‘Laffin, get a boat’s crew t’gether for me. Cox’n an’ six, the launch under sail and I’ll have the thirty-two-pounder carronade shipped in the bows.’ There was no harm in being well prepared: a boat action could be the most brutal form of combat at sea. ‘Ready in half an hour, if y’ please.’
He examined the charts with Hewitt: communications with the south were a road following a fertile strip along the sea at the edge of the desert – if the enemy were to come they must choose between the coast road and a long swing inland from the interior to reach the gates of Acre.
‘I’ll press south t’ this Mount Carmel,’ Kydd mused. ‘Ten miles or so. They’ll come along the coast road’s my guess.’
‘Mount Carmel – Elijah discomfits the prophets of Baal, two Kings something…’
Kydd could not bring it to mind: this was half a world away from the boredom of the Sunday service in Guildford town where the dry words of a preacher speaking of the Holy Land bore no resemblance at all to this arid country.
‘. . . the Samaritans, even. Christ passed by here on his way to Jerusalem…’
‘Um, that’s right – an’ I’m takin’ a carronade in case they have gunboats out. Do ye keep a watch f’r gunfire, as will be y’r signal they’re abroad.’ He left Hewitt to his Biblical musings and collected his sword belt from the corner. He favoured a shoulder carriage to spread the weight, leaving the belt loose for a brace of pistols. His fighting sword had a satisfying heft and in the warmth of the late-afternoon sun he strode down to the mole.
Laffin, the hard petty officer Kydd remembered from his ‘duel’ in Canada, touched his hat at his approach; also in the boat was the lofty Poulden, forward at the stubby carronade, and several other Tenaciouses along the thwarts. A stout enough crew, he thought with satisfaction.
‘Pistols an’ cutlasses?’
‘In th’ arms chest, sir,’ Laffin said immediately.
He boarded the big launch and settled in the stern-sheets, leaving Laffin the tiller. ‘We’ll shove off now, if y’ please,’ Kydd told him.
The soft westerly meant they did not even have to ship oars as the gaff-headed main was hoisted. ‘I’ll have th’ running bowsprit out with jib an’ stays’l, I believe.’ The carronade would not bear forward while this was rigged but it would add considerably to their speed and could be struck in a hurry if need be.
The boat left the mole, slipped past the roiling white of the Manara rocks, then headed out to sea to preserve an offing before shaping course south. It was most pleasant, Kydd had to admit; the sun sinking out to sea in shimmering splendour, warmth still in the air, and in the other direction, the low, nondescript coast taking on the wistful indigo of evening. Along the endless virgin sands was the startling white of breakers, the purple of far mountains now a deep ultramarine.
Olive gardens and small clusters of the flat-topped dwellings were dotted along the shore. Several times figures stopped, watching them curiously. The cheerful splash of their passage and the occasional grunted conversation of the men lulled Kydd into a reverie – he pulled himself together. What did a great army look like, apart from thousands of bayonets? He had no idea, but knew that if he saw one his duty was to get the news to Smith with the utmost urgency.
The bay curved round. At one place he saw classical ruins enough to make Renzi stare – but he was not present: he was in distant England, resolving his personal life. A string of camels plodded along the skyline. Kydd idly counted nearly a hundred on the dusty road with their riders in flowing desert cloaks looking as if they had stepped out of a picture book of his childhood. He followed their advance, their riders rhythmically jerking forward as though in a boat in a rough sea – jerking? Surely a desert Bedouin had a more comfortable style of riding.
He looked about quickly. ‘Laffin – put about an’ go beyond that spit o’ land.’ They had passed a tiny headland, no more than a small twist of sand. The boat went about smartly and returned the way they had come. As soon as they were out of sight of the riders Kydd said urgently, ‘Set me ashore, an’ stand off ’n’ on until they’re past, then collect me.’
The boat scrunched into the fine sand beyond the point and Kydd leaped off, scurrying to get into the fringing grasses of the sand dune. He crouched, waiting. There were no sounds of sighting or pursuit but he kept very still. At length came the soft chinkle of a camel harness and the murmur of voices on the evening air. A delicate, unknown but haunting fragrance warred with the dry pungency of the desert and the nearer salty sand of the dunes – he flattened among the reedy grasses, rigid with concentration.