"Uhm," Lewrie commented, stalling for time and wondering what in hell Twigg was talking about. Twigg dropped his gaze from the rafters to Alan's face, like a tutor expecting him to recite.
"Have to go to Nootka Sound early in summer, late spring, sir," he began, grasping for ideas. All the plum wine he'd put down with supper didn't help that process. "That means they'd have to leave Pondichery or wherever even earlier, in the… oh!"
"Oh, indeed, sir," Twigg said, grinning a little.
"The Monsoon, the summer Monsoons are out of the sou'west as early as they'd have to leave," Alan continued. "And about the time they're changing from the winter nor'east winds. There's violent weather then. No one in his right mind would try that. And then they'd have to sail clear across the entire Pacific, maybe a three or four month voyage to be first in for the furs, as early as May, when the ice melts. And then to gather all the rest on the way back…"
"Maybe they have an arrangement with some o' the Polynesian islanders t' arrive an' pick up shark fins an' all on the way out, or don't have t' spend too much time on the way back," Wythy added. "So they might save a full month all told."
"Already loaded to the deck-heads, though, with cargo!" Lewrie beamed. "Where's the room for food, water, firewood?"
"Loaded with what?" Wythy snorted. "Cotton? Sure t' take fire if ye close it up too long. Get a seepage an' watch it swell like a hundred tons o' sponges an' break yer hull? By God, opium don't keep that well that long, either. Either lose yer ship, get marooned with the savages, or watch yer best cargo spoil on ye."
"They could leave here in March and go direct to Nootka Sound," Twigg prompted. "Or make a round voyage every two years, instead of the one, like some of those former Rebel skippers do."
"Then they would have to spend their time fighting the nor'east Monsoons east and north of Guinea," Alan said, remembering his Falconer's. "With the same storms when the winds shift out of the sou'east, about… six weeks later than the Indian Ocean, as I recall. It would be impossible to make much headway, tacking close-hauled into a nor'wester. And if they went directly from Macao to Nootka Sound, where'd they get all the Indian goods, then?"
"Excuse me, sirs, if a landsman sticks his oar into the water," Burgess chuckled, "but what if they go to India in March, thence to the Nootka Sound, riding the favorable winds. And only do the two-year round voyage?"
"Money, Burgess," Alan replied, smirking. "They ain't Navy. Who could afford to pay a crew for twice the work and only once the profit? And there is the matter of spoilage, like Mister Wythy said."
"Fascinating speculation, is it not, sirs?" Twigg said happily. "And finally, there is the matter of this ship's name. La Malouine. We may deduce that her master could possibly be a Breton. We may further imply that he is from St. Malo, on the northern Brittany coast. Who else would name a ship La Malouine'? Bretons have been pirates, privateersmen and ship-wreckers since before the times of Caesar. Ideally placed to play merry hell with Channel commerce, an activity in which they've indulged since the last Legions marched out of England and France. They're some of the best sailors France may boast of. As good as any Liverpool or Bristol privateer, and twice as bloody-handed."
"Bit obvious, though," Alan said in the long silence that followed. "I mean, the name of the ship. Too… I don't know."
"Pass me that bloody port, lad, there's a good feller," Wythy said, "while you cogitate on't."
'There's closer places to get bird's nests, spice, brass and shark fins, you know," Twigg told them. "A lot closer to Canton or the Bay of Bengal. The Malay pirates. Even from Mindanao. They hate sharks so much they go out of their way to kill them. Catch them and force spiny sea-urchins down their gullets so they'll take days to die a painful death. Make them suffer for every one of theirs the sharks take or mangle."
"Best lead we've turned up yet," Wythy summarized.
"Yes, Tom," Twigg agreed. "We must look into this La Malouine. Find out if she's Compagnie des Indies or a country ship. Where she's home-ported, where she's been seen the last year or so. Have any of us paid her any mind yet? Is she a tubby little merchantman, or is she a converted warship? Small crew, large crew. How well armed, who and what are her officers."
"How much opium she sold at Lintin Island, too, if she's payin' her way, same's us," Wythy stuck in. " 'Course, if she's the one we're lookin' for, ye may count on looted opium, an' pure profit."
"Damme, I wish I'd been on the customs dock this morning," Twigg rasped. "One sight of those shark fins, and that ginseng, and I'd have tumbled to 'em a lot sooner."
"Speaking of, sir, where would they get ginseng? Sail all the way to Boston for it?" Burgess inquired.
"The ginseng, aye, Mister Chiswick. I suspect there's a Yankee merchantman gone missing. We shall have to ask around among our dear divorced cousins. They may have over-reached themselves in that matter. Maybe they took it, maybe their native confederates took it and handed it over for arms, thinking it might be worth something. Either way, they've blown a hole in their cover. A small hole, but a hole nonetheless."
"And what may we do to help, sir?" Burgess asked, looking as tail-wagging eager as a fox-hound pup about to be let out with his first pack.
"Not a blessed thing," Twigg replied quickly, and with some affrontery. "You two leave this part of the business to them that won't give the game away. I'll not have these Frogs put on their guard by a mistake by some cunny-thumbed, cack-handed amateurs!"
"Oh, but ye've done grand 'nough, so far, lads," Wythy interceded. "We'd not know anythin' but fer yer observin', and bringin' up the subject of that ginseng. But remember, we're trying to pose as innocent as the Frogs are. Yer not practiced at this. So ye go on with yer duties, and yer sight-seein', same's the French'd expect from ye. Do keep yer eyes peeled, though, on the sly. Don't go too sneakin'r actin' suspicious, but just idle about and take note."
"I see, sir," Burgess replied, still in a bit of a pet after Twigg's scornful dismissal of his services, no matter how Wythy had softened the blow.
"Circulate. Act the calf-headed cullys. But watch when ye may. Not a sharp watch, mind, but watch" Wythy concluded.
Chapter 5
They waited, and they watched.
In fact, once Telesto was totally unloaded and riding high in the water, there was very little else to do. Whampoa Reach was the place to idle from September to March. Their cargoes of tea were not in Canton for quick loading; they had to come down from the hinterland. What they had purchased were only sample packs of the year's pickings. The lacquerware, furniture and china had to be manufactured during the winter season, then loaded lot by lot. It took Chinese laborers time to weave nankeen cloth, silks, ribbon and fancy goods. Wallpapers had to be made first, then meticulously, and slowly, printed by Asian methods, or painted by artists by hand with their bamboo pens and brushes.
"Rope-Yarn Sunday, thank God," Alan muttered to himself as he emerged on the quarterdeck. It had rained during the night, and the masts, sails and rigging overhead dribbled fat, cool drops of water from aloft as if it rained still. There was a slight fog over the Pearl River and Whampoa Reach, a fog that amplified the creaking of the myriad of vessels as timbers and planking settled anew, as rigging slacked tension and the masts worked against themselves. As thigh-thick mooring cables groaned against the hawsehole timbers, and tinny watch-bells tinkled like a forest of windchimes, all set on chronometers that would never agree with each other.
Telesto had been a scene from the ancient Egyptian Pyramids the day before. Gun-drill, repel boarders drill, striking the upper masts and yards down to the lower fighting tops and gantlines, only to hoist them aloft once more and re-set the standing rigging. Starboard watch against larboard watch. Anything to keep the men from going stale with idleness.