The man hurried out of the cabin as though afraid this crazy youth would change his mind.

Ramage walked from one side of the Calypso's quarterdeck to the other, listening to the 'Thunk... thunk' of the capstan pawls on board the five ships and the clacking of the schooner's windlass. All six were weighing on time, and Southwick was cursing the Sarazine. In hauling up to her anchor she was coming very close to the Calypso, just as he had feared when her original French captain anchored her.

Ramage looked across at the Golondrina, which was on the other side: she was creeping ahead and in three or four minutes would be clear of the Calypso. He picked up the speaking trumpet and hailed the Sarazine.

'Mr Aitken

As soon as the Scot answered, Ramage called, keeping his voice low: "Vast heaving for a few minutes, until the Golondrina is clear of us. Then I'll let fall our mizentopsail so we can give our stern a sheer to starboard out of your way. But have them step out lively at the capstan!'

'Aye aye, sir. The way these Frenchmen anchored, you'd think they were leaving haycarts in a farmyard for the night.'

Southwick looked at the Spanish brig with his glass and saw Kenton watching the Calypso warily. Suddenly her topsails were let fall while the headsails soared up the stays.

'Kenton had lashings in place of gaskets on those topsails', Southwick commented to Ramage. 'Good idea when you're shorthanded and there's not much room.'

'As long as the topmen have sharp knives.' Ramage looked round again. 'I think we can let fall our mizentopsail and back it, Mr Southwick.'

The master gave the orders for the topmen, had the quartermaster put the wheel over, and watched as the yard was braced round until the sail was backed, the wind pressing on its forward side and pushing the Calypso's stern away from the Sarazine, whose capstan once again continued its rhythmic clanking.

Then Ramage saw one of the other ships already under way: a brig, the Caroline. She was making the first tack to leave the gulf under topsails. He guessed Aitken would be cross; but for the pause to avoid the Calypso he would have led out his convoy.

'Orsini's lads were determined they'd be first', Southwick commented. 'It'll do him good: build up his confidence for when it gets dark.'

How right the master was. For a moment Ramage was surprised that Southwick, who must be sixty or more, could remember, although Ramage himself recalled as though it was yesterday the first prize he commanded as a midshipman, and how his courage had gone down with the setting sun - or, to be more honest, his cowardice arrived with the dusk.

The Golondrina was under way, and Martin had the Bergère tacking under topsails - Ramage could imagine him being pleasantly annoyed at being beaten by Orsini. Now Rennick was tacking across the gulf with the Matilda, and he saw that the main and foresails of the Rosette schooner had been hoisted, with the headsails following. There was a pause as the peaks of both gaffs were hoisted another foot or two to give a tighter leech and take out some creases; then the schooner bore away as the bosun confidently hardened in sheets and set off after the Caroline.

Now the Sarazine's anchor was being catted as her topsails were sheeted home and she headed for the southern end of Sant' Antioco island, where the other five ships would join her.

'I wonder what the rest of these Frenchmen are thinking now', Southwick said, half to himself and gesturing at the remaining anchored ships. 'Just imagine, eight left - nine, rather; I keep forgetting we have the Passe Partout - and not one of the masters suspicious or coming across to ask us questions.'

'Not one of them bothering to watch, as far as I can see', Ramage said, closing his telescope, 'and that's just as well.'

Southwick nodded happily. 'Yes, we've a busy night ahead of us.'

'Have you that anchorage diagram?'

'Yes, here it is', Southwick said, opening the binnacle box drawer and taking out a sheet of paper. He put it down on the top of the binnacle, holding two sides of it against the wind as Ramage put an arm across the other.

Eight ships were drawn at the precise positions in which they were anchored. They were all linked to the Calypso by lines radiating from her like spokes from an axle, and along each line was written the particular ship's bearing, so that at night a boat with a compass could be sent from the Calypso to find her.

'According to Orsini's list', Southwick said, 'there are about one hundred men on board them.'

Ramage shook his head crossly. 'You know, it's my own fault. There's Aitken setting off for Gibraltar with his convoy of ships, and I've had to use my first, acting second and acting third lieutenants, midshipman, bosun and lieutenant of Marines to command them, just because we carry only one midshipman, instead of half a dozen.'

Southwick gave one of his particularly disapproving sniffs. 'Orsini's an exception, but midshipmen can be a mixed blessing, sir. What's more trouble in a ship than a thirty-year-old midshipman who's spent ten years trying and failing his lieutenant's examination? He's bitter and usually a troublemaker and drinker, and if you send him off in command of a prize, then you'd best use it as an opportunity of getting rid of all your bad men and search 'em all for liquor.'

'Well, we're lucky in that respect.'

'Aye, sir, not a man I'd want to get rid of - except that damned gunner.'

The gunner, a warrant officer, should have been in command of one of the prizes; instead he was the only person in the Calypso to whom Ramage found it hard to be civil, because he was incompetent and sly. The man dodged any responsibility, did not know his job - Ramage often wondered how he obtained his warrant from the Board of Ordnance in the first place - and was more than content to leave everything to his mate. Fortunately for the Calypso the young gunner's mate was both enthusiastic and competent. Ramage usually managed to get rid of incompetent men or anyone who had an abrasive character, but the gunner was appointed by the Ordnance Board and, as Southwick had once bitterly complained: 'It takes an Act of Parliament to get rid of any of their people.'

The gunner treated powder as though it was his own personal property and he had paid for it, and when he first joined the Calypso he had tried to avoid allowing powder or shot for the men to exercise muskets and the upperdeck guns. Finally Ramage had the man brought down to his cabin and, with Aitken and Southwick present, had read him number eleven in the Admiralty's Printed Instructions for the Gunner:

By direction of the captain, he is to allow a proper quantity of powder and shot for exercise, viz. once a week for the first two months, and once a month afterwards, six charges of powder to each man for exercise of small arms, and once a fortnight four pounds of musket shot for them all, and once a month five charges of powder and five of shot for the exercise of the upperdeck guns.

Faced with the Admiralty instructions, the wretched fellow had, within a fortnight, then claimed that 'each man' did not include idlers, such as the cook and his mate, the captain's clerk, sailmaker and others whose name came from the fact that they did not stand a watch.

Once again Ramage had taken him down to his cabin and pointed out there was nothing in anyone's instructions that said the cook had to cook food for him, that the purser had to provide him with water, or the clerk with quills, ink orpaper. In the meantime there were precisely forty individual instructions covering the gunner's duty, and it was up to the captain to make sure, with suitable strictness, that they were obeyed. Number twenty, for example, which in its entirety said of the gunner: 'He is to observe upon the guns, the notches or sights on the base, or muzzle rings, for the better guiding the aim.'