Be careful, lads, you never know, out here on the wild and lawless ocean.
"Should we man the guns?" I ask, ready to assemble my Powder Monkeys in an instant.
"No," says the Captain. "I recognize the ship." He snaps his glass shut. "It is the Cerberus. Although there is very little love lost twixt Griswold, her captain, and me, we shall close with them for a gam. Must remember my manners. Right full rudder. Topmen aloft to trim sail."
The wheel is spun and the Lorelei Lee leans over, and the distance between the ships grows narrow.
"What's a gam?" asks Mairead. Josephine has joined us and leans her orange head against Mairead's shoulder, her long arms about Mairead's waist, content and seemingly oblivious to all this excitement.
"It's when ships out on the sea come together to exchange news. It's a whaler's term, but it goes for all seagoing vessels," I say, still looking at the approaching ships. "When you're out on the briny for a long while, all aboard hunger for news of what is happening in the rest of the world."
I know that others on the ships are looking at us, for I see the lenses of their long glasses flash in the sunlight.
Hmmmm ... My ears are burning ... Could it be that someone is looking at me? Nah, it must be the sun.
The escort ship falls off to wait several hundred yards off. Again the lens flash—seems to come from their quarterdeck. Hmmm...
We grow quite close to the Cerberus now, and the sails on both ships are slacked. Grappling hooks are thrown across, and we are drawn together. The mainmast spars touch, leaving a scant ten feet of water between our hulls.
"Ahoy, Captain Laughton!" cries this Griswold of the Cerberus.
"Ahoy, Captain Griswold," replies Old Gussie. "I trust you've had a pleasant voyage?"
"Not as pleasant as you, I see..."
Many members of the petticoat Crews are festooned about the decks and in the rigging.
Griswold continues. "So, why do you not trade several dozen of yours, for an equal number of ours? They are all going to the same place."
Captain Laughton spies me up above, and he calls out, "What say you, Jacky? What thinks our fierce little pirate? Should some of you ladies go off? I am sure there will be much profit to be made."
I gaze down at the Cerberus's crew's lusty faces and say, "I think we are quite content where we are, Sir."
"Well, then, Captain Griswold, Mrs. Higgins has spoken, and you have your answer. You keep yours, and I'll keep mine."
"All right, but how about twelve of mine for six of yours?"
"Nay, Lemuel, a contract is a contract, and I wish to continue working for the good old East India Company. So let us peel off, Mr. Seabrook, and we'll continue on our way. Lemuel, I look forward to sharing a glass with you in Sydney. Cheerio."
I think I hear a growl from the Cerberus's Captain.
"I see you have a man strapped to the grating," observes Captain Laughton, with scorn in his voice.
"Right. We are conducting punishment. That man led a riot, which we had to put down most vigorously."
"We do not often have to resort to that sort of thing here."
"True, but you have a much ... softer sort of convict than do we. Sometimes these convicts of ours are much in need of ... correction."
Man on grating? What...?
I swing my glass over to look at the men gathered on the Cerberus's deck, and...
My God! It's my old Emerald crew! There's Arthur McBride, and Farrell, all in chains ... and ... there's Ian McConnaughey...
I stand gasping.
Mairead looks at me curiously. "Jacky, what's the matter?"
Dare I show her? Yes, I must, I must ... She has to know that he is still on this Earth and is all right...
I pass the glass to her and say, "Look down there ... third man on the left, next to the rail ... and steady now, girl."
Wondering, she takes the glass and holds it to her eye. As she scans the deck, I slip my arm around her expanding waist and wait to hold her fast for I know what is coming.
She jerks, and then screams, "Ian! Husband! Oh, Lord!"
Ian's head jerks up. "It's Mairead," he shouts. "Dear girl!"
She tries to free herself of my grip, but I do not let her go.
"Mairead!" I hiss in her ear. "You cannot go over there! You'll be in great danger! That crew hasn't seen a woman in a long time! They'll pass you around!"
"I dinna care! Ian's there!"
"And Jacky, too, up there!" shouts Arthur McBride, pointing a manacled hand up at us. "Fletcher! It's your Jacky!"
Fletcher? What...?
The man tied to the grating lifts his head and cries out...
"JACKY!"
Jaimy! Oh, dear God, it's Jaimy!
I release Mairead, and she is off across the spar and into the rigging of the other ship, and then down the ratlines, and I am right behind her. We plunge down to the deck and head for our lads.
"Grab them!" shouts Captain Griswold, and rough hands are put on us. Enraged beyond all thought, I put teeth, fingernails, fists, and knees to good use and manage to get to Jaimy's side.
He lifts his face and whispers, "Jacky ... I..." and he can say no more.
I cover his poor face with kisses and run my hands across his bloody back. "Oh, Jaimy, how could they do this to you? The bastards, I'll—"
Then I am torn away from him.
"Give them back, Lemuel," demands Captain Laughton, no longer bantering, as I am held back, panting, wild with fury. I hear sounds of struggle and Mairead screaming.
"But, Gussie, they came over of their own free will, didn't they?"
"Give them back, Captain Griswold," growls our Captain, tersely. "I remind you that we have guns, and you do not."
Captain Griswold considers this and wisely accedes. "Very well, keep your ship of whores. First, however, we have a bit of unfinished business. We were conducting punishment and now we shall let it proceed. Hold the female right there, so that she may clearly see."
I am held fast, next to the grating.
"Good. Now administer the remaining six lashes," says Captain Griswold. "And add six more for the interruption."
I am forced to watch as they do it. After they finish whipping him, and Jaimy's back is even more of a bloody mess, and I have vomited out the contents of my stomach, Captain Griswold motions to the men holding me, and sneers, "Let her go to give that bleeding carcass a goodbye kiss. She seems to be fond of it. It'll probably be the last one it shall get in this world."
I'm released, so I stumble over beside Jaimy and put my hands on him, to whisper in his ear, "I swear, Jaimy, by the blood that is on my hands, that they shall pay for this. I swear it!"
He looks at me through pain-crazed eyes but manages to nod. While I am holding him to me, I slide my shiv out of my sheath and down into his boot without anyone seeing. I can see he needs it more than I do.
"I repeat, send the girls back, Griswold. Mr. Seabrook, perhaps we shall have to man the guns after all."
"Very well, Laughton," answers Griswold. "Rest assured, though, that the Company shall hear of this."
Then he turns rudely away. "Throw the baggage over," he orders. "Here's two more of your poxy whores, Laughton, cleaner than when they arrived. Topmen! Aloft to make sail!"
As I am torn from Jaimy, I take one last look at his anguished face, and then I am thrown over the side. I hit the water hard, on my back, and as I resurface, I see Mairead come hurtling down.
The two ships throw off the grappling hooks and move apart. I swim over to the struggling Mairead and pull her to the surface.
Holding her, I tread water and manage to keep her face above its surface. There is the sound of a boat being lowered and men calling out to us. It is Monk and Suggs who haul us back aboard the Lorelei Lee, where we stand dripping with water, hatred, misery, and fury.
PART IV
Chapter 45
And so we plow on and on, out of the Strait of Malacca and into the South China Sea.
I've been a wreck for several days, but I get over it and try to lend Mairead some cheer—"At least we know where our lads are, Mairead," I say, to give comfort to her as well as to myself. "At least we know that, and we know we will see them again, since we're all headed for the same place. We'll figure out what to do when we get there. Now, come, let us be cheerful. We are expected to perform in the Captain's cabin tonight—shall we sing dirges, or shall we be gay? Good! That's my girl."
Mairead's belly continues to swell. We have sewn her a new, more blousy, Powder Monkey top, and we make a great fuss over her. She smiles and often places her hand on that belly and looks off in the distance to where she last saw Ian, her husband and the father of her child.
Sumatra, Batavia, Malaysia, Borneo, Java ... My mind spins with all the exotic places we have passed by and sometimes visited. Eventually, I am allowed out on land again, which I find most gratifying. I continue my studies of the local flora and fauna and am putting together a box of butterflies for Dr. Sebastian, as I know they are his passion.
We cross the equator again, but poor Ravi is the only Pollywog to be initiated. Since he is the only one, it is kept simple. He is made to kiss the Captain's ring, and then he is stripped down and a rope is tied about his waist. "You sahibs going to use poor Ravi as fish bait? Oh, no, Sirs, please!"
His tormenters are unmoved. "Shut yer gob, boy. Even a heathen wog has got to rub the tits of the Lorelei or he hain't no true member o' the crew." Ravi trembles but does it. Then he is dipped in the sea and brought sputtering back aboard, a newly christened Shellback.
We visit the port of Singapore at the lower tip of the Malay Peninsula. It used to be Portuguese, then it was Dutch, now it belongs to the East India Company, which is to say, the British.
We are in bed, preparing to sleep, when I ask, "Why was that place fought over so much, Higgins?"
"Probably for the crime of being a very nice little port in exactly the right place, from the powers-that-be point of view."
"But why so many overlords to that little port? Why did it change hands so much? Why did not one of them hold it?"
Higgins considers, and I know he is looking up in the darkness. Then he says, "From my reading of history, when it comes to lands and the people who live upon them, it is very easy to conquer those people when one has superior armament, more soldiers, and more will. But, on the other side of the coin, it is also very hard to hold those people and their ancestral lands beyond the initial victory. People never forget when harm has come to their native land and to their kin. I believe Monsieur Napoleon will someday find that out to his chagrin. As will our own John Bull."
"You are so wise, Husband John."
I hear him chuckle deep in the broad chest upon which my head rests.
"No, not wise. Not at all. I am merely an observer of things as they lie in this world."
"Do you observe me?"
"Oh, yes, Miss, I certainly do." He laughs. "And believe me, you are quite an education. More than all the kings and queens and all the would-be masters of the world."
"Me? Surely you jest."
"Who was it who brought down Troy, then?"