Ramage stared at the messenger on horseback. As far as he was concerned he had made his last visit to the Admiralty; in the brief carriage drive he had decided to resign his commission and ask Gianna to marry him...
"What do you want?"
"Lieutenant Ramage, sir! Will you return to the Admiralty at once, sir? First Lord's orders, sir, at once sir, it's urgent sir, no delay his Lordship said, it's urgent-"
"Belay it," Ramage snapped, although the last "urgent" would have been the final one for a few moments since the man was now taking a painful gasp of breath.
Yorke muttered, "He's just read your report!"
"Yes, you'd both better come back with me."
He called to the coachman to return to the Admiralty, and a small group of passers-by, peddlars and hucksters who had stopped to watch, moved out of the way as the coachman reined the horses round with a flourish.
Fifteen minutes later Ramage was sitting in the same chair in the Board Room.
"Are you trying to make a fool of me?" Lord Spencer asked furiously. .
"No, sir! Why?" Ramage exclaimed.
"Your report! Why the devil didn't you mention the mutiny, the attempt to murder you and the kidnapping of the Marchesa di Volterra - though God knows what she was doing on board?"
Ramage decided that, for all the anger, nothing had really changed. "I referred to it in my report, sir."
"I know that! But why the devil didn't you mention it when you were sitting there?"
"I said the report contained all the proof you needed, sir - although I didn't think it would make much difference..."
"Difference to what?"
"Difference to the Government's decision."
"What Government decision?" Lord Spencer asked angrily.
"That the packetsmen aren't to be blamed for anything, sir."
"Well - that wasn't exactly a decision," the First Lord said, obviously taken aback.
"You said that my first report was not believed, sir - by the Postmaster-General or the Prime Minister."
"Well, yes; but that was before this mutiny, which is just the proof we needed."
"I had all the proof I needed long before we reached Lisbon. Still, I suppose the fact that they tried to murder me and kidnapped the Marchesa does prove I'm not a liar!"
The bitter comment was spoken before Ramage realized he had even thought it, and he waited, red-faced and angry, for the First Lord's wrath.
Instead Lord Spencer said calmly, "It proves you're not a politician."
Ramage sat staring in front of him, determined to guard his tongue.
"Lord Auckland will be here in a few minutes," Spencer said. "Fortunately he hasn't gone down to his place in Bromley."
"The underwriters," Ramage said. "There are three men from the Lady Arabella for instance: the Commander, the Surgeon and the Bosun's mate. We need to know how many times they have collected insurance on total loss claims. And how many times they've been captured and exchanged, too. Sir," he added as an afterthought.
The First Lord picked up a small silver bell and rang it violently. Almost immediately a secretary hurried into the room. "Ah, Jeffries," the First Lord said, "Take a list of packetsmen that Lieutenant Ramage will give you. Check with the Navy Board to see who deals with the exchange of Post Office prisoners, and then find out how often these men have been captured and exchanged. And at the same time - at the same time, mind you, because we're in a hurry - ask the Committee of Lloyds to find out what policies these same Post Office packetsmen have taken out since the beginning of the war, and what claims they've made - all on personal freight between Falmouth and the West Indies."
Ramage wrote the names on a sheet of paper and gave it to Jeffries, who was obviously the First Lord's secretary.
As soon as they were alone again, the First Lord said, "Well, what answers shall I get?"
Ramage shrugged his shoulders. "All of them have been captured at least twice. The Surgeon has probably been making nearly £4,000 a year from private cargoes and insurance claims, and many of the seamen £500 or more. The claims are quite legal, sir - or, rather, claims the underwriters never questioned since they were for goods in a packet captured by the French."
"Why didn't the underwriters ever query the claims?"
"Because the Post Office was authenticating every loss by paying out the full value to the owner of the packet. If the Government is satisfied and pays out, sir, how can underwriters avoid following suit?"
"I follow what you mean. But see here, Ramage, when Lord Auckland arrives, you watch your tongue. I'll do the talking: it's very delicate when one department has to tell another that some of its people have committed treason..."
"And murder, attempted murder, mutiny and kidnapping," Ramage said, picturing the sentry's body sprawled on the deck, and Gianna held prisoner.
"Yes, quite. I appreciate that you, as an intended victim, have a proprietary interest in the attempt, but nevertheless ... By the way, you shot the Boatswain in the leg. You could have killed him. Why didn't you?"
"There was no point in killing for the sake of it, sir, and anyway I needed live evidence."
"There'll be no court case, Ramage; I'd better warn you of that now. And don't start-"
His Lordship broke off when he saw that far from getting angry, Ramage was gently laughing. "What is so funny, Ramage?"
"I'm not quite sure, sir; it's got very mixed up. I never thought for a minute there'd be a trial-"
"Why?" Spencer snapped.
Ramage managed to stop the blunt answer he was about to make, and rephrased it. "I assumed that the exigencies of the Government's political situation would have made it inadvisable," he said in a bored monotone.
"Excellent. If you go on like that, Ramage, you'll be offered a safe Parliamentary seat somewhere. Yes, you're quite right, although I still don't see what there is to laugh at."
"I'm not really laughing, sir. I had - er, anticipated the problems relating to a trial..." He paused for a moment, reflecting on his words: yes, he could see himself standing with his hands clasping his lapels, his head slightly inclined forward, and an utterly false smile on his face, and facing the Opposition Benches. "I took the liberty of administering a little punishment to one or two of the men."
Spencer nodded understanding. "That might be thought by some to have been a wise precaution."
At that moment there was a knock at the door and when Spencer answered a messenger came in and whispered something. Spencer said, "Show him in at once - I gave instructions that he was not to be kept hanging about in the hall." As the messenger hurried out the First Lord said, "Lord Auckland has arrived."
The Postmaster-General's first words when Lord Spencer introduced him were biting: "So this is the young man who sees treason the length and breadth of the Post Office, eh?"
Instead of defending him, Ramage was surprised to find Lord Spencer agreeing. "The same young man, and he's just posted up from Plymouth at his own expense to bring me another report."
"I trust it makes more sense than the one he wrote from Lisbon."
"Well, William, it may not make more sense, but it's certainly more interesting. Care to read it?"
"I hope you haven't dragged me all the way over here for that," the Postmaster-General said sourly.
The First Lord slid the report across the polished table as though dealing a card and, for that matter, Ramage thought, the Postmaster-General opened the report with the same wary interest that a player picks up and looks at his cards.
He read it through slowly without any expression showing on his face. Then he looked up at Lord Spencer and raised an eyebrow. "The Mate's report?"
When Spencer skimmed it across he read it slowly with the same concentration. Finally he put it down on the table and looked at Ramage. "So you found the proof." The voice was almost bitter, but Ramage sensed it was not bitterness over him. "You knew you'd find it even when you wrote from Lisbon, didn't you?" He made his question sound like an accusation.