Free Ramage's Mutiny by Dudley Pope Page B

she had any British subjects in her ship’s company, sir.”
    â€œVery well, then what happened?”
    â€œI boarded her with ten men. I was short of officers,” he explained. “I took the list of the
Jocasta
’s ship’s company and inspected the American brig’s papers.”
    â€œDid you find any of the
Jocasta
’s men on board?”
    â€œAt first I found one name, Albert Summers. I told the American master that this man was a mutineer from the
Jocasta
and demanded that he be produced.”
    â€œWas he produced?”
    â€œYes, sir, and at the same time—or, rather a few minutes before, because he was waiting nearby—another man came up to me and said he was from the
Jocasta
and wanted to give himself up.”
    â€œWhat was his name?”
    â€œHe said it was George Weaver.”
    â€œDid that name appear on your list?”
    â€œNo, sir.”
    â€œPoint him out.”
    Aitken indicated the round-faced man at the other end of the line.
    â€œWhat did you do then?”
    â€œWhen Albert Summers was brought before me I accused him of being one of the Jocastas and told him I was putting him under an arrest.”
    â€œThen what happened?” Edwards asked quietly.
    â€œHe became very excited. He admitted he had served in the
Jocasta
but said he wasn’t the only one.”
    â€œWhat did you understand by that?”
    â€œIt was a slip of the tongue but I assumed from his manner and gestures that there were others on board the brig using false names. I told him to identify them, but he refused.”
    â€œHow did you discover them?”
    â€œI asked the American master where his men had been signed on. Weaver and Summers were among the last names in the ship’s articles, so I suspected they had been signed on while the ship had been in La Guaira or Barcelona—the log showed they were her last ports.”
    â€œWhat did you do then?”
    â€œI instructed the American master to muster all the men he had signed on in any port on the Main.”
    â€œAnd he did so?”
    â€œHe did not agree readily,” Aitken said dryly, “but Weaver offered to point them out—the former Jocastas.”
    â€œDid he do so?”
    â€œAfter a few minutes. He was most savagely attacked by Summers, who tried to strangle him and called him a traitor.”
    â€œPoint out the prisoner Summers.”
    Aitken indicated the man nearest to him. Ramage had been speculating which of the men he was, and had finally guessed he was this man who had an air of evil and viciousness about him. Thin-faced with thinning black hair, his eyes too close together and his nose long and thin, the skin over the bridge stretched tight, he was the man that any officer would watch. Shifty, lazy, troublesome, he was typically the worst in a press-gang’s harvest. Indeed, Ramage thought, he was probably a jailbird, released from prison into the custody of the press-gang.
    Edwards nodded and Aitken resumed his evidence. “We secured Summers and tended Weaver. He then pointed out two more men—the other prisoners,” he said, gesturing to the two standing in the middle of the line. “I asked the American master if he had signed those men on in La Guaira, and he admitted taking on two there and two at Barcelona. That agreed with what was written in the ship’s articles.”
    â€œOnly these four, then?”
    â€œSo he said, and Weaver confirmed it, sir. The master signed a document to that effect, and his mate witnessed the signature.”
    As Aitken produced a paper from his pocket Gowers interrupted: “The witness must speak more slowly. I have to write down every word, and …”
    The paper was handed over the table to the president, who read it and passed it to Gowers. “This is an exhibit, so keep it safely.” Gowers gave a sniff, as though the instruction was a slur on his competence.
    â€œWhat did you do