"I agree."
Bolitho tried not to think of the time. It was like a mental hour-glass, the sand running away remorselessly.
Plowman added, "I’ll lead then."
He made to turn towards the bows but stopped as Bolitho said, "Once we are ashore you will take charge of the boats. You have done well, Mr. Plowman, to get us this far. I’ll see it's not forgotten."
Plowman protested, "I could put one of my lads in charge, sir. "
"No. We will need you again later. I don’twant Mr.
Grubb's right-hand man getting lost in Spain! The master would never pardon me!"
Several men chuckled arid Plowman sighed. "That's true, sir. "
Fifteen minutes later the gig and then the big launch thrust into hard sand, and while seamen stumbled waist-deep in water alongside, and oars and weapons went in all directions, Bolitho ran with Gilchrist up the beach, their swords in their hands.
This would be the moment. Bolitho halted by some scattered rocks, his eyes straining in the darkness, trying to pitch his ears above wind and sea.
But no challenge came, no ripple of flashes from the higher darkness above the beach. And with each precious minute more and more men were squelching out of the shallows and hurrying to their allotted positions. The crossbelts grew in numbers, and when the cutters, which had watched warily for any sign of attack, came in also, the small cove seemed to be full of silent figures.
Major Leroux strode up the beach. "All mustered, sir." "Very well. Have the boats stand off. Pass the word to Mr. Plowman to remain close inshore for one hour and then return to the ship as arranged."
He watched Leroux beckoning to his orderly. One hour. It should be long enough to know if they had an even chance of success.
As the boats and their depleted crews splashed astern from the beach, Bolitho could sense the uncertainty around him. Despite their military code, the marines were not land animals. The thought of being left in foreign territory, denied a link with their ship and the only way of life most of them understood would be uppermost in their minds.
He said, 'send out your scouts, Major Leroux."
The marine nodded. "We will need some good men to flank us, too."
He hurried away, and in no time at all the whole landing party was on the move..
It was much as Grubb and Plowman had described, although the track which followed the high ground above the beach was rougher than expected. Men swore savagely in the darkness, and occasionally Bolitho heard Nepean or one of his sergeants demanding silence under all manner of threats.
After an hour Bolitho ordered a rest, and while the marines sat or crouched on either side of the track he called his officers together.
"It will be growing lighter in five hours."
He saw Midshipman Luce shaking stone chippings from one shoe, and thought again of Pascoe. In the poor light he was not unlike him. They had been, no were good friends.
"According to my calculations we have a gully to cross and then we will be very near to the bay. The chart describes the first headland as loose and worn down by the sea. So it is my guess that any defending battery must be mounted on the opposite headland."
Gilchrist said angrily, "We can never march all that way before Lysander begins her attack."
"Are you speaking to me, Mr. Gilchrist?" His voice was so mild that Luce jammed on his shoe and stood very still to listen.
"I’m sorry, er, sir." Gilchrist sounded off balance. "It was an opinion."
"I am glad to know that." He looked at the others. "But we must seize any pieces which might be capable of crippling Lysander before the attack begins. Unprepared for our visit the Spaniards may well be. But the bay will be like a nest of hornets once the first shot is fired."
Leroux tightened his sword-belt. "I agree, sir. And the sooner we get to the gully, the better I’ll be pleased. " Bolitho looked round, feeling the dust and grit against his face. The wind was holding. It was to be hoped that Herrick's "lady luck" did the same.
He said, "Get them moving again."
Leroux strode away, and after a few whispered commands the marines clumped on to the track. In the darkness their belts made a long, undulating snake of crosses.
And still nothing moved from the outer darkness. Not a stray dog, nor some befuddled fisherman groping his way to a boat to prepare for the dawn. It was as if the whole of the shore had been abandoned.
Stranger still, Bolitho found that he was able to think without interruption, his gait almost relaxed as he strode beside the middle section of marines. He thought of the times he had sailed past this coastline in both directions. Now he was actually walking along it. Names on the chart crossed through his mind like memories. Cartagena, which lay less than forty miles away. Alicante, Valencia, each held a place in his memory. And five years back, in this same war, Spain had been an ally of England.
He realised that a whispered command was coming back down the line, and as he hurried forward he saw Leroux and Nepean in close conference with a corporal.
Leroux did not waste words. "This is Corporal Manners, sir. A good skirmisher by any standards." He looked steadily at Bolitho. "He's been leading the scouts."
Bolitho kept his tone level, although he knew that some- thing was very wrong. "Your advance party has reached the gully?"
Leroux nodded. "Tell the commodore, Manners."
The marine's dialect was like a sound of home. Manners explained, "The gully is there as we expected, zur. But there must have been a great cliff fall. It's almost sheer-cut, like the side of an abbey." He hesitated. "I was a tin miner in Cornwall afore I signed on, zur."
"Then you will know what you are talking about."
Bolitho looked past them, his mind grappling with the totally unexpected.
Manners added, "I could try an" get down with the grapnel an" line, zur."
Bolitho shook his head. "Under cover of darkness it would be fatal." He looked at Leroux. "What do you think?"
The major replied, "It would take hours. Even if we could do it, the men would be in poor shape for a pitched battle afterwards. "
"And Lysander would already be in the bay."
He felt despair crowding in on him. He had been blind, too stupid to plan for this one real barrier which made all other preparations a waste of time. And lives. He had relied on the chart's sparse information and his own eagerness. His mind rebelled at the word. For vengeance?
"We will have to march them around the gully, sir. " Leroux was watching him. Sharing his anxiety. "However-"
"Indeed, Major Leroux. That one word however tells all." Lieutenant Nepean remarked, "We will circle whatever defences there are in the bay, sir, and storm the battery from inland. "
Leroux sighed. "Pass the word to Sergeant Gritton. We will follow the scouts as before." In a quieter voice he said to Bolitho, "There is nothing else we can do now."
It could have been a reproach, but it was not. Gilchrist's tall figure carne out of the gloom. "I hear that we are cut off by the gully, sir."
"That is so." He tried to discover his reactions. 'so we will have our forced march after all."