The Hawk (19 page)

Rennie also recognized it, and said to Mrs Fenway: 'Will
you show me your garden, Mrs Fenway? I shall very much
like to see it, with so charming a guide.'

She smiled at him, saw that her younger guest should be
left alone to read his letter, that this was what Captain Rennie
meant, and: 'In course, I shall be delighted, on such a lovely
day.' They fell into step, and moved away down the path. Mrs
Fenway laughed at something Captain Rennie said, turning
her head towards him under her hat, and presently they
disappeared from view.

James broke the seal, and unfolded his letter.

The wind veered between due west and west-sou'west, mild
in temperature but not in strength. The wind was brisk, and
the sea getting rough. Spray was flung up and across the deck
in hanging fans, and exploded under the bow. On the fall the
living sea slid curling along the lee rail, rode over the deck,
swirling and sucking at the gun carriages, and poured
streaming away through the scuppers on the lift. The foot of
each headsail streamed and dripped, the flat-steeved bowsprit
streamed, the vessel shuddered and shook, and now the order
came.

'We will take another reef in the mainsail, Mr Dumbleton!'
Shouted against the wind.

The sailing master Garvey Dumbleton repeated the
instruction, seamen jumped, and
Hawk
grew tractable, her
bellied mainsail now harnessing the wind more efficiently.
Lieutenant Hayter was satisfied. To the helmsman at the
tiller:

'Keep your luff. Hold her just so.' And he trod to the
weather rail. 'Mr Abey!'

'Sir?' His senior mid, attending.

'Pass the word for the carpenter, if y'please.'

'Aye, sir.' Lifting his hat, going forrard.

The carpenter came on deck. 'You wished to see me, sir?'

'Aye, Mr Hepple. What depth of water in the well?'

'Remarkable little, sir. A few inches only. Blewitt's has
done us proud the large repair. Everything fitted true, and
caulked and sealed admirable. She is a sturdy sea boat again.'

'Very good, thank you. There is one other thing . . .'

'Yes, sir?' A hand to a stay as
Hawk
pitched through a swell.

'Yes, hm. I will like a very small partition built below. I
know there ain't room for a quarter gallery in a cutter, in
course. But I will like a light bulkhead, and a canvas door
I can close or draw. I have made this sketch in pencil . . .'
Giving his carpenter a page from his notebook.

'Yes, sir, I see what you wish for . . .' Examining the sketch,
scratching the back of his head.

'You are doubtful, Mr Hepple.' Frowning at him.

'No, sir, no . . . only there is so little room for me to place
such a bulkhead. If I may make a suggestion?'

'Yes, yes – by all means.'

'If you was wishing for simple privacy, I could rig up a
metal rail at the deck head, and run a canvas screen in a halfcircle
round the space, that could be handed and tied off
when not in use.' Pulling his own pencil from behind his ear,
and making his own quick sketch on the page.

'Ah, yes. Yes, I see.' James peered, nodded, grimaced. 'It
would make for complete privacy, with only a canvas screen?'

'Oh, indeed, sir. Rigged full length, in a half-circle, from
the rail, it will answer right well.'

'Very good, Mr Hepple. Make it so.'

The screen had become a necessity, since he was obliged to
share his great cabin with an official guest these next few days.
The guest, presently below, was to be known in the ship as
Mr Hope. Lieutenant Hayter knew that he was not Mr Hope,
but a sea officer of royal blood, with whom he was obliged to
share his cabin, and who must be treated as if he were a
person of minor importance, sent to him as a supernumerary
observer. The reason for this subterfuge had been made
apparent to him, and he understood it – but it did not make
him comfortable.

'Will not you like the great cabin to yourself, sir?' he had
offered, when his guest first came aboard.

'No thankee, Mr Hayter. I am like you a sea officer, and
have learned naval ways from a boy – how to share, and be
civil together, and not to mind cramped quarters below. I will
gladly share, if you will have me?'

'Am honoured, sir.' Bowing.

'Good, good. And none of this bowing and scraping and
such. To your people I am plain Mr Hope, civilian-dressed,
come to observe.'

'Very good, sir.' Stung by the accusation of 'scraping', but
hiding it.

'And by the by, Mr Hayter – never think I am here to
examine your seamanship and shiphandling and the like.
That ain't any part of my purpose.'

'Thank you, sir.' A polite nod.

'We rendezvous with
Pipistrel
at sea, I think?'

'That is my design, sir.'

'Commander Carr, Excise Board, hey? Acquainted with
this officer, are ye?'

'I am, sir. We have met.'

'Well?' A keen stare – a naval stare.

'Well – I think that Commander Carr is very likely a
competent officer.'

'In short, y'don't like the fellow.'

'I would not wish to malign – '

'Don't like him, but ye'll serve alongside him, in the
nation's interest. Yes?'

'I shall always like to serve the King, sir.'

'Ha! The King! Indeed, indeed. Well said, sir.'

And now as he trod his very small quarterdeck, the wind in
his face, and his cutter beating close-hauled on the starboard
tack, James reflected on all that had occurred over these past
few busy weeks.

The letter that had come to him at Tattham Grange,
bearing an Admiralty seal, had not – as he had at once begun
to think when Mrs Fenway gave it into his hand – been the
communication to him of his ruin, his court martial and ruin,
but a much happier document. The First Secretary, Sir Philip
Stephens, begged to inform him of the decision of Their
Lordships, in consideration of a report from the Navy Board,
itself hinging upon the survey carried out by Jacob Tickell,
quarterman, Portsmouth Dockyard. HM
Hawk
cutter, ten
guns, was to undergo large repair at Blewitt's private yard at
Bucklers Hard. As soon as that should be completed
Hawk
was to continue her commission. Certain conditions would
henceforth attach to that commission:

Lieutenant Hayter RN, commanding HM
Hawk
cutter,
10, shall act in concert with Commander Carr of HM
Excise Board, commanding the
Pipistrel
cutter, in
attempting to take the
Lark
cutter and her master.

Additional aid & counsel will be offered to both Lt
Hayter and Commander Carr by Sir Robert Greer, in
his capacity as adviser to His Majesty's Government, &
friend in this Duty.

In view of the loss of Captain Apley Marles RN,
attached beforehand to this Duty, it was thought
advantageous to appoint Capt. W. Rennie RN, senior
post captain, to take Capt. Marles's place – given that
Capt Rennie & Lt Hayter had served together previous,
in three successful commissions in HM frigate
Expedient
, 36, presently in Ordinary. However, several
attempts to get into touch with Capt Rennie at his
home in Norfolk having failed, it has been decided to
afford another person that opportunity, & accordingly
Their Lordships have appointed Mr C. Hope Esq. as a
friend to the officers herein described.

No mention was made in the letter of the circumstances
surrounding the damage to
Hawk
, nor of the action in which
that damage had been sustained. The import of the letter was
that this was a new beginning for
Hawk
and her commander,
with everything ahead.

James had attempted at once to have Captain Rennie
appointed to the position given to Mr Hope – a person
unknown to James, and apparently not a sea officer – that is, he
had been about to attempt it when Rennie himself declared:

'No, James, no.'

'Eh? You do not wish – '

'Hear me out, will ye now?'

'Certainly . . .'

'Listen, now – if it came out that I had been at Portsmouth
all the time, living as Birch, then in all probability it would
come out that I was aboard
Hawk
when she was damaged, and
that I had took command.'

'
You
took command, sir?' James stared at him. 'You never
told me that. I thought that the sailing master had – '

'Nay, he did not. All was confusion on deck, very bloody
and bad. I am a sea officer of long experience. I thought it my
duty, given the condition of the ship, and the very great injury
to her people – to you, James – I simply thought it my duty to
assume command . . . as a matter in course.'

'Yes, I see.' Quietly.

'However, if it ever came out that I had done so – with no
commission, under an assumed name, not listed on the books
– well well . . .'

'. . . we should likely both be court-martialled, and dismissed
the service.'

'Just so, James.' A nod. 'Had you undertook the thing
privately, repairing and taking
Hawk
to sea under your own
colours, so to say, then there would have been no scrutiny of
your people, and I would gladly have joined you again, but
now . . .'

'Could not you return to Norfolk, recover the letters sent
by the Admiralty, and respond – saying that you had been
staying with friends a few weeks?'

'Nay, James, it is too late.'

'Very well, sir.' A resigned sigh. 'Then I fear I must leave
you ashore, and accept Mr Hope. Have you heard of this
fellow Hope?'

'I have not.'

'He is a mystery.'

And so the mysterious Mr Hope had come into the
Hawk
.
He arrived in a boat that at once pulled away, and jumped
below – swathed in a great cloak, his hat pulled down – in a
great hurry, but in such an agile way that James at once
sensed that here was a fellow with salt water in his veins.
James followed him below.

'Mr Hope, sir, at your service!' Sweeping off the cloak and
hat and flinging them down on a locker – with some little
difficulty, since the deckhead lay so close over his stooping
neck. James, bending into the great cabin, had stared nearly
open-mouthed, and blurted:

'Good God! I – I mean, I beg your pardon, sir – ' There
followed the exchange about the sharing of quarters, and the
rendezvous with
Pipistrel
and Commander Carr, then Mr
Hope continued:

'You wonder why I am come, d'y'not?'

'Well, sir . . . I confess that I do.'

'Naturally, ye do.' He sat down, and James sat down. 'It is
the wish of Their Lordships – and the King – that this man
be captured.'

'The master of the
Lark
?'

'Aye. I have a particular interest in him, because he has
served with me.'

'Served with you, sir? May I know his name? – I know that
it is not one Sedley Ward, that died long since.'

'His name is Aidan Faulk, and he served with me as Third
in my first command. He then left the service, and went
abroad, where he found himself – by design – among certain
people who became his friends. He joined their cause.
Subsequent to that he found the means to purchase the
Lark
– from Sedley Ward, the smuggler, whose name was used by
Their Lordships as a convenience.'

'A convenience, sir?'

'Aye. You were not to be party to the truth – at first.
However, when you came to a sea action with the
Lark
, and
was bested, and nearly killed, it was decided that I should
come to your aid, in view of my – well, my unique position.

The government is keenly interested in Mr Faulk. They
know him to be not merely a smuggler of goods, but of men.
Men inimical to the nation's interest. I may say nothing
further at present, excepting that Mr Pitt wishes Faulk took.
The Admiralty wishes him took. The King wishes it. And so
do I, Mr Hayter. Together we shall do it. What say you?'

Of course James had agreed, wholeheartedly agreed, and
had pushed aside all private doubts and questions – flattered,
honoured, pleased beyond measure to have been given this
second chance in so important an affair. But later, when he
came to reflect on those doubts and questions, they began to
grow larger in his mind.

He had failed to take the
Lark
. He had been outsailed,
outfought, and bested in a fierce action. He had all but lost his
own cutter, had come within an inch of losing his life, and had
lost a dozen of his people wounded and killed. And yet Their
Lordships had not relieved him of his command, nor obliged
him to face a court martial; they had seen fit to allow him to
continue in his duty, aided now by his exalted, disguised
observer. Why? And what was Sir Robert Greer's role in this?
How came he to be involved? Had he – in truth – been
involved from the beginning? And what of that fellow who
came to Captain Rennie's room at the Marine Hotel, put a
pistol to his head, and demanded to know about cutters? Was
that man Aidan Faulk? Was he?

James had never regarded himself as a political fellow. He
had little knowledge of party politics, and the machinations
of power in London. Naturally, as an educated man and the
son of a prominent family, he was aware of such things. It was
simply that he did not regard them. The great men of the day
– Burke, Pitt, Fox – were great in a way entirely detached
from the life of a practical sea officer. James was aware that
Edmund Burke abominated what had happened in France,
and that Mr Fox did not. He knew the long history of conflict
between England and France, and that if the fleet presently
assembled went to war with the Spanish fleet then the French
were bound by treaty to support their Iberian ally. Beyond
these broad facts he did not venture. He saw his duty in
narrower terms: he must follow his instructions, harness the
wind, and seek out the
Lark
; he must take her, and her master,
and deliver them up. However, however . . . he could not
prevent, nor wholly ignore, the rising of doubts in his mind
. . . could he?

His new boatswain Mr Love approached, and hovered, hat
off.

'Yes, Mr Love?'

'Your pardon for disturbing you, sir. You wished me to
remind you as to the shrouds, and tar.'

'Shrouds? Ah, yes.' And they began a technical discussion
about Stockholm tar, and its use. Presently, the boatswain
satisfied, James cleared his wind, strode aft, and:

'Mr Abey!'

'Sir?'

'We will come over on the larboard tack, if y'please.'

'Very good, sir. – Stand by to tack ship! Put your helm hard
down!'