against Falcon, and I felt a great leap of relief. For a moment it
seemed that Nick and I were the only two creatures left alive. I hoped
to God that Clare was safe.
Nick’s eyes were glazed, not in fear but in awe He was tougher and far
better trained for danger than I, but I had a great advantage. I knew
what was happening across the water, and my knowledge helped steady
me.
I shook Nick roughly and consciousness crept back into his face. He
breathed deeply and then led the way across the littered deck.
On Sirena a ship’s boat dangled from one davit. some of the crew had
tried to get away, but the waves would have made nothing of their
chance falls had parted and the men must all have been tossed into the
sea.
As we made our way forward, incongruously snow. The flakes came
drifting from the sky, featherlike, to settle everywhere. I brushed
one from my shoulder; it was a flake of ash. The air was becoming
poisonous with fumes, the increased stink of sulphur and the worse
stench of sulphuretted hydrogen. I looked at the sea. It was bubbling
like a mud pool. Great fat bubbles were coming up from the sea-bed and
breaking on the surface, adding a dangerous smoke to the haze of
steam.
I realized With sick horror that we were, not drifting closer to the
source of the eruption – it was expanding under the sea, coming to meet
us.
There was a shattering roar from Falcon as a second vent opened, only a
few hundred yards away from the two ships.
The waves this time weren’t as massive as before; this was a smaller
vent. We clung to handholds during the first swamping rush of hot
steamy water and then emerged gasping into the foetid air. Nick was
nursing one arm and my rib-cage was alive with pain, but we’d
survived.
Figures struggled to their feet on our foredeck, and I recognised Ian’s
bulk among them, and then Geordie.
Sirena lurched and wallowed in the turmoil of the sea. Then she began
to spin as Esmerelda had done when we first reached Falcon. The eddy
that caught her moved on and after a few turns she steadied up again,
still dragging the wreckage of our mast.
A plume of water suddenly shot up from the sea not ten feet to
starboard and drops of warm gritty water fell on my head.
Another waterspout shot up a little further out, and then another.
It was for all the world as if we were under shellfire.
The whole angry sea was pock-marked as though by a mighty rain.
It was a welter of spouting water as rocks from Falcon’s second vent,
hurled high in the air, fell vertically and straddled the two ships.
Smoke wreathed about us and steam coiled everywhere.
The falling tephra didn’t straddle for long. There was a crash from
midships. Splinters of wood leapt into the air to mix with the hail of
ash and burning magma. As we stumbled forward we found a ragged hole
on the galley roof and a huge glowing ember beginning to eat its way
through the deck planking inside. Already small flames were starting
to flicker and gnaw at the woodwork “Fire, by God!” Nick said. “How
the hell do we cope with this?” The answer was dramatic and swift.
With a booming roar another vast wave engulfed us. We emerged
miraculously still intact to find the embryo fire completely doused at
the cost of a drenched and sodden galley.
At last we managed to join some of the others. By clinging to anything
stable enough we were able to steady ourselves.
Of cuts and bruises there were plenty, but everyone was on their feet
again. Except Geordie who’d vanished Icaught someone’s arm “Geordie he
was here. What’s happened to him “Gone to try and start the engine,”
Taffy bellowed in my ear.
A moment later there was a steady rhythmic throb under my foot as our
engine started, and the sound gave me a wild surge of hope..
A warm rain, condensing steam mixed with the treacherous ash, was
falling all around us. The stench was still heavy in my nostrils and
the banshee scream the ships’ timbers mingled with the high-pitched
sound rumbling from Falcon’s new orifice, threatening our eardrums. A
fresh rain of tephra assailed us. larger flaming rocks crashed down on
Sirena’s deck. A couple on ours. Sirena was almost level with us and
her rails were lined with men. Several of them jumped, some into the
sea itself, some trying to reach our decks.
“Bring lines!” Ian yelled, and I pounded after him to ship’s side as
he and Nick began throwing them over the rail. One man battling in the
water seized a trailing end and Ian and Shorty dragged him on board.
Nick threw another line out. Esmerelda was buffetted by a sudden wave
and his feet slid across the ash-strewn deck. He cannoned into me and
we both crashed down against the railing.
All the breath was knocked out of my body and for a moment I blacked
out. Then I started to struggle to my feet, in time to see Nick about
to topple clean over the ship’s side into that raging sea.
I got him in a tackle around his knees and wrestled to keep him on
deck, but the slippery footing and his own weight were proving too much
for me. He seemed to be unconscious.
Then another wave poured down across both of us, tipping Esmerelda the
other way and doing what I couldn’t manage, forcing Nick’s body back
inboard. We slid away from the railings together, half submerged in
the gritty water that cascaded down over the deck.
I landed spitting and spewing up sickly-warm sea water.
Hands helped me to stand up, and one of them was Clare’s.
“Mike – are you all right?” She was trembling and so was I.
“I’m okay. How’s Nick?” I was still panting and spluttering.
But I was comfortably aware that our engine was still running, and
Geordie was backing us steadily away from Sirena.
Clare gave me a fierce hug and I winced.
“Mike – you’re hurt?” “Don’t worry, it’s really nothing. But go
carefully with those hugs for now.”
Campbell limped up to us, his face blackened with smoke, his clothes
scorched and sodden. He and I exchanged a look over Clare’s head and
he smiled briefly.
“How’s PaulaTI asked him. “And Mark?” “Both all right. We haven’t
lost anyone else,”he said grimly.
“The boys pulled two Spaniards aboard and two others jumped across.”
Taffy was helping Nick to his feet. Apart from his arm which was
obviously crippled and the abrasion on his face there seemed to be
little wrong with him. Again I marvelled at his strength. Taffy said,
“We’ve sent all the Spaniards below and Ian’s got ’em locked in our
homemade brig.” I said, “Surely they aren’t a danger to us now?”
“Well, there could be trouble,”said Taffy -“We’ve got___ A stunning A
crash interrupted him. The hail of ash and magma had died down
briefly, but now it started up again as a fresh pillar of smoke and
steam boiled skywards from almost dead ahead of us. Our ship rocked
wildly as another barrage of waves hit us. Sirena reemerged from this
last assault on file in several places. We heard men’s voices faintly
through the uproar.
I’ll lay odds that Geordie Wilkins must be the best seaman ever to put
his hands on a wheel. With consummate skill and an astonishing use of
gear and throttle he edged Esmerelda nearer and nearer to the doomed
Sirena, to aid the stricken I saw that one of Falcon’s barrages men.
As we closed in we must have sheared through the rigging and brought
down the main gaff . Struggling men lay pinned to the deck. Others
were trying frantically to release them, but the fires were closing in,
eating their way along the deck timbers.
Clare screamed, “Look – Ramirezl’ A man was staggering across the deck
of Sirena – Oblivious to the cries and struggles of his crew he never
took his eyes from Esmerelda. Through the smoke as it was lit by auln
ying a rifle. Hi occasional red glare I saw that he was caff clothing
appeared scorched and blood-stained, and he was a mask of smoke, blood
and fury. He had crawled like a deadly spider from its crevice to use
its poison for the last time.
I don’t know if he had given up all hope of surviving bent only on
revenge, or if his mind had given way. I believe that cold intellect,
so unlike Hadley’s unreasoning savagery, would break as easily as
that.
But there was an implacable singleminded purpose about him that was
terrifying.
He aimed the rifle across the water. I flung myself down shielding