Read Online Make Room for the Jester by Stead Jones - Free Book Online Page B

everywhere.’
    ‘Should have stayed with him,’ Gladstone snapped. ‘Not safe for him near all that water. Now – spread out. Take a street each and we’ll meet by the Lifeboat Hut. Right? Let’s go, then.’
    We took a street each. I saw nobody down mine, except a couple kissing in a doorway. The rain never stopped. Already my feet were wet.
    We came together by the Lifeboat Hut on the quay. There was no sign of Ashton. We stared out across the dark of the harbour. The tide was in too. God knew where he had got to.
    ‘Try the Moonbeam , shall we?’ I said.
    ‘A light,’ Dewi broke in. ‘Out there…’
    We looked along the line of his pointing arm, and three of us saw it suddenly – a brief glow, then the black again. Maxie never saw it. He always had difficulty in seeing anything in the dark.
    ‘By God,’ Dewi said, ‘someone striking a match out in the harbour!’
    It had to be Ashton. We ran down the slippery jetty and pulled at one of the mooring ropes. It was so dark we only knew the boat had reached the side of the jetty when we heard its bow thud against stone.
    ‘Quickly,’ Gladstone said. ‘Is there an oar?’
    Dewi, who was already aboard said, ‘One,’ and we clambered in after him. We slipped the mooring rope and pushed the boat out then stumbled to the bow. Dewi was the best stern sculler going: we left him to it and crouched there, arms held out in case we rammed one of the moored craft. The night around us was soot black.
    ‘You look out for the boats,’ Gladstone said in my ear. ‘I’ll watch for the light…’
    He had no sooner said it than the harbour was suddenly brighter than any day. Dewi had time to cry ‘Flare’ before the light went out and the dark moved in again.
    Gladstone, Maxie and I huddled together in the bow of the boat, not speaking, not even moving, as if stunned by what had happened. Dewi in the stern had his oar out of the water, and I knew he was standing there, not believing there had been a light, like the rest of us.
    ‘Dear God,’ Gladstone cried out, ‘it came from Marius Vaughan’s boat! It was a rocket! It’s Ashton…’
    As if to prove him right another one went up, and this one held its light. We could see the rain now, and through it the Cambrian Cloud – Marius Vaughan’s boat – the biggest and the slowest in Porthmawr regatta.
    ‘To port,’ Gladstone ordered.
    ‘Which bloody way is port?’ Dewi replied.
    ‘Left,’ Gladstone barked. ‘Left and straight ahead. I can see him!’
    Ahead of us was the Cambrian Cloud , white and shining like a ghost ship, and there was Ashton standing in the steering-well.
    ‘There he is!’ Gladstone cried.
    ‘Must think he’s bloody Guy Fawkes,’ Dewi shouted back.
    I felt Gladstone stiffen, but he didn’t say anything. Before the light from the flare had gone we were close enough to grab the anchor chain, then we pulled ourselves slowly alongside the yacht. ‘Hold her tight,’ Gladstone said as he heaved himself aboard. Maxie and I hung on as our boat bobbed and swung away, then we drew it close to the yacht’s side.
    ‘Ashton,’ I heard Gladstone shout on the deck above us. ‘Mr Vaughan. Where are you?’
    Ashton’s voice came back. ‘Here, kid. All tangled in the flaming rigging. Pissed as a coot and tangled up…’
    Gladstone came back. ‘Blacker than hell up here. Any matches going?’
    ‘I’ve got a torch,’ Maxie said.
    ‘Well hand it up then.’
    Maxie switched his torch on and tested the beam, then held it up to Gladstone. Dewi and I asked him what the hell he was playing at, not telling us he had a torch all the time.
    ‘Got a new battery,’ Maxie said.
    ‘New battery, my ass,’ Dewi replied, and went in for a spell of swearing. I couldn’t blame him. The water was running down my sleeves and I felt like swearing too. I looked over their heads shorewards. There were lights all around the Lifeboat Hut. ‘They’re coming for us,’ I said. We wouldn’t have to worry