"No, sir," Ramage said flatly. "I'd already found all I needed."
"Why didn't you mention it in your first report, then?"
"I don't think you understood quite what Ramage meant, William," the First Lord said quickly. "I think he means he didn't know what the final proof would eventually be, but he knew he had only to bide his time before finding it. Proof, that is, which would stand up in a court of law."
"I've given him credit for that," Lord Auckland said testily. "What I was asking Ramage was this: did he suspect the packetsmen would mutiny before they arrived in Falmouth?"
The First Lord looked questioningly at Ramage, who nodded.
"And tell me, George," Lord Auckland asked the First Lard, "don't you find it odd that there are a dozen of your seamen on board the Lady Arabella? I hope you don't mind me asking young Ramage about it?"
George John Eden, first Earl Spencer, shook his head. "Carry on, William. I assume it is something arranged with the Commander-in-Chief in Jamaica. Was that so, Ramage?"
Keep up a united front with strangers present, Ramage thought to himself. "Quite so, sir; it gave us a nucleus of" - he just stopped himself saying "reliable men", and substituted -"men I'd sailed with before."
"The Commander," Auckland said. "What is your private impression of Stevens?"
"Under the thumb of the Surgeon, sir. I don't mean blackmail; it might have been just the gift of the blarney. Apart from that, sir, with all that rot in the transom he had a good enough reason for wanting the Post Office to buy him a new ship."
"I can see that quite clearly, thank you," Lord Auckland said sarcastically. "I'm trying to see what characteristics this particular commander has that might be common to other commanders who surrendered at one time or another."
Lord Spencer said, "Your report is excellent, Ramage, but now tell us what happened and what you thought from the time the privateer came in sight."
Briefly, but without leaving out any important detail he could remember, Ramage described the scene. When he had finished, Spencer asked, "What made you think of the exchange - the ransom, as it were?"
"I don't remember what gave me the immediate idea, sir; but my main concern was to avoid being made prisoner so that I could get the word to you as soon as possible about what was happening."
"Those damned ventures!" Auckland said suddenly. "I suspected it all along." He turned to Lord Spencer, as if seeking reassurance, and the First Lord nodded. "You've tried to get the Cabinet to agree to banning them often enough, William, but the strike of packetsmen last year frightened them. Yet you were right."
Ramage thought of Much sitting out in the waiting-room. Here was the chance of the Mate receiving a reward, if only praise from his minister, but the request had better go through the First Lord. "Mr Much, the Mate who wrote the other report you have, sir ... I brought him to London with me in case he was needed for questioning. Perhaps his Lordship...?"
Spencer caught on immediately. "He's your man, William; we all owe him a vote of thanks. By the way, Ramage, when is this Sidney Yorke due in London?"
"He's in the waiting-room with the Mate, sir. I thought you might want ... that he'd be needed as a witness, perhaps," Ramage said lamely.
"Why should you think you'd need a witness?" Lord Auckland asked, watching Ramage closely.
"If there was any question that..."
"The fact is, William," Lord Spencer interrupted, "that Mr Ramage has a poor opinion of the probity and intelligence of politicians, so he mustered all his guns..."
Auckland's eyebrows raised as he looked at Spencer. "He's a lucky young man; the fact the Mate and this fellow Yorke are still out in the waiting-room without you having seen them means he persuaded you without difficulty, eh? Well, let's have a word with this Mate now."
"Without difficulty..." Ramage thought to himself. As he went to the door to call a messenger, he saw the First Lord's face was red.
Both Lord Auckland and the First Lord were excellent in the way they handled Much. Surprised at the extent of the detail in the Mate's report that they had absorbed, Ramage noticed how both were quick to ask Much for further information they both needed not so much for further inquiries, but to answer critics in the Cabinet or Parliament. Indeed, he thought to himself, the political mind works very differently from any other.
After Much, they invited Yorke to the Board Room, and within five minutes or so the young shipowner was, in his own nonchalant manner, having both ministers admit that at first they had disbelieved Ramage's report from Lisbon and had doubts about payment of the ransom to free the Lady Arabella.
Lord Spencer's face was going red again, and Ramage feared Yorke might go too far. Lord Auckland gave a dry laugh. "But please remember, Mr Yorke, that Cabinet decisions are always collective - and secret - and that we did pay out."
Yorke turned to the First Lord. "Would it be impertinent, my Lord, to ask the result of the inquiries into insurance on the packetmen's ventures?"
"Er - well, not impertinent, but perhaps premature. I was telling Ramage that inquiries are being made. We haven't received the answer from the Committee of Lloyds yet."
And, Ramage thought sourly, that was hardly surprising, since the First Lord's private secretary hasn't been gone with the list of names for more than half an hour...
Yorke was shaking his head and Spencer's eyebrows raised questioningly.
"The official approach, my Lord," Yorke explained. "I was wondering if it was the best way, if there is any urgency..."
"There's no real urgency now, Mr Yorke," Lord Auckland said, but to Ramage it seemed his voice lacked conviction.
Yorke apologized hastily, and for a moment Ramage thought he had overdone it. But no, it hooked Lord Auckland, who said, "Well, my dear Yorke, I wouldn't say we have all the time in the world, but a week or two..."
"The Plymouth and Falmouth newspapers," Yorke said vaguely, as if thinking aloud, "and the mutinous packetsmen ... they've got to be charged before a magistrate pretty soon, or else lawyers will be rushing round shouting ... I think these packetsmen are well organized, and Cornishmen stick together ... A reference in the London press ... one feels - at least I do, personally, but of course I'm only a layman in such things - that if Parliament suddenly asks for explanations..."
"We won't have all the answers ready," Spencer said abruptly. "You're wasted at sea, young man; you ought to think of joining Ramage here in a career of politics."
Yorke waved his hand vaguely and muttered something about "leave it to the rest of the family", and then said, "I could pass the details of the insurance claims to Mr Ramage by first thing in the morning, if that would help: I have some friends in that line of country."
Ramage appreciated what Yorke was proposing. It was the most acceptable method for both ministers: unofficial, more remote and politically safer - and yet providing quick answers.
Lord Auckland answered, since it was his ministry involved. "Any assistance, Mr Yorke ... with discretion of course..."
"Of course, my Lord," Yorke said with a smile, and Ramage suddenly saw why Spencer had mentioned a career in politics. But Spencer had not seen Yorke at sea; he could never realize the enormous gap...
"By the way," Lord Auckland said, "I must warn you young men that the whole of this inquiry is secret. I doubt if the packetsmen will be brought to trial - except for the Bosun's mate, who will be charged with murder - because we have no wish to advertise our defects to the French."