Bolitho eyed him severely. "You damned fox! What do you know of it?"

"At present, not much, Sir Richard. But I does know that Cap'n Poland was once the other gentleman's first lieutenant."

Bolitho shook his head. Without Allday he would have nobody to share his feelings or fears. Others looked to him only for leadership-they wanted nothing more.

Allday took down the sword and wrapped it in his special cloth.

"But it's what I always says, Sir Richard, and every true Jack knows it." He gave another grin. "It's aft the most honour may be, but forrard you finds the better men. An' that's no error! "

After Allday had gone Bolitho seated himself at the table and opened his personal log. Inside it was the letter he had started when England 's mist and drizzle had faded astern, and the long passage had begun.

When she would read it, or if it even reached her, he would not know until she was in his arms. Her skin against his, her tears and her joy mingled with his own.

He leaned over the letter while he touched the locket through his new shirt.

Another dawn, dearest Kate, and how I long for thee. He was still writing when the ship changed tack yet again, and from the high masthead came the cry that the assembled ships had been sighted.

Bolitho went on deck at noon, and felt the sun strike his face and shoulders like fire; his shoes stuck to the deck-seams as he strode to the hammock-nettings with a telescope from the rack.

Mountains, red and pink in the harsh, misty glare, and over all the sun, which was like burnished silver, strong enough to drain all colour from the sky around it.

He shifted the glass slightly, his legs braced as the lazy offshore swell lifted the keel and rolled noisily down either beam. Table Mountain, a paler wedge, but still shrouded in haze and mystery like some giant's altar.

There were the ships. His eyes moved professionally across the mixed collection. The elderly sixty-four Themis, which he knew was Commodore Warren's ship. Warren was ill. How ill? He had not enquired further of Varian. It would show his hand, or display uncertainty when he must soon need these unknown men to trust him without question.