seize and drag us back to the abominable fate that would be waiting for us in Antan’. I could picture those snake-like eyes, the steaming pits at Ambohipotsy, the bodies turning in the air from the top of the cliff, the blood-curdling shriek of the mob – I realized I was babbling out a flood of oaths, as I stared vainly round for an escape which I knew wasn’t there.

      Elspeth was clutching my hand, white-faced – and then, because it was the only way to go, I was urging her down the slope to our left, towards a long grove of palms which began about two furlongs from the fort and ran away into the distance along the coastline northwards. That’s one thing about a sound cowardly instinct – it turns you directly to cover, however poor and useless it may be. They’d find us there in no time, but if we could reach the trees undetected from the fort, we might at least be able to flee north – to what? There was nothing for us yonder except blind flight until we dropped from exhaustion, or our horses foundered, or those black hounds came up with us, and I knew it, but it was better than stopping where we were to be run down like sheep.

      “Oh, Harry!” Elspeth was wailing in my rear as we thundered down the slope, but I didn’t check; another minute would have us in the shelter of the grove, if no one in the fort saw us first. Crouched over my beast’s neck, I stole a look down towards the stone battlements at the foot of the hill – Elspeth’s voice behind me rose in a sudden scream, I whirled in my seat, and to my amazement saw that she was hauling in her mount by the mane. I yelled to her to ride, cursing her for an idiot, but she was pointing seaward, crying out, and I wrestled my brute to a slithering halt, staring where she pointed – and, d’you know, I couldn’t blame her.

      Out in the roads something was moving in that rolling bank of mist. At first it was just a shadow, towering in the downy radiance of the fog; then a long black spar was jutting out, and behind it masts and rigging were taking shape. In disbelief I heard the faint, unmistakable squeal of sheaves as she came into view, a tall, slim ship under topsails, drifting slowly out of the mist, turning before my eyes, showing her broad, white-striped side – her ports were up, there were guns out, men moving on the decks, and from her mizzen trailed a flag – blue, white, red – dear G-d, she was a Frog warship – and there, to her right, another shadow was breaking clear, another ship, turning as the first had done, another Frenchie, guns, colours and all!

      Elspeth was beside me, I was hugging her almost out of her seat as we watched them spellbound, our flight, the fort, pursuit all forgotten – she yelped in my ear as a third shadow loomed up in the wake of the ships, and this time it was the real thing, no error, and I found myself choking tears of joy, for that was the dear old Union Jack at the truck of the frigate which came gliding out on to the blue water.

I was shouting, G-d knows what, and Elsepth was clapping her hands, and then a gun boomed suddenly from the fort, only a few hundred yards away, and a white plume of smoke billowed up from the battlements. The three ships were standing in towards the fort; the leading Frog tacked with a cracking of canvas, and suddenly its whole side exploded in a thunder of flame and smoke, there was a series of tremendous crashes from the fort as the broadsides struck home – and here came her two consorts, each in turn letting fly while sea and sky echoed to the roar of their cannonade, a mighty pall of grey smoke eddying around them as they put about and came running in again.⁴⁴

      It was a badly-aimed shot screaming overhead that reminded me we were in the direct line of fire. I yelled to Elspeth, and we careered down to the trees, crashing into the thickets and sliding from our mounts to stare at the extraordinary scene being played out in the bay.

      “Harry – why are they shooting? Do you suppose they are come to rescue us?” She was clutching my hand, all agog. “Will they know we are here? Should we not wave, or light a fire, or some such thing? Will you not call to them, my love?”

      This, with forty guns blazing away not a quarter of a mile off, for the fort was firing back as well; the leading Frog was almost at point-blank range. Clouds of dust and smoke surged up from the fort wall; the Frog seemed to stagger in the water, and Elspeth shrieked as his foretop sagged and then fell slowly into the smoke, with a wreckage of sail and cordage. In came the second ship, letting off her broadside any old how in lubberly, garlic-eating fashion, and the fort thumped her handsomely in reply, serve her right. My G-d, thinks I, are the Crapauds going to be beat? For the second Frog lost her mizzen top and sheered away blind with the spars littering her poop – and then in came the British frigate, and while I ain’t got much use for our navy people, as a rule, I’ll allow that she showed up well in front of the foreigners, for she ran in steady and silent, biding her time, while the fort hammered at her and the splinters flew from her bulwarks.

      Through the clear air we could see every detail – the leadsman in the chains swinging away, the white-shirted tars on her decks, the blue-coated officers on the quarterdeck, even a little midshipman in the rigging with his telescope trained on the fort. Silently she bore in until I was sure she must run aground, and then a voice called from the poop, there was a rush of men and a flapping of canvas, she wore round, and every gun crashed out as one in a deafening inferno of sound. The wave of the broadside hit us in a blast of air, the fort battlements seemed to vanish in smoke and dust and flying fragments – but when all cleared, there the fort still stood, and her guns banging irregularly in reply.

      The frigate was tacking away neatly, but neither she nor the injured Frogs looked like coming in again – the appalling thought struck me that they might be sheering off, and I couldn’t restrain myself at such cowardly behaviour.

      “Come back, you sons of b-----s!” I roared, fairly dancing up and down. “D--nation, they’re only a parcel of niggers! Lay into them, rot you! It’s what you’re paid for!” “But, see, Harry!” squeaks Elspeth, pointing. “Look, my love, they are coming! See – the boats!”

      Sure enough, there were longboats creeping out from behind the Frogs, and another from the British ship. As the three vessels stood to again, firing at the fort, the smaller boats came heading in for the shore, packed with men – they were going to storm the fort, under the covering guns of the squadron. I found I was dancing and blaspheming with excitement – for this must be our chance! We must run to them when they got ashore – I ploughed back through the fronds, staring at the hill behind, to see how our Hova friends were doing – and there they were, dropping down from the crest beind us, making for the landward side of the fort. They were running any old how, but an under-officer was shouting in the rear, and it seemed to me he was pointing towards our grove. Yes, some of the Hovas were checking – he was sending them in our direction – d--n the black villain, didn’t he know where his duty lay, with foreign vessels attacking his b----y island?

      “What shall we do, Harry?” Elspeth was at my elbow. “Should we not hasten to the beach? It may be dangerous to linger.”

      She СКАЧАТЬ