“No law, either,” Sharpe said.
Pohlmann gave him a sideways glance. “True. But I like corrupt societies, Richard. In a corrupt society the biggest rogue wins.”
“So why go home?”
“Europe is being corrupted,” Pohlmann said. “The French talk loudly of law and reason, but beneath the talk there is nothing but greed. I understand greed, Richard.”
“So where will you live?” Sharpe asked. “London, Hanover or France?”
“Maybe in Italy? Maybe Spain? No, not Spain. I could not stomach the priests. Maybe I shall go to America? They say rogues do well there.”
“Or perhaps you’ll live in France?”
“Why not? I have no quarrel with France.”
“You will if the Revenant finds us.”
“The Revenant?” Pohlmann asked innocently.
“French warship,” Sharpe said.
Pohlmann laughed. “It would be like, how do you say? Finding a needle in a haystack? Although I have always thought it would be easy to find a needle in a haystack. Simply take a girl onto the stack and make love, and you could be quite certain the needle will find her bum. Have you ever made love on a haystack?”
“No.”
“I don’t recommend it. It is like those beds the Indian magicians sleep on. But if you do, Richard, make sure you are the one on top.”
Sharpe gazed out across the darkening ocean. There were no white-caps any more, just an endless vista of slow-heaving waves. “How well do you know Cromwell?” He blurted the question out, torn between a reluctance to raise the German’s suspicions and a desire not to believe in those suspicions at all.
Pohlmann gave Sharpe a glance full of curiosity and not a little hostility. “I scarcely know the man,” he answered stiffly. “I met him once or twice when he was ashore in Bombay, because it seemed sensible if we were to get decent accommodation, but otherwise I know him about as well as you do. Why do you ask?”
“I was wondering if you knew him well enough to find out why he left the convoy?”
Pohlmann laughed, his suspicions allayed by Sharpe’s explanation. “I don’t think I know him that well, but Mister Tufnell tells me we are to sail to the east of Madagascar while the convoy goes to the west. We shall make faster time, he reckons, and be home at least two weeks ahead of the other ships. And that will increase the value of the cargo in which the captain has a considerable interest.” Pohlmann drew on the cigar. “You disapprove of his initiative?”
“There’s safety in numbers,” Sharpe said mildly.
“There’s safety in speed, too. Tufnell says we should make at least ninety miles a day now.” The German threw the remains of his cigar overboard. “I must change for supper.”
There was something wrong, Sharpe reckoned, but he could not place it. If Lady Grace was right, then Pohlmann and the captain talked frequently, but Pohlmann claimed he scarcely knew Cromwell, and Sharpe was inclined to believe her ladyship, though for the life of him he could not see how it affected anyone other than Pohlmann and Cromwell.
Two days later land was sighted far to the west. The shout from the masthead brought a rush of passengers to the starboard rail, though no one could see the land unless they were willing to climb into the high rigging, but a belt of thick cloud on the horizon showed where the distant coast lay. “Cape East on Madagascar,” Lieutenant Tufnell announced, and all day the passengers stared at the cloud as though it portended something significant. The cloud was gone the following day, though Tufnell told Sharpe they were still following the Madagascar coast which now lay well beyond the horizon. “The next landfall will be the African shore,” Tufnell said, “and there we’ll find a quick current to carry us round to Cape Town.”
The two men spoke on the darkened quarterdeck. It was well past midnight on the second day since the sighting of Cape East and the third night in succession that Sharpe had gone in the small hours to the quarterdeck in hope that Lady Grace would be on the poop. He needed to ask permission to be on the quarterdeck, but the watch officer had welcomed his company every night, unaware why Sharpe wanted to be there. The Lady Grace had not appeared on either of the first two nights, but as Sharpe now stood beside the lieutenant he heard the creak of a door and the sound of soft shoes climbing the stairs to the poop deck. Sharpe waited until the lieutenant went to talk with the helmsman, then he turned and went to the poop deck himself.