Ramage and the Renegades

'Perhaps you'd like to translate for the benefit of your French mate as well?'

Hart nodded and quickly related to Belmont the gist of the conversation so far, and Ramage's suspicion was confirmed: Belmont was of no consequence. Once again the tone was right but the words used were those a master would use to a petty officer, not his second-in-command.

The hierarchy of the Lynx, Ramage guessed, was that the big Spanish Negro, Tomás, was the leader, with Hart the second-in-command, while Belmont and the silent blond were mates.

'Well, Captain,' Hart said smoothly, 'you do not seem very surprised to find five prizes anchored here at Trinidade!'

'Oh, I wouldn't say that,' Ramage said vaguely. Tomás would not understand the words, but he would be quick to notice if a foreigner was an ineffectual man. Clearly Hart knew of Captain Ramage - he had made that clear at the beginning - but Tomás would not believe him if he saw that this Captain Ramage had a vague and indecisive manner. Even Hart might begin to wonder. 'Well, yes, I suppose I was surprised to find ships here. After all, it isn't a very big island. It takes a lot of finding.'

'You had trouble?' Hart asked casually.

'Oh yes. Our chronometer is not very accurate.' He was careful not to look at Southwick as he added: 'Fortunately one can run the westing down.'

Hart said quickly in Spanish to Tomás: 'They had to run their westing down to find this place.'

Tomás said nothing and Ramage said innocently to Hart: 'You did not say what you were going to do with your prizes.'

'No, I didn't. It now depends on you, to some extent.'

Ramage thought quickly, and then yawned, delicately picking fluff from his coat. 'Oh, does it? It's not really my responsibility, you know. After all, you're the privateer. Well, the war's over now, so I suppose your letter of marque has expired, or whatever it does when a war ends. But your prizes are your affair - after all, even if the war was still on, they'd still be no concern of mine.'

'I'm glad to hear you say it,' Hart said.

'Oh indeed,' Ramage said, as though politely delighted that Hart agreed. 'I have my orders from the Admiralty and I really can't get involved in anything else - not without orders from their Lordships.'

'Might one ask if your orders will keep you here for long?' Hart asked cautiously.

Ramage shook his head and resumed the search for fluff on his coat. 'There's no secret about my orders: I've come here to survey the island and map it, and make a chart of the anchorages.'

'Why? Are the Admiralty going to start using it?'

'Use it?' Ramage said scornfully. 'I doubt it! Who the devil could find it! Anyway, it's a long way to anywhere else. No, Ascension is good enough for the Cape and John Company ships.'

'Why the sudden interest in Trinidade, then?'

'It's not a sudden interest in Trinidade,' Ramage said, with another yawn. 'The war is over, but the Admiralty have to keep a certain number of ships in commission, especially frigates. So they are sending several of them off to survey various unusual places. I expect one has gone to St Paul Rocks and another to Fernando de Noronha, for example. And probably Ascension; the charts for them are terrible, I know.'

'So how—' Hart was interrupted by Tomás asking what was being discussed. Hart told him that Ramage was not concerned about the privateer; that he wanted to avoid any responsibility, and that he was only concerned with carrying out his orders, to survey Trinidade.

'How long does he plan to be here?'

'I'll ask him.'

'You had better tell him why he cannot interfere with the prizes.'

'But he does not intend to anyway.'

'If he is going to be here long,' Tomás said, obviously controlling his impatience with Hart, 'it is only a matter of time before someone from one of the prizes raises the alarm. Anyway, this Ramage will expect to be invited to dinner by the other masters. When no invitations come, even he will get suspicious - if he can stay awake long enough.'

Ramage managed to keep his face blank at this unwitting praise for his acting. But what on earth was Tomás talking about?

'How long do you reckon on staying here, then?' Hart asked.

Ramage held out his hands, palms uppermost, in a gesture well understood by all Latins. 'Who knows? How big is the island, how long will my surveyors and draughtsmen take with their maps? How long will my lieutenants take with their soundings? Two months, four, six? Blessed if I know. I should think you'll be long gone before we've finished.'

Hart nodded, but was obviously puzzled how to carry out the important part of Tomás's instructions.

'Captain Ramage,' he said, a more formal note in his voice. 'About these prizes of ours...'

Ramage raised an eyebrow. 'Your affair, my dear chap. If you take prizes that's your responsibility. The courts decide, as you know. You might have trouble over those two British ships, of course - unless they'd been captured by the French, and you recaptured them. But I'm not the judge and I'm sure you know all about the Prize Act.'

'Oh yes, don't worry your head about that, sir,' Hart said, a confidential note in his voice. 'No, what I was going to explain is that of course we have prize crews on board each of the ships.'

'Oh yes, I assumed that.'

'Yes, and our men have orders,' Hart said casually but there was no mistaking the warning, 'to kill all the passengers the minute they see there's any danger of losing a ship.'

'What, if the prize crew run a ship on a reef, they murder the passengers? Hardly seems just, I must say.'

Hart clucked like a disappointed schoolteacher. 'No, no, no sir, not that sort of danger. I mean if they saw there was any chance of their ships being recaptured...'

'Can't see who'd try to do that,' Ramage said, obviously puzzled. 'After all, the war is over. Why, that'd be an act of piracy, surely?'

A contented smile spread over Hart's face. 'Why, of course, sir, that's exactly what it would be, and that is why our prize crews have those orders; we have to be on our guard against piracy.'

Again Ramage looked puzzled, scratching his head with one hand and tugging at the knee of his breeches with the other. 'Yes, but I can't see how killing the passengers keeps pirates away.'

'Oh, I see what you mean, Captain, but if you just think of it as insurance, you'll understand.'

'Ah yes, just insurance. Very wise too: never sail underinsured, somebody once told me. "Beware of barratry by master and crew and pay the premiums promptly" - that was what he said, and it's wise advice, don't you think?'

'Indeed it is,' Hart patiently agreed, 'and we have the officers and men staying in a camp on shore.' He turned to Tomás, saying in Spanish: 'I have told him about the hostages and he sees nothing wrong about us having prizes. He might be a brave man - he must be, to have his reputation - but he's a fool. He's swallowed our story like a pike taking a minnow. So we can wait for our friends with more prizes, and then we can all sail in one convoy, leaving this pudding to finish his survey.'

'Good, so now be helpfuclass="underline" tell him where to get fresh water. Then he will not be suspicious.'

Hart waved away the idea. 'It is not necessary, Tomás. He is not short of water, or he would have asked us about rivers and springs. No, believe me, I understand these people. We say goodbye now and go.'

'Lead the way and say the right things then,' Tomás said, and anyone listening but unable to speak Spanish would not have realized that the big black had been giving orders.

Fifteen minutes later Southwick was sitting in the armchair, Aitken leaned back on the settee with his hat beside him, and Ramage sat at the desk, looking far removed from the vague, hesitant and languid individual who had talked to the privateersmen.