Ridley shook his head. "I can't explain, sir; but I'd be grateful if you'd just take my word for it."

"Ridley," Ramage said sharply, "your ship opened fire on the Calypso. I'm trying to find out why."

Ridley shook his head. "I'm sorry, sir, I know nothing about it. You must ask Captain Shirley."

"Have you and the other officers been threatened?"

"I'm sure the captain can tell you all you need to know, sir. I'm only the first lieutenant," Ridley said doggedly.

"Which means you are the second-in-command and take command if anything happens to the captain."

Ridley stared at the deck and said, almost absently: "But nothing has happened to the captain ..."

"Listen," Ramage said quietly, "tell me in confidence what has happened. I'll tell these two officers to move out of earshot so there will be no witnesses to whatever you say."

"It's no good," Ridley said miserably, "there's nothing to say, witnesses or no witnesses."

Very well, Ramage decided, persuasion will not work so it has to be a threat. "You realize there will be courts of inquiry and courts-martial when we reach England. You are going to be asked about the Jason's guns firing. You are going to have to give your evidence on oath. Your word against mine. Your word against that of all my officers and men. Can you guess which the court will accept?"

"You must ask Captain Shirley, sir," Ridley said woodenly. "I know nothing about courts and oaths." He looked at Wagstaffe as he asked Ramage: "If you have no further questions, it's my watch in a few minutes."

"Run along," Ramage said sarcastically, "you don't realize the depth of the water you're standing in. Send up Mr Price."

As Ridley went down the ladder, Ramage shook his head wonderingly. "I've got it!" he exclaimed. "There was something about these men that seemed familiar, and I've just realized what it is. Two things, in fact. One concerns the officers, warrant officers and men; the other Captain Shirley."

Aitken and Wagstaffe waited expectantly but after a minute or two Aitken realized his captain's thoughts were miles away.

"What's familiar, sir?"

"Voodoo! I last saw this sort of thing in Grenada. The witch doctor had a spell put on the local people. He threatened terrible things if they didn't keep a secret, so when they were questioned they denied everything in the same way, as though their minds were not in their bodies. And the witch doctor (of course he denied he was one or that he had anything to do with Voodoo) was just like Captain Shirley: friendly, polite, apparently willing to answer questions - yet for all that remote, as though the real man was hidden behind a pane of glass."

"I've a slight idea of what you mean, sir," Aitken said. "Not from having had anything to do with Voodoo, but in the Highlands there are some very odd happenings; people with strange gifts and strange powers ..."

He broke off as the Jason's master, Price, came up to Ramage and saluted.

"You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Yes, and you can guess what it is about because Southwick mentioned it yesterday."

Price shook his head and glanced aft at the quarterdeck.

"The captain is down in his cabin," Ramage said. "You can talk in absolute safety."

"What's there to talk about?" the man said insolently. "I'm sure Captain Shirley or the first lieutenant can answer all your questions."

"Different men give different answers," Ramage said carefully, deciding to accept the man's insolence for a few more minutes in the hope that his attitude would change. "There are just a few questions."

Price shrugged his narrow shoulders indifferently.

"Tell me Price, why do you think the Jason fired at the Calypso yesterday? Was it an accident?"

The Jason's master ignored the suggested excuse. "I never heard tell of ships firing at each other yesterday," he said. "Leastways, nothing until Southwick asked me, and you too."

"Sir."

"You too, sir," Price amended. "You'd better ask the captain."

"Price," Ramage said slowly, "Southwick speaks highly of you and you know as well as I do that when we reach England there'll be a court of inquiry and courts-martial. Obviously if you help us now I will speak up for you."

"You want me to turn King's evidence, eh?" Price sneered.

"Don't be absurd. Just look at it from my point of view: my ship comes up to greet another of the King's ships, and gets raked. I could have had masts sent by the board and dozens of men killed."

"But you didn't, though," Price said slyly and for a momen Ramage thought the man would reveal more, but he simply waved an arm towards the Calypso. "I see she has a full complement of masts . . ."

"Price, I'm giving you a last chance. I'm not threatening you. But you know the danger you're in. You know my offer to speak on your behalf is your only chance -"

"No one's got a chance," Price interrupted angrily. "We had one chance but we lost, and that's that."

"A chance to do what?"

"Forget I ever said that," Price said, suddenly nervous. "I said too much. S'more than a man can stand being up here on the fo'c'sle and 'terrogated like this by strangers. If you've got questions, ask Captain Shirley, don't pick on us - sir. And don't go telling Captain Shirley we said anything, 'cos we didn't." With that Price quickly saluted, turned and bolted down the ladder, hurrying along the main deck back to the gunroom.

"They 'had one chance, but we lost'," Ramage murmured to himself. "Who are 'we'? The gunroom officers? Everyone on board the Jason?Is Captain Shirley included or excluded?"

"I think we'd be better off if Price hadn't said that," Aitken said bitterly. "It's just tantalizing, and no one is going to tell us any more."

Ramage nodded in agreement. "I had the impression that 'we' probably referred to the gunroom officers. I don't think the men were involved."

Both Aitken and Wagstaffe reminded Ramage that the guns' crews denied the guns had been fired, but Ramage said: "No, I'm not talking about the whole business. I think the 'chance' is one thing and the attack on the Calypso is another."

Aitken agreed. "I'm thinking about the way everybody seems ..."

He paused, and Ramage finished his sentence: "Wrapped in fear and apprehension."

"That's it, sir; like schoolboys who have been told to see the headmaster in the morning, and not sure whether they're going to get a good beating or not."

"Well, we're only getting ourselves more puzzled by staying on board here. Keep an eye open," he told Wagstaffe, "and sleep with a pistol to hand."

"Sir," Wagstaffe began tentatively, "supposing Captain Shirley starts doing something that is, well. . . sort of . . ."

"You'll have to decide whether or not what he's doing (or proposing to do) is prejudicial to the King's Service. If it is, you have to do whatever you think fit. I can't give you orders to cover everything, but I'll back whatever you do."

"Supposing one of the officers refuses to carry out an order ..."

"Look, Wagstaffe, what we're doing is by way of being a bluff: I am trying to get the Jason back to England without Captain Shirley attacking some other ship. Unless Bowen gives me a report tomorrow showing that Captain Shirley is mad, there's nothing I can do about him, officially. Putting you on board, sending Bowen to examine him, questioning the officers, questioning Shirley himself -  all this lays me open to various charges, I expect, if we can't prove that Shirley attacked us without cause and that he's crazy."

Ramage warned both men: "Don't forget that at the moment we're safe as long as we can prove that the Jason raked us, and we have all our own people as witnesses. Shirley, on the other hand, can produce witness for witness to deny everything. So it depends who the members of a court want to believe. However, I think Shirley's missed his most plausible defence."