The Hawk (22 page)

Rennie allowed a further moment to pass, then:

'Sir Robert, I think that you must tell me, if you will be so
good, what it is you want of me. I do not at present hold a
commission, but I am in course as willing as you are to serve
the King. Admonition and rebuke will not bring us to our
design – will they?'

This calm request and unbending tone had their effect. Sir
Robert made a face, picked up his spoon and addressed his
broth. Presently:

'Very well, Rennie, very well. I will not pursue you as to
Birch. I do not care about Birch, and ladies in the Cambridge
Road. What d'y'know of a vessel, the
Lark
?'

'I know that Lieutenant Hayter's duty is to pursue her, and
take her. A smuggling cutter, ain't she?' Lifting his eyebrows
in polite enquiry.

'What did you convey to the fellow that came to your
rooms at the Marine Hotel? What did y'tell him about Mr
Hayter?'

'I told him nothing, Sir Robert.'

'With a pistol at your head?'

'His pistol was not long pointed at my head, you know. My
foot went in his testicles right quick, and the pistol became
mine. I have it yet.'

'Had you any notion who the man was, when you had him
carried off in the night?'

'None.'

'Very well. His name is Aidan Faulk. Perhaps y'may have
seen his name on the Lieutenants' List.'

'He is a sea officer?' Surprised.

'Was. He has left the service.'

'In what circumstances?'

'That is immaterial. It is his present activity concerns us.
Ye've had sight of Lieutenant Hayter's instructions?'

'Well well . . . I have.' Rennie saw no point in pretending
otherwise, now.

'Then you know of my own duty in this matter, and will
understand the importance Their Lordships and the government
attach to the taking of the
Lark
.'

'Clearly they attach high importance to it, Sir Robert.'

'You also know that Their Lordships wished you to assist
Lieutenant Hayter in the same capacity realized by Captain
Marles, before his untimely death – but could not discover
your whereabouts.'

'I am aware of it, yes.' Rennie now attempted – lamely
attempted, because his heart was not in it – to explain the
complicated circumstances surrounding his arrival in
Portsmouth, and to offer excuse for his conduct. Sir Robert
cut him short.

'We will put all of that aside, Rennie, until a later time. For
now, in the immediate, we must bury all difference, and work
in concert. Yes?' The penetrating black stare.

'As you wish, Sir Robert.' A sniff, and a little sigh of relief
and resignation. He would submit, and do as he was told.

'Very good. Now then, Aidan Faulk had intelligence that
you was in Portsmouth, else he could not have found you at
the Marine Hotel.'

'Sir Robert, how did you know of his visit to me? Who told
you he put a pistol to my head?'

'I was able to put questions to one of the yardmen you
bribed to take Faulk away. He saw the pistol, and put two and
two together to produce four.'

'Ah. May I ask – how did you come to put your questions
to the yardman? Surely he did not make himself known to
you – '

'There is no mystery nor subterfuge.' Impatiently. 'You
gave those men a guinea each, Rennie, did not you? To such
men a gold guinea is a week in liquor, and liquor loosens
tongues.'

A brief smile, a nod. 'My compliments to you, Sir Robert,
on your many overhearing spies, at Portsmouth.'

If Sir Robert did not quite care for that remark he did not
show it. A black glance, and:

'I wish you to make Aidan Faulk believe that you have
information for him.'

'Eh? How am I to make him believe that, good God, when
he is at sea?'

'He ain't always at sea, though. He came to you at the
Marine Hotel. He comes ashore regular, is my intelligence,
and he will come to you again – if you bait your hook rich.'

'But how? I have told you, Sir Robert, I kicked the fellow's
privates so damned hard he fell down in a faint. No doubt he
woke up very sore, in some foul ditch where the yardmen
threw him. I do not think he will likely return to me, you
know, under any circumstance at all.'

A brief, emphatic shake of the head. 'You do not know
him.'

'I am not his friend, certainly.'

'You do not know his motive, his philosophy, his purpose.
He is a very determined man. One little setback will not
deflect him, and – '

'Little setback! God damn me, I near killed the poor
bugger. If I was him, by God, I would not again venture near
the fellow had done that to me, not before old Nick ate snow,
at any rate.'

The hint of a smile on the grim face, 'Yes, in spite of your
very colourful turn of phrase, Rennie, you are wrong.' The
smile gone. 'He will come because what you have to offer will
be too valuable to him to ignore.'

Rennie raised his eyebrows, shrugged, and was prepared to
listen. Sir Robert continued.

'What I tell you now, Rennie, may be very painful to you,
but please to hear me out. – You will be disgraced, and
dismissed the service.'

'Dismissed – '

'You will be flung permanently on the beach, without halfpay,
without a pension, without support of any kind – and no
prospect of further employment, not even in the lowliest
merchant brig. In little, you will be ruined.'

Captain Rennie was dressed in hastily purchased and slightly
ill-fitting full dress uniform, and wearing a sword obtained
for him on commission by Bracewell & Hyde. He
straightened his stock, took a deep, sniffing breath, and went
in at the door past the marine guard. In the day cabin of HMS
Zealous
, seventy-four, there faced him – with unwavering
gaze, at the thwartwise dining table – four senior post
captains and an admiral, and the judge advocate in his robes
of office. One of the posts was Captain Langton, and his usual
bluff and benign expression was today absent. His face was
nearly expressionless. It was his eyes that betrayed his deep,
dismayed disapproval. Rennie, who knew sea officers, saw
this at once. Had this been a genuine court martial, he
reflected, he would now be feeling bladder-squeezing disquiet
at what he read in Captain Langton's look – but today
it merely reflected the success of the subterfuge. These
stalwart sea officers, grim-faced and correct in their dress
coats, knew nothing of the underlying deception. So far as
they were concerned the officer before them was to be tried
on what they believed was a cogent and serious offence, under
the Articles of War.

Rennie was to be charged, under Article Thirty-Three,
with 'behaving in a scandalous, infamous, cruel, oppressive,
or fraudulent manner, unbecoming the character of an
officer'. A charge that, Sir Robert Greer had assured Rennie,
would be wholly invented to suit their case; which would,
temporarily, until it was reversed at a later hearing, result in
his being dismissed the service.

Light glinted and glanced off the riding water outside the
stern gallery window, and was reflected on the deckhead.
The judge-advocate, a mild, pink-cheeked little man, read
out the warrant authorizing the assembling of the court, and
then administered the oath. The court president, Rear-
Admiral Steer, took the oath last. Rennie lifted his head,
playing the part of the accused with what he hoped was a
certain dignity and nobility of countenance, and waited for
the charge to be read. What followed shocked him to the
marrow.

'You, Captain William Rennie RN, are hereby charged,
under Article Eighteen of the said Articles of War, concerning
the duty of officers and seamen of all ships appointed for
convoy and guard of merchant ships, that on or about the – '

'Article Eighteen!' blurted Rennie, ashen-faced. 'But I – I
thought that I was to be charged under Article – '

'Silence, sir!' Admiral Steer, very stern. 'You will kindly be
silent whilst the charge is read out to you.'

'But there is certainly some mistake.' Rennie leaned
forward earnestly. 'I was to have been charged under Article
Thirty-Three, and – '

'You will be silent, Captain Rennie!' Admiral Steer, very
harsh indeed. 'Else ye'll be removed from this court, and the
charge read in your absence.'

'But I – I must protest. I was to have been – '

'D'y'wish me to summon the sergeant of Marines, sir? Do
you? Hey!'

'No, sir.' Rennie, utterly bewildered. 'May I be permitted
to – '

'Y'may not, sir. Make your back straight, and be quiet.'

'Very good, sir.' And he was silent as the charge was read.

The rest of the morning passed in a blur for Rennie.
Witnesses were called – seamen and warrant officers and
others, none of whom he could remember ever having met,
nor served with – who swore to his cowardice and flight in the
face of the enemy, when HMS
Expedient
, his former command,
had been commissioned on convoy duty on the
Barbary shore, and the convoy lost.

The noon gun was fired, the court deliberated, the accused
was brought again before them to stand and hear the verdict.
He was found guilty, and immediately cashiered.

'Captain Rennie.' Admiral Steer's blue glare was no longer
quite so severe, Rennie thought. It had pity in it, now, and
perhaps even regret.

'Sir?'

'It is my painful duty to say – be gone.'

'Sir Robert, I demand to know why I was deceived!' Bursting
into the library at Kingshill.

'You risk coming here, Captain Rennie?' Sir Robert rose
from his chair, and gripped the edge of the desk to steady
himself. 'Did not I say to you that the house was watched?'

'Damnation to that! I demand to know why you led me to
understand I would face only a charge of misconduct, when
what I faced amounted to a capital charge, by God!'

'All right, Fender.' To his anxious servant at the door.

'How will I ever get back into the service, now? The charge
of cowardice in the face of enemy was proved! On spurious
evidence, but proved!' Pacing up and down. 'They will never
reverse that! Why did you do it, for the love of Christ! I
meant to help you with Faulk! I swore that I would follow any
scheme you devised!' Smacking his hat against his leg.

'Captain Rennie, calm yourself.' Sir Robert lowered
himself into his chair. A brief wince.

'Calm myself, y'say! It is very fine and easy for you, damn
your blood, that sit in the shadows and make puppets of us
all!'

'Take care what you say to me, sir, and be calm.'

'I shall damned well be calm when the time is right, and
that ain't now!' Flinging down his hat.

'You must in least endeavour to be temperate. Else how
may I come to explication.'

'Do not you see that by all reason and logic I am ruined!'
Rennie stopped in front of the desk, breathing furiously
through his nose. 'Not in make-believe, neither. Not in letus-
pretend. In plain bloody – '

'Will you be silent one moment!' Sir Robert stood up, his
voice booming down the room.

'Ah-hah! Yes! Now it is you requiring me to be silent!'
Rennie was trembling with anger. 'It ain't enough that I
should be traduced in the great cabin of a ship of the line, and
endure it silent! Now I must endure it silent here! I will not!
I will
not
!'

Sir Robert staggered, and again gripped the desk. A
moment, a breath, and:

'Pray do not raise your voice to me in my own house.'

'Are you ill, Sir Robert?' Peering at him.

'Nay . . . but perhaps I will sit down again, though. Will
you sit down?'

'I will remain on my legs, thankee.' Curtly.

'As you wish.' Sir Robert lowered himself into his chair,
and took a moment to compose himself. Then lifted his black
gaze, and Rennie saw with a twinge of dismay that it was as
pitiless and unrelenting as ever.

'You should not have come here, Rennie. I would have come
to you, in due course. Since you are here, you had better have
the truth.' A moment, the black stare. 'You was traduced, as
you put it, for a reason. I could not be sure of you, else.'

'What? Not sure?'

'You had to be made aware, by being found guilty of an
unpardonable offence, that without my particular aid and
intervention behind, you would never again serve in the
Royal Navy. It could not be sham. It could not be pretence.
It must needs be
real
. And now I think that you are aware. Are
not you?'

'But I had already said I would help you!' Tears of rage
stood in Rennie's eyes. 'I gave you my word!'

The black stare.

'Captain Rennie . . . I do not trust any man that I cannot
destroy, if I wish it.'

So there it was, naked and raw. The pure malevolence of
the fellow came off him like the stink of scurvy from rotted
gums, and seared the air. And nothing for Rennie to do but
sniff it in, and bear it.

'For Christ's sake, then . . .' not much above a whisper '. . .
what is it you really want?'

'I will like you to provoke a quarrel with your friend
Langton.'

'Langton? Why should I quarrel with Captain Langton?'

'He was a member of the court that found against you, and
naturally you feel bitter towards him.'

'But I do not. Had I been the member, and Langton the
accused, I should have found just as he did – and the others –
on the evidence.'

'You feel bitter towards him,' continued Sir Robert, 'and
angry. You will say all manner of intemperate things, as if you
was in drink. You will say in particular that ye'd be better
placed serving France.'

'But that is damned nonsense!'

'Captain Langton will know nothing of our subterfuge,
and must learn nothing. He must believe you absolutely.
When he objects – as he will – you will challenge him.'

'Challenge! But good God – we shall then be obliged to
fight.'

'Exact. A duel will be arranged, seconds appointed, a place
and time agreed. You will fail to appear. Langton will win by
default.'