He cursed the woman as he stripped off his clothes, all wet with sweat. Then a new trouble came into his mind. He had to leave Polwheal to keep watch while he had his shower bath under the pump lest she should surprise him there naked. He would have to issue orders to the crew so as to make sure that her fastidious eyes would not be offended by the state of undress which they habitually affected in the tropics. He combed his hair and cursed its curliness as drawing additional attention to the way his hair was receding from his forehead.
Then he hurried on deck; he was glad that the need for looking after the ship saved him from meeting Lady Barbaras eyes and seeing her reaction to his shabby clothes. He felt her gaze upon him, all the same, as he stood with his back to her attending to the business of getting under weigh. Half of one watch were at the capstan with all their weight upon the bars, their bare feet seeking holds on the smooth deck while Harrison bellowed encouragement and threats, and stimulated the laggards with cuts from his cane. Sullivan the mad fiddler, the two Marine fifers and the two drummers were playing some lively tuneto Hornblower one tune was much the same as anotheron the forecastle.
The cable came steadily in, the ships boys with their nippers following it to the hatch-coamings and scuttling back immediately to take a fresh hold on cable and messenger. But the measured clank-clank of the capstan grew slower and slower and then came to a dead stop.
Heave, you bastards! Heave! bellowed Harrison. Here, you focsle men, bear a hand! Now, heave!
There were twenty more men thrusting at the bars now. Their added strength brought one more solemn clank from the capstan.
Heave! Christ damn you, heave!
Harrisons cane was falling briskly first here and then there.
Heave!
A shudder ran through the ship, the capstan swung round so sharply that the hands at the bars fell in a tumbling heap to the deck.
Messengers parted, sir, hailed Gerard from the forecastle. The anchors foul, I think, sir.
Hell fire! said Hornblower to himself. He was certain that the woman in the hammock chair behind him was laughing at his predicament, with a foul anchor and the eyes of all Spanish America on him. But he was not going to abandon an anchor and cable to the Spaniards.
Pass the small bower cable for a messenger, he shouted.
That meant unbearably hot and unpleasant work for a score of men down in the cable tier rousing out the small bower cable and manhandling it up to the capstan. The calls and curses of the boatswains mates came echoing back to the quarterdeckthe warrant officers were as acutely conscious of the indignity of the ships position as was their captain. Hornblower could not pace the deck as he wished to do, for fear of meeting Lady Barbaras eyes. He could only stand and fume, wiping the sweat with his handkerchief from his face and neck.
Messengers ready, sir! hailed Gerard.
Put every man to the bars that theres place for. Mr. Harrison, see that they heave!
Aye aye, sir!
Br-r-r-rm. Boom! Br-r-r-m. Boom! The drum rolled.
Heave, you sons of bitches, said Harrison, his cane going crack-crack-crack on the straining backs.
Clank! went the capstan. Clank-clank-clank. Hornblower felt the deck inclining a trifle under his feet. The strain was dragging down the ships bows, not bringing home the anchor.
God, began Hornblower to himself, and then left the sentence uncompleted. Of the fifty-five oaths he had ready to employ not one was adequate to the occasion.
Avast heaving! he roared, and the sweating seamen eased their aching backs.
Hornblower tugged at his chin as though he wanted to pull it off. He would have to sail the anchor out of the grounda delicate manoeuvre involving peril to masts and rigging, and which might end in a ridiculous fiasco. Up to the moment only a few knowing people in Panama could have gussed the ships predicament,
but the moment sail was set telescopes would be trained upon her from the city walls and if the operation failed everyone would know and would be amusedand the Lydia might be delayed for hours repairing damage. But he was not going to abandon that anchor and cable.
He looked up at the vane at the masthead, and overside at the water; the wind was across the tide, which gave them a chance, at least. He issued his orders quietly, taking the utmost precaution to conceal his trepidation, and steadily keeping his back to Lady Barbara. The top-men raced aloft to set the fore topsail; with that and the driver he could get sternway upon the ship. Harrison stood by the capstan ready first to let the cable go with a run and then second to have it hove in like lightning when the ship came forward again. Bush had his men ready at the braces, and every idle hand was gathered round the capstan.
The cable roared out as the ship gathered sternway; Hornblower stood rooted to the quarterdeck feeling that he would give a week of his life for the chance to pace up and down without meeting Lady Barbaras eyes. With narrowed eyes he watched the progress of the ship, his mind juggling with a dozen factors at oncethe drag of the cable on the bows, the pressure of the wind on the driver and the backed fore topsail, the set of the tide, the increasing sternway, the amount of cable still to run out. He picked his moment.