“Very well.”
There were ceremonious speeches still to be made. Ortega’s bows were so polite that Buckland and Bush were constrained, though reluctantly, to stand and endeavour to return them. Hornblower tied the handkerchief round Ortega’s eyes again and led him out.
“What do you think about it?” said Buckland to Bush.
“I’d like to think it over, sir,” replied Bush.
Hornblower came in again while they were still considering the matter. He glanced at them both before addressing himself to Buckland.
“Will you be needing me again tonight, sir?”
“Oh, damn it, you’d better stay. You know more about these Dagoes than we do. What do you think about it?”
“He made some good arguments, sir.”
“I thought so too,” said Buckland with apparent relief.
“Can’t we turn the thumbscrews on them somehow, sir?” asked Bush.
Even if he could not make suggestions himself, he was too cautious to agree readily to a bargain offered by a foreigner, even such a tempting one as this.
“We can bring the ship up the bay,” said Buckland. “But the channel’s tricky. You saw that yesterday.”
Good God! it was still only yesterday that the Renown had tried to make her way in under the fire of red-hot shot. Buckland had had a day of comparative peace, so that the mention of yesterday did not appear as strange to him.
“We’ll still be under the fire of the battery across the bay, even though we hold this one,” said Buckland.
“We ought to be able to run past it, sir,” protested Bush “We can keep over to this side.”
“And if we do run past? They’ve warped their ships right up the bay again. They draw six feet less of water than we do — and if they’ve got any sense they’ll lighten ‘em so as to warp ‘em farther over the shallows. Nice fools we’ll look if we come in an’ then find ‘em out of range, an’ have to run out again under fire. That might stiffen ‘em so that they wouldn’t agree to the terms that fellow just offered.”
Buckland was in a state of actual alarm at the thought of reporting two fruitless repulses.
“I can see that,” said Bush, depressed.
“If we agree,” said Buckland, warming to his subject, “the blacks’ll take over all this end of the island. This bay can’t be used by privateers then. The blacks’ll have no ships, and couldn’t man ‘em if they had. We’ll have executed our orders. Don’t you agree, Mr Hornblower?”
Bush transferred his gaze. Hornblower had looked weary in the morning, and he had had almost no rest during the day. His face was drawn and his eyes were rimmed with red.
“We might still be able to — to put the thumbscrews on ‘em, sir,” he said.
“How?”
“It’d be risky to take Renown into the upper end of the bay. But we might get at ‘em from the peninsula here, all the same, sir, if you’d give the orders.”
“God bless my soul!” said Bush, the exclamation jerked out of him.
“What orders?” asked Buckland.
“If we could mount a gun on the upper end of the peninsula we’d have the far end of the bay under fire, sir. We wouldn’t need hot shot — we’d have all day to knock ‘em to pieces however much they shifted their anchorage.”
“So we would, by George,” said Buckland. There was animation in his face. “Could you get one of these guns along there?”
“I’ve been thinking about it, sir, an’ I’m afraid we couldn’t. Not quickly, at least. Twenty-four-pounders. Two an’ a half tons each. Garrison carriages. We’ve no horses. We couldn’t move ‘em with a hundred men over those gullies, four miles or more.”
“Then what the hell’s the use of talking about it?” demanded Buckland.
“We don’t have to drag a gun from here, sir,” said Hornblower. “We could use one from the ship. One of those long nine-pounders we’ve got mounted as bow chasers. Those long guns have a range pretty nearly as good as these twenty-fours, sir.”
“But how do we get it there?”
Bush had a glimmering of the answer even before Hornblower replied.
“Send it round in the launch, sir, with tackle and cables, near to where we landed yesterday. The cliff’s steep there. And there are big trees to attach the cables to. We could sway the gun up easy enough. Those nine-pounders only weigh a ton.”
“I know that,” said Buckland, sharply.
It was one thing to make unexpected suggestions, but it was quite another to tell a veteran officer facts with which he was well acquainted.
“Yes, of course, sir. But with a nine-pounder at the top of the cliff it wouldn’t be so difficult to move it across the neck of land until we had the upper bay under our fire. We wouldn’t have to cross any gullies. Half a mile — uphill, but not too steep, sir — and it would be done.”
“And what d’you think would happen then?”
“We’d have those ships under fire, sir. Only a nine-pounder, I know, but they’re not built to take punishment. We could batter ‘em into wrecks in twelve hours’ steady fire. Less than that, perhaps. An’ I suppose we could heat the shot if we wanted to, but we wouldn’t have to. All we’d have to do would be to open fire, I think, sir.”
“Why?”
“The Dons wouldn’t risk those ships, sir. Ortega spoke very big about making an alliance with the blacks, but that was only talking big, sir. Give the blacks a chance an’ they’ll cut every white throat they can. An’ I don’t blame ‘em — excuse me, sir.”
“Well?”
“Those ships are the Dons’ only way of escape. If they see they’re going to be destroyed they’ll be frightened. It would mean surrendering to the blacks — that or being killed to the last man. And woman, sir. They’d rather surrender to us.”
“So they would, by jingo,” said Bush.
“They’d climb down, d’ye think?”
“Yes — I mean I think so, sir. You could name your own terms, then. Unconditional surrender for the soldiers.”
“It’s what we said at the start,” said Bush. “They’d rather surrender to us than to the blacks, if they have to.”
“You could allow some conditions to salve their pride, sir,” said Hornblower. “Agree that the women are to be conveyed to Cuba or Puerto Rico if they wish. But nothing important. Those ships would be our prizes, sir.”
“Prizes, by George!” said Buckland.
Prizes meant prize money, and as commanding officer he would have the lion’s share of it. Not only that — and perhaps the money was the smallest consideration — but prizes escorted triumphantly into port were much more impressive than ships sunk out of sight of the eyes of authority. And unconditional surrender had a ring of finality about it, proof that the victory gained could not be more complete.
“What do you say, Mr Bush?” asked Buckland.
“I think it might be worth trying, sir,” said Bush.
He was fatalistic now about Hornblower. Exasperation over his activity and ingenuity had died of surfeit. There was something of resignation about Bush’s attitude, but there was something of admiration too. Bush was a generous soul, and there was not a mean motive in him. Hornblower’s careful handling of his superior had not been lost on him, and Bush was decently envious of the tact that had been necessary. Bush realistically admitted to himself that even though he had fretted at the prospect of agreeing to Ortega’s terms he had not been able to think of a way to modify them, while Hornblower had. Hornblower was a very brilliant young officer, Bush decided; he himself made no presence at brilliance, and now he had taken the last step and had overcome his suspicions of brilliance. He made himself abandon his caution and commit himself to a definite opinion.
“I think Mr Hornblower deserves every credit,” he said.
“Of course,” said Buckland — but the slight hint of surprise in his voice seemed to indicate that he did not really believe it; and he changed the subject without pursuing it further. “We’ll start tomorrow — I’ll get both launches out as soon as the hands’ve had breakfast. By noon — now what’s the matter with you, Mr Hornblower?”