Bolitho's words halted him in his tracks. 'You are relieved, Mr. Quarme. Go to your quarters.' To Rooke he added, 'Carry on, if you please.'
Quarme said, 'I only meant to say…: Then he turned on his heel and walked to the ladder, the men parting to let him pass. Ashamed for him, yet unable to take their eyes from his misery.
Bolitho-walked aft to the poop ladder and stood for several long minutes while his anger and disappointment gave way to dull acceptance. If Rooke had stayed quiet he might have been able to overlook Quarme's insubordination. If Quarme had retained his self-control for just a moment longer, inch's unexpected return -might have saved him. But in his heart he also knew that he would never have been able to trust Quarme again, no matter what Rooke had said or done. Quarme had been afraid, and later his fear might have cost lives other than his own. Bolitho knew that every man but an idiot was afraid. But showing it was unforgivable.
Lieutenant Inch clattered up the quarterdeck ladder and groped his way breathlessly past the silent onlookers. 'I'm back, sirl' His long face was split in an excited grin. 'We found the mayor of St. Clar. He's coming up the side now.'
`And those other boats, Mr. Inch, what are they?'
Inch became aware of the heaviness in Bolitho's tone and of the tension around him. He swallowed hard. 'I brought the water lighters, sir. I thought it would save time.'
Bolitho stared at him impassively. 'Save time?' He thought of Quarme below in his private prison. Of Rooke and all the others who depended on him, right or wrong.
Inch nodded awkwardly. 'Aye, sir. They were all jolly decent about it really…' He looked down aghast as something long and dark fell from his coat and rolled to Bolitho's feet.
'And what is,that, Mr. Inch? Bolitho could feel the tension of his mind like a vise.
Inch said in a small voice, 'A loaf of fresh bread, sir.'
From the darkness a voice broke into a helpless burst of laughter. It was taken up by the midshipmen and by the men at the guns, some of whom had not heard a word. It was relief, despair and gratitude all mixed together.
Bolitho said slowly, 'Very well, Mr. Inch. You have done a good piece of work tonight.' He felt the same nervous excitement plucking his words like strings. 'Now pick up your loaf and attend to your duties.'
As Inch fled past the chuckling seamen he added, 'Prepare to anchor, Mr. Rooke. As the fifth lieutenant has just told us, it will save time!'
He turned on his heel adding, 'Pass the word for Lieutenant Charlois and his mayor. I will see them in my cabin.'
As he ducked his head unnecessarily beneath the poop he allowed his guard to drop. Nothing which happened now could or would surprise him. Taking on water within gunshot of an enemy port. A loaf of bread on the quarterdeck. And an officer who -broke, not under fire, but under the pressure of his own doubts.
He heard the clatter of blocks and the flapping protest of canvas as the ship heeled heavily into the wind to drop anchor.
He found Allday waiting beside his desk, a glass of brandy poured and ready.
'What are you gaping at, Allday?' He glared angrily at his own reflection in the stern windows. Even in the poor light from the two swinging lanterns he looked strained to the point of exhaustion.
'Are you all right, Captain?' Allday watched him gravely.
'It's not my body which is sick this time!' He sat down wearily on the bench seat and stared at the hilt of his sword.
The coxswain nodded. 'It will come right in the end, Captaro' He swung round angrily as feet clattered in the passageway beyond the door. 'Shall I send them away?'
Bolitho looked at him with sudden affection. 'No, Allday. If it is all to come right, as you predict, then we must help it along a little!'
Midshipman Piper stepped briskly into Bolitho's cabin and then faltered as he saw his captain staring astern through the great windows.
'Mr. Rooke's respects, sir.' Piper's eyes dropped hopefully towards an untouched tray of food on the table. 'The masthead lookout has just sighted Cozar on the lee bow.'
Bolith did not turn. 'Thank you.' Half to himself he added, 'We will enter harbour in about three hours, all being well.'
Piper seemed surprised by this display of confidence and nodded with sudden gravity. 'Aye, sir, with the t'gallants and royals drawing so well we shall have no difficulty.'
Bolitho turned and eyed him emptily. 'There is something you can- do for me, Mr. Piper.' He had not even heard the boy's comment. 'Would you go below and tell Mr. Quarme to join me right away.'
'Aye, aye, sir.' Piper scurried away, his mind busy as to how he would describe his intimate conversation with the captain to the less informed members of the gunroom.
Bolitho slumped down on the bench seat and stared at his untouched meal with something like nausea. He was hungry, yet the thought of food sickened him.
It was strange that after all that had happened he could find no joy, no sense of achievement. In the fresh northwesterly the ship seemed to be ploughing across the whitecapped sea with new life, and even the harsh sunlight lacked its earlier feeling of danger and foreboding. With all sails set and every shroud and stay humming like a part of a finely tuned instrument, the Hyperion sounded as if she was pleased with herself, even grateful for her fresh chance. There were other shipboard noises too which should have given him confidence. Some of the men were singing and calling to one another as they worked high aloft on the swaying yards, their cares momentarily dispersed by the knowledge that there was fresh water in plenty to drink, that the sailor's terror of thirst was moved back in time to become merely another possibility.
Bolitho stared at the frothing wake and at the handful of swooping gulls which had followed the ship all the way from St. Clar. Even now it was hard to believe what had happened. The furtive boats, and alien French voices in the darkness. Inch's excitement, and the interview with Lieutenant Charlois and the mayor of St. Clar. The latter had been a small, leathery man in a velvet coat, a vital little being of quick gestures and a disarming laugh.
While every man had worked with a will to sway the fresh water casks aboard, the mayor, whose name was Labouret, had further confirmed everything that Charlois had described. The people of St. Clar had no love for the English, but then as Labouret had remarked, they did not really know them! But the Revolution they did know. What it had done, and what it would do if allowed to continue.
Bolitho had listened to them with hardly a word of interruption. In his mind he had seen the Revolution through new eyes, and had sensed the same feeling of uncleanness he had endured when his men in the frigate Phalarope had mutinied. That mutiny had been caused by other men's deeds, and had occurred in spite of everything he had done to prevent it and all he had tried to put right. And when it had come it had been as swift and as terrible as if he had provoked it himself.
And as he had listened closely to the two Frenchmen he had felt deeply for them. To them St. Clar might seem the centre of the whole world, but Bolitho knew that their cause was already lost. They had not caused the Revolution, but like a mutiny it had happened none the less.
Charlois had said finally, 'I kept my word, Captain. You have water and the crew of the sloop Fairfax.' He had smiled with something like embarrassment. 'We must keep the sloop for the present, you understand? It would not be well to show our hand completely, eh?'
Bolitho understood well enough. If Lord Hood shied away from the idea of a further attack on the mainland, the sloop might be the only token of loyalty for the men of St. Clar to show to a revengeful Revolutionary Court.
In the dawn's clear light the Hyperion had weighed and butted out into the freshening wind. Apart from the returned company of the sloop and the water, the French had even supplied fresh new casks to replace the Hyperion's rotten and much-used ones. They had made their gesture, and had even sent horsemen to the headlands to make sure that the Hyperion's presence remained undetected and safe.