Black August

' 'Arf a mo', sir; bung 'im on my back,' cried Rudd, pausing when he was half way to the deck.

'Right you carry him I'll protect your rear.' The precaution was not unnecessary for the mutineers were already running from cover forward to the burning bridge, sniping at the retreating soldiers as they stumbled towards the fo'c'sle.

Zip! A bullet pinged past Kenyon's head and flattened itself upon a steel projection, another seared through his sleeve and catching a stanchion ricocheted with a loud whine into the sea.

Rudd staggered along under his burden. A rifle cracked in front. One of Harker's men had mistaken them for the attackers.

'Don't fire,' yelled Kenyon, 'it's Fane and Rudd.'

'Attaboy,' sang out Harker. 'Thank God you're safe; seen anything of the General? My, but you've got him here; great stuff!' In another moment willing hands were relieving Rudd of his load.

Harker was already preparing a new position in the bows. Kenyon had no chance to see how many men had survived the debacle of the bridge, but from the dark forms moving swiftly about him he gathered that there must be at least a dozen. With a sudden feeling of relief he found that he still had the old fashioned service revolver that Gregory had procured for him that afternoon, stuck in the borrowed belt, then anJ1 appalling thought flashed into his mind.

They were cut off from the women Ann and Veronica were marooned aft and must have fallen into the hands of the mutineers.

15

With Women on Board

The two girls had turned their whole attention to Lieutenant Broughton the moment Kenyon left them.

'What an awful gash,' said Ann as she cut away the hair surrounding the wound with a pair of nail scissors.

'Can you wonder!' Veronica was tearing a shirt into rough strips for a bandage. 'It was that elaphantine American who hit him, and he must weigh twenty stone if he weighs an ounce.'

'Yet he doesn't look fat somehow.'

'No, just sheer bigness. He's a nice creature, I think.'

'Yes, I love that lazy good natured smile of his. Hello! What's happening now?' Ann ceased dabbing at the sailor's wound and straightened up.

'We've stopped, lovie.'

After a moment the propellers started to thud again and it was obvious that they had increased their speed.

"There's that light flashing.' Ann nodded at the scuttle. 'It was on the other side before, so we must be going north again.'

'Perhaps Napoleon Mussolini has had an inspiration. Thinks Iceland would be more shattering for us than the Cannibal Isles.'

'No, Gregory loathes the cold and you can trust him to think of his own comfort.'

Veronica supported the Lieutenant while Ann applied the bandage. Then they settled him as comfortably as possible in his bunk.

'I don't think there is the least chance of his coming out of this coma for hours,' Ann remarked.

'Then we might as well get back to the wardroom. One of us can come and have a look at the poor boy every now and again.'

Veronica led the way down the passage but paused, frowning suddenly when she reached the wardroom door.

'What is it?' asked Ann.

'Goodness knows, my sweet. Someone has opened up a couple of trapdoors in the floor and another in the ceiling. Kenyon, I suppose, getting more things for King Sallust but he might have shut them down again before he went on deck.'

They settled themselves on the settee and were silent for a little, then Ann said suddenly: 'Do you think we'll ever get to the West Indies?'

'Why not? The boy friend in the brass hat seems a determined enough person. 1 should triple lock the door and throw the key out of the window if he manifested any desire to become amorous, and I wouldn't feel quite safe even then.'

Ann chuckled. 'No, if I know anything about Gregory he would be waiting underneath the window to catch the key.'

'Yes, and to be truthful, my dear, I should probably wait until he turned up before I threw it out!'

'Really! Do you mean that you have fallen for him then?'

’No not quite. But I always have been attracted by the type of blackguard who has brains and guts providing they have a sense of humour and the decencies.'

'I like to listen to him, but I should hate him physically.'

'Would you? Well, I'm afraid I'm a shameless hussy, Veronica confessed. 'That wolfish look plays the devil with the back end of my brain. One might get hurt but I bet that man knows how to make love.'

'Yes, but not the kind of love that appeals to me. I'm a simple soul just liking to be cuddled and cuddle in return for ages and ages and ages. It's laziness, perhaps, but it's the sort of thing I'm always wanting from the right kind of man.'

'No, you're just deliciously normal, my sweet, and if I wore trousers I should be just crazy about you as Kenyon is but I'm just a nasty vicious slut God! What's that?'

A rifle had cracked above their heads. Others followed.

'The mutineers must be trying to get possession of the ship,' Ann gasped. '

'Oh, Hades! What idiotic fools men are!'

'Gregory will stop them.'

'Oh, darling, of course he will,' Veronica's" words were almost drowned in the chatter as the machine guns opened from the bridge, 'but I was thinking of the men in general. Why can't they all be sensible and go to bed instead of trying to kill each other?'

'It would be ghastly if the sailors did get control of the ship.'

"They wouldn't dare to touch you and me.'

'Wouldn't they?' Ann disagreed quickly, and for a few moments they sat in strained silence while the shots rattled and thudded above.

'Oh, my God! What's is happening?' Veronica clutched wildly at the curtains across the scuttle above the settee to save herself from being thrown to the floor. The two pounder Pom-Pom had just been brought into action overhead.

Ann went white, and clapped her hands across her ears in an effort to shut out the series of terrific detonations from the shells which were being poured into the bridge. The ship seemed to shudder through its whole length. 'Do you do you think we're going to sink?' she whispered.

'We'll be drowned if we do.'

'Why, can't you swim? There will be boats I expect if we can get to them.'

'Yes, but we might so easily be trapped down here.'

'No.' Ann pointed at the after munition hand up hatch which still remained open in the deck above. 'We could climb out through there.'

The Pom-Pom ceased fire. The machine guns were silent, and only the sound of intermittent rifle fire came to them as they stood together peering anxiously up at the hatch.

Suddenly they heard a voice bellowing harsh orders, the thudding of many feet as the mutineers streamed forward, and then the noise of the conflict drifted away to the other end of the ship.

They sat down again, this time at the table, staring at each other in strained, nervous silence, and wondering miserably what could have happened to their men.

Ann sniffed. 'Can you smell turning?'

Veronica wrinkled up her arched nose. 'Yes, 1 suppose they’ve set this filthy ship on fire, and now we'll all be burnt to death.'

'Unless we blow up. It's run with oil, I expect.'

A loud hammering sounded on the lobby door.

'Who's that'?' cried Veronica.

'Open this door,' boomed a voice.

'Who are you?'

'Never you mind. Open this door d'you hear?'

'It's the sailors,' whispered Ann. 'Oh, if only Kenyon hadn't left us.'

'We can't. Its locked on the outside,' lied Veronica sharply.

'Stand aside then,' roared the voice, 'or you'll get hurt.'

They drew away to the far end of the wardroom. There was a loud report, the lock was shattered by a pistol bullet and the door swung open. Crowder, the gigantic stoker, naked to the waist, his great hairy chest glistening with sweat and blood, shouldered his way into the roam.