'Deck here!'

Then, from high above: 'Sail ho, dead ahead, approaching fast!'

'What do you make of her?' demanded Martin.

'Need a bring-'em-near, sir, but reckon she's got everything set to her royals.'

'Very well, I'll send someone up with a telescope.'

Ramage thankfully jammed the lid back on the inkwell, slid the books and papers into the top right-hand drawer of his desk and, out of habit, locked it. Royals set almost certainly meant a ship of war - except, he corrected himself, the world is at peace now. But no merchant ship, not even one of the Honourable East India Company, would be bowling along with royals set in this breeze. Only a ship of war had enough men to handle a cloud of sail in an emergency. The approaching ship could be British, French, Dutch, perhaps even Danish. Unlikely to be Swedish and definitely not Russian - both because few were still at sea and because they were handled in an unbelievably lubberly way.

By now Ramage had collected his telescope from its rack on the bulkhead beside the door and his hat from the hook just below it. He arrived on deck in the weak sunlight to find the western edge of the Bay of Biscay still reasonably calm despite the freshening wind.

Most likely a French ship of the line making for Brest or Rochefort, although, come to think of it, very few French ships of the line had been at sea in the last few days of the war.

'I was just going to send down Mr Orsini, sir,' Martin said. He knew the captain could hear hails through his skylight, but overhearing had no official existence, and Martin added: 'Foremast lookout reports a sail dead ahead steering towards us, and he thinks he can see the royals over the horizon.' Martin pointed at Jackson going hand over hand up the shrouds. The American was reckoned to have the best eye for identifying ships - not just the rig but often the name as well.

Martin was excited and so was Orsini, but both youngsters. the frigate's fourth lieutenant and the midshipman, had forgotten one thing: there was no war on. Three months ago, such a sighting would have meant sending the men to quarters, opening the magazine, wetting the decks and scattering sand over them, loading the guns, the surgeon setting out his instruments and the galley fire being doused. Now, it was peacetime. But Ramage saw Aitken and Southwick coming up to the quarterdeck, both aware there would be no action but both unable to break a habit - of a lifetime for Aitken, of many years for Southwick.

Ramage pulled out the brass eyepiece tube of his telescope, slid it back a fraction of an inch so that the focusing mark was against the end of the larger tube, and looked ahead, where by now he could see an occasional fleck of a sail as the Calypso rose on a swell wave. The other ship was not quite on an opposite course because the masts were not in line: she was steering to pass along the Calypso's starboard side and, at a guess, pass perhaps a mile off.

No new private signals or challenges had been issued as a result of the Treaty; the only flags now to be routinely hoisted, apart from the colours, were the three from the numerary code giving the Calypso's number in the List of the Navy. And they would be hoisted only to another British ship of war. Ramage saw that Orsini had the flags ready.

Ramage felt curiously naked and unprepared: never before had he sailed towards a ship of the line - he was fairly sure that was what she was - with no more preparation needed than making sure three flags were bent on to a halyard. He knew from the aimless way they were walking round the quarterdeck that Southwick and Aitken were having similar feelings.

'Deck there - Jackson here, sir.'

Martin glanced at Ramage, who nodded to emphasize that the youngster was officer of the deck.

'Deck here - what d'you see?'

'Ship of the line, sir; British, may be the Invincible, and probably a private ship.'

A private ship: Jackson could not make out an admiral's flag. With luck, the ship being so near home, she would pass with just a cheery signal, instead of heaving to and her captain ordering Ramage to report on board with his orders, and generally making the most of many years of seniority but knowing that, with Ramage sailing under Admiralty orders, he could not interfere in any way.

'Fetch Jackson down,' Ramage murmured to Martin. The reason was mundane enough - the binnacle drawer had opened and slid out a couple of days ago and both telescopes in it had landed on the deck and cracked their object glasses. There were now only three working telescopes left on board - Ramage's own, the second that Martin had been using but had sent aloft with Jackson, and the third being used by Aitken.

When the American was down on deck again he said to Ramage: 'She's been at sea a long time, sir; I had one last look as I came down and she and us lifted to waves together so I could see her hull as she rolled. Plenty of copper sheathing missing and her bottom green with weed. Topsides need work on them and her sails have more patches than original cloth.'

'Probably coming home from India, and only had time to call at the Cape for water.'

That remark, directed at Southwick, brought a knowing nod. 'She won't want to delay us, then!'

There was nothing more irritating than having to heave to and launch a boat at the whim of a captain whose name was higher on the post list - particularly when the boats had been well secured for a long voyage.

The two ships were approaching quickly: Ramage guessed that the Invincible - if that was who she was - must be making ten knots, with a soldier's wind, and the Calypso a good seven. He looked again with his glass. Yes, he could make out the patched sails now and, as both ships rose on swell waves, saw what Jackson meant about the weed. She must be three or four miles away. Her masts were coming in line now - she was altering course to close with the Calypso. Perhaps she intended just asking for news. Ramage suddenly realized that if he had to board her he could take Robert Smith, landman, with him. The report to the Admiralty about the 'chaplain' was already written; the letter needed only dating and sealing.

There was something very impressive about a ship of the line running dead before the wind: ahead of her the waves swept on in regular formation while she, her sails straining in elegant curves, seemed to curtsey as her stern lifted to a swell wave, her stem sliced up a sparkling bow wave and the whole ship seemed to rise with a massive eagerness until, the swell wave passing under her, she slowed and the whole process began again with the next wave.

And she was hoisting a lot of flags!

'Hoist our pendant numbers,' Ramage snapped, 'and stand by to answer some signals!'

Orsini now had Martin's telescope because he was responsible for signals.

'Well?' Ramage asked impatiently.

'I - I'm not sure, sir. Do we have the old signal book, sir?'

'Of course not. Why?'

'I think she's making an old challenge!'

'Rubbish! You'll say she's hoisted the private signal in a moment!'

'I think she has, sir,' Orsini turned to Ramage. 'My memory is not good, sir, but I'm sure that's one of the challenges for last July, and one of the sequence of private signals also for July. If she -'

Aitken interrupted, a note of urgency in his voice: 'Sir, if you don't have the latest challenges and private signals, you use - in wartime - the ones for the same day but two months earlier!'

'We don't have the replies,' Ramage said, thinking aloud. 'All the books were returned to the Admiralty when the Treaty was signed.'

Suddenly he felt chilled and swung his telescope to his eye again.

The Invincible was furling her royals and courses; in a few moments she would be sailing under topsails alone, the canvas for fighting. At that moment the Invincible's starboard side, which he could see most clearly, had changed: the curving black tumblehome with its single white strake, greyed with dried salt, now had two gashes running parallel above and below the white strake: two dull red gashes where her gunports had suddenly been opened. And now, like ragged black fingers, her guns were being run out.