PIRATE: Privateer by Tim Severin

Author:Tim Severin [Severin, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Macmillan

EIGHT

THE FOUR OF THEM decided to celebrate. The Three Mariners, a waterfront tavern, was only a few paces from King’s House and Don Alfonso had generously provided them with a purse of silver pesos for their expenses when they reached Port Royal. The taproom was packed with noonday drinkers, and the hubbub of conversation was so loud that Jacques had difficulty making himself understood when he insisted on a glass of claret rather than the beer the others chose. The four of them settled down at a table with their drinks.

‘What sort of vessel are we to use?’ asked Jezreel.

‘All that Reeve told me is that the ship is called the Speedy Return,’ said Hector. He had to raise his voice above the raucous singing of a party of dock workers. They had lurched into the tavern already drunk after deliberately breaking open a barrel of spirits they were loading.

‘Let’s hope that she’s as fast as her name. If we manage to find de Graff’s hideout, we’ll need to get away quick if he spots us,’ said Dan.

‘She could be quick . . . in the right hands,’ said a voice. All four of them turned to see the stranger. He sat by himself at the next table, a man of about forty, burly, hard-bitten and with the indefinable air of a mariner. He had short, dark, tightly curled hair, bloodshot eyes, and a deep tan which, on closer inspection, proved to be his natural skin colour. Hector guessed that the Spaniards would have called him a ‘terceron’, the son of one white parent and a mulatto.

‘Have you sailed on her?’ asked Dan.

‘One trip only,’ answered their neighbour. ‘I’d have screwed a couple of extra knots out of her, but her captain was a dolt. Now his crew will suffer for his stupidity.’

‘You don’t think much of him.’

The stranger shrugged. ‘The idiot put up a fight when the Navy intercepted him on a smuggling run. One of the boarding party was killed in the scuffle. Chief Justice Barnard will decide the sentence, and he’s a hard one.’

‘Where can we find the Speedy Return now?’ asked Hector. ‘My friends and I would like to take a look at her.’

‘You’ll find her tied up at King’s Wharf. She’s the brigantine-rigged pink.’

‘I’ll buy you another drink if you’ll come along with us and tell us what you know about the ship.’

The stranger gave him a disdainful glance. ‘Hoping to buy her cheap as a condemned prize?’

Hector shook his head. ‘No. My friends and I will be sailing on her soon.’

‘And who’s to be the captain?’

‘I am.’

The bloodshot eyes regarded Hector shrewdly. ‘So you might be needing a sailing master?’

Hector felt he was being rushed. There was something about the stranger which was vaguely unsettling. ‘Maybe. Depends if he’s the right man.’

‘Then you don’t need to buy me another drink. I’ll take you to see the Speedy Return just as soon as you’re ready. My name is Henry Bartaboa.’

*

A SHORT WHILE LATER Bartaboa was leading them along the quay.

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