"Tell them," said Peabody, "to meet me behind Tortuga on the second of next month."
Hunningford nodded.
"They wouldn't come," he said, "unless I told them that there was a capable captain in command. I'll tell them that, too."
Peabody shot a surprised glance at him, but Hunningford reverted instantly to his former tone of light cynicism as he rose to his feet.
"This has been a stimulating interview, Captain," he said. "I'm glad to see a ship of force in these islands again. And I expect the prizes taken will return me a very handsome commission."
Peabody watched the cutter go racing off again, wing-and-wing, to the southward. He wondered, as he saw her sink over the horizon, whether her captain was a mere venal person who took tainted money, or a very brave man who was cheerfully risking the gallows in his country's cause. He strongly suspected Hunningford to be the latter. When he reached his cabin again he found that his dinner party had progressed perfectly satisfactorily in his absence.
Chapter V
CAPTAIN GOODING was bluff and hospitable, but Captain Curtis was young and eager — quite half a dozen years Peabody's junior. They were both waiting at the side when Peabody came on board the Emulation to return their call, both in their best clothes with swords at their sides and cocked hats on their heads. The Emulation copied men-of-war's ways: the boatswain's mates twittered on their pipes, and there were sideboys in white gloves ready to assist him, and twenty landsmen — the privateer's equivalent of Marines — in green coats making a workmanlike job of presenting arms as Peabody stepped on the deck. The hands were uniformly dressed in red-checked shirts and white trousers, and the deck was as white as Captain Gooding's cravat.
"Honored to receive you, sir," said Gooding. "Please be so good as to step this way. The coaming's high — Emulation's a wet ship on a bowline — and the cabin's not as lofty as you've been accustomed to, I'm afraid, sir. Merton! Take Captain Peabody's hat and sword. Sit here, sir. I've a nice drop of Jamaica, sir, which I took out of the Blandford. No? There's some Madeira and a fair Marsala. Merton! The Madeira for Captain Peabody. Please take your ease, sir. There's no reason for worry as long as the wind's nor'easterly. Merton! How's the wind?"
"Nor'east by east, sir," said Merton, in a tone of infinite patience.
He was a tall spare Negro, who got his information, after a glance at the tell-tale compass over Gooding's head, by craning his neck up to the chink in the cabin skylight and looking up at the pennant at the main-topmast truck.
"Serve the dinner, then, you black pole-mast."
The ludicrous simile made Peabody grin; there was a strange likeness between the lean Negro and a skysail mast without the skysail set.
"I would be glad to hear your suggestions again for the attack, sir," said Curtis, the moment the flow of Gooding's talk was checked.
"Anyone would think Curtis and I hadn't spent the last two hours discussing 'em," said Gooding, promptly. "This is dinnertime. How's the wind, Merton?"
"Nor'east by east, sir."
"The British don't know your ship's in these waters?" persisted Curtis.
"They can't know yet," said Peabody, "not unless Hunningford has told them."
"Hunningford wouldn't say a word," said Gooding. "He has too keen an eye for business."
The three captains exchanged glances, Peabody keenly observing the other two.
"Three fat commissions has he screwed out of me," admitted Curtis.
Peabody had a flash of insight. The fact that these hardheaded Baltimore captains had to pay Hunningford good hard cash for his information made them far more ready to respect his suggestions. His heart warmed to the memory of the man.
"Try some of this alligator pear, sir," said Gooding. "I can't ever stomach it myself, but the natives of these parts don't think they've dined unless alligator pear has been served. Take plenty of the pepper sauce, sir. That'll help it down. How's the wind, Merton?"
"Nor'east by east, sir. Mebbe east nor'east."
"Veering southerly a bit. The British know we're here, at least. That convoy'll sail in order of battle, just as it always does."
"I followed the last convoy eleven days," said Curtis, "and ne'er a straggler was I able to pick up."
"So you told us before, my lad. But I don't think your owners have much to complain about so far," said Gooding. "May I carve you some of this cold brisket, sir? You're making a poor dinner. And look at your glass! Drink fair, sir."
"Calypso has twelve-pounders on her main deck," said Curtis, thoughtfully.
"Yes," said Peabody. He thought of his own long eighteens, and the good use he could put them to if he dared risk crippling the Delaware.
" 'Scuse me, sir," said Merton, "but the wind's east by south now, and still veering."
"That interrupts our dinner," said Gooding. "If you're wrong, you black fathom o' pump water, I'll go a thousand miles out o' my course to sell you at Charleston under the hammer."
"Yes, sir," said Merton, quite unmoved. He craned his neck up to the skylight opening again and announced: "Mr. Chase says east by south. I should say east sou'east, sir."
"Would you, by God!" said Gooding.
They were all on their feet now, and Merton produced, as though it were a conjuring trick, Peabody's cocked hat and sword from nowhere.
"The black heathen'll be telling me what sail to set, next," protested Gooding, while Merton buckled the belt round Peabody's waist. "Have you called Captain Peabody's gig?"
"Yes, sir," said Merton.
Before Peabody went down the side Gooding held out his hand.
"When we meet again we'll be half a million dollars richer," he said.
"Good luck, sir," said Curtis, with a young man's enthusiasm in his eyes.
The gig took Peabody rapidly across the dancing water to where the Delaware lay hove to, a beautiful sight. As she swung towards him he could see her lovely bows and round, sweet run. The rake of the bowsprit and the masts was as beautiful as a quadratic equation — masts and bowsprit exactly complementary. The proportion between topsails and courses was ideal, and the painted gunports threw in the right note of menace, so that she was not merely a beautiful thing, but a beautiful fighting thing. He looked back at the schooners, with their heavy spars and long sharp bows. They were like birds of prey, ready for a sudden swoop upon the defenseless, but incapable of the smashing blow which the Delaware could deal. And yet it was only by schooners like these — save for his own ship — that the American flag was displayed anywhere through the wide Atlantic.
If only they had decided ten years ago in Washington to build a dozen seventy-fours! Gouverneur Morris had advocated it a score of times, but Mr. Jefferson had decided against it. In this world only a display of force could exact respect. A battle fleet would have prevented the coming of this war, and would have saved the people of the United States a thousand times its cost. In normal times a hundred ships a day cleared from American ports, and a hundred entered them, but now two thousand American ships rotted at their moorings — flour in Boston was just twice the price it was at Baltimore, while Baltimore had to pay three times as much for sugar as the price demanded on the quay at New Orleans. The United States were dying of a slow gangrene. Unemployed sailors crowded the water fronts of every seaport; for every hand in a privateer there were a hundred looking for work, and all because Mr. Jefferson had not thought himself justified in spending money, and was obsessed with that quaint fear that a powerful Navy would make an autocracy out of America.