"… winter, I am certain," that "poor little bastard" was now saying, a firmly fixed expression of unwavering certainty on his face, as he made his prediction; not a boast, but a prediction. "By winter, my army will be on the Austrian frontiers. We'll own all of Italy and even Venice, perhaps. And Austria will be beaten. I will beat them."
Berthier shook his head again. What could one say to something like that?
CHAPTER 2
"Good charts," Sailing Master Edward Buchanon opined gruffly. "Marvels Pr accuracy, sir, 'ese Venetian charts."
"By God, they'd best be, hadn't they, Mister Buchanon?" Lewrie replied, gruff with his own worries for Jesters quick-work the past few days. "Very well, then, Mister Knolles. Round her up to the wind and bring-to. Prepare to anchor."
"Aye aye, sir," Knolles answered, almost hanging over the lee bulwarks for any sign of shoaling. He lifted his hat to swipe at his hair nervously before going to the helmsmen to issue his orders.
It was Lieutnant Kolodzcy's studied opinion that the very sort of Serb pirate they wished could be found in this netherland of coast controlled by no one, pretty much-this stretch of disputed or ignored shore between Venetian Spalato in the north and independent Ragusa to the south.
They'd been near their quest before without knowing it, when they'd sailed close to the large islands of Hvar and Brae in pursuit of a prize. For this was where the claimed territory of the ancient and defeated Serbian princedoms came closest to the sea, shoved like a knife-blade between the Croatian or Venetian lands and the now-Muslim, Turk-ruled Bosnians.
South of Hvar, which ran east-west, lay other isles, some smaller and less important, where many displaced, rootless peoples sheltered. The large isles of Korcula and Mjlet, the long, narrow isle that paralelled the coastline-Peljesac-and lay within spitting distance but totally removed from anyone's grasp. The smaller islets of Lastovo and Susak were farther out from the shore in deep water and favourably near the main shipping route for hostile merchantmen and smugglers. All, Kolodzcy assured them, were isolated, rarely visited by patrols of any local power, completely ignored by the greater powers, and the ownership up for grabs from one decade to another, depending on who'd put in for firewood and water last. And those grudging claims were forgotten by everyone involved once they'd sailed away.
For days, Jester and Pylades had sailed these waters, no matter the shoals, feeling their way with lead-line, preceded sometimes by a cutter or launch to probe the depths. They'd anchored near poor seaside villages or hardscrabble harbours, shamming the need for firewood and water, fresh lamb or goat, eggs and butter; and paying liberally in solid silver for their purchases, too. They'd taken Kolodzcy ashore to negotiate, where he'd dropped hints that they were British, at war with the French and any who'd aid them; that there were many ships passing by far out to sea, laden with treasure, and that even the mighty Royal Navy might need help in taking all of them. Powerful as they were, they had only two ships and could not catch every vessel they espied.
Now, here-at the low-lying northernmost tip of Mjlet-they came to anchor once more, near a settlement that couldn't quite aspire to be deemed a proper village at all. It looked to be a scattering of rude huts among rough clearings in the ever-present, brooding forest, clinging to the rocks above the muddy shoreline, where crude fishing boats rested half on the shore and half in the waters, bedraggled and abandoned.
There was no one to be seen, of course. Wherever they'd gone, the appearance of a real warship flying what was to these crude people a strange-alien-flag sent them tumbling inland, sure that they would be slaughtered. It would take hours, Lewrie thought wearily, to see even a few timorous watchers show their faces once curiosity, and the lack of activity on the part of the warships, got the better of them. He thought it much like what Captain Cook had experienced from the timid South Sea savages the first time he'd put Endeavour in some never-before-visited lagoon and given them a first sight of white men.
A quarter mile farther out, Pylades had already come to anchor in slightly deeper water.
Lewrie turned inboard as the heavy splash of Jesters best bower drew his attention. He looked aloft to see topmen taking in the last of the tops'ls and t'gallants, strung out like beads on a string along the footropes as they breasted over the yardarms to gather in canvas and gasket it. Blocks squealed as jibs and spanker deflated, rustled into untidy billows on the foredeck and the boom over his head above the quarterdeck. Men stood by under Cony's supervision, who'd soon be at the halliards and jears to lower the yards to resting positions. A party below the quarterdeck nettings, in the waist, even stood by with quarterdeck awnings. But not anti-boarding nets.
"Christ!" was his sour comment. Should they find a pack of pirates, a damn large one, who proved too greedy to listen and swarmed Jester like they had that merchantman off Bar, the last patrol, they'd be defenceless! The pirates would be up and over the rails before anyone aboard could say "Knife!" And, he thought, casting another begrudging glance seaward to Pylades, there'd be little aid from that quarter, until it was too damn late!
"Anchored, sir," Knolles reported. "Sail taken in, gasketed and furled."
"Very well, Mister Knolles." Lewrie nodded. Then, "Christ!" again. There was a boat coming from Pylades. And in the stern-sheets he could see Captain Rodgers, with that pestiferous Lieutnant Kolodzcy in all his overdone Austrian finery by his side!
"Ever and amen, sir," Lieutenant Knolles softly sighed. "Alert your steward, Aspinall, sir? To uncork a half dozen o' bubbly?"
"Best fetch his own, by God," Lewrie spat. "It's poor claret or nothin', his palate bedamned. I'm savin' it for a special time."
"Such as, sir?" Knolles grinned.
"Bloody Epiphany, Mister Knolles. E-bloody-piphany." Lewrie snickered, without much real mirth, though. "Very well, then. Stand down the hands, and set the harbour and anchor watch. Lookouts aloft, though. And Sergeant Bootheby and his Marines to stand-to, uniforms and muskets in proper order. Stand easy… but stand-to."
"Aye aye, sir."
"Ach, ad lasd!" Kolodzcy exclaimed, perhaps almost two hours later, as the lookouts reported movement in the seemingly abandoned village. A few braver souls had drifted down from the forest to stand out in the open, at the back of the clearings, though well short of the huts or shore. Men first-and Lewrie could see, even from a cable's distance, how white-knuckled were their hands round their cudgels or farm implements. Next came children, whose curiosity was greater. At last came the women, clucking after the children, in concern for their safety, perhaps… to stand shaky-legged and marvel at this intriguing apparition tossed up from the sea.
"Zey heff to, you zee, ja!" Kolpdzcy crowed. "Goat musd milk. Brot musd be baken, for supper. Dere hearthfires heff gone oud, unt id grows late. Curiozidy? Nein. Necessidy."
"Deck, there!" A foremast lookout cried, shading his eyes and pointing down the eastern shore. "Boat! Three point orf th' starb'd bows! Comin' inta harbour… headed 'is way!"
"Aloft, there!" Lewrie shouted back, cupping his hands instead of taking the time to seize a speaking-trumpet. "Small boat?" "Small two-master!" Was the equivocal answering hail. "Doesn't know we're here, perhaps," Rodgers fretted. "Might go about, once she sees us. Damme, another bloody day wasted."