'Should we go below. Your Excellency? My cabin is cool.'

"Very well, very well,' van Someren said thankfully.

Ramage signalled to Aitken and said with an apparent casualness that he knew the Scot would immediately understand: 'Perhaps you would be kind enough to show these two gentlemen round the ship, and then provide them with refreshment.' Then, before either of them could demur, he said to the Governor: 'If Your Excellency would follow me . . .'

Down in the cabin, van Someren sank into the single armchair with a sigh of relief, though Ramage was not sure whether the relief came from getting the weight off swollen feet or boarding the Calypso without incident.

As Ramage sat down on the settee opposite, van Someren said conversationally: "What happened to the French frigate?'

'You would like some refreshment, Your Excellency? A rum punch, perhaps?'

Van Someren shook his head impatiently. Thank you, nothing. The French frigate?'

Ramage inspected his nails. 'I understood from your aide - what was his name?'

'Lausser, Major Lausser.'

' - that you were visiting this ship under a flag of truce . . .'

'But I am, lam!'

'One might get the impression,', Ramage said almost dreamily, clearly absorbed with his nails, that you are in fact conducting an unarmed reconnaissance.'

'My dear Lord Ramage - you see, I know who you are - I am merely asking a polite question. However, if you do not care to answer . . .'

'According to my information, the Dutch - the Batavian Republic, if you prefer the term - are at war with Britain and they are allies of France, which is also at war with Britain. You, sir, are my enemy, so perhaps you will forgive me for not supplying you with news of your allies."

'You captured her,' van Someren said, and Ramage was startled to hear the satisfaction in his voice. 'You captured her and you've sent her off to Jamaica with your other ship, the little schooner, escorting her.'

Dutch lookouts along the coast could have seen everything, of course; indeed, they obviously had reported to the Governor, who was perhaps curious to know how it had been done, because his informants would also have noted the lack of gunfire and smoke.

'If I can be of some service to Your Excellency while you are on board under a flag of truce,' Ramage said heavily, 'please feel free to mention it.'

Van Someren's eyes twinkled and he slapped his knee. 'Lord Ramage, we can do business. Or, rather, we can do business if you have definitely disposed of that French frigate. She was not expected here and she was sighted only about the time you saw her. But I must be assured you captured her. Without that assurance I can do or say nothing more.'

Van Someren was not deliberately talking in riddles; Ramage was sure of that. But what would he propose once he knew that La Perle was not coming to Amsterdam - could not come, Father? On the other hand, the flag of truce could be just a trick to get information. Perhaps La Perle was needed urgently, and this flag of truce and talk of 'business' was just an elaborate charade to find out Van Someren was deliberately staying silent, giving him time to think. Very well, think, Assume the Governor is speaking the truth when he says the French frigate was not expected, and the first the Dutch knew of her presence was sighting her off the west end of the island - from a lookout position on the slopes of Sint Christoffelberg, no doubt A French frigate in the offing and ten French privateers anchored in the harbour. Van Someren doesn't know that Duroc was making for Amsterdam to careen and mend the leak, and that his visit had nothing to do with the privateers. Yet . . . was Duroc speaking the truth?

Supposing van Someren expected the frigate because she was in fact bringing Frenchmen to help man the privateers? Duroc had boasted of having three hundred men on board - not a large number for a French frigate, but a hundred more than an equivalent British frigate would have. Duroc could have left a hundred men behind for the privateers and still had a strong crew for the voyage back to France. A hundred men, ten privateers. Ten men for each ship. That was nonsense, unless the ships had only nucleus crews, because each needed at least fifty or more.

Start again. Van Someren, alarmed at finding a British frigate and schooner arrive off Amsterdam and (as far as the Dutchmen knew) about to blockade Curacao for the next couple of months (and probably Bonaire and Aruba as well), was anxious to see the French frigate arrive to lift the blockade. That sounded much more likely - except for two things.

The first was that Duroc would not have been lying when he said he was going to Curacao only to careen, for the simple reason that Aruba was west of Curacao. Any frigate bringing reinforcements of any sort - men, powder, shot, provisions - from Martinique would go direct to Curacao, not sail past it for thirty miles in a leaky condition and have to beat back. The second was that van Someren had seemed both relieved and pleased when he thought that Ramage had disposed of La Perle. 'You talk of "business". What have you to offer?' Ramage asked bluntly.

'Did you capture or sink that French frigate?'

'Before I discuss her, I want to know what you want.'

'Stalemate,' van Someren said gloomily. 'We have reached a stalemate.'

Ramage shrugged his shoulders. 'I am sorry, but remember that our countries are at war.'

'Have you seen any fires burning on the island?'

Ramage glanced up, trying to keep the surprise from his voice. 'Yes. Quite large fires. And we've heard gunfire, too.'

Van Someren's eyes were narrowing now, the twinkle that accompanied his remark about doing business had gone.

Indeed, looking at that so very Dutch face, Ramage found it hard to visualize it ever smiling.

'You are a man of honour,' van Someren said suddenly. 'And you are a brave man. All this I hear from many ship captains who know what happens at sea. This very ship, for instance . . .'

Ramage again shrugged his shoulders: it was gratifying that the Governor of Curacao knew of him, but that same Governor had just used the word stalemate.

'Lord Ramage, I mentioned that we could do business together, providing you assured me you had captured or sunk that French frigate. You suspect a trap and I suppose I cannot blame you. You remind me we are enemies. However, stalemate helps neither of us.

'Therefore, young man —you will forgive me so addressing you; I am more than twice, nearly thrice, your age - I am going to tell you why I need to know if you have sunk that French frigate. But before I do, I must warn you that my life could be forfeit if you betray what I am going to tell you. I am going to show you my hand of cards without knowing if you will then show me yours. But I rely on your honour.'

Ramage said nothing. The Governor sounded sincere, but the fact was that he commanded an island thirty - eight miles long by seven miles wide, must have sufficient troops, had an excellent and impregnable port as a capital, and as such was the most powerful representative of the Batavian Republic in the Caribbean - in the New World, in fact. Why, then, was he out here under a flag of truce trying 'to do business' with the captain of a British frigate?

The man was sincere, Ramage suddenly felt sure of that, and as he waited he felt a tingling of excitement. Whatever it was would be a challenge. He raised his eyebrows, feigning only idle curiosity: 'Well, Your Excellency?'

'I want to surrender the island of Curacao to you,' van Someren said quietly and added, 'to you as the representative of His Britannic Majesty.'

Ramage stared at him in surprise. 'Why?'