Free Under the Jolly Roger: Being an Account of the Further Nautical Adventures of Jacky Faber by L. A. Meyer Page B

ask.
    "No. It would be up to the officers and they ain't done nothin'."
    "And the crew?"
    He thinks for a moment, then says, "The crew is split up in different gangs with different loyalties, which ain't surprisin' on a ship like this. A man's gotta know who his friends are."
    "Who can be trusted?"
    "Drake, the Master-at-Arms. Harkness, a gunner, and Jared, the Captain of the Top, are all good men. They command the loyalty of most of the crew."
    "Most?" I ask.

    "Aye. That gang of lubbers brought on with you looks to be a real bad lot. They've been put with the Waisters, which wasn't a good bunch to begin with."
    Ah, Muck is at it again, sowing suspicion and hatred and discord even in the short time he has been aboard. It ain't surprising that he would end up with the Waisters, them being the worst sailors on board any ship, good only for the most simple and brutish of tasks.
    "... and watch out for Bo'sun Morgan—he's the Captain's man, all the way. He's a cruel bastard who enjoys carrying out the Captain's punishments."
    "I will, John," I say, glad of the information.
    "I'm sorry, Jacky, that you ended up here on this Hell Ship. I knew you for a good kid back on the
Dolphin,
and as I see it, you're more in danger than anyone else here."
    I put my hand on his arm. "Don't worry about me, John. I'll be all right."
    He nods and shakes his head like he doesn't believe it. Like he doesn't believe
anybody
on this ship's gonna be all right. "You do have friends here, though. The men that saw you save Billy Barnes at the expense of your own freedom, well, they ain't forgot, and they have spread the story throughout the ship."
    I think on this. "Thanks, John. That is good to know," I say, and swing out to go back down. "Oh, and one other thing. I need a shiv. Can you get me one?"

    I start back down toward the deck, but I cock my head as I hear voices raised down on the quarterdeck below me. It is the Captain and the First Mate, Mr. Pinkham. I quietly drop down to the maintop and sit down to listen.

    "Complications? What complications? A girl shows up on my ship and I bed her. What's complicated about that? I'm the Captain of this bloody ship, and I do what I bloody well want. And I remind you, Pinkham, this is a warship, with rough men on it, not some bloody Asylum for the Protection of Some Poor Bloody Orphans."
    "Well, Sir, if you will pardon me, there are several complications here. First, there is that
book:
Because of it this girl is well known throughout the fleet, throughout all of London, for that matter—and who knows what foolish wife of a commodore or sister of an admiral or even First Lord has read this book and sees this foolish girl as a heroine or at least a poor victim? And for you to be the one that takes this girl under these circumstances, it would not be seemly, Sir. Your reputation, your career, your future promotions..."
    "To hell with all of that and all of them, too." I sense, though I can't see it, that the Captain's tic is pulling his face into another grimace and his eye has gone a-wandering again.
    "Secondly, Sir, there is the question of fraternization."
    "What? What do you mean?" demands the Captain, his irritation plain.
    "If I may be blunt, Sir, a Captain cannot mount a Midshipman. Captain Douglas, you may recall, was executed by firing squad on his own quarterdeck for just that indiscretion."
    "Yes, but that Midshipman was a boy."
    "I don't think the Court-Martial would make that distinction, Sir. You have entered her on the books as a Midshipman."
    "Hmmm. So if she was a Lieutenant..."

    "But that's impossible, Sir!"
    "Oh, bugger all that! I don't give a good goddamn for any of it! If I didn't have an attack of that cursed gout last night, I'd have strapped her on right then, by God, and to Hell with all of them! And to Hell with you, too! Damn! Accursed gout! Why does God hate me so? Delivers a toothsome wench into my very grasp and then unmans me.
Pah!
"
    "The very fact that she's on