The Admirals' Game by David Donachie

Author:David Donachie [David Donachie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780749013097
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2012-02-10T16:00:00+00:00

The complexities of that message – and they were many – were running though Pearce’s head as he was ferried back to his own ship; that, mixed with mental lists of who he could name to bear witness against Barclay. He thought of the man’s wife, until he recalled that she was debarred from testifying against her own husband, though that did not completely kill off the notion of asking her, given her reply would be of much interest. There was the aforementioned Midshipman Farmiloe, he had been present at the actual event and the lad seemed honest, so honest that Barclay had made sure he was sent away.

Martin Dent would do anything to help him, he knew, as would Brilliant’s bosun, Robert Sykes, but what pleasure it would be to get some other people in the dock. Barclay himself, of course, and that little toad Toby Burns, who had apparently fabricated a whole ream of evidence to an impressment at which he had not even been present. There was the bully Devenow, devoted to Ralph Barclay; he needed to learn that blind loyalty to a man like that had a price, and Kemp, the rat-faced creature who had been the most consistent to the Pelicans in his threats of violence. Finally, there was Cornelius Gherson; put him in the dock, intimate he was in danger, and he would betray Barclay with the same alacrity with which he betrayed everybody. Thinking on him and his character – or lack of it – John Pearce had a sneaking suspicion that he would find a way to come out of any trial unscathed.

What could he say to Digby? That his superior would be curious he did not doubt; elevated people like Hood did not send for the likes of John Pearce without a good reason, and there and then he decided he had to be honest. Never mind what those two buggers had said about discretion; Henry Digby was a man he liked and a man he trusted. Being open on board ship had its risks. It was a damn sight smaller than most but the same level of outright nosiness was present in his vessel as it was in any other. It required Pearce, once he had come back aboard, to sit very close to Digby and speak in a near whisper, and also to hold up his hand every time the other man looked likely to pose a question.

‘I was ordered not to tell you all this, sir, but it is not like our previous encounters in Biscay and Villefranche. I cannot in all conscience see how to do so without myself telling you lies, and that I am not prepared to do.’

‘I thank you for your confidence.’

Wondering at the look on Digby’s face, Pearce added, ‘It would probably be best to put out of your mind everything I have said.’

‘Something has become plain to me, Mr Pearce.’

‘And that is, sir?’

‘It is this!’ he snapped. ‘That my continued command of this ship is entirely dependent on you.

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