The Dangerous Years (24 page)

Gregory’s face changed, but he said nothing and Kelly went on quietly.

‘Make it as many men as we can spare. Break out all the cutlasses and revolvers we’ve got. After that, pick handles, because, for what we’re going to do, rifles’ll be a bit unhandy. How many men can we manage?’

Gregory looked at Dover then back to Kelly. ‘Sixteen, sir? Perhaps eighteen. That just leaves the engine-room crew and the party on the bow.’

‘Good. I’m going alongside. Any idea how many Chinese there are?’

‘Thirty-odd, I reckon, sir,’ Gregory said. ‘We’ve seen no more go aboard.’

‘We can handle that lot, I think. This rain ought to keep ’em below. When I’ve got her, I’m going to tow her away alongside. I’ll want warps ready to go across at once, and it’ll have to be done while the boarding party’s still chasing out the Chinese. As soon as they’re in place, I’m going to slip her cable and take her downstream with us. It’s only a couple of miles to the corner and once round we’re safe. As soon as we’re aboard I hope to be able to release the officers and any of the crew who’re left. To get off the mud, I shall go full astern and have the winches hauling at the same time. Petty Officer Rumbelo will look after the kedges. Any obstructions in midstream, Sub?’

‘None on the chart, sir.’

‘Right. Rumbelo, pick your men and get aft. And when you go aboard
Swei-Fan
, for God’s sake be careful. If anything happens to you I’ve got to face Biddy. Sub, let’s have the guns manned. If they spot us, they might just try to board us. We’ll have the passengers below. And make ’em be quiet. No lights. No hymn singing. No praying. I think the Almighty’ll forgive ’em just this once.’

The rain was falling in torrents as Kelly climbed to the bridge with Gregory. He had changed back into uniform and wore a steel helmet and the Luger. Spitting the rain from his lips, he stared at the compass and bridge telegraphs.

‘Everybody in his place, Sub?’

‘Yes, sir. Everybody’s ready.’

Drawing a deep breath, Kelly looked round him. ‘Slow astern both, Sub.’

There was the low thump of machinery and, as the gush of the water boiling under the stern came to him, he heard the capstan clank and Rumbelo call out softly.

The telegraph clanged. The thump of the engines grew faster and the clatter of the capstan increased. The bight of the hawser leading to the kedge leapt out of the water with a spatter of drops and a loud twang as the strain came on. The engines were going full astern now and a dirty grey-looking froth floated forward as the screws churned uselessly at the mud.

‘Stop both!’ A bell tinkled and the vibration ceased. Gregory peered over the side. ‘Cut-off’s going to be all silted up, sir.’

‘Never mind that,’ Kelly said. ‘Get a sounding aft.’

As Gregory vanished he heard Rumbelo’s voice giving quiet orders. ‘Get them bamboos out.’

The sounding showed no result and Kelly frowned,

‘We’ll have another go,’ he said. ‘And let’s hope she unsticks this time. They’ll be waking up ashore soon.’

As the engines thumped again the capstan began to groan. The wire tautened slowly once more then whipped out of the water, vibrating madly. Lights appeared in the darkness on the bund.

‘Machine gunner, watch those lights.’ Kelly called out. ‘Don’t shoot yet. Just report what’s happening.’

‘Aye aye, sir.’

‘Stand by, Quartermaster.’

‘Stand by, sir.’

‘Full astern, Sub.’

Watching the mud alongside, Kelly held his breath. Would the wire part or would the ship move?

The capstan groaned and coughed.

‘More steam.’

‘Got all I dare give her, sir,’ the stoker at the capstan valve said.

‘We’ll take a chance. Give her the lot.’

The splice in the end of the hawser began to twist and turn; then the wire became a thin steel bar, humming and singing. The gunboat trembled and smoke poured from the funnel in black greasy clouds, curling like snakes. The water from the stern raced along the side as if she were moving, rushing and boiling as it surged forward.

‘How’s it going, Sub?’

‘No movement yet, sir.’

Kelly put his head over the edge of the bridge. ‘Come on, you bastard,’ he muttered. He’d look a proper fool if she didn’t move and they were still there in the morning.

‘Let go the anchors!’

There was a sharp clang as the man with the sledge swung at the pin of the shackle holding the port anchor cable, then a splash and a roar as the cable ran out through the hawse-hole. The sound was repeated for the starboard anchor and they felt the bow lift as it was relieved of the weight.

‘She’s moving, sir!’ Rumbelo’s voice came hoarsely along the deck and Kelly’s heart leapt. Then there was a different shiver from the ship. The hawser dipped suddenly, splashing into the water with a loud thwack, then leapt out again.

‘Haul it in,’ Rumbelo yelled. ‘She’s moving! Have it out of the way of the screws!’

‘Half astern!’ Kelly shouted. ‘Keep those winches going, Rumbelo! Let me know when we’re clear, Sub.’

Spider
was moving quite distinctly now, sliding off the mud, still slowly but gathering speed all the time. Then suddenly she seemed to settle herself comfortably like a duck taking to the water, until finally she was afloat and swinging round, alive once more, a ship. A faint cheer came from aft.

‘I thought we’d pull the bloody capstan out of the deck, sir,’ Dover said with a sigh of relief.

Kelly grinned. ‘Let’s hope we don’t need it again. We’ve probably wrecked it. Port a fraction, QM. Keep us facing upstream. I’m going to let the current take us down.’

‘Aye aye, sir. Upstream.’

‘Kedges aweigh, sir,’ Rumbelo called.

‘Make ’em fast. They can stay where they are until we’ve time to get ’em inboard. Stop both.’

Watching, Kelly waited a second then turned to the quartermaster. ‘Can you see what you’re doing, QM?’

Peering from under the lip of his steel helmet, the quartermaster nodded. ‘More or less sir. The rain’s blurring things a bit.’

‘It’s got to be better than that. Make it slow ahead.’ Kelly pushed his head out of the wheelhouse window. ‘No shooting,’ he ordered. ‘The quieter we are, the safer we are. And stand by the searchlight. I want to see what we’re doing.’

They could see
Swei-Fan
’s bulk close astern of them now, like a house-side and growing bigger all the time as she came up fast. Then as she slipped past, a bulky shadow in the darkness, Kelly turned.

‘Half ahead both!’

Both ships were facing the current,
Swei-Fan
held by her anchor,
Spider
just beginning to halt her rearwards drift as her propellers bit. Then, slowly, the way went off the gunboat and she began to move ahead into the current, pulling up towards
Swei-Fan
’s stern. There was still no sign of life aboard the freighter and no sounds of alarm from ashore.

‘Searchlight!’

As the light came on, the blue-white beam leapt across the black water, turning
Swei-Fan
’s hull to silver.

‘Stand by, QM. Starboard side to, and it’s got to be first time. Think you can do it?’

‘If you don’t mind a bit of scraped paint, sir.’

‘We’ll worry about that later. Sub, tell the boarding party to stand by. I want a wire across to
Swei-Fan
’s bow. The current’ll swing us in.’

Kelly’s heart was thumping. They were about to take on the whole Nationalist army with twenty-odd men. If they pulled it off, he’d be a marked man. If he failed, he’d be on the beach looking for a job as a wine shipper or a dockyard manager.

‘Stop both!’

‘Stop both, sir!’

‘Starboard twenty. Deck lights!’

As the decklights came on. there was a clang and a grinding of steel as
Spider
’s bow thumped against
Swei-Fan.
Kelly was handling the gunboat with the technique of an over-enthusiastic midshipman with a pinnace; and a steel rail, caught by a projection on
Spider
’s waist, buckled, was tom off, and leapt into the air with a clatter of steel on steel, curled like a petrified caterpillar. Gregory appeared on the bridge, panting, as
Spider
came to a stop alongside the bigger ship.

‘Right, Rumbelo,’ Kelly yelled. ‘Now!’

‘Get that wire across,’ Rumbelo’s voice came out of the wet darkness, and Kelly leapt from the wheelhouse.

‘Keep her at slow ahead, Sub,’ he said. ‘She’s all yours. Let’s go!’

Running the length of the ship, he found Rumbelo already on
Swei-Fan
’s deck, making a wire rope fast round a bitt.

‘Let’s have another at the stern,’ he yelled.

The crash of the two ships colliding seemed to have wakened the Chinese on board and they came tumbling out of a hatchway as
Spider
swung heavily alongside in the current. They held rifles but they were jacketless, some of them even shirtless, their eyes wild, their mouths cages of teeth. As the first man appeared, Rumbelo kicked him in the chest and he fell back on the others in a tangle of arms and legs, and for a moment there was sufficient respite to get another wire across amidships.

‘Watch the other side!’ Kelly directed, and two seamen hurtled round
Swei-Fan
’s stern.

A Chinese soldier’s head poked through a doorway and Kelly fired. The face seemed to burst like a smashed melon, blood spattering the white paint. Another took its place immediately but, as one of the seamen swung his pick shaft, it vanished again just as quickly. Bullets were coming from forward now and Kelly dashed off along the deck, to find himself face to face with what appeared to be millions of Chinese tumbling down from the bridge. He shot one and kicked the feet from under another. But more appeared and he was surrounded. Just when he thought he’d seen the last of life, Donkin appeared alongside him, his face almost obscured by an enormous steel helmet, using a revolver as if he were at target practice. In the wet roaring darkness, Kelly found himself struggling with an enormous Chinaman who stank of stale sweat, but he brought his knee up and, as the Chinaman yelled and doubled up, he clubbed him at the back of the head with the pistol.

Gathering his party round him, he led the way forward in a rush to the centrecastle where the officers’ quarters were. Another bunch of Chinese appeared, bursting out of a doorway with what seemed like a hedge of steel below yelling yellow faces. Lifting his pistol, Kelly was just about to fire when he slipped on the rain-wet deck and went down on his knees. Looking up, he saw a man standing over him with a rusty spear in his hands. God, he thought in horror, fancy dying with a foot of rusty steel in your guts! As he shoved the pistol into the bare belly above him and pulled the trigger, the Chinaman gave a howl and fell across him, screaming, and the spear clattered across them both and fell to the deck. Warm blood pumping into his face, blinding him, he struggled free to find the deck empty of living Chinese.

‘Where’ve they gone?’

‘Over the side, sir,’ Donkin panted.

‘Thank God for that! Stand by the wheel, Donkin. Rumbelo, see what you can do about
Swei-Fan
’s anchor.’

Darting below, he started yelling. ‘
Swei-Fan
, it’s the Navy! Anybody about?’

A yell came from one of the cabins and he blew the lock off. Four men fell out at his feet as the door burst open.

‘Archer,’ one of them said. ‘Second officer. That’s Mr Smith, Third; Mr Collins, Chief Engineer; and Chief Steward Watercorn.’

‘Go forward, Mr Archer,’ Kelly said. ‘Help my chaps to slip your cable. Fast as you can. We’re towing you away.’

‘Are you, by Christ? Right.’

‘On the bridge, Mr Smith! Mr Collins, have you any firemen?’

‘Three. One hurt.’

‘Get the others below. We’ll need your engines as soon as possible. Where are your passengers, Mr Watercorn.’

‘Cabin. Upper deck.’

‘Stand by. I’ll need you to show me the way when we’re clear.’

Leading the Chief Steward in the scramble to the deck, Kelly heard the anchor cable go and yelled across to
Spider
. ‘Slow ahead, Sub. Starboard helm. The current’ll swing us round.’

Still covered with blood, he scrambled back aboard
Spider
and up to the bridge. As he did so, a bullet struck the wheelhouse roof and whined away, and they heard the flat report of a rifle.

‘Do we fire back, sir?’ Gregory asked, like himself yelling with excitement.

‘Not yet.’

Catching the greater bulk of
Swei-Fan
, the current slowly swung them right round so that they faced downstream. The town was sliding back behind them and now another scattering of shots struck the wheelhouse and made them duck.

‘Machine gunner, can you make ’em keep their heads down?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Go ahead.’

The ancient maxim rattled in slow time and the shooting from the shore stopped at once.

‘Dead ahead, sir,’ RumbeIo’s voice warned from near the gun on the bow. ‘There’s a lighter in the way!’

‘Full ahead both, Sub, and let’s hope to Christ
Swei-Fan’
s weight don’t take us into it.’

Holding his breath, Kelly stared into the darkness. The sheer effrontery of what he’d done occurred to him for the first time and it took his breath away. Maguire, he thought, it’s a bloody good job you never stop to think.

As they slid past the lighter, an anchored passenger ship, three tiers high, loomed up ahead.
Spider
swept past, almost brushing her stern as she was carried downstream by the current, and they saw startled faces caught by the deck lights staring down at the little gunboat with the bulk of
Swei-Fan
lashed alongside. Then the passenger ship’s siren bellowed to draw attention to the escaping vessels and immediately other sirens followed and a flare went up from the shore.

‘Where’s that bloody bend, Sub?’

‘Coming up now, sir.’

‘Well, we shan’t need any rudder.
Swei-Fan
’ll do it for us. Make it full astern both.’

As
Spider
’s screws churned the water and she slowed, the weight of the big freighter swung them both round until they had changed direction by forty-five degrees.