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Authors: Alex Beecroft
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story, more amused by each other than by the author. Did you have to make me become the tyrant? thought John with resentment. Why will you keep on pushing beyond what I can well ignore?
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” he said to the marines, as they took up stations by the door. “You may go.”
“But sir—”
Lifting his chin a little, he allowed some of his outrage to show. Did they dare question him? Did they think he could not defend himself from an invalid and a friend? “You may go, Sergeant O’Halloran.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And if you catch anyone listening, including yourselves, you are to take their names for punishment.”
“Yes, sir.”
The door closed behind O’Halloran with a firmness which made the flimsy wall shake. John breathed in and felt the muscles of his belly tremble. He had become quite used to the godlike position he now occupied, with all men jumping at his slightest command, but into that serene universe Donwell fitted like a blade into a bubble.
Stillness came over the cabin. Donwell stood as paradeground straight as one of the marines, his hands clasped behind his back. The ship creaked, her planks working in the slow swells, her rigging humming with a low, pipe-organ note that John felt in his feet and his breathless chest. It might have been years that he stood in the shared silence, watching his lieutenant’s face; fascinated and perplexed.
“How long have you been in the Service, Mr. Donwell?” he said at last in a quiet tone suited for the atmosphere of smoky tranquility.
“Since I was thirteen, sir. That’d be a little under eleven years.”
“You should know, then, that an officer does not brawl like a tar. You’re fortunate he is not your superior, or you might even now be hanging for mutiny. What can possibly have come over you to establish such a precedent on my ship?”
Donwell breathed in, and from the sound of it John could hear the shake no longer concealed by his layers of coats, his firmly clasped hands. “You know what he said to me, don’t you, sir?”
“I do not. I do know, however, that half of the money we had to pay to get you back came out of Mr. Hall’s own pocket. I won’t deny a certain amount of pressure was required to make him disgorge it, but still… . Your bizarre eccentricities towards me I can just about tolerate, but this ? Damn it, man! What were you thinking?”
“He insulted me in a manner no man of spirit could abide,” said Donwell, swaying a little. The sulky look made his face seem boyish; a child chided for not paying attention in lessons, and John bit down on the sudden desire to slap him across the downturned mouth and tell him to buck up his ideas.
“What did he say?”
“If it please you, I’d rather not repeat it.”
“It does not please me, Mr. Donwell. You do not please me. Frankly I’m considering having you court-martialed for insubordination. Are you listening to me?”
Donwell looked up. His shoulders tightened and his mouth thinned; he caught John’s gaze with eyes that in the dusk of the cabin looked tawny as a lion’s. “Hall alluded to the use they made of me in Algiers,” he said, brittle as a rain of glass. “He made certain implications.…”
“Oh?” said John, not understanding at first, and then “ Oh! ” as the realization dawned and fear and shameful excitement swept across his body in a tide of hot blood. He looked away. “Oh. In that case I regard it in the light of inevitable consequences. If you wish to call him out, I offer my services to act as your second when we reach land. In the meantime, however, the minimum inevitable consequence of your brawling on board will be that you will have your grog ration stopped. If you will act as though you crawled up through the hawse hole, Mr. Donwell, you will be treated accordingly. I expected better from you. Do you understand me?”
“I do, sir,” Donwell bowed, hiding his angry eyes, and yet managed to make even this sound ominously
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” he said to the marines, as they took up stations by the door. “You may go.”
“But sir—”
Lifting his chin a little, he allowed some of his outrage to show. Did they dare question him? Did they think he could not defend himself from an invalid and a friend? “You may go, Sergeant O’Halloran.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And if you catch anyone listening, including yourselves, you are to take their names for punishment.”
“Yes, sir.”
The door closed behind O’Halloran with a firmness which made the flimsy wall shake. John breathed in and felt the muscles of his belly tremble. He had become quite used to the godlike position he now occupied, with all men jumping at his slightest command, but into that serene universe Donwell fitted like a blade into a bubble.
Stillness came over the cabin. Donwell stood as paradeground straight as one of the marines, his hands clasped behind his back. The ship creaked, her planks working in the slow swells, her rigging humming with a low, pipe-organ note that John felt in his feet and his breathless chest. It might have been years that he stood in the shared silence, watching his lieutenant’s face; fascinated and perplexed.
“How long have you been in the Service, Mr. Donwell?” he said at last in a quiet tone suited for the atmosphere of smoky tranquility.
“Since I was thirteen, sir. That’d be a little under eleven years.”
“You should know, then, that an officer does not brawl like a tar. You’re fortunate he is not your superior, or you might even now be hanging for mutiny. What can possibly have come over you to establish such a precedent on my ship?”
Donwell breathed in, and from the sound of it John could hear the shake no longer concealed by his layers of coats, his firmly clasped hands. “You know what he said to me, don’t you, sir?”
“I do not. I do know, however, that half of the money we had to pay to get you back came out of Mr. Hall’s own pocket. I won’t deny a certain amount of pressure was required to make him disgorge it, but still… . Your bizarre eccentricities towards me I can just about tolerate, but this ? Damn it, man! What were you thinking?”
“He insulted me in a manner no man of spirit could abide,” said Donwell, swaying a little. The sulky look made his face seem boyish; a child chided for not paying attention in lessons, and John bit down on the sudden desire to slap him across the downturned mouth and tell him to buck up his ideas.
“What did he say?”
“If it please you, I’d rather not repeat it.”
“It does not please me, Mr. Donwell. You do not please me. Frankly I’m considering having you court-martialed for insubordination. Are you listening to me?”
Donwell looked up. His shoulders tightened and his mouth thinned; he caught John’s gaze with eyes that in the dusk of the cabin looked tawny as a lion’s. “Hall alluded to the use they made of me in Algiers,” he said, brittle as a rain of glass. “He made certain implications.…”
“Oh?” said John, not understanding at first, and then “ Oh! ” as the realization dawned and fear and shameful excitement swept across his body in a tide of hot blood. He looked away. “Oh. In that case I regard it in the light of inevitable consequences. If you wish to call him out, I offer my services to act as your second when we reach land. In the meantime, however, the minimum inevitable consequence of your brawling on board will be that you will have your grog ration stopped. If you will act as though you crawled up through the hawse hole, Mr. Donwell, you will be treated accordingly. I expected better from you. Do you understand me?”
“I do, sir,” Donwell bowed, hiding his angry eyes, and yet managed to make even this sound ominously
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