Of all the whole inland route he was opposite the most vulnerable part, this short section where the navigable channel from Aigues Mortes to the Etang de Thau was only divided from the sea by a narrow spit of land. If a blow were to be struck, it was here that he must strike it; moreover, at this very moment he could see something at which to strike — that brown sail no more than two miles away. That must be one of the French coasters, plying between Port Vendres and Marseille with wine and oil. It would be madness to attempt anything against her, and yet — and yet — he felt mad today.
“Pass the word for the captain’s coxswain,” he said to the midshipman of the watch. He heard the cry echo down the main deck, and in two minutes Brown was scurrying towards him along the gangway, halting breathless for orders.
“Can you swim, Brown?”
“Swim, sir? Yes, sir.”
Hornblower looked at Brown’s burly shoulders and thick neck. There was a mat of black hair visible through the opening of his shirt.
“How many of the barge’s crew can swim!”
Brown looked first one way and then the other before he made the confession which he knew would excite contempt. Yet he dared not lie, not to Hornblower.
“I dunno, sir.”
Hornblower refraining from the obvious rejoinder was more scathing than Hornblower saying “You ought to know.”
“I want a crew for the barge,” said Hornblower. “Everyone a good swimmer, and everyone a volunteer. It’s for a dangerous service, and, mark you, Brown, they must be true volunteers — none of your pressgang ways.”
“Aye aye, sir,” said Brown, and after a moment’s hesitation. “Everyone’ll volunteer, sir. It’ll be hard to pick ’em. Are you going, sir?”
“Yes. A cutlass for every man. And a packet of combustibles for every man.”
“Com-combustibles, sir?”
“Yes. Flint and steel. A couple of port-fires, oily rags, and a bit of slowmatch, in a watertight packet for each man. Go to the sail-maker and get oilskin for them. And a lanyard each to carry it if we swim.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
“And give Mr Bush my compliments. Ask him to step this way, and then get your crew ready.”
Bush came rolling aft, his face alight with excitement; and before he had reached the quarterdeck the ship was abuzz with rumours — the wildest tales about what the captain had decided to do next were circulating among the crew, who had spent the morning with one eye on their duties and the other on the coast of France.
“Mr Bush,” said Hornblower. “I am going ashore to burn that coaster over there.”
“Aye aye, sir. Are you going in person, sir?”
“Yes,” snapped Hornblower. He could not explain to Bush that he was constitutionally unable to send men away on a task for which volunteers were necessary and not go himself. He eyed Bush defiantly, and Bush eyed him back, opened his mouth to protest, thought better of it, and changed what he was going to say. “Longboat and launch, sir?”
“No. They’d take the ground half a mile from the shore.” That was obvious; four successive lines of foam showed where the feeble waves were breaking, far out from the water’s edge. “I’m taking my barge and a volunteer crew.”
Still Hornblower, by his expression, dared Bush to make any protest at all, but this time Bush actually ventured to make one.
“Yes, sir. Can’t I go, sir?”
“No.”
There was no chance of further dispute in the face of that blank negative. Bush had the queer feeling — he had known it before — as he looked at Hornblower’s haughty expression that he was a father dealing with a high-spirited son; he loved his captain as he would have loved a son if ever he had had one.
“And mark this, too, Bush. No rescue parties. If we’re lost, we’re lost. You understand? Shall I give you that in writing?”
“No need, sir. I understand.”
Bush said the words sadly. When it came to the supreme test of practice, Hornblower, however much he respected Bush’s qualities and abilities, had no opinion whatever of his first lieutenant’s capacity to make original plans. The thought of Bush blundering about on the mainland of France throwing away valuable lives in a hopeless attempt to rescue his captain frightened him.