1Acting-Lieutenant Hornblower sat in the sternsheets of the longboat beside Mr. Tapling of the diplomatic service, with his feet among bags of gold. About him rose the steep shores of the Gulf of Oran, and ahead of him lay the city, white in the sunshine, like a mass of blocks of marble dumped by a careless hand upon the hillsides where they rose from the water. The oar blades, as the boat’s crew pulled away rhythmically over the gentle swell, were biting into the clearest emerald green, and it was only a moment since they had left behind the bluest the Mediterranean could show.

2“A pretty sight from here” said Tapling, gazing at the town they were approaching “but closer inspection will show that the eye is deceived. And as for the nose! The stinks of the true believers have to be smelt to be believed. Lay her alongside the jetty there, Mr. Hornblower, beyond those xebecs.”

3“Aye aye, sir” said the coxswain, when Hornblower gave the order.

4“There’s a sentry on the waterfront battery here” commented Tapling, looking about him keenly “not more than half asleep, either. And notice the two guns in the two castles. Thirty-two pounders, without a doubt. Stone shot piled in readiness. A stone shot flying into fragments on impact effects damage out of proportion to its size. And the walls seem sound enough. To seize Oran by a coup de main would not be easy, I am afraid. If His Nibs the Bey should choose to cut our throats and keep our gold it would be long before we were avenged, Mr. Hornblower.”

5“I don’t think I should find any satisfaction in being avenged in any case, sir” said Hornblower.

6“There’s some truth in that. But doubtless His Nibs will spare us this time. The goose lays golden eggs—a boatload of gold every month must make a dazzling prospect for a pirate Bey in these days of convoys.”

7“Way ’nough” called the coxswain. “Oars!”

8The longboat came gliding alongside the jetty and hooked on neatly. A few seated figures in the shade turned eyes at least, and in some cases even their heads as well, to look at the British boat’s crew. A number of swarthy Moors appeared on the decks of the xebecs and gazed down at them, and one or two shouted remarks to them.

9“No doubt they are describing the ancestry of the infidels” said Tapling. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me, especially when I do not understand them. Where’s our man?”

10He shaded his eyes to look along the waterfront.

11“No one in sight, sir, that looks like a Christian” said Hornblower.

12“Our man’s no Christian” said Tapling. “White, but no Christian. White by courtesy at that—French-Arab-Levantine mixture. His Britannic Majesty’s Consul at Oran pro tem., and a Mussulman from expediency. Though there are very serious disadvantages about being a true believer. Who would want four wives at any time, especially when one pays for the doubtful privilege by abstaining from wine?”

13Tapling stepped up onto the jetty and Hornblower followed him. The gentle swell that rolled up the Gulf broke soothingly below them, and the blinding heat of the noonday sun was reflected up into their faces from the stone blocks on which they stood. Far down the Gulf lay the two anchored ships—the storeship and h.m.s. Indefatigable—lovely on the blue and silver surface.

14“And yet I would rather see Drury Lane on a Saturday night” said Tapling.

15He turned back to look at the city wall, which guarded the place from seaborne attack. A narrow gate, flanked by bastions, opened onto the waterfront. Sentries in red caftans were visible on the summit. In the deep shadow of the gate something was moving, but it was hard with eyes dazzled by the sun to see what it was. Then it emerged from the shadow as a little group coming towards them—a half-naked Negro leading a donkey, and on the back of the donkey, seated sideways far back towards the root of the tail, a vast figure in a blue robe.

16“Shall we meet His Britannic Majesty’s Consul halfway?” asked Tapling. “No. Let him come to us.”

17The Negro halted the donkey, and the man on the donkey’s back slid to the ground and came towards them—a mountainous man, waddling straddle-legged in his robe, his huge clay-coloured face topped by a white turban. A scanty black moustache and beard sprouted from his lip and chin.

18“Your servant, Mr. Duras” said Tapling. “And may I present Acting-Lieutenant Horatio Hornblower, of the frigate Indefatigable?”

19Mr. Duras nodded his perspiring head.

20“Have you brought the money?” he asked, in guttural French; it took Hornblower a moment or two to adjust his mind to the language and his ear to Duras’ intonation.

21“Seven thousand golden guineas” replied Tapling, in reasonably good French.

22“Good” said Duras, with a trace of relief. “Is it in the boat?”

23“It is in the boat, and it stays in the boat at present” answered Tapling. “Do you remember the conditions agreed upon? Four hundred fat cattle, fifteen hundred fanegas of barley grain. When I see those in the lighters, and the lighters alongside the ships down the bay, then I hand over the money. Have you the stores ready?”

24“Soon.”

25“As I expected. How long?”

26“Soon—very soon.”

27Tapling made a grimace of resignation.

28“Then we shall return to the ships. Tomorrow, perhaps, or the day after, we shall come back with the gold.”

29Alarm appeared on Duras’ sweating face.

30“No, do not do that” he said, hastily. “You do not know His Highness the Bey. He is changeable. If he knows the gold is here he will give orders for the cattle to be brought. Take the gold away, and he will not stir. And—and—he will be angry with me.”

31“Ira principis mors est” said Tapling, and in response to Duras’ blank look obliged by a translation. “The wrath of the prince means death. Is not that so?”

32“Yes” said Duras, and he in turn said something in an unknown language, and stabbed at the air with his fingers in a peculiar gesture; and then translated, “May it not happen.”

33“Certainly we hope it may not happen” agreed Tapling with disarming cordiality. “The bowstring, the hook, even the bastinado are all unpleasant. It might be better if you went to the Bey and prevailed upon him to give the necessary orders for the grain and the cattle. Or we shall leave at nightfall.”

34Tapling glanced up at the sun to lay stress on the time limit.

35“I shall go” said Duras, spreading his hands in a deprecatory gesture. “I shall go. But I beg of you, do not depart. Perhaps His Highness is busy in his harem. Then no one may disturb him. But I shall try. The grain is here ready—it lies in the Kasbah there. It is only the cattle that have to be brought in. Please be patient. I implore you. His Highness is not accustomed to commerce, as you know, sir. Still less is he accustomed to commerce after the fashion of the Franks.”

36Duras wiped his streaming face with a corner of his robe.

37“Pardon me” he said “I do not feel well. But I shall go to His Highness. I shall go. Please wait for me.”

38“Until sunset” said Tapling implacably.

39Duras called to his Negro attendant, who had been crouching huddled up under the donkey’s belly to take advantage of the shade it cast. With an effort Duras hoisted his ponderous weight onto the donkey’s hind quarters. He wiped his face again and looked at them with a trace of bewilderment.

40“Wait for me” were the last words he said as the donkey was led away back into the city gate.

41“He is afraid of the Bey” said Tapling watching him go. “I would rather face twenty Beys than Admiral Sir John Jervis in a tantrum. What will he do when he hears about this further delay, with the Fleet on short rations already? He’ll have my guts for a necktie.”

42“One cannot expect punctuality of these people” said Hornblower with the easy philosophy of the man who does not bear the responsibility. But he thought of the British Navy, without friends, without allies, maintaining desperately the blockade of a hostile Europe, in face of superior numbers, storms, disease, and now famine.

43“Look at that!” said Tapling pointing suddenly.

44It was a big grey rat which had made its appearance in the dry storm gutter that crossed the waterfront here. Regardless of the bright sunshine it sat up and looked round at the world; even when Tapling stamped his foot it showed no great signs of alarm. When he stamped a second time it slowly turned to hide itself again in the drain, missed its footing so that it lay writhing for a moment at the mouth of the drain, and then regained its feet and disappeared into the darkness.

45“An old rat, I suppose” said Tapling meditatively. “Senile, possibly. Even blind, it may be.”

46Hornblower cared nothing about rats, senile or otherwise. He took a step or two back in the direction of the longboat and the civilian officer conformed to his movements.

47“Rig that mains’l so that it gives us some shade, Maxwell” said Hornblower. “We’re here for the rest of the day.”

48“A great comfort” said Tapling, seating himself on a stone bollard beside the boat “to be here in a heathen port. No need to worry in case any men run off. No need to worry about liquor. Only about bullocks and barley. And how to get a spark on this tinder.”

49He blew through the pipe that he took from his pocket, preparatory to filling it. The boat was shaded by the mainsail now, and the hands sat in the bows yarning in low tones, while the others made themselves as comfortable as possible in the sternsheets; the boat rolled peacefully in the tiny swell, the rhythmic sound as the fendoffs creaked between her gunwale and the jetty having a soothing effect while city and port dozed in the blazing afternoon heat. Yet it was not easy for a young man of Hornblower’s active temperament to endure prolonged inaction. He climbed up on the jetty to stretch his legs, and paced up and down; a Moor in a white gown and turban came staggering in the sunshine along the waterfront. His gait was unsteady, and he walked with his legs well apart to provide a firmer base for his swaying body.

50“What was it you said, sir, about liquor being abhorred by the Moslems?” said Hornblower to Tapling down in the sternsheets.

51“Not necessarily abhorred” replied Tapling, guardedly. “But anathematised, illegal, unlawful, and hard to obtain.”

52“Someone here has contrived to obtain some, sir” said Hornblower.

53“Let me see” said Tapling, scrambling up; the hands, bored with waiting and interested as ever in liquor, landed from the bows to stare as well.

54“That looks like a man who has taken drink” agreed Tapling.

55“Three sheets in the wind, sir” said Maxwell, as the Moor staggered.

56“And taken all aback” supplemented Tapling, as the Moor swerved wildly to one side in a semicircle.

57At the end of the semicircle he fell with a crash on his face; his brown legs emerged from the robe a couple of times and were drawn in again, and he lay passive, his head on his arms, his turban fallen on the ground to reveal his shaven skull with a tassel of hair on the crown.

58“Totally dismasted” said Hornblower.

59“And hard aground” said Tapling.

60But the Moor now lay oblivious of everything.

61“And here’s Duras” said Hornblower.

62Out through the gate came the massive figure on the little donkey; another donkey bearing another portly figure followed, each donkey being led by a Negro slave, and after them came a dozen swarthy individuals whose muskets, and whose pretence at uniform, indicated that they were soldiers.

63“The Treasurer of His Highness” said Duras, by way of introduction when he and the other had dismounted. “Come to fetch the gold.”

64The portly Moor looked loftily upon them; Duras was still streaming with sweat in the hot sun.

65“The gold is there” said Tapling, pointing. “In the sternsheets of the longboat. You will have a closer view of it when we have a closer view of the stores we are to buy.”

66Duras translated this speech into Arabic. There was a rapid interchange of sentences, before the Treasurer apparently yielded. He turned and waved his arms back to the gate in what was evidently a prearranged signal. A dreary procession immediately emerged—a long line of men, all of them almost naked, white, black, and mulatto, each man staggering along under the burden of a sack of grain. Overseers with sticks walked with them.

67“The money” said Duras, as a result of something said by the Treasurer.

68A word from Tapling set the hands to work lifting the heavy bags of gold onto the quay.

69“With the corn on the jetty I will put the gold there too” said Tapling to Hornblower. “Keep your eye on it while I look at some of those sacks.”

70Tapling walked over to the slave gang. Here and there he opened a sack, looked into it, and inspected handfuls of the golden barley grain; other sacks he felt from the outside.

71“No hope of looking over every sack in a hundred ton of barley” he remarked, strolling back again to Hornblower. “Much of it is sand, I expect. But that is the way of the heathen. The price is adjusted accordingly. Very well, Effendi.”

72At a sign from Duras, and under the urgings of the overseers, the slaves burst into activity, trotting up to the quayside and dropping their sacks into the lighter which lay there. The first dozen men were organised into a working party to distribute the cargo evenly into the bottom of the lighter, while the others trotted off, their bodies gleaming with sweat, to fetch fresh loads. At the same time a couple of swarthy herdsmen came out through the gate driving a small herd of cattle.

73“Scrubby little creatures” said Tapling, looking them over critically “but that was allowed for in the price, too.”

74“The gold” said Duras.

75In reply Tapling opened one of the bags at his feet, filled his hand with golden guineas, and let them cascade through his fingers into the bag again.

76“Five hundred guineas there” he said. “Fourteen bags, as you see. They will be yours when the lighters are loaded and unmoored.”

77Duras wiped his face with a weary gesture. His knees seemed to be weak, and he leaned upon the patient donkey that stood behind him.

78The cattle were being driven down a gangway into another lighter, and a second herd had now appeared and was waiting.

79“Things move faster than you feared” said Hornblower.

80“See how they drive the poor wretches” replied Tapling sententiously. “See! Things move fast when you have no concern for human flesh and blood.”

81A coloured slave had fallen to the ground under his burden. He lay there disregarding the blows rained on him by the sticks of the overseers. There was a small movement of his legs. Someone dragged him out of the way at last and the sacks continued to be carried to the lighter. The other lighter was filling fast with cattle, packed into a tight, bellowing mass in which no movement was possible.

82“His Nibs is actually keeping his word” marvelled Tapling. “I’d ’a settled for the half, if I had been asked beforehand.”

83One of the herdsmen on the quay had sat down with his face in his hands; now he fell over limply on his side.

84“Sir——” began Hornblower to Tapling, and the two men looked at each other with the same awful thought occurring to them at the same moment.

85Duras began to say something; with one hand on the withers of the donkey and the other gesticulating in the air it seemed that he was making something of a speech, but there was no sense in the words he was roaring out in a hoarse voice. His face was swollen beyond its customary fatness and his expression was wildly distorted, while his cheeks were so suffused with blood as to look dark under his tan. Duras quitted his hold of the donkey and began to reel about in half circles, under the eyes of Moors and Englishmen. His voice died away to a whisper, his legs gave way under him, and he fell to his hands and knees and then to his face.

86“That’s the plague!” said Tapling. “The Black Death! I saw it in Smyrna in ’96.”

87He and the other Englishmen had shrunk back on the one side, the soldiers and the Treasurer on the other, leaving the palpitating body lying in the clear space between them.

88“The plague, by St. Peter!” squealed one of the young sailors. He would have headed a rush to the longboat.

89“Stand still, there!” roared Hornblower, scared of the plague but with the habits of discipline so deeply engrained in him by now that he checked the panic automatically.

90“I was a fool not to have thought of it before” said Tapling. “That dying rat—that fellow over there who we thought was drunk. I should have known!”

91The soldier who appeared to be the sergeant in command of the Treasurer’s escort was in explosive conversation with the chief of the overseers of the slaves, both of them staring and pointing at the dying Duras; the Treasurer himself was clutching his robe about him and looking down at the wretched man at his feet in fascinated horror.

92“Well, sir” said Hornblower to Tapling “what do we do?”

93Hornblower was of the temperament that demands immediate action in face of a crisis.

94“Do?” replied Tapling with a bitter smile. “We stay here and rot.”

95“Stay here?”

96“The fleet will never have us back. Not until we have served three weeks of quarantine. Three weeks after the last case has occurred. Here in Oran.”

97“Nonsense!” said Hornblower, with all the respect due to his senior startled out of him. “No one would order that.”

98“Would they not? Have you ever seen an epidemic in a fleet?”

99Hornblower had not, but he had heard enough about them—fleets where nine out of ten had died of putrid fevers. Crowded ships with twenty-two inches of hammock space per man were ideal breeding places for epidemics. He realised that no captain, no admiral, would run that risk for the sake of a longboat’s crew of twenty men.

100The two xebecs against the jetty had suddenly cast off, and were working their way out of the harbour under sweeps.

101“The plague can only have struck today” mused Hornblower, the habit of deduction strong in him despite his sick fear.

102The cattle herders were abandoning their work, giving a wide berth to that one of their number who was lying on the quay. Up at the town gate it appeared that the guard was employed in driving people back into the town—apparently the rumour of plague had spread sufficiently therein to cause a panic, while the guard had just received orders not to allow the population to stream out into the surrounding country. There would be frightful things happening in the town soon. The Treasurer was climbing on his donkey; the crowd of grain-carrying slaves was melting away as the overseers fled.

103“I must report this to the ship” said Hornblower; Tapling as a civilian diplomatic officer, held no authority over him. The whole responsibility was Hornblower’s. The longboat and the longboat’s crew were Hornblower’s command, entrusted to him by Captain Pellew whose authority derived from the King.

104Amazing, how the panic was spreading. The Treasurer was gone; Duras’ Negro slave had ridden off on his late master’s donkey; the soldiers had hastened off in a single group. The waterfront was deserted now except for the dead and dying; along the waterfront, presumably, at the foot of the wall, lay the way to the open country which all desired to seek. The Englishmen were standing alone, with the bags of gold at their feet.

105“Plague spreads through the air” said Tapling. “Even the rats die of it. We have been here for hours. We were near enough to—that—” he nodded at the dying Duras—“to speak to him, to catch his breath. Which of us will be the first?”

106“We’ll see when the time comes” said Hornblower. It was his contrary nature to be sanguine in the face of depression; besides, he did not want the men to hear what Tapling was saying.

107“And there’s the fleet!” said Tapling bitterly. “This lot”—he nodded at the deserted lighters, one almost full of cattle, the other almost full of grain sacks—“this lot would be a Godsend. The men are on two-thirds rations.”

108“Damn it, we can do something about it” said Hornblower. “Maxwell, put the gold back in the boat, and get that awning in.”

109The officer of the watch in h.m.s. Indefatigable saw the ship’s longboat returning from the town. A slight breeze had swung the frigate and the Caroline (the transport brig) to their anchors, and the longboat, instead of running alongside, came up under the Indefatigable’s stern to leeward.

110“Mr. Christie!” hailed Hornblower, standing up in the bows of the longboat.

111The officer of the watch came aft to the taffrail.

112“What is it?” he demanded, puzzled.

113“I must speak to the Captain.”

114“Then come on board and speak to him. What the devil——?”

115“Please ask the Captain if I may speak to him.”

116Pellew appeared at the after-cabin window; he could hardly have helped hearing the bellowed conversation.

117“Yes, Mr. Hornblower?”

118Hornblower told him the news.

119“Keep to loo’ard, Mr. Hornblower.”

120“Yes, sir. But the stores—”

121“What about them?”

122Hornblower outlined the situation and made his request.

123“It’s not very regular” mused Pellew. “Besides——”

124He did not want to shout aloud his thoughts that perhaps everyone in the longboat would soon be dead of plague.

125“We’ll be all right, sir. It’s a week’s rations for the squadron.”

126That was the point, the vital matter. Pellew had to balance the possible loss of a transport brig against the possible gain of supplies, immeasurably more important, which would enable the squadron to maintain its watch over the outlet to the Mediterranean. Looked at in that light Hornblower’s suggestion had added force.

127“Oh, very well, Mr. Hornblower. By the time you bring the stores out I’ll have the crew transferred. I appoint you to the command of the Caroline.”

128“Thank you, sir.”

129“Mr. Tapling will continue as passenger with you.”

130“Very good, sir.”

131So when the crew of the longboat, toiling and sweating at the sweeps, brought the two lighters down the bay, they found the Caroline swinging deserted at her anchors, while a dozen curious telescopes from the Indefatigable watched the proceedings. Hornblower went up the brig’s side with half a dozen hands.

132“She’s like a blooming Noah’s Ark, sir” said Maxwell.

133The comparison was apt; the Caroline was flush-decked, and the whole available deck area was divided by partitions into stalls for the cattle, while to enable the ship to be worked light gangways had been laid over the stalls into a practically continuous upper deck.

134“An’ all the animiles, sir” said another seaman.

135“But Noah’s animals walked in two by two” said Hornblower. “We’re not so lucky. And we’ve got to get the grain on board first. Get those hatches unbattened.”

136In ordinary conditions a working party of two or three hundred men from the Indefatigable would have made short work of getting in the cargo from the lighters, but now it had to be done by the longboat’s complement of eighteen. Luckily Pellew had had the forethought and kindness to have the ballast struck out of the holds, or they would have had to do that weary job first.

137“Tail onto those tackles, men” said Hornblower.

138Pellew saw the first bundle of grain sacks rise slowly into the air from the lighter, and swung over and down the Caroline’s hatchway.

139“He’ll be all right” he decided. “Man the capstan and get under way, if you please, Mr. Bolton.”

140Hornblower, directing the work on the tackles, heard Pellew’s voice come to him through the speaking trumpet.

141“Good luck, Mr. Hornblower. Report in three weeks at Gibraltar.”

142“Very good, sir. Thank you, sir.”

143Hornblower turned back to find a seaman at his elbow knuckling his forehead.

144“Beg pardon, sir. But can you hear those cattle bellerin’, sir? ’Tis mortal hot, an’ ’tis water they want, sir.”

145“Hell” said Hornblower.

146He would never get the cattle on board before nightfall. He left a small party at work transferring cargo, and with the rest of the men he began to extemporize a method of watering the unfortunate cattle in the lighter. Half Caroline’s hold space was filled with water barrels and fodder, but it was an awkward business getting water down to the lighter with pump and hose, and the poor brutes down there surged about uncontrollably at the prospect of water. Hornblower saw the lighter heel and almost capsize; one of his men—luckily one who could swim—went hastily overboard from the lighter to avoid being crushed to death.

147“Hell” said Hornblower again, and that was by no means the last time.

148Without any skilled advice he was having to learn the business of managing livestock at sea; each moment brought its lessons. A naval officer on active service indeed found himself engaged on strange duties. It was well after dark before Hornblower called a halt to the labours of his men, and it was before dawn that he roused them up to work again. It was still early in the morning that the last of the grain sacks was stowed away and Hornblower had to face the operation of swaying up the cattle from the lighter. After their night down there, with little water and less food, they were in no mood to be trifled with, but it was easier at first while they were crowded together. A bellyband was slipped round the nearest, the tackle hooked on, and the animal was swayed up, lowered to the deck through an opening in the gangways, and herded into one of the stalls with ease. The seamen, shouting and waving their shirts, thought it was great fun, but they were not sure when the next one, released from its bellyband went on the rampage and chased them about the deck, threatening death with its horns, until it wandered into its stall where the bar could be promptly dropped to shut it in. Hornblower, looking at the sun rising rapidly in the east, did not think it fun at all.

149And the emptier the lighter became, the more room the cattle had to rush about in it; to capture each one so as to put a bellyband on it was a desperate adventure. Nor were those half-wild bullocks soothed by the sight of their companions being successively hauled bellowing into the air over their heads. Before the day was half done Hornblower’s men were as weary as if they had fought a battle, and there was not one of them who would not gladly have quitted this novel employment in exchange for some normal seamen’s duty like going aloft to reef topsails on a stormy night. As soon as Hornblower had the notion of dividing the interior of the lighter up into sections with barricades of stout spars the work became easier, but it took time, and before it was done the cattle had already suffered a couple of casualties—weaker members of the herd crushed underfoot in the course of the wild rushes about the lighter.

150And there was a distraction when a boat came out from the shore, with swarthy Moors at the oars and the Treasurer in the stern. Hornblower left Tapling to negotiate—apparently the Bey at least had not been so frightened of the plague as to forget to ask for his money. All Hornblower insisted upon was that the boat should keep well to leeward, and the money was floated off to it headed up in an empty rum-puncheon. Night found not more than half the cattle in the stalls on board, with Hornblower worrying about feeding and watering them, and snatching at hints diplomatically won from those members of his crew who had had bucolic experience. But the earliest dawn saw him driving his men to work again, and deriving a momentary satisfaction from the sight of Tapling having to leap for his life to the gangway out of reach of a maddened bullock which was charging about the deck and refusing to enter a stall. And by the time the last animal was safely packed in Hornblower was faced with another problem—that of dealing with what one of the men elegantly termed ‘mucking out’. Fodder—water—mucking out; that deck-load of cattle seemed to promise enough work in itself to keep his eighteen men busy, without any thought of the needs of handling the ship.

151But there were advantages about the men being kept busy, as Hornblower grimly decided; there had not been a single mention of plague since the work began. The anchorage where the Caroline lay was exposed to north-easterly winds, and it was necessary that he should take her out to sea before such a wind should blow. He mustered his men to divide them into watches; he was the only navigator, so that he had to appoint the coxswain and the undercoxswain, Jordan, as officers of the watch. Someone volunteered as cook, and Hornblower, running his eye over his assembled company, appointed Tapling as cook’s mate. Tapling opened his mouth to protest, but there was that in Hornblower’s expression which cut the protest short. There was no bos’un, no carpenter—no surgeon either, as Hornblower pointed out to himself gloomily. But on the other hand if the need for a doctor should arise it would, he hoped, be mercifully brief.

152“Port watch, loose the jibs and maintops’l” ordered Hornblower. “Starboard watch, man the capstan.”

153So began that voyage of h.m. transport brig Caroline which became legendary (thanks to the highly coloured accounts retailed by the crew during innumerable dog watches in later commissions) throughout the King’s navy. The Caroline spent her three weeks of quarantine in homeless wanderings about the western Mediterranean. It was necessary that she should keep close up to the Straits, for fear lest the westerlies and the prevailing inward set of the current should take her out of reach of Gibraltar when the time came, so she beat about between the coasts of Spain and Africa trailing behind her a growing farmyard stench. The Caroline was a worn-out ship; with any sort of sea running she leaked like a sieve; and there were always hands at work on the pumps, either pumping her out or pumping sea water onto her deck to clean it or pumping up fresh water for the cattle.

154Her top hamper made her almost unmanageable in a fresh breeze; her deck seams leaked, of course, when she worked, allowing a constant drip of unspeakable filth down below. The one consolation was in the supply of fresh meat—a commodity some of Hornblower’s men had not tasted for three months. Hornblower recklessly sacrificed a bullock a day, for in that Mediterranean climate meat could not be kept sweet. So his men feasted on steaks and fresh tongues; there were plenty of men on board who had never in their whole lives before eaten a beef steak.

155But fresh water was the trouble—it was a greater anxiety to Hornblower than even it was to the average ship’s captain, for the cattle were always thirsty; twice Hornblower had to land a raiding party at dawn on the coast of Spain, seize a fishing village, and fill his water casks in the local stream.

156It was a dangerous adventure, and the second landing revealed the danger, for while the Caroline was trying to claw off the land again a Spanish guarda-costa lugger came gliding round the point with all sail set. Maxwell saw her first, but Hornblower saw her before he could report her presence.

157“Very well, Maxwell” said Hornblower, trying to sound composed.

158He turned his glass upon her. She was no more than three miles off, a trifle to windward, and the Caroline was embayed, cut off by the land from all chance of escape. The lugger could go three feet to her two, while the Caroline’s clumsy superstructure prevented her from lying nearer than eight points to the wind. As Hornblower gazed, the accumulated irritation of the past seventeen days boiled over. He was furious with fate for having thrust this ridiculous mission on him. He hated the Caroline and her clumsiness and her stinks and her cargo. He raged against the destiny which had caught him in this hopeless position.

159“Hell!” said Hornblower, actually stamping his feet on the upper gangway in his anger. “Hell and damnation!”

160He was dancing with rage, he observed with some curiosity. But with his fighting madness at the boil there was no chance of his yielding without a struggle, and his mental convulsions resulted in his producing a scheme for action. How many men of a crew did a Spanish guarda-costa carry? Twenty? That would be an outside figure—those luggers were only intended to act against petty smugglers. And with surprise on his side there was still a chance, despite the four eight-pounders that the lugger carried.

161“Pistols and cutlasses, men” he said. “Jordan, choose two men and show yourselves up here. But the rest of you keep under cover. Hide yourselves. Yes, Mr. Tapling, you may serve with us. See that you are armed.”

162No one would expect resistance from a laden cattle transport; the Spaniards would expect to find on board a crew of a dozen at most, and not a disciplined force of twenty. The problem lay in luring the lugger within reach.

163“Full and by” called Hornblower down to the helmsman below. “Be ready to jump, men. Maxwell, if a man shows himself before my order shoot him with your own hand. You hear me? That’s an order, and you disobey me at your peril.”

164“Aye aye, sir” said Maxwell.

165The lugger was romping up towards them; even in that light air there was a white wave under her sharp bows. Hornblower glanced up to make sure that the Caroline was displaying no colours. That made his plan legal under the laws of war. The report of a gun and a puff of smoke came from the lugger as she fired across the Caroline’s bows.

166“I’m going to heave to, Jordan” said Hornblower. “Main tops’l braces. Helm-a-lee.”

167The Caroline came to the wind and lay there wallowing, a surrendered and helpless ship apparently, if ever there was one.

168“Not a sound, men” said Hornblower.

169The cattle bellowed mournfully. Here came the lugger, her crew plainly visible now. Hornblower could see an officer clinging to the main shrouds ready to board, but no one else seemed to have a care in the world. Everyone seemed to be looking up at the clumsy superstructure and laughing at the farmyard noises issuing from it.

170“Wait, men, wait” said Hornblower.

171The lugger was coming alongside when Hornblower suddenly realised, with a hot flood of blood under his skin, that he himself was unarmed. He had told his men to take pistols and cutlasses; he had advised Tapling to arm himself, and yet he had clean forgotten about his own need for weapons. But it was too late now to try to remedy that. Someone in the lugger hailed in Spanish, and Hornblower spread his hands in a show of incomprehension. Now they were alongside.

172“Come on, men!” shouted Hornblower.

173He ran across the superstructure and with a gulp he flung himself across the gap at the officer in the shrouds. He gulped again as he went through the air; he fell with all his weight on the unfortunate man, clasped him round the shoulders, and fell with him to the deck. There were shouts and yells behind him as the Caroline spewed up her crew into the lugger. A rush of feet, a clatter and a clash. Hornblower got to his feet empty handed. Maxwell was just striking down a man with his cutlass. Tapling was heading a rush forward into the bows, waving a cutlass and yelling like a madman. Then it was all over; the astonished Spaniards were unable to lift a hand in their own defence.

174So it came about that on the twenty-second day of her quarantine the Caroline came into Gibraltar Bay with a captured guarda-costa lugger under her lee. A thick barnyard stench trailed with her, too, but at least, when Hornblower went on board the Indefatigable to make his report, he had a suitable reply ready for Mr. Midshipman Bracegirdle.

175“Hullo, Noah, how are Shem and Ham?” asked Mr. Bracegirdle.

176“Shem and Ham have taken a prize” said Hornblower. “I regret that Mr. Bracegirdle can’t say the same.”

177But the Chief Commissary of the squadron, when Hornblower reported to him, had a comment to which even Hornblower was unable to make a reply.

178“Do you mean to tell me, Mr. Hornblower” said the Chief Commissary “that you allowed your men to eat fresh beef? A bullock a day for your eighteen men? There must have been plenty of ship’s provisions on board. That was wanton extravagance, Mr. Hornblower, I’m surprised at you.”