Ramage hurried on, trying to hold back the questions. He described how Aitken had suddenly worn the Surcouf round so that the two frigates about to attack him on either bow collided with each other. Then he had to digress to answer the Admiral's question about what had happened to them. He related how the Diamond battery had disabled La Comète and blown up La Prudente so that they could take possession of the whole convoy. La Créole's change of role from a French privateer coming to meet the convoy to a British schooner brought the comment from Captain Edwards about a poacher turning gamekeeper.
They were interrupted by a lieutenant reporting to Captain Edwards that the Invincible was now in the Fours Channel, with the Diamond Rock bearing south one mile. The Admiral waved him away impatiently. 'We'll go up and look into Fort Royal Bay. Scare those privateers, in case they're thinking of sneaking out.'
As the lieutenant left the cabin the Admiral's brow creased. 'Who is in command of all these ships of yours?'
'The Master is on board the Juno, sir; my former First Lieutenant, Aitken, the man I was telling you about, is commanding the Surcouf. My former Second, Wagstaffe, has La Créole. Baker was the Third, and Lacey, the Fourth, is with Aitken. I had to leave a petty officer in command of the Diamond, sir, and he did very well. Altogether I -'
'One frigate goes into action with her commanding officer, the Master and less than a third of her complement; another has a first lieutenant and a fourth . . . Ramage, you are completely mad. If you stay alive long enough to give Their Lordships a chance to appreciate you, you'll go a long way in the Service. Your problem will be staying alive. Now we have to find enough men to get those prizes up to Antigua. The merchant ships, I mean. And I have two more frigates.'
He stood up and walked round the cabin for two or three minutes, obviously trying to reach some sort of decision, and then came and sat down again opposite Ramage.
'I need the Surcouf for a special service. You say she's fast. Her bottom clean? Good condition? Fine, fine. I'm transferring you to her. Wait a moment,' he said when Ramage's face fell, 'you'll have your own ship's company. For what I have in mind you'll need the extra guns and speed, since she's a thirty-six and the Juno is only a thirty-two - a twenty-eight at the moment, rather.'
Ramage knew that if he did not put in a word for Aitken now the Admiral's plans would be completed beyond hope of change. 'Sir, I was hoping that perhaps you could find a place for Aitken ...'
'Hold your tongue a moment, boy, I'm trying to arrange two things at once. You to the Surcouf, so that's settled. This fellow Aitken made post - the Admiralty will confirm it later, no question of that - and given the Juno. We have to find a ship's company for the Juno, but we'll manage that somehow. La Comète needs careening, which means English Harbour, Antigua ...'
'I was hoping, sir, that Wagstaffe –‘
The Admiral glared at him. 'Do you want him as your First in the Surcouf, or let him go off as First in La Comète and eat his heart out in the dockyard for a few weeks?'
'I'd sooner have him with me, sir.'
'Very well; so far you've only interrupted with suggestions that I've already dealt with in my mind. Be patient!'
He tapped the table with the fingers of his right hand. 'There's La Créole. Who deserves her, Baker or your Fourth, Lacey?'
'Baker, sir. Lacey behaved very well, but Baker's row to Barbados ...'
'I'm glad to hear you say that. Lacey can go as Second in the Juno. Good training for him. So that leaves me La Comète, and I have a deserving young lieutenant to be made post into her. Very well, anything else?' he asked briskly.
'No, sir. I will leave my report. Oh yes, sir, there is. We have all La Comète's secret papers. And sir, if you felt that you could make a signal to the Diamond, sir ... The Juno battery, that's the one at the top, they have a signal mast rigged and a copy of the signal book ...'
'Damnation!' the Admiral exclaimed, 'I've forgotten all about the Rock. Four guns need thirty men or more, and we'll probably strengthen the place. It'll be a lieutenant's command. But how the devil do we arrange the paperwork, Edwards?'
'They'll have to be attached to a ship for pay, mustering, victualling and so on, sir.' He thought a moment. That schooner, sir, La Créole. If you buy her into the Service, the garrison of the Rock would be on her books. She could keep them supplied, too, because she's fast enough to get over to Barbados for provisions, and she can slip over to St Lucia for water ...'
Ramage said: 'Perhaps she could be renamed the Diamond, sir.'
'Capital,' the Admiral boomed. 'His Majesty's schooner Diamond . . . Sounds well. By the way, Ramage, who named the top battery?'
'The men, sir. They named all three batteries,' he added hurriedly. 'The middle one is named after my father, sir, not me,'
'You both deserve it,' the Admiral said, standing up. 'Now, we'll go up and look into Fort Royal. You stay patrolling off the Diamond, and report on board here at ten o'clock tomorrow morning. Your orders will be ready by then. Have Aitken report to me at half past nine.'
Ramage stood up and as he was leaving the cabin he heard the Admiral saying angrily to Captain Edwards: 'I'm sick of that Jocasta business! Damnation take that fellow Eames. If only...'
The voices faded as Ramage walked away. If only what? And earlier the Admiral had said something like: 'Dammit, Edwards, I knew I should never have let Eames . . .' Eames had been blockading Fort Royal for many weeks, then he had returned to Barbados. Ramage remembered that he was the man the Admiral seemed to have in mind for the special service that the First Lord had referred to in London; the special service for which the Juno had brought out the orders.
Had Eames made a mess of them? He shrugged his shoulders. There was no point in speculating; it did not concern him, although he was unlikely to find Captain Eames becoming a friend. That his young successor, far below him in the List, had established batteries on the Diamond was unlikely to delight him. And what did the Admiral mean about the Jocasta?She was still in Spanish hands after her men mutinied.
The officer of the deck came up to him and saluted. 'Are you ready for your boat, sir?’
For a moment Ramage was too startled to answer and then he returned the salute with as much coolness as he could muster. 'Yes, when you are ready.'
It was pleasant being a post captain, he thought to himself as the Invincible's great foretopsail was backed while the Juno's cutter, which had been towing astern, was brought up for him to climb down into it.
When he arrived on board the Invincible next morning, with fifteen minutes in hand to make sure he was not late for the Admiral, Captain Edwards met him on deck and commented on the beauty of the anchorage. The Invincible and three frigates were anchored close in to the long Grande Anse du Diamant. Directly to seaward was the grey tooth of Diamond Rock; to the north-west Diamond Hill.
The sun was getting hot now, and Captain Edwards nodded towards the awning. 'We'll take a turn or two until the Admiral is ready for you. Tell me, how the devil did you sway those guns up? I don't mind telling you that you spoiled the Admiral's regular game of chess last night. We had charts out, drew diagrams ...'
As the two men walked up and down the quarterdeck, cool in the shade and with the offshore breeze just setting in to ripple the water, Ramage described how he had moored the Juno close against the sheer cliff on the south side, rigged the jackstay and used the capstan to hoist each gun with a gun tackle.
'But a sudden swell,' Captain Edwards interrupted. 'We get them in Barbados - rollers, ten feet high with no warning ...’