Ramage's Signal

She came round into the Passe Partout's wake and about half a mile astern. Her masts were now in line.

'Martin! Your quadrant. Give me the elevation of the Magpie's foremast!'

The young lieutenant opened the mahogany box as the first of the tartane's swivels fired. By the time the third had fired he was balancing, sighting the Magpie in the quadrant's mirror. A few delicate movements with the quadrant's arm and Martin was reading off the minutes and degrees.

Ramage looked at his watch and said to Rossi: 'Keep her masts in line: I want to see how quickly she can overhaul us on a reach.'

'Very quickly', Rossi muttered. 'Only to windward can we escape!'

And that, Ramage knew, was the irony of the situation. The only ship with the guns to deal with the Magpie was the Calypso, at the far end of the convoy and who could only get to the Algerine vessel by beating to windward - a long, slow task in this light wind.

The Passe Partout could not escape from the Magpie by running away before the wind to join the Calypso; the schooner would overtake her long before that. If she raced away on a broad reach, north or south, taking the Magpie in pursuit, she was making it a little easier for the Calypso, whose speed would increase with every point she could sail free. But the Magpie would catch the tartane long before the Calypso could get near.

Only by beating to windward, away from the Calypso, could the Passe Partout escape. Would the Magpie continue chasing her? If so, it would keep her out of the Calypso's hands but - ironically enough - save the French convoy.

The fifth swivel fired. It was absurd to waste the shot when the whole point of firing was to make smoke to attract the Calypso's attention because at this range a 3-pounder shot would not harm a privateer schooner any more than a soggy dumpling.

'Fire blank charges', Ramage shouted. 'Don't waste shot. Just make smoke!'

He looked astern across the convoy at the Calypso and just managed to steady the glass in time to see the frigate wearing round, sails shivering as she steadied on a course hard on the wind. Aitken and Southwick were going to be busy as they tacked back and forth through the convoy. There were bound to be at least three merchant ships whose masters lost their nerve at the sight of a great frigate, guns run out, racing in their direction and, instead of holding their course, they would do something silly and risk a collision...

'Martin', Ramage snapped after another glance at his watch, 'have another look at the Magpie's foremasthead.'

The degrees and minutes he reported confirmed what Ramage had already seen with his naked eye: he hardly needed the quadrant to tell him that the angle subtended by the Magpie's foremasthead was increasing so fast that the schooner would be ranging alongside within minutes.

He glanced at Rossi, who was loosing a powerful stream of blasphemy in Italian at the Magpie such as can be achieved only by an imaginative Italian Catholic.

'Very hard on Catholics, these Arabs', Ramage said teasingly. 'They flay them, I believe.'

Rossi grinned as he said: 'Yes, sir, even lapsed Catholics.'

The Genoese seaman was handling the Passe Partout's tiller as an artist might his brush; he was responsive to every variation in the wind's strength, reacting to puffs and lulls like a gull hovering over the edge of a cliff.

Martin turned to Ramage and said cheerfully: 'I am sorry, sir, someone wrote andante ma non troppo on this ship's keel!'

Ramage gave a great gust of laughter which stopped every man in his tracks, and knowing they had very little time left for anything, Ramage called: 'Mr Martin says the Passe Partout has a musical direction - an order by the composer to the soloist or orchestra - which means in Italian, "Fast, but not too much"!'

'Ho, I was wondering what was delayin' 'er', Stafford said.

There were seven French prisoners locked in the fo'c'sle and who had been guarded, until the swivels were needed, by Baxter and Johnson. He must not forget to free them at the last moment and give them, too, a chance to kill an Arab or so before that screaming horde swamped the Passe Partout's deck.

He turned to Rossi, waving to Martin to attend to the sheets and braces: 'Bring her hard on the wind. It's not much of a chance, but we'll give 'em a run for their money!'

Within two or three minutes the tartane was heeling as she sliced through the waves, lively as a young pony let loose in a meadow. With the glass Ramage saw the men in the Magpie hauling on headsails, foresail and mainsail sheets so that the schooner could sail closer to the wind and stay in the tartane's wake until she overhauled her.

Martin, standing by him, commented: 'They seem to be a lubberly crowd over there, sir!'

Ramage nodded, an impression in his mind giving way to an idea. 'Tell Orsini to fetch the French master here, but leave the rest of the Frenchmen locked up. Send Baxter and Johnson with him.'

The fat Frenchman walked most of the way staring at the Magpie almost in the Passe Partout's wake, but when he reached Ramage he held his arms out in front of him, palms facing forward.

'What is happening?' he asked. 'I hear the guns firing - but she is British, like you!'

'She is an Algerine pirate. She was British, but the Algerines captured her.'

'You won't get away from her', the Frenchman said philosophically. 'We have more barnacles on the bottom than the Republic has debts. We are all making mistakes today - I mistook you for French, you mistook those villains for English. Your mistake is going to be the most expensive for all of us: if we are lucky, they'll cut our throats. If not - well, they have many cruel games to play with "infidels"...'

The Frenchman, fat as he was, and slightly ridiculous to look at, was no coward; his attitude was droll and he was genuinely amused that both he and Ramage had made mistakes over identity.

Ramage looked astern at the Magpie, glanced at Rossi, who shook his head to indicate the Passe Partout was not gaining a yard, and said to the Frenchman: 'M'sieu, I've no doubt you and your men share our reluctance to become prisoners of the Dey of Algiers or any of his men. If I release you all, will you give me your word that you'll remain our prisoners at large, help us, and surrender yourselves again when we have escaped?'

'Escaped? Quelle blague!' he exclaimed at such crazy talk. 'But certainly we will help make those camel lovers pay dearly for our skins. Yes, you have our parole; we'll help you sail and fight the ship - whatever you propose to do. Fight against all that mob!' The notion made him chuckle as he made his way forward to explain to his men, and Ramage called Baxter and Johnson aft as he told Martin what he was doing.

'I'm glad they'll be helping with the sheets and downhauls, sir', Martin admitted. This rig is effective, I'll admit that, but it's as tricky as a Thames barge. A man and a boy can work a barge up a narrow gut against a foul tide - as long as they know how!'

'Orsini', Ramage said, 'I'm putting you in charge of the Frenchmen because you'll hear me giving orders in English and can translate.'

'Aye aye, sir. And sir', he reminded Ramage, as if to excuse his future behaviour, 'the Saraceni have been the natural enemies of Italians for centuries.'

Ramage remembered how the various Arab rulers of Algiers and Tunis along the north coast of Africa had always made passing ships pay enormous 'tributes', quite apart from capturing hundreds of seamen to work the oars of their galleys. 'Yes, they've lacked friends for a long time', he said dryly. 'They have some curious habits.'