"Pope, Dudley - Ramage - Ramage and the Freebooters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pope Dudley)

'She's very well and enjoying England. She asked me to give you her best wishes.' He pointed at her portrait. 'She's still with us in a sense!'

Southwick grinned with obvious delight. 'It was good of her to remember me, sir. And that's a splendid likeness.

Your father, sir?'

'Very well. He enjoyed the tale of our scrap off Cape St Vincent.'

'Thought he would--and wished he was there with us, no doubt.'

'Now,' Ramage said briskly. 'Thanks for sending Jackson. How do we stand here?'

'Jackson was the only one I could send who'd be any use. That's how we stand...'

'As bad as that?'

'Well, that's how we stood a'fore you came on board.'

'How's my arrival affected the situation?'

Southwick ruffled his hair, obviously choosing his words carefully.

'Put it like this: the Tritons look to me like good lads who've just followed the rest of the Fleet, just as the Kathleens followed the Lively. What matters is that the thirty-six Tritons don't know you, and the twenty-five Kathleens do. They'd be a poor lot if they ever forgot what you've done for 'em.'

'I've merely tried to kill them from time to time.'

'Now, now sir,' Southwick chided, surprised at the bitterness in his captain's voice. 'You always take on so. In war some's got to get killed, and the men know that. Still...'

'Still what?'

'Well, you'll be wanting to know if the Kathleens will get this brig under way, even if the original Tritons won't lift a finger.'

'More than that: would the Tritons try to stop them?'

'I've been trying to find out, and to be honest I'm not sure; nor is Jackson. The Kathleens are torn between loyalty to the mutineers--you can understand that, though I'd like to see all those dam' delegates dangling from the foreyardarm --and their loyalty to you.'

'And what happens when the strain comes on both loyalties at once?'

Southwick, looking at him directly, said in a flat voice:

'It's entirely up to you, sir. That's Jackson's opinion--and he's a seaman among seamen--and it's mine, too.'

Ramage had known that only too well, even without the First Lord saying it. But coining from Southwick so bluntly it jolted him. It's entirely up to you! This was the loneliness of command. From the First Lord of the Admiralty to me old Master of the Triton came the same verdict.

'Any idea what my attitude should be?'

'None, sir, more's the pity. I was talking half the night with Jackson on just that point.'

'But you must have some idea: harsh and threatening, friendly and appealing to their loyalty, just laughing at the whole thing?'