It was exhilarating sailing, a starboard tack with winds quartering, mile after deep-sea mile on the same course. As they edged south the weather brightened, the vivid white of towering clouds and hurrying white-horse seas contrasting pleasingly with the deep ultramarine of the water.

The stimulating stream of oceanic air impelling them along made it hard to stay below, and when Renzi took over his watch, Kydd felt too restless to retire to his cabin to work on his divisional list, and waited while Renzi satisfied himself as to the ship's condition.

They fell into step in an easy promenade around the quarterdeck. The messenger midshipman returned to the helm, as did the duty master's mate, leaving the two officers to their privacy. They paced in silence, until Renzi said, "Dear fellow, do I see you satisfied with your lot? Is this the visage of him who is at one with the world? Since your elevation to the ranks of the chosen are you content now with your station?"

Kydd paused. "Nicholas, I've been a-thinking. Who I am, where I'm headed in life, that sort o' thing." He shot his friend a glance. "It's not long since I was in bilboes waiting f'r the rope. Now I'm a king's officer. What does that say t' you?"

"Well, in between, there was a prodigious battle and some courage as I recall."

Kydd gestured impatiently. "Nicholas, I'll tell ye truly. While I was afore the mast I was content. I allow that then t' be a sailing master was all I could see, an' all I wanted from life. Then with just one turn o' the screw, my stars change an' here I am. Makes me think—might be anything can happen, why, anything a-tall." He spun round to face Renzi squarely. "Nicholas, m' life will never be complete until I have my own ship. Walk my decks, not a man aboard but tips his hat t' me, does things my way. An' for me, I get the chance to win my own glory because I make the decisions. Good or bad, they're mine, and I get the rewards—or the blame. So, how does it sound, Nicholas—Cap'n Thomas Kydd, Royal Navy?"