Winds of Folly by Seth Hunter Read Free Book Online Page B

for the south, right across the front of the convoy.
    For a moment Nathan was tempted to follow and trust the other three had seen enough to deter them from taking any further part in the proceedings, but it was too great a risk. If they saw the frigate chasing off to the south they would resume their attack on the convoy, and the
Unicorn
would never beat back in time to prevent it. He could only hope that thetransports could fight the schooner off by themselves. Already several of them were firing at her as she crossed their bows, though their shot was dropping well short. He saw Perry looking towards him with a trace of anxiety, for if the
Unicorn
stuck to her present course she would plough straight into the convoy.
    He nodded. ‘Wear ship, then, Mr Perry.’
    Young Anson came aft with a damage report. Three men injured from the chain shot that had come aboard, only one seriously, but that was Mr Clyde, the gunner, with a head wound. Nathan sent to the surgeon to see how he did, but the news was not good. McLeish had stitched up the wound but the gunner was unconscious and it was too early to say what his prospects were. The gun, Anson reported cheerfully, was undamaged.
    So they harried the enemy to the south-west for a good mile or so, concentrating their fire on the biggest of the three brigs, which was also the slowest, and reducing her to such an extent she came up into the wind and struck her colours. Nathan was unimpressed. He had no men to spare for another prize crew and if he left her as she was he had no doubt she would make good her escape, or even resume the attack, for she did not seem at all damaged aloft. He sent word to Mr Holroyd to load with chain and fire every gun into her rigging as they went past, quieting what little conscience he had in the matter by telling himself it would do no further injury to her crew – unless they got in the way of a falling block – and they were little better than pirates anyway.
    They left the brig in a tangle of torn rigging and continued their pursuit of the two smaller craft, but Nathan was concerned not to stray too far from the convoy, and after one final discharge from the bow chasers he gave the order to wear ship once more.
    Rather to his alarm, in his enthusiasm for the chase he had allowed the
Unicorn
to drop a good deal further to the south than he would have wished. They would have to sail very close to the wind to resume their station, and if anything it had shifted a little to the west, making the job far more difficult. Sure enough, as they braced the yards round on a course that would bring them back to the edge of the mole, the sails began to feather alarmingly and even to flap back against the masts.
    â€˜We will have to take her off the wind a point,’ the sailing master informed him glumly, ‘and come about on the other tack.’
    â€˜Very well, Mr Perry, make it so.’
    His dismay was increased when he heard the continuing sound of gunfire and he saw smoke drifting southward from the far side of the convoy. The schooner had done exactly what he had predicted and closed in on them from the south, for with her fore-and-aft rig she could sail a lot closer to the wind than
Unicorn
or any other square-rigged vessel.
    Nathan consoled himself with the thought that the firing was unlikely to be coming from the schooner itself, for no privateer would wish to damage a potential prize. Sure enough, as
Unicorn
came up on the larboard tack, he saw her break away to the south with one of the transports hard on her stern. The crafty fox had snatched her from right under his nose.
    For a moment Nathan wondered if he should let her go – one transport out of forty was not such a disaster, and he had no wish to be lured downwind while the two remaining predators resumed their attack. But only for a moment. He was damned if he would let them have even one of his charges. The schooner’s one advantage was sailing into the wind.