"What is the bounty, sir?" asked one of them, and the boat's crew screamed with mirth.
"Five pound to age of forty," Holt improvised. "After that, a whore's dug or a groat in hand; it is yours to choose. Landlord -a jug of ale here, and some cannikins. What drink you, Mr. Bentley, wine or brandy?"
Josh Baines the rat, and Tilley of the twisted mouth and giant hams, were facing Will, close in.
"You got yon bastard with your bully stick a lovely clout," said Tom Tilley, in a sort of rough admiring way, if grudging. "You didn't look the man to smash his teeth, begging your pardon. Sir."
"You should have got him on the ground though," added Baines. "You could've cleaned the lot out easy, swung from above. Toothless men don't bite, they say."
Despite himself, Will could not control his face. His feelings were disgusted, and the men could plainly see it. Baines merely sneered and turned away, but Tilley's expression, already ambiguous, grew visibly more dark and dangerous. The deep eyes glowed, with bitter antagonism. William, whose disgust was with himself much more than them, yet clearly saw the dangers. He had known too many men like this.
"You step above yourself, the pair of you," he said. His voice, though light, rang with authority. "If scum have teeth want smashing any scum stand back. Baines! You, sir! Turn and face me!"
Baines did, and all Navy eyes were on the two of them. Will stared at him, until he dropped his eyes; in truth, no major battle.
"Aye, sir?"
"Keep your mouth shut with me until your opinion is solicited. Or you might taste my lead-lined stick some time. And you too, mister. You shall not presume."
Afterwards, after the Old Top Drum, they tried the other taverns Coppiner had named, then three more possibles. They took the five old sailors they had caught a hot Press was a hot Press, and the King's ships had to sail, whatever although one of them slipped his bonds while they assayed their business at the Nag. They got three more, one young and prime and half-dead drunk, who said he had a passport although he could not find it, but did next morning sober; so good a one that even Coppiner made haste to let him go, they later heard. Three more from seven alehouses, all of which had mysteriously emptied as they chanced along, and in terms of proper men, in Bentley's book a wasted night, completely, utterly.
But he did not converse with Holt about it until much afterwards, until they had rowed downstream at last to where Biter lay silent on the Deptford tiers. In the boat its crew half drunk and rowdy, but still with ears he kept his mouth shut, except on lighter matters than the Press. Samuel was quite euphoric, and had suggested, despite the lateness of the hour, that they should give the men their liberty, and go themselves to Dr. Marigold's. He jested, though, for Kaye had ordered them straight back, and Swift had been a brooding threat hung over them. Both Samuel and Will had figured earlier that the sudden onset of conscientious duty Kaye displayed in sending out a gang had something to do with Swift's presence on the Biter. Even in the people's eyes he had glittered like a diamond, although he'd stood completely at his ease upon the quarterdeck then disappeared below.
The ship was dark, the ship was guarded by the sleeping yard night watchman only, on their return. John Behar woke him cruelly with a kick, then the men tumbled to their hammacoes, waking their fellows who had stayed on board and yarning for a while. Sam and William listened outside the cabin, although no officers' boats were at the boom. Lieutenant Kaye and Captain Swift were at the fleshpots maybe, perhaps even at the Rondy, at any rate not here. Sam went in boldly, for a bottle, and jumped nearly from his skin at a sudden scuttling from behind a curtain, like an enormous rat. It was Black Bob, naked in the half-built giant's bed, starkly visible in the white light of the dropping moon.
"Where is your master?" Gruff, but kind. The child of Africa did not reply. "Don't tell him nay, that's no matter." Sam's voice dropped away, and he pulled the curtain back across. There was a bottle on a table, half drunk, which he picked up. To Will he said: "Let's go outside. The air is pleasanter. Poor lad."
The moon was setting, but the stars were out, the clouds completely gone. They leaned on the rail, lords of everything, and watched the water flowing black below them. Will told Samuel of his feelings when he'd struck the man, of the months of brutishness he had endured on the Welfare. He had had to do it, he had known he had to, because the man would have killed or crippled him. And then the man had smiled.
"Oh, Sam," he said. "It is so impossible, this question of good men and bad. Once I believed all were evil, all the common people we had foisted on us, then I learned that was not so, at all. Then mayhap I went the other way, but then again ..."
He stopped, and Sam, instead of helping him, drank deeply from the bottle's neck.
"And then he smiled," said William. "I saved my life or eyesight, and I smashed his mouth, and he was amused by it. We burst in there like dervishes, and they enjoyed the roughhouse. We were there to rob them of their liberty, but "
Sam interrupted.
"But they escaped. Surely no wonder they "
"Not all! We took seven to the hulk. Seven men were put in chains by Coppiner. And the ones who did flee might not have done if we'd been luckier! God, Sam, that man has lost some teeth and blood! To what end? For what purpose?"
Sam let the passion take its course. He took another drink. Then he wiped his mouth and tossed the empty bottle over side.
"I doubt the seven men in chains will be there after their breakfast," he said, drily. "You don't see it, do you, yet? The young one has a passport or I'm a Spaniard. The others are too old or useless to bother with. They were in seamen's clothes though, and could have scuttled like the rest if they'd been minded to perhaps they need a ship on account of aged or infirm. At least they'll get a bounty, if they volunteer; who knows, Captain Anderson of the Claris might even pay wages up in front, it has been known, it is the law."
Tiredness and drink had William fuddled.
"Are you saying ... ?"
Sam gave a snort.
"I'll say this, friend: we have to get a certain tally, or Lieutenant Kaye in his new-found smartness will have our balls for baubles. Sometimes, as you'll find soon enough, Press work can be vile and bloody and abominable. When we get the chance, let's play like Christians, shan't we? The one man we hurt tonight was smiling, so you say. Well, very good, say I."
On which note, Sam suggested a piss into the river, and so to bed. Which they did.
Ten
It was gone midday before the Surveyor General arrived at Langham Lodge much trouble on the road from London, he told Sir Arthur over a glass of tea. The day was fair, the double windows open to the rolling lawns, and gentle breezes blew. It did not take him long, however, to notice his host's state, and to comment on it. They were not close friends, but had had dealings over many years. In one way, Sir Peter Maybold was responsible for the rise of Charles Yorke within the Customs service.
"Fisher," he said, 'now spit it out, man. What precisely worries you? I should be surprised, in fact, if you had heard from our friend Yorke."
This was disingenuous, and both men knew it. Sir A had sent express to Customs House the day before precisely because he had heard nothing, nothing for days. Which meant he had expected to. He stared at the florid face across from him with a little perturbation.
"Let us not beat about the bush," he said. "Yorke is my nephew. Whether I am meant to know or not, he and Charles Warren are on a secret mission in Hampshire or the Hampshire/ Sussex border. They passed through here on their way down, and I have had intelligences since. I have not dragged you all this way upon a whim. Please take the matter serious."