"Hmm," he said airily, "none of you'd pass muster as the King's Guard in Madrid; but out here I can't be so fussy!"
The seamen laughed cheerfully; then Jackson said quickly: "Right, straighten yourselves up, you bedraggled dons; here comes the Captain."
Ramage came out of the house, jamming his hat squarely on his head and walked over to where Jackson had the seamen formed up in two ranks.
Jackson, enjoying playing the role of the teniente, saluted and said: "Garrison all present and correct, sir."
"Very well," Ramage said, and slowly walked along the first rank, inspecting the men as Jackson followed a pace behind.
From the house fifteen yards away they certainly passed for soldiers. Even at ten yards they looked smart enough - but close to they looked exactly what they were, British sailors dressed up in Spanish soldiers' uniforms.
Suddenly Ramage said: "Stafford, march to the door of my house and back."
As the seaman left the front rank, Jackson said: "I'm afraid they all walk like that, sir."
"It's a bit late to do anything. Stick broom handles up the back of their jackets!"
"Maybe in twenty minutes, sir ..."
"Don't bother; just don't let them march!"
The crew of the supply ship might expect trouble but Ramage doubted if they would. Her captain would certainly see the wrecks on the eastern reef and be curious, but if he saw the gold and red flag of Spain flying from the flagpole in front of the houses at San Ildefonso and the garrison standing waiting on the wooden jetty with their lieutenant he would probably think all was well.
Ramage had discussed it a dozen times with Southwick and Yorke. Since he commanded a small transport, the Spaniard was unlikely to be very intelligent, and anyway no other plan had been thought of. If the Spanish captain got suspicious at the last moment, it would be too late. Four of the Topaz's brass six-pounders covered the jetty from carefully concealed positions beside the houses. Even before the transport tacked off Punta del Soldado to make the last long board up to the narrow entrance to the bay, the guns had been loaded with grape and aimed at different points near the jetty. If anything went wrong, a command from Ramage would send the dozen seamen disguised as soldiers bolting from the jetty, out of the line of fire; at a second command the four guns would fire at the ship.
The ship was a day late. She had been due the previous afternoon but lookouts on Punta del Soldado had not sighted her until ten o'clock this morning, slowly beating her way up to Snake Island from Cape San Juan, the nearest point of Puerto Rico. It had been a long and tedious turn to windward, with the tacks to the north shortened by the almost continuous line of cays and reefs between Cape San Juan and Snake Island.
There had been plenty of time to prepare: to relieve the real Spanish soldiers of their uniforms and dress up a dozen laughing, joking seamen so that tunics, breeches, hats and boots were the best possible fit.
Jackson, in Colon's uniform, had come out best: the men were of similar build. Ramage grinned to himself as he recalled Colon's expression when, having suffered the indignity of being made to remove his uniform by a none too gentle Jackson, he had watched the American dress up in it, with Stafford providing a ribald commentary.
The island had a perfect anchorage, with the bay shaped like a bottle, the narrow entrance, or neck, facing south. With the Trade winds always blowing from the easterly quadrant, any ship entering could be reasonably sure of a commanding wind. Leaving might be a different story: a south-easterly wind could mean towing out, using the boats for a few hundred yards. But few ships sailing from Snake Island would be likely to be in that much of a hurry.
Ramage caught sight of a distant white shape beyond the entrance to the bay and walked up to the house, where he was met by Southwick.
"Just spotted her," Ramage said. "She's rounded Punta del Soldado and is getting ready to ease sheets to reach in." "Everything is fine here, sir."
"Your Castile Yeomanry," Yorke commented, "may not be smart enough to be His Most Catholic Majesty's palace guards at the Escorial, but from a distance they'll pass muster as the garrison of Snake Island."
"I'll remuster them as the Snake Island Volunteers," Ramage said. "Recruiting starts in the morning. Subalterns' commissions are selling for five hundred guineas."
Yorke whistled. "A stylish regiment, hey?"
"We can afford to be fussy about who we accept," Ramage said airily, and then suddenly stiffened as he saw Maxine watching from the window of her house.
"I thought I gave an order that the St Brieucs were to be escorted inland until the ship arrived."
"You did," Yorke said wearily. "There is a slight difficulty in making the youngest member of the family obey it."
"What about the parents, and St Cast?"
"They're already a couple of miles away, escorted by a couple of mates and six of my seamen."
"But why wasn't Maxine ... ?"
"Ask her yourself," Yorke said.
Ramage blushed and turned to look to the entrance of the bay again. The ship's hull was lifting appreciably over the curvature of the earth: she had a couple of miles to go. There was no need for the men to stand in the heat of the sun providing they formed up before the Spanish captain could see their rolling gait, and Ramage told Jackson to march them to the shade of the houses. Jackson looked uncertainly at Ramage.
"March them," he repeated. "I heard one or two of them laughing at Stafford's attempts."
So they marched.
"Hogarth ought to be here," Yorke said, "with his easel placed on this balcony. Only his brush could do justice to it!"
"'The Rakes' Progress'," Ramage said. "Not the kind of rake he had in mind, nor the progress, but it'd be a fitting title."
An hour passed before the ship, a beamy schooner, finally stretched through the bottle-neck entrance to the bay, and Jackson's soldiers returned to the jetty.
No one seemed to know why the troops met the schooner, but Ramage was relying on the slave Roberto's description of how the last supply ship had been greeted. She had arrived a few days after the frigate that brought Colon, the soldiers and the slaves from San Juan, and Roberto had mimicked Colon's annoyance at having to stop the slaves digging so that the soldiers could be at the jetty.
Roberto was unable to offer any explanation, however. The soldiers did not help unload; the slaves did that. The soldiers neither fired a salute nor presented arms when the ship came alongside. Roberto added that they ran off the jetty at the last moment "because the captain of the ship is not very skilful and he hit the jetty so hard that everyone thought it would collapse".
Apparently Lieutenant Colon sat on the balcony of his house, watching. Lines from the ship to secure her alongside were handled by the men in the ship, who jumped down on to the jetty. Once the crew had shouted abuse at the soldiers and later the captain had had words with the teniente. They had shouted at each other for half an hour and after that they never spoke to each other again.
They asked Roberto what sort of ship she was but he shrugged his shoulders. Two masts, the body was black with a red stripe all round it, like a belt. He had only been in two ships in his life, the one that brought him to Puerto Rico (a slaver) and the one that brought him here. The ship was called La Perla - "The teniente mentioned her name when he was swearing at the captain."
The slave's information was reassuring: there was no Spanish military or naval custom which, if ignored, would arouse suspicion. Ramage wanted no mistakes made: if even one of the Topaz's guns had to open fire, it would mean damage to the schooner and might even put her permanently out of commission.