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“If you please, My Lord,” said Harcourt in the darkness beside him. “We are approaching the Pass. What orders, My Lord?”
What could he do? He could only play a losing game out to the bitter end. He could only follow Daring, far, far astern of her, in the hope of a miracle, a fortunate accident. The odds were a hundred to one that by the time he reached Corpus Christi the bird would be flown, completely vanished. Yet perhaps the Mexican authorities, if there were any, or local gossip, if he could pick up any, might afford him some indication of the next destination of the Imperial Guard.
“As soon as we are at sea, set a course for Corpus Christi, if you please, Mr. Harcourt.”
“Aye aye, My Lord. Corpus Christi.”
“Study your Sailing Directions for the Gulf of Mexico, Mr. Harcourt, for the pass into the lagoon there.”
“Aye aye, My Lord.”
That was done, then the decision was taken. Yet he stayed up on deck, trying to wrestle with the problem in all its vague and maddening complexity.
He felt rain on his face and soon it was falling in torrents, roaring on the deck, soaking his best uniform. His cocked hat weighed on his head like lead with the accumulation of water in the brim. He was about to take shelter below when his mind began to follow an old train of thought, and he stayed. Gerard loomed up in the darkness with his sou’wester and oilskins, but he paid no attention to him. Was it possible that all this was a false alarm? That Cambro
“If you please, My Lord,” said Gerard, standing insistently by with his oilskins.
Hornblower remembered how, before he left England, Barbara had taken Gerard to one side and had talked to him long and earnestly. No doubt she had been telling him of the need to see he did not get wet and that he had his meals regularly.
“Too late now, Mr. Gerard,” he said, with a grin. “I’m soaked through.”
“Then please, My Lord, go below and shift your clothes.”
There was genuine anxiety in Gerard’s voice, a real concern. The rain was roaring on Gerard’s oilskins in the darkness like the nitre-crusher of a powder-mill.
“Oh, very well,” said Hornblower.
He made his way down the little companion, Gerard following him.
“Giles!” called Gerard sharply; Hornblower’s servant appeared at once. “Put out dry clothes for His Lordship.”
Giles began to bustle round the little cabin, kneeling on the deck to fish a fresh shirt out of the chest. Half a gallon of water cascaded down beside him as Hornblower took off his hat.
“See that His Lordship’s things are properly dried,” ordered Gerard.
“Aye aye, sir,” said Giles, with sufficient restrained patience in his tone to make Gerard aware that it was an u
“Very well,” he said in momentary irritation. “I can look after myself now.”
He stood alone in the cabin, stooping under the deck beams. Unbuttoning his soaking uniform coat he realised he was still wearing his ribbon and star; the ribbon, as he passed it over his head, was soaking wet too. Ribbon and star mocked at his failure, just at the very moment when he was sneering at himself for hoping again that Daring might have gone aground somewhere during her passage down the river.
A tap at the door brought Gerard back into the cabin.
“I said I could look after myself,” snapped Hornblower.
“Message from Mr. Harcourt, My Lord,” said Gerard, unabashed. “The tug will be casting off soon. The wind is fair, a strong breeze, east by north.”
“Very well.”
A strong breeze, a fair wind, would be all in Daring’s favour. Crab might have stood a chance of overhauling her in fluky, contrary airs. Fate had done everything possible to load the dice against him.
Giles had taken the opportunity to slip back into the cabin. He took the wet coat from Hornblower’s hand.
“Didn’t I tell you to get out?” blared Hornblower, cruelly.
“Aye aye, My Lord,” replied Giles imperturbably. “What about this—this cap, My Lord?”
He had picked up the bearskin cap of the Imperial Guard which was still lying in the locker.
“Oh, take it away!” roared Hornblower.
He had kicked off his shoes and was begi
A bearskin cap—bales and bales of bearskin caps. Why? Muskets and bayonets he could understand. Uniforms, too, perhaps. But who in their sane senses would outfit a regiment for service in tropical America with bearskin caps? He straightened up slowly, and stood still again, thinking deeply. Even uniform coats with buttons and embroidery would be out of place among the ragged ranks of Bolivar’s hordes; bearskin caps would be quite absurd.
“Giles!” he roared, and when Giles appeared round the door. “Bring that cap back to me!”
He took it into his hands again; within him surged the feeling that he held in his hands the clue to the mystery. There was the heavy chain of lacquered brass, the brazen Imperial eagle. Cambro
Within his wet clothes Hornblower felt a sudden surge of warmth as his blood ran hot with the knowledge that he had guessed the solution. St. Helena! Bonaparte was there, a prisoner, an exile in one of the loneliest islands in the world. Five hundred disciplined troops arriving by surprise out of a ship flying American colours would set him free. And then? There were few ships in the world faster than the Daring. Sailing for France she would arrive there before any warning could reach the civilised world. Bonaparte would land with his Guard—oh, the purpose of the uniforms and bearskins was quite plain. Everyone would remember the glories of the Empire. The French Army would flock to his standard as it had done once before when he returned from Elba. The Bourbons had already outworn their welcome—Sharpe had remarked how they were acting as international busybodies in the hope of dazzling the people with a successful foreign policy. Bonaparte would march again to Paris without opposition. Then the world would be in a turmoil once more. Europe would experience again the bloody cycle of defeat and victory.
After Elba a campaign of a hundred days had been needed to overthrow Bonaparte at Waterloo, but a hundred thousand men had died during those hundred days, millions and millions of money had been expended. This time it might not even be as easy as that. Bonaparte might find allies in the disturbed state of Europe. There might be twenty more years of war, leaving Europe in ruins. Hornblower had fought through twenty years of war; he felt physically sick at the thought of their repetition. The prospect was so monstrous that he went back through the deductions he had been making, but he could not avoid reaching the same conclusion.
Cambro