CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

As the Juno stretched close-hauled down the coast, making a bare five knots and with the Surcouf following in her wake two hundred yards astern, the headland formed by Diamond Hill was fine on the larboard bow. The wind was fluking round the peak and freshening. Ramage guessed that once they were out of the lee of the land it would probably be from the east-north-east.

Diamond Rock had just come in sight clear of the headland and Ramage could see La Créole a couple of miles beyond it, well placed to give Wagstaffe a clear view of the convoy approaching the Fours Channel from the east still unaware that two British frigates were coming down from the north-west.

Wagstaffe had made no more signals, apart from reporting that the convoy was following the coast. He must be confident that it would reach the trap of the Fours Channel just as the Juno and Surcouf arrived to spring it. Leaving him with the responsibility of timing the operation had put a heavy load on the shoulders of the Juno's former Second Lieutenant. At first it had worried Ramage that so young a man could wreck everything through carelessness or nervousness. But the young Londoner had impressed him at last evening's conference in the cabin: he had asked several questions that revealed a quick and lively mind, not nervousness or indecision.

Ramage looked astern once again. The Surcouf was a fine sight in the Juno's wake, topsails and topgallants filled in taut curves, her guns rows of stubby black fingers, pointing menacingly through the ports, her bow wave like a white moustache flowing up from the cutwater. Within half an hour the guns would be belching smoke, but for the moment gulls wheeled round her and flying fish flashed low over the water, silver darts aimed without targets.

The French merchant ships were presumably still in the same formation, probably three columns with three ships forming the middle one and two the outer, but the four frigates would no longer be surrounding them. The land covered the eastern side of the convoy from attack, and would continue to do so all the way up to Fort Royal, so one frigate would probably be ahead, one abreast the leading merchantmen, another abreast the last one, and the fourth astern. This meant that the Juno, beating through the Fours Channel to attack the convoy from ahead, would have to dodge two frigates to get at the merchantmen, and the Surcouf, going on to round the Diamond itself before tacking up to cut off the convoy's retreat, would have to deal with the other two.

Ramage looked round at Orsini. 'You have signal number thirteen bent on ready?'

'Aye, aye, sir,' he said, and added: 'Prepare for battle, sir.'

Ramage nodded. 'And the Diamond Rock's pendant and number 123?'

'Aye, aye, sir. To the Juno and Ramage batteries, special signal, Attack the enemy's convoy of merchant ships or transports.’

'Don't get them mixed up, then,' Ramage warned, 'so that you hoist the wrong one.'

The boy pointed to two different halyards. 'No chance of that, sir.'

'And don't mislay the signal book, in case I need to make a signal in a hurry.'

'No, sir,' the boy said patiently, and then grinned. ‘I doubt if you'll need to use number sixteen, though, Engage the enemy more closely.'

Ramage smiled, glad of the boy's confidence. 'No, the lads need no encouraging.'

He watched the steep cliffs, the shadows almost vertical. They were approaching the end of the headland rapidly now. In a few minutes the land would turn away sharply to the eastward and then curve in again like a huge sickle, the point being Diamond Hill headland, the blade the long beach of the Grande Anse du Diamant and the handle the two headlands at the far end. A mile off the tip of the sickle, like a clump of wheat that it was about to reap, was the Diamond Rock.

Southwick came up the quarterdeck ladder, his great sword at his waist, bushy hair poking out from beneath his hat like a half-squeezed mop and his nose bright red from sunburn. 'No sign of the Admiral then, sir?' He rubbed his hands. 'That means we certainly don't share the prize-money - apart from his usual eighth!'

'We might be glad to see him before the day is out,' Ramage said with unintended harshness.

'We'll go through that convoy like a knife through butter!' Southwick declared cheerfully. 'You'll see, sir.'

'They'll be dead to windward of us,' Ramage reminded him.

'And as you mentioned last evening, sir, they'll never expect us to dare to beat up through them. They'll be like a flock of hens waking up to find a fox in the coop!'

As both men talked, they watched the headland of Diamond Hill drawing abeam and Ramage was reminded of watching a theatre stage as a curtain was drawn back, slowly exposing the scenery and the players.

Wagstaffe by now had La Créole about two miles southeast of the Diamond Rock; from there he could reach up right into the middle of the convoy. Because La Créole was still flying the Tricolour, the moment the French saw the Juno and the Surcouf they would assume she was fleeing from them and seeking protection.

The men at the Juno and Ramage batteries on the Diamond could see both the British frigates coming down to the headland from the north-west and the French convoy creeping along the coast. 'Like a crossroads,' Ramage said to himself and only realized he had spoken aloud when Southwick swung round questioningly. 'I was thinking of the French coming up to this headland from the east while we're approaching from the north-west. Like two coaches approaching along sunken lanes and not seeing each other until they're almost at the crossroads.'

'Just one coach,' Samthwick corrected with a broad grin. 'We're the highwaymen!'

Now they could see clear across the great bight to Pointe des Salines at the southern end of the island that reminded Ramage of a boot. They were rounding the toe cap and could just see the heel with the instep still hidden.

'They must be sticking very close to the coast,' Southwick growled. 'I'd have thought we'd have seen the first of 'em by now.'

Ramage gestured to the end of the headland which was drawing aft at what seemed an alarming speed, but he knew it was only anxiety playing tricks with time.

'Deck there!' came a hail from aloft, 'a frigate on the larboard bow, sir, three miles or more, in line with the headland.'

And there she was, ringed in the telescope lens. He saw a second one beyond her just as the lookout hailed again. The first must be on the convoy's bow, the second on the quarter. Then he saw the third frigate, which was obviously leading the convoy and well ahead of it. The convoy was just at the beginning of the Fours Channel and the timing was perfect.

'Hoist our colours,' Ramage snapped at Orsini. That was the prearranged signal to Aitken that the Juno had sighted the French ships and could herself be sighted and identified. Ramage watched the three frigates closely. At any moment there should be a flurry of flag signals, warning that enemy ships were in sight. With any luck, while the French escort prepared to deal with the enemy La Créole would be getting in among them, apparently a welcome reinforcement but actually positioning herself to act as a Trojan horse.

‘I can see a merchantman now,' Ramage told Southwick, trying to keep his voice even. 'And another beyond her – the ships in the outer column. And another, and two beyond - the centre column ...'

With the wind coming free as they passed clear of the headland, Ramage watched the dog vanes. A glance down at the compass showed it trying to make up its mind between northeast and east-north-east.

'Close-hauled, if you please, Mr Southwick; we should be able to lay south-east comfortably!'

Southwick began bellowing into a speaking trumpet and as Jackson gave orders to the men at the wheel, carefully watching the luffs of the sails, seamen hauled at the sheets and braces, flattening in the sails. Astern the Surcouf was bearing away slightly on to a direct course for the Diamond Rock and Ramage realized that the French ship was faster than the Juno. Aitken would fetch the Diamond with the wind a point free, perhaps more. So much the better; she had farther to sail and the sooner she reached the Rock and rounded it to close off the eastern entrance of the Fours Channel the better,