He had wheezed, 'One day, you'll be a cap'n, sir. Reckon you'll need a coxswain.'

Bolitho smiled down at him. Stockdale could do almost anything. Splice, reef and steer if need be. But he was a gun captain now, on one of Trojan's upper battery of thirty eighteen

pounders. And naturally he just happened to be in Bolitho's own division.

'What d'you think, Stockdale?'

The man's battered face split into a wide grin. 'They be watching us, Mr Bolitho,'

Bolitho saw the painful movements of his throat. The sea's bite was making it hard for Stockdale.

'You think so, eh?'

'Aye.' He sounded very confident. 'They'll know what we're about, an' where we're heading. I wager there'll be other craft hull down where we can't see'em.'

Cairns ' feet hit the deck as he slid down a stay with the agility of a midshipman.

He said, 'Schooner by the cut of her. Can barely make her out, it's so damn hazy.' He shivered in a sudden gust. 'Same tack as ourselves.' He saw Bolitho smile at Stockdale, and asked, 'May I share the joke?'

'Stockdale said that the other sail is watching us, sir. Keeping well up to wind'rd.'

Cairns opened his mouth as if to contradict and then said, 'I fear he may be right. Instead of a show of strength, Trojan may be leading the pack down on to the very booty we are trying to protect.' He rubbed his chin. 'By God, that is a sour thought. I had expected an attack to be on the convoy's rear, the usual straggler cut out before the escort has had time to intervene.'

'All the same.' He rubbed his chin harder. 'They'll not try to attack with Trojan's broadsides so near.'

Bolitho recalled Pears' voice at the conference. The hint of doubt. His suspicion then had now become more real.

Cairns glanced aft, past the two helmsmen who stood straddle-legged by the great double wheel, their eyes moving from sail to compass.