Yorke 04 - Corsair by Dudley Pope

Author:Dudley Pope
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-04-26T23:00:00+00:00

'No, of course he didn't: nor did he name the captains-I hardly expected him to go on board and ask them.'

'You surprise me,' Ned murmured. 'Anyway, have you any more questions about the Santo Domingo affair?'

Luce shook his head. 'No, though I can hardly say the affair was handled in a judicial manner.'

Ned stared at him and the small eyes dropped. 'You all did your best, I am sure,' he added patronizingly.

'You are too kind,' Ned said standing up. 'If you'll excuse me I'll go and investigate the piracy which youallege.'

As they walked along the jetty on the way back to their boats, Thomas said crossly: 'If any ship gets attacked within a couple of hundred miles of here, our people are going to be blamed.'

'Of course, I expect oldLoosely is waiting for them all to leave, now that he's closed the brothels.'

Thomas laughed to himself. 'He'd have a fit if he knew how many of his former soldiers have joined us, now the Army is disbanded.'

He stopped for a moment and asked: 'What do you make of this piracy business?'

Ned shrugged his shoulders. 'We'll check withLeclerc or Saxby, but I'm sure none of our ships sailed while we were away at Santo Domingo. That meansthere are four ships out there acting as pirates and getting us blamed. We'd better find them and teach 'ema lesson. I wonder where they've comefrom? '

'The nearest of the three Cayman islands is only just over a hundred miles from Cuba,' Thomas said. 'The biggest isunder two hundred miles away.'

'And that one is about the same distance from Port Royal,' Ned said. 'It's impossible for any of our ships to have left after we sailed to Santo Domingo and have got back before us.'

'Yes, oldLoosely could never have worked that out for himself.'

'He doesn't want to believe it,' Ned said. 'Blaming us is the easy way out.'

'What do you intend doing?'

'Let's go and talk toLeclerc first.'

The voluble Frenchman was emphatic: no ship at all had sailed from Port Royal while they were away, except theConvertinefrigate. Three coasting vessels had come in and anchored, and of course the fishing boats had come and gone as usual.

Leclerchad then asked Ned about the hostages. 'Are they being well guarded on board theDolphyn andArgonauta,andSecco's ship?'

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