Read Online Stand Into Danger by Alexander Kent - Free Book Online

sort who would leave security to seek adventure or even experience, Bolitho would have thought. But he seemed competent, and as he watched him telling the seamen what to do, Bolitho was glad he was aboard.
    Sergeant Barmouth was saying, “Yessir, I’d just made sure that the clerk was safely through the crowd, an’ was about to take my stand on the jetty again, when I ’eard a cry, then everyone started yellin’ an’ carryin’ on, you know, sir, like they does in these parts.”
    Palliser nodded abruptly. “Quite so, Sergeant. What then?”
    â€œI found ’im in an alley, sir. ’Is throat was slit.”
    He paled as he saw his own officer striding angrily across the quarterdeck. He would have to repeat everything for Colpoys’ sake. The marine lieutenant, like most of his corps, disliked interference by the sea officers, no matter how pressing the reason.
    Palliser said distantly, “And his bag was missing.”
    â€œYessir.”
    Palliser made up his mind. “Mr Bolitho, take the quarter-boat, a midshipman and six extra hands. I’ll give you an address where you will find the captain. Tell him what has happened. No dramatics, just the facts as you know them.”
    Bolitho touched his hat, excited, even though he was still shocked by the suddenness of Lockyer’s brutal death. So Palliser did know more of what the captain was doing than he proclaimed. When he looked at the scrap of paper which Palliser thrust into his hand he knew it was not the governor’s residence, or any other official place for that matter.
    â€œTake Mr Jury, and select six men yourself. I want them smartly turned out.”
    Bolitho beckoned to Jury and heard Palliser say to Rhodes, “I might have sent you, but Mr Bolitho and Jury have newer uniforms and may bring less discredit on my ship!”
    In next to no time they were being pulled across the water towards the shore. Bolitho had been at sea for a week, but it seemed longer, so great was the change in his surroundings.
    Jury said, “Thank you for taking me, sir.”
    Bolitho thought of Palliser’s parting shot. He could not resist a sarcastic jibe. And yet he had been the one to think of Spillane, the one to see what Stockdale was doing with the gun. A man of many faces, Bolitho thought.
    He replied, “Don’t let the men wander about.”
    He broke off as he saw Stockdale, half hidden by the boat’s oarsmen. Somehow he had found time to change into his checked shirt and white trousers and equip himself with a cutlass.
    Stockdale pretended not to see his surprise.
    Bolitho shook his head. “Forget what I said. I do not think you will have any trouble after all.”
    What had the big man said? I’ll not leave you. Not now. Not never.
    The boat’s coxswain watched narrowly and then thrust the tiller bar hard over.
    â€œToss yer oars!”
    The boat came to a halt by some stone stairs and the bowman hooked on to a rusty chain.
    Bolitho adjusted his sword-belt and looked up at the watching townspeople. They appeared very friendly. Yet a man had just been murdered a few yards away.
    He said, “Fall in on the jetty.”
    He climbed up the stairs and touched his hat to Colpoys’ pickets. The marines looked extremely cheerful, and despite their rigid attitudes in front of a ship’s officer, they smelled strongly of drink, and one of them had a flower protruding from his collar.
    Bolitho took his bearings and strode towards the nearest street with as much confidence as he could muster. The sailors tramped behind him, exchanging winks and grins with women on balconies and in windows above the street.
    Jury asked, “Who would want to kill poor Lockyer, sir?”
    â€œWho indeed?”
    Bolitho hesitated and then turned down a narrow alley where the roofs nodded towards each other as if to blot out the sky. There was a heady scent of flowers, and he heard someone playing