‘Would you say it was an axe mark?’
‘It is certainly a blow from something heavy.’
‘What does that suggest to you?’
Winchester sighed. ‘That perhaps there was an incident of the sort that can happen on any ship for a dozen different reasons and that somehow the top-gallant rail became marked.’
‘A violent incident?’
The owner looked steadily at the Attorney-General.
‘That is your belief,’ he said. ‘Not mine.’
‘Then what is your belief, Captain Winchester?’
‘I believe that there occurred aboard the Mary Celeste something very extreme but which, were we to know, would be quite understandable to experienced mariners. Whatever it was, it was of sufficient severity to cause two excellent seamen like Captain Briggs and first mate Richardson to quit their ship, something neither of them would have done unless in fear of their lives.’
‘And what, this enquiry wonders, would that have been?’ said Flood.
‘I wish to God I knew, so that I could enlighten you and end this inquisition,’ blurted Winchester, unable any longer to hold his anger.
Cochrane came up from his notes and the Attorney-General stood smiling at the reaction he had achieved from the witness.
‘Perhaps, when he is returned from the place to which he went upon your advice, first mate Deveau can help us further,’ said Flood. ‘Since your previous evidence, we have come a long way towards changing your opinion. After the benefit of additional examination of Deveau, it could be that we can achieve more progress.’
Winchester stood regarding the Attorney-General balefully, aware that the outburst of annoyance would be misconstrued in the bias of the hearing.
‘You heard the evidence about the sword from the expert witness, surveyor Austin?’
‘Yes.’
‘And his positive evidence that the stains upon the blade were blood?’
‘His belief that the stains were blood.’
Flood ignored the qualification.
‘Already, Captain Winchester, you have offered the hearing a little more than you did during your first period of evidence,’ said the Attorney-General. ‘Can you, in advance of anything else we might hear, offer us any further assistance on that staining?’
‘How can I?’ said Winchester tightly.
‘Or on why a supposedly abandoned ship came to be on course?’
‘No.’
‘Almost as if it had been sailing to a rendezvous?’
‘No.’
Perhaps he had moved prematurely for the kill, thought Flood. The witness was proving more resistant than he had anticipated.
‘What is your intention, once this enquiry is concluded?’ he demanded.
‘To retrieve my ship, appoint a new captain and then return to New York to continue my business.’
‘What captain?’
‘The command has been given to Captain George Blatchford, of Wrentham, Massachusetts.’
The reply appeared momentarily to surprise the Attorney-General.
‘What about Captain Morehouse?’ he said.
‘It is my understanding that Captain Morehouse already has a captaincy, that of the Dei Gratia.’
He was losing ground, decided Flood.
‘Is it beyond possibility that Captain Morehouse might be offered a position within your company?’ he persisted.
‘Captain Morehouse and I have the briefest of acquaintanceships,’ said the witness. ‘As I have already attempted to make clear to this enquiry, no question of any appointment has been discussed between us.’
‘Not for anything Captain Morehouse has done for you?’ chanced Flood, heavily.
Pisani moved, as if to stand, but Winchester spoke ahead of any intervention.
‘Captain Morehouse returned intact a ship of mine which might otherwise have been lost,’ he said. ‘For that I am grateful. That is the only service that Captain Morehouse has performed from which I might be regarded as having benefited.’
‘Was any suggestion made otherwise?’ said Flood.
‘Sir,’ said Winchester, ‘throughout the course of this enquiry suggestions have constantly been made in exaggeration of any evidence to support them.’
‘As I have had occasion to remark earlier in the proceedings,’ said the Attorney-General, ‘the assessment of the evidence and the conclusion to be drawn from it is entirely that of the learned judge.’
‘And as I have had occasion to remark,’ came back Winchester, ‘civil findings in a civil court.’
Flood wondered if he could upset this complacement man’s composure by the revelation that the case was now being studied by the police department. Reluctantly he decided against it. The disclosure would be premature and he did not want to provide any opportunity for guilty people to escape.
And Winchester had escaped him again, he accepted. But only temporarily. Despite every setback, Frederick Flood’s determination to bring guilty men to justice had not wavered for a moment.
For the first time during their after-court gatherings, Captain Winchester did not dominate the discussion. Instead, he sat quietly listening to Consul Sprague recount the success they had had in contacting Deveau in Genoa and speeding him back. There was every hope that he would be in Gibraltar in time to give evidence the following day.
‘Then perhaps this charade can end,’ said Pisani. ‘There must be a limit to what Cochrane will permit the Attorney-General.’
‘I’d like to believe so,’ said the other lawyer, Cornwell.
‘For some days now I’ve been regretting that I ever saw the confounded ship and decided to salvage her,’ said Morehouse. ‘I wish I’d just let her drift on, after assuring myself there was no one on board.’
Aware of how bad that would sound to its owner, the Dei Gratia captain looked apologetically towards Captain Winchester.
‘I didn’t really mean that,’ he said hurriedly.
‘After the treatment we’ve received here, it’s a natural enough reaction,’ said Winchester, unoffended. ‘I almost wish you’d let her go myself.’
‘Flood seems to be aware of the great interest the finding of this vessel has created in America and England,’ said Sprague. ‘I think he likes the notoriety he’s getting.’
Unaware of the Attorney-General’s thoughts in the chamber that day, Winchester said, ‘Damned man seems to regard his function to be that of bear-baiting.’
He paused, then looked directly at the consuclass="underline"
‘When I get back to New York I intend filing an official complaint to Washington on the conduct of this enquiry,’ he said. ‘It’s monstrous that these people can behave as they are doing without any apparent check.’
Sprague gestured, indicating the helplessness of his position.
‘This is a small colony, a thousand miles from England,’ he said. ‘Strange though it may seem, I know that Flood and Sir James Cochrane are highly regarded in London.’
‘It’ll be a short-lived reputation, if I have my way,’ vowed the owner.
‘The very real problem,’ said Pisani seriously, ‘is that under the current conditions, there’s very little likelihood of your doing so.’
‘Given any thought to raising the bail-bond?’ Cornwell asked the New York owner suddenly.
‘A lot,’ admitted Winchester. ‘I’m in correspondence with a ship’s captain in Cadiz with whom I’m acquainted.’
‘Let’s hope it will work,’ said the lawyer.
‘I think it will,’ said Winchester.
There had been little improvement in the weather, even though they were moving closer to the islands from which they hoped to get shelter. The sea had lessened slightly but the wind stayed near gale force and the first watch took down the royal and topgallant sails at Briggs’s orders; the memory of an over-canvassed ship in a storm was perhaps more vivid in his mind than anyone else’s.
Because of the squall, they slept fitfully, always conscious of the pitching of the vessel and the need to adjust their bodies to it, without fully waking.
Only occasionally did Sophia stir, whimpering, and once Sarah got up to her, smiling when she realised the child was only dreaming. For several minutes the woman stood ga2ing down at her younger child, braced against the ship’s movement with her hand against the edge of the tiny cot.