'What the devil d'you think you're doing, Mr Hornblower?'
Pellew had just caught sight of Hornblower in the act of swinging out of the jolly boat which was his special charge. He wondered what his midshipman thought he could achieve against a war-galley with a twelve-foot boat and a crew of six.
'We can pull to one of the convoy and reinforce the crew, sir,' said Hornblower.
'Oh, very well then, carry on. I'll trust to your good sense, even though that's a broken reed.'
'Good on you, sir!' said Jackson ecstatically, as the jolly boat shoved off from the frigate. 'Good on you! No one else wouldn't never have thought of that.'
Jackson, the coxswain of the jolly boat, obviously thought that Hornblower had no intention of carrying out his suggestion to reinforce the crew of one of the merchant ships.
'Those stinking Dagoes,' said stroke oar, between his teeth.
Hornblower was conscious of the presence in his crew of the same feeling of violent hostility toward the Spanish galleys as he felt within himself. In a fleeting moment of analysis, he attributed it to the circumstances in which they had first made the galleys' acquaintance, as well as to the stench which the galleys trailed after them. He had never known this feeling of personal hatred before; when previously he had fought it had been as a servant of the King, not out of personal animosity. Yet here he was gripping the tiller under the scorching sky and leaning forward in his eagerness to be at actual gaps with his enemy.
The longboat and cutter had a long start of them, and even though they were manned by crews who had already served a spell at the oars they were skimming over the water at such a speed that the jolly boat with all the advantage of the glassy-smooth water only slowly caught up to them. Overside the sea was of the bluest, deepest blue until the oar blades churned it white. Ahead of them the vessels of the convoy lay scattered where the sudden calm had caught them, and just beyond them Hornblower caught sight of the flash of oar blades as the galleys came sweeping down on their prey. Longboat and cutter were diverging in an endeavour to cover as many vessels as possible, and the gig was still far astern. There would hardly be time to board a ship even if Hornblower should wish to. He put the tiller over to incline his course after the cutter; one of the galleys at that moment abruptly made its appearance in the gap between two of the merchant ships. Hornblower saw the cutter saving round to point her six-pounder carronade at the advancing bows.
'Pull, you men! Pull!' he shrieked mad with excitement.
He could not imagine what was going to happen, but he wanted to be in the fray. That six-pounder popgun was grossly inaccurate at any range longer than musket shot. It would serve to hurl a mass of grape into a crowd of men, but its ball would have small effect on the strengthened bows of a war galley.
'Pull!' shrieked Hornblower again. He was nearly up to them, wide on the cutter's quarter.
The carronade boomed out. Hornblower thought he saw the splinters fly from the galley's bow, but the shot had no more effect on deterring her than a peashooter could stop a charging bull. The galley turned a little, getting exactly into line, and then her oars' beat quickened. She was coming down to ram, like the Greeks at Salamis.
'Pull!' shrieked Hornblower.
Instinctively, he gave the tiller a touch to take the jolly boat out into a flanking position.
'Easy!'
The jolly boat's oars stilled, as their way carried them past the cutter. Hornblower could see Soames standing up in the sternsheets looking at the death which was cleaving the blue water towards him. Bow to bow the cutter might have stood a chance, but too late the cutter tried to evade the blow altogether. Hornblower saw her turn, presenting her vulnerable side to the galley's stem. That was all he could see, for the next moment the galley herself hid from him the final act of the tragedy. The jolly boat's starboard side oars only just cleared the galley's starboard oars as she swept by. Hornblower heard a shriek and a crash, saw the galley's forward motion almost cease at the collision. He was mad with the lust of fighting, quite insane, and his mind was working with the rapidity of insanity.
'Give way, port!' he yelled, and the
up through her hatchways. The very water around her glowed vivid red. They saw her halt in her career and begin to swing slowly around.
'She's across Santa Barbara 's cable,' said Foster.
'She's nearly clear,' added Hammond. 'God help 'em on board there. She'll be alongside her in a minute.'
Hornblower thought of two thousand Spanish and French prisoners battened down below decks in the hulk.
'With a man at her wheel she could be steered clear,' said Foster. 'We ought to do it!'
Then things happened rapidly. Harvey put the tiller over. 'Pull away!' he roared at the boatmen.
The latter displayed an easily understood reluctance to row up to that fiery hull.
'Pull!' said Harvey.