"I find that a trifle barbaric, Harry. Surely he deserves a decent burial?"

  "It's not something I would choose to do normally, James. But being found in a foreign port, the sole companions of a recently murdered fellow countryman, is an even less appealing prospect. Especially when you have a man like Crosby around. He would take great pleasure in swearing that we were rivals for the same ship. And I would suggest we be quick, for if these men are intent on returning, with or without someone in authority, then it won't be long from now.

  "We could deck him out in some of these flags, your honour. Be a bit more decent than just heaving him over the side."

  "Make it so, Pender."

  Harry started to go through the dead man's pockets while his servant set to laying out the flags. Aware of his brother's sensibilities, Harry sent James to keep a watch on deck, adjuring him to listen more than look, for he would be likely to hear anyone approach before he'd see them.

  Wrapped in flags, they carried Broadbridge up on deck. Pender had found a length of halyard line under the flags, and the body, swathed and tied, had taken on the shape of an Egyptian mummy. Finally they lashed two rounds of shot to his feet. James turned to watch as the ghostly pair heaved the wrapped body on to the bulwarks. He heard Harry whisper handsomely now as they lowered Captain Broadbridge into the water with the faintest splash. Pender leant over and did something James couldn't see, just before he finally let go.

  James was still looking towards them when he heard another soft splash. He spun round and knelt to look out over the ship's rail. Harry must have seen this movement, for he hurried over to join him.

  "Perhaps a fish, whispered James, but Harry's hand pressing on his shoulder made him stop talking. Another soft splash, but no sound of voices.

  "Muffled oars, said Harry. He pulled James away and they made for the cabin door on all fours. Pender was already inside, and as they passed through he knelt down and fumbled in the dark, cursing softly as he hurried to relock it.

  "They may be headed somewhere else, Harry, said James.

  "Let's assume they're not. Just for now."

  Harry was looking up at the skylight. It had wooden sides which projected about eighteen inches above the poop deck immediately over their heads, and was topped with a framed glass canopy, arched to catch whatever sunlight was going. Because of the sides, it was impossible to see the whole floor area from the poop. The only way to see the entire cabin was to look through the windows which covered the stern of the ship, a difficult task as they sloped inwards. Harry checked the catches that secured them, feeling that with their multitude of small glass panes they represented a difficult method of entry.

  Likewise the two side cabins, though they had casements that ran further round to each side. These sloped outwards with the hull and the catches were easier to force. Of course, there was just a chance they wouldn't look, and be content with the cabin door, still locked and unmarked. But they might not, and if they searched the ship, they would most certainly come in here.

  Harry whispered urgently. James, just inside the sleeping cabin. Keep out of sight so that they can't see us through the side gallery casements. Pender, you do the same in the coach. If they come in through the windows, get yourselves back in here and hold the doors shut.

  "That won't stop no one for long, Captain, said Pender. And it puts us mighty close under the skylight."

  Harry looked around for a solution, his eyes lighting on the heavy, ornate desk that took up so much space in the cabin. Do you have any of that halyard line left?"

  "A fair bit, replied Pender.

  "Right. Lash it to the door handles. If they come in through the side galleries, we can lash it to the feet of the desk. That should keep them out."

  Pender had his knife out, and cutting quickly he set to. Harry saw him glance upwards towards the skylight, as he finished one and darted across the cabin to complete the other.

  "Our only hope is to cut down the number of ways to get in here. We don't know how many of them there are, but they can only come in through the door or the skylight one at a time. Now get down and stay out of sight. The best we can hope for is that they will think we have somehow hailed a boat and gone ashore."

  James ducked into the small sleeping cabin, Pender into the coach, a sort of office-come-guest-quarters on the opposite side. Harry pulled out the pistols and sat, wrapped in a dark flag, with his back to the heavy desk, both guns pointed at the locked door.

  The Principessa dipped slightly to starboard from the weight of those coming aboard. Harry was not immune to the thought that he could be entirely wrong. But if there was an innocent explanation, he was at a loss to think of it. He was working on instinct rather than knowledge.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Mentally he'd labelled them as attackers. He had no doubt that they were just that now. There had been no lights on their boat as they'd approached with muffled oars, and no hailing of the Principessa to warn anyone aboard of their approach. At least he could put out of his mind the possibility of unjustified arrest. People intent on apprehending felons did not come aboard as silently as this. That at least increased the prospect that having searched the ship they might not even look in here.

  Harry closed his eyes, hoping by his feelings for the motion of the ship to tell their position. And that was all he had to go by, for there was no sound at all. No voices, not even a hint of a whisper. A vision of the previous night's attack came to his mind. Then too there had been no sound, and he wondered if he was dealing with the same people. He experienced a slight tightness in his chest at the thought, for they were deadly, cold, and efficient. And here on this ship there was no chance of the sudden arrival of a rescue party. If it was them, and they were thorough, then they had only one hope. To make the cost of taking their lives prohibitively expensive. But if these men were not fooled by the precautions they'd taken, and not deterred by the death of their comrades, the three of them would die in this cabin, just like Broadbridge.

  A shadow, thrown by the moon, flitted across the skylight. Harry crawled into the well between the two pillars of the desk, pulling the dark flag around him. He knew that he would be invisible to anyone looking in. It was at that moment that he realized his mistake. He'd been forced to cover two eventualities, and he had chosen the wrong one. Fearing arrest, he had disposed of the corpse. But the absence of Broadbridge's body, no longer in its chair, would be obvious to anyone looking through the skylight.

  Whatever explanation these men put on this, they would be bound to try and investigate. Harry cursed himself for his haste. He should have left the body there until near dawn, and risked arrest. He waited for the exclamation that would accompany the discovery of the missing Broadbridge, sensing, rather than seeing, the head peering through the pointed canopy of the skylight. Nothing. Yet the ship lurched a trifle as one of their visitors moved with more purpose and less care than previously.

  The metallic scrape of a key entering the lock, and Harry squeezed quickly out from under the desk and aimed his pistol at the doorway. He dived to one side, fighting the instinct to look up, as soon as he heard the glass break. Just in time. The cannonball that had been flung through it bounced with a great thud where he had been standing. As if that was the signal the door shot open and Harry, his balance aided by his shoulder, shoved hard against the side bulkhead, put a ball into the throat of the man who came rushing through the door. No cry accompanied the striking of the bullet, just an ethereal gasp.

  His momentum carried him on, pushing Harry backwards, but the knife in his hand dropped as he collapsed on to the recumbent defender. It was fortunate that he did, for a boarding pike, aimed through the skylight at Harry, struck the dying man full in the back. James, at the first sound, had rushed into the main cabin. He stumbled slightly, tripping on the cannonball, and fell forward. His outstretched sword took the second man coming through the doorway, and the momentum of his fall pushed him back through the gap. He abandoned the grip on his sword, and instead threw all his weight on the door, slamming it shut. He turned his back to it, and as he did so his eye caught a movement, and he looked up.

  The dark figure straddled the skylight, another boarding pike in his upraised hand, this one aimed at James. Harry still on the floor,

  still with the first assailant on top of him, had no time to aim. His pistol thundered out, lighting up the whole cabin by its flash. They could not see if they hit the man on the skylight, but more glass shattered, and he jumped back with or without a bullet in him, abandoning the pike, which dropped harmlessly into the deck, where it stood upright, quivering.

  Pender dashed across the cabin and pulled the dead man off Harry, who struggled to get to his feet. James, his feet splayed out, was trying to hold the door closed. It was obvious that the weight on the other side was greater than his own, for with each silent heave it opened another inch. Pender threw himself at the door. Harry grabbed the captain's chair with its rounded back, and joined in. Heavier than James or Pender, his bulk forced it shut. He jammed the back of the chair under the handle, ordered Pender to secure the other doors, then grabbed at James to pull him to one side. They ended up in the furthest corner of the dark cabin, out of the line of the skylight.

  Someone, perhaps the same man, was once more straddled across the broken skylight, in the act of throwing a third pike. He stooped his throw as Harry pulled James to safety, and shifted his aim to Pender, crouched by the leg of the desk trying to lash the rope that he'd attached to the door of the sleeping cabin. Harry yelled a warning, and without looking round to see which direction the danger was coming from, Pender dived under the desk, using the top as cover to finish his task.

  James was sucking deeply, his breath coming in gasps, his upturned face glistening with sweat in the warm night air. Harry, now with his sword in his hand, realized, as a slight breeze wafted through the broken skylight, that he too was damp with perspiration.

  "Pender, lash that other door while we distract him. James, dash to the other side and retrieve the pike from that fellow's back. I'll take out the one in the middle. With a bit of luck he'll try a throw at me and we'll have one each."

  "As long as I'm not required to retrieve the third from your back. It would never do to have a surplus."

  Harry laughed, softly, and then louder, for reasons he could not really understand. This affected James, who joined him. They stood, their backs to the wooden bulkhead, heaving with laughter. Pender's voice, slightly querulous came from between the pillars of the desk.

  "If you gents know sum mat I don't, I'd appreciate being told."

  "Nothing, Pender, said Harry, suppressing a grin. But let's hope that our laughter depresses our foes as much as it has elevated my brother and I. Ready?"

  "Yes, gasped James.

  "Now. Harry threw his sword into the corner opposite, where it landed with a metallic clatter. They launched themselves together, James jumping over the chair which held the cabin door shut and Harry rushing across the strip of moonlight that covered the centre of the room. The boarding pike, coming from above, was so close to his back that he could almost sense it scraping his spine. Had he hesitated to pull out the other one he would surely have died.

  Instead he merely grabbed it at the top of its shaft and kept moving. His efforts didn't fully dislodge it. But it did swing down enough from him to reach out from the bulkhead and drag it right out of the deck. Without stopping he ducked down to retrieve his sword. A quick glance told him that Pender had carried out his allotted task and was now back in the well of the desk. He slid the first pike towards him, bounced off the wood at his back, and wrenched the third pike out of the floor and was back in his original position before the man on the skylight could rearm himself and take aim.

  "Pender, did you fetch the means to reload these pistols?"

  "Aye."

  "If I push them towards you with my pike, you should be able to retrieve them with yours."

  "I'm not sure as I can reload them in this light."

  "You might as well try, Pender. They are of precious little use as they are. Perhaps if you turn round the moon through the stern light windows will help."

  First one pistol, then the other, scraped across the floor. Harry heard Pender cursing as he tried to manoeuvre in the confined space under the desk.

  "What now, Harry? whispered James.

  "We wait."

  "I will find that harder than doing something."

  "No choice, brother. I don't know how many men we face. So I

  don't feel that it would be a good idea to go out on deck and engage them. All I do know is that they have no muskets, for which we must thank the Lord."

  James couldn't keep the disappointment out of his voice. So we are as badly off as we were when they came aboard?"

  "Not so, James. We have held to our plans while forcing them to improvise theirs."

  James voice became terse. You have a rare habit of calling something you've just dreamed up a plan, Harry. This may not be the moment to point out to you that it is a great failing."

  Harry laughed again. The Principessa lurched, as if in response to the sound. The laughter would make their assailants curious, and he hoped do nothing for their confidence.

  "Guns are loaded and primed, your honour. Shall I slide them back to you?"

  "Not a good idea, Pender. They'll very likely go off in the process. They'd be more of a danger to us than our attackers."

  "They must be having a little get-together, trying to decide which way to play it."

  As if to give a lie to his words they heard the sound of breaking glass from the sleeping cabin. The rope attached to the desk jerked suddenly, and as it stretched the door opened slightly, before slamming shut again. Glass tinkled on the other side, as another one of their attackers tried the coach, hauling fruitlessly on the door. The result was the same, except that Pender, forewarned, scurried across the floor, and as the door opened a fraction he fired a ball right through it, pointing his pistol upwards.

  An odd inhuman scream and a great gurgling sound, as though the ball had lodged in the man's gorge, followed the crack of the pistol shot. The thud of the falling body, and the crash of the door slamming shut, were almost simultaneous. Pender didn't stop to congratulate himself, but rolled over swiftly, careering into the foot-lockers that ran along the rear of the cabin. The other pistol was aimed at the skylight as his body came round and he fired up through it. At that angle he had no chance of hitting anyone. But the sound of a gun, and the crash as the ball struck the skylight frame, served to distract any attacker while he returned to safety under the desk.

  "I think another one of them laughs might do a power of good now, Captain, he said, his voice resonant in the confined space.

  "That's at least three we have accounted for, Harry. Surely we must have discouraged them by now?"

  "How I hope that you are right, James. But just in case I'd better elaborate on their options. If they come through the skylight, they can only do so one at a time. In that event, I shall engage the first one. Pender, reload as quickly as you can. Both barrels through the skylight at once, aimed at anyone following. James, if he has his back to you, and he is close enough, kill him. Otherwise leave him to me. On no account are you to engage him."

  "Why not?"

  "How much practice have you had with a boarding pike, brother?"

  "None. But I doubt that I'll get a chance to explain that."

  "Do you have a chair by you?"

  "Yes."

  "Then use that to defend yourself."

  "I..."

  "There's no time to argue, James. Do as I ask. Keep your pike trained towards the door in case they try to come through there. With that chair in place I doubt they'll be able to smash it fully open. As soon as there's a gap, just shove the thing through it as hard as you can and hope to hit something. Keep jabbing to discourage them. Pender, keep your eyes on the stern lights I don't think they'll be fool enough to try that route, but you never know."

  "What course would you adopt, Harry? asked James quietly.

  Harry, aware that he had been extremely brusque, answered softly. Depends on my aim, James."

  "I should think their aim is rather obvious."

  "Perhaps they'll try both at once.

  "And?"

  "Then we each do what I have already outlined, though I doubt we'll keep them out completely. At that point, and I expect this will delight you, James, I fear we shall have to improvise."

  "You seem to imply an alternative course of action."

  "They might have sent ashore for some muskets, your honour, said Pender.

  "That's possible, but it's the other possibility that worries me.

  "What's that? asked his brother.

  "That is that they'll set fire to the ship, and stand off, waiting to spear us like fish when we jump into the water."

  "I'd be obliged if you say that more quiet, your honour. We don't want to go giving the bastards ideas."

  Silence. And no movement. It was plain that some kind of stalemate had been reached. Time passed slowly. On the opposite side of the doorway he could hear James breathing steadily and the occasional scraping sound as Pender moved his position. He was just about to remark that the situation was looking more promising when the top edge of the axe came through the bulkhead behind him. He jumped away quickly. Another axe crashed through the panelling just by the doorway, the blows raining on the wood, seeking to smash it through. Harry cursed under his breath at this unforeseen development.

  The men swinging the axes knew how to handle them. There would be little to gain from working side by side to make a small hole in the bulkhead, since that would not get them to their quarry on anything like equal terms. Their idea was much more ambitious, and dangerous. They sought to remove one whole area of the cabin wall so that they

  could come at them as a body and overwhelm them. Harry stood still, his mind racing as he watched the axes do their work, knowing that the others were waiting for him to say something, waiting for him to vouchsafe them a method with which to counter this assault.