“Here’s one of ’em coming aboard!”
Some desperate swimmer had reached the Hotspur; Hornblower could leave Bush to deal with prisoners of that sort. There were more dark shapes to starboard, more targets presenting themselves. The mass of the coasters was being hurried along by the three-knot tide which Hotspur was stemming by the aid of the wind. Tug at their sweeps as they might, the French crews could not possibly counter the tide. They could not turn back; to turn aside was possible – but on one side were the Council Rocks, on the other were Corbin and Trepieds and the whole tangle of reefs roundabout them. Hotspur was having experiences like those of Gulliver; she was a giant compared with these Lilliputian coasters after having been a dwarf in her encounter with the Brobdingnagian Loire.
Fine on the port bow Hornblower caught sight of half a dozen pin-points of fire. That would be the battery on Toulinguet, two thousand yards away. At that range they were welcome to try their luck, firing at Hotspur’s gun flashes. Hotspur, still travelling slowly over the ground, was a moving target, and the French would be disturbed in their aim through fear of hitting the coasters. Night-firing in those conditions was a waste of powder and shot. Foreman was yelling, wild with excitement, to the crew of the quarter-deck carronade.
“She’s aground! Drop it – dead ‘un!”
Hornblower swung round to look; the coaster there was undoubtedly on the rocks and consequently not worth firing at. He mentally gave a mark of approval to Foreman, who despite his youth and his excitement was keeping his head, even though he made use of the vocabulary of the rat-killing pit.
“Four bells, sir,” reported Prowse amid the wild din. That was an abrupt reminder to Hornblower that he must keep his head, too. It was hard to think and to calculate, harder still to recall his visualization of the chart, and yet he had to do so. He realized that Hotspur could have nothing to spare over on the landward side.
“Wear the ship – Mr Prowse,” he said; he remembered just too late to use the formal address completely naturally. “Get her over on the port tack.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
Prowse seized the speaking-trumpet and somewhere in the darkness disciplined men hurried to sheets and braces. As Hotspur swung about another dark shape came down at her from the channel.
“Je me rends! Je me rends!” a voice was shouting from it.
Someone in that coaster was trying to surrender before Hotspur’s broadside could blow her out of the water. She actually bumped against the side as the current took her round, and then she was free – her surrender had been premature, for now she was past Hotspur and vanishing in the farther darkness.
“Main chains, there,” yelled Hornblower. “Take a cast of the lead.”
“Two fathoms!” came the answering cry. There was only six inches under Hotspur’s keel, but now she was drawing away from the perils on one side and approaching those on the other.
“Man the port-side guns! Keep the lead going on the starboard!”
Hotspur was steady on her new course as another unhappy coaster loomed up. In the momentary stillness Hornblower could hear Bush’s voice as he called the port-side guns’ crews to attention, and then came the crash of the firing. The smoke billowed round, and through the clouds came the cry of the leadsman.
“By the mark three!”
The smoke and the lead told conflicting stories.
“And a half three!”
“Wind must be backing, Mr Prowse. Keep your eye on the binnacle.”
“Aye aye, sir. And it’s five bells, sir.”
The tide was almost at its height; another factor to be remembered. At the port-side quarter-deck carronade the crew were slewing their weapon round to the limit of its arc, and Hornblower, looking over the quarter, could see a coaster escaping past Hotspur’s stern. Two flashes from the dark shape, and a simultaneous crash under Hornblower’s feet. That coaster had guns mounted, and was firing her pop-gun broadside, and at least one shot had told. A pop-gun broadside perhaps, but even a four-pounder could smash a hole in Hotspur’s frail side. The carronade roared out in reply.