'Hmmm,' growled Calder, 'how do you know this order' - he waved Ramage's translation, - 'isn't a forgery? Or a deliberate attempt to mislead us? I can't see the Spaniards leaving orders around just for you to read.'

Ramage, still puzzled by Calder's blatant hostility, glanced at Sir John, but the admiral's face was still impassive.

'I don't know, sir. It could be a forgery, or it could be a deliberate attempt to mislead us.' Ramage kept his voice flat, and he sensed Hallowell - who must be considerably junior to Calder - was also puzzled not so much by the questions but by the tone of the man's voice.

'But you don't believe it's either?' asked Sir John.

'No, sir. Admiral Cordoba has replaced Langara and was staying in a house in Cartagena. The order was taken from a locked drawer in his desk. He hadn't the slightest reason to suspect anyone would burgle his house. And since the orders aren't missing he still doesn't know anyone has seen them, let alone that you now have a copy.'

'Who burgled the house, then?' demanded Calder.

'One of my seamen.'

'Why didn't you?'

The implication and tone was so insulting that Ramage flushed, but Sir John gave a slight nod which told him to answer.

'It was a question of burgling Admiral Cordoba's house at night, and picking locks. The seaman was formerly a locksmith by trade and I gather an occasional burglar by choice. He preferred to work alone. It would have been too risky to light a candle to read through all the papers in the house, so I waited in a shed in the garden with a light, pen and paper...'

Sir John interrupted: 'Ramage, you've obviously a splendid tale to tell. It'll sound all the better at supper, so join us at five o'clock. Let me have a written report as soon as possible.'

Ramage was just turning to go when Sir John said: 'You have no news of Commodore Nelson?'

'No, sir. They were worried at Gibraltar.'

'Very well,' and then he said, almost to himself, 'I'll be glad when Nelson joins us. If the Dons run into his frigates and transports ... Calder, make a signal to the Britannia, Barfleur and Prince George - I've no doubt the rest of my admirals will also enjoy young Ramage's tale.'

As Ramage was rowed back to the Kathleen he realized that round the supper table, listening to the story of how Admiral Cordoba's house came to be burgled, would be Vice-Admiral Thompson, Vice-Admiral Waldegrave and Rear-Admiral Parker. None, as far as Ramage knew, had been connected in any way with his father's trial. Each might have private views, but none had joined in the vendetta. And that, he realized, was probably why Sir John in his shrewd way had invited him to supper: they were all powerful men in the Navy and likely to become more so - and they (and Sir John, too, for that matter!) would be able to form their own opinion of 'Old Blaze-away's' son. The supper or, rather, the way he behaved and spoke during it, could be a turning point in his career. And he was so tired he had as much chance of shining in such company as a mirror in a mine shaft.

The supper was a complete success, and as soon as the cloth was removed and the brandy poured, Sir John told Ramage he would buy La Providenciaas a dispatch vessel, and then insisted he began his tale by relating how he captured the dismasted Spanish frigate.

When Ramage described the explosion boat, Calder immediately interjected that it was a barbarous idea but was promptly squashed by Sir John, who pointed out that as far as the victims were concerned having the stern of their ship blown off by powder in a boat was far less dangerous to life and limb than having it blown off by the powder in the guns of a ship delivering a raking broadside.

The description of how Jackson produced a blank Protection and filled it in for Ramage's use led Sir John to comment, 'It's a pity the American Minister Plenipotentiary in London can't see that Protection. Have you still got it?'

Ramage had patted his pocket and Sir John said dryly, 'Keep it - might want it again one day!'

As soon as Stafford's rôle as the burglar had been related, Hallowell slapped the table and exclaimed, 'Well, Sir John, that man deserves to be appointed Locksmith-in-Ordinary to His Majesty's Fleet!'

'Lock-picker,' corrected Sir John. 'But I think we'll leave him with Mr. Ramage. If I had him on board the flagship I'd be forever worrying about the lock on my wine chest!'

When Ramage finished his story the Commander-in-Chief reached out and in a slow and deliberate move pushed aside the brandy glass on the table in front of hkn, and Ramage sensed his mood had changed.

'Tell me, Ramage, when you decided to tackle the dismasted Spanish frigate,' he said in a deceptively quiet voice 'did it occur to you that you were disobeying the Commodore's orders?'

'Yes, sir.'

'You mean it occurred to you before you did it, not after.'

'Yes, sir. Before.'

'It's becoming fashionable for a young officer to assume that if he disobeys orders and does something else, he gets promoted if he succeeds and court-martialled if he doesn't. That was what you were gambling on, eh?'

'No sir,' Ramage said frankly, 'because I didn't think I'd succeed.'

'Why try it, then? You don't need the prize money.'

Ramage, conscious the four admirals were watching him closely, knew it was no good lying. 'I still don't know why, sir. I think - well, the ship's company, the Marchesa, Count Pitti, they all took it for granted we'd do it.'

'Do you mean to sit there and tell me you let your ship be run by a woman and a bunch of ignorant seamen?' growled Sir John.

Hallowell said bluntly, 'With respect sir, I think it's to Ramage's credit that they had such faith in him.'

'Faith be damned, Ben; it only proves they're even more stupid than he is!'

'But Sir John,' said Admiral Waldegrave, 'surely it depends on the point of view. Ramage obtained this information. But one could argue that in using the American Protection, technically Ramage deserted from the King's Service and could be sentenced to death by the British under the Sixteenth Article of War. Yet at the same time if the Spaniards had discovered he was a British officer wearing seaman's clothes and carrying an American Protection while arranging for Cordoba's house to be burgled, surely they'd have shot him as a spy?'

'They could have and would have, my dear Waldegrave,' Sir John said grimly, 'and no one could blame them. But that has nothing to do with disobeying orders. Mr. Ramage was under orders to get the Marchesa to Gibraltar by the safest possible route.'

'But I was on that route, sir,' Ramage said hopefully. 'Perhaps the Commodore's orders were loosely worded,' Admiral Parker said.

The Commander-in-Chief glared round the table. ‘The first part of the Nineteenth Article of War lays down only one penalty - death. I'll trouble you gentlemen to recall the wording - "If any Person in or belonging to the Fleet shall make, or endeavour to make, any Mutinous Assembly, upon any pretence whatsoever...' It seems to me the whole bunch of you are making a mutinous assembly right in front of m' own eyes, on the pretext that young Ramage didn't disobey the wording of his orders! He simply disobeyed the spirit of them, which is worse.

'However, instead of making an order for his trial I'll give you a toast - gentleman, to young Ramage and his absurdly trusting ship's company!'

No sooner had they drunk to that than Captain Hallowell, who was a Canadian, said, 'And may I propose another - to his loyal band of temporary Americans!'