Captain Caution by Kenneth Roberts Read Free Book Online Page A

be playing Yankee Doodlel"
    VI
    1HELADD~ had been drawn up through the square hole in the hatch, and around the hatch coamings were stationed four marines to make the security of the prisoners doubly sure. Below the hatch, in the blackness of the sweltering, reeking hold, there was a hubbub such as Marvin had never before heard; for the prisoners, tense from the lack of knowledge of what awaited them, screamed their hatred of British ships, British officers, British methods and British seamanship in language as foul as the air they breathed.
    "If we had a belaying pint" Marvin told Argandeau. "If we had anything at all, we might get ourselves out of thisl"
    "Ah, yes," Argandeau agreed, but with no conviction in his voice, "yes. And if we had a belaying pin, it would be myself who would be the first man to lead such a sortie. It would be unpleasant for the first three, four or five men who would ascend with me, but I would hearten them with my cries, and always they would say to themselves, 'Argandeaul Hahl Argandeau is with us,' and so - "
    Marvin sighed deeply. "Well, we haven't any belaying pins."
    "No," Argandeau agreed. "And so, since we have no belaying pin, would it not be better to go quietly to sleep?"
    The bed of mud quivered beneath them, and from overhead there came an angry, muffled crash that set the thick, hot air to crawling on their faces. The cries of the prisoners died away, to be replaced by the noisy silence of a ship the creakings and groanings of bulkheads, far-off thumps and rattlings, and above and through everything the chuckling and slapping of water against thin walls of plank.
    "Now we find out something," Argandeau said softly. "The Griffons have spit out a pill."
    "In that case," Slade said, "the stranger couldn't have run. She must have gone to work on your schooner."
    "I fear ill" Argandeau said. "It would be like attacking a kitten whose leg has been broken so easyl"
    There was a quick change in the sound of the water that lapped against the brig's sides. The noise of slapping became a rushing swish; the vessel straightened, hesitated, seemed to hang motionless, and then tilted in the opposite direction.
    CAPTAIN CAUTION
    "Yes," Argandeau continued. "What you say is true, Captain Slade. The stranger did not run. She awaited the approach of this Griffon's nest we're in: then she maneuvered. In no other way can our change of course be explained. If the stranger had not maneuvered, our English captain would have kept straight on. Yes, yesl And certainly the stranger would never maneuver against this brig unless he considered himself faster and better. No, no! If he were small and not confident, he would betake himself elsewhere, and in a straight line, without maneuveringl He would go quickly to a smaller tree in order to sharpen his claws." He sighed. "Observe, my friends, how the mind of a Frenchman is clear and logical, even in a moment of stressl I sweat with doubt and uncertainty: yet my imagination moves swiftly and unerringly, eh?" He grunted. "But none the less, I sweatl I, Lucien Argandeau, I am all brain and sweatl It is the waiting that causes the sweat, you understand: the waiting and the darkness, here in this Griffon kennel this stinkpot. This waiting in a dark hole, I do not likel In the daylight, I care for nothing. I snap my fingers at a shipful of lions, pfool But to be caught so, in blindness! BahI"
    He rose suddenly from his place beside Marvin, seeming almost to bounce silently to his feet, and stood beneath the square opening in the hatch. "Yes," he said. "It must be that they have piped to quarters. And they have done something more. They have sent that rabbit from the quarter-deck. They have sent her below, to protect her from splinters and grapeshot. What a pity it is that I, Lucien Argandeau, am not free to comfort her! She is frightened; but the most frightened rabbit becomes calm, like a peaceful swan, when Lucien Argandeau comforts her. It is one of my talents one of