Watery Grave

by Bruce Alexander

  “Now, Lieutenant Byner,” said Sir John, “my next question will have to do with motive — important to cover this, for none can be attributed to Mr. Landon.” He paused, then began again in his court voice: “Tell me, sir, were you and Captain Markham on good terms?”

  “Neither good nor bad,” replied Mr. Landon.” I honestly do not believe he knew my name, so slight was our acquaintance. I am not sure I ever had occasion to address him directly, except when I was introduced to him at the beginning of the voyage —that is, until I sought to rouse him during the storm.”

  “Yes, in content that will do well,” said Sir John to him, “but do not use that phrase ‘neither good nor bad.’ It seems to imply indifference. Find some other way of saying the same thing, Mr. Landon. I shall now ask you another question to make the matter more explicit.” Again, he paused; then: “Had you any reason to wish Captain Markman dead?”

  “None, absolutely none.”

  “Did you, in truth, cause the death of Captain Josiah Markham by pushing him into the sea?”

  “I did not —absolutely not.”

  Turning toward Mr. Byner. who continued to write feverishly upon the sheaf of papers on his knees. Sir John called attention to his last rvvo questions.” They must, no matter what the circumstances, be asked. Is that understood?”

  “Understood, sir.”

  Through all this, Mce-Admiral Sir Robert Redmond had listened carefully, and as he had done so, the severe expression he had earlier worn softened somewhat. Yet as the next line of questioning developed, it returned to his face, so that he appeared both apprehensive and disapproving.

  “Did Lieutenant Hartsell discuss the matter of the captain’s death with you immediately afterward — say, within the next twenty-four hours?”

  “Only in the most general way,” said Mr. Landon.” He said what was obvious —that with the death of the captain he would serve as acting captain and that I should correspondingly consider myself acting first officer. Then on the day after the storm, he held his First captain’s table and explained all this to the rest of the officers, reassigning duties and so on, all quite unnecessary’, of course, for in practice we had done without a captain from the beginning of the voyage. Some sort of memorial to the captain was attempted at that occasion. Lieutenant Hartsell said something brief which I recorded in my diary. Then Mr. MacNaughton informed us of the captain’s con —”

  “Just a moment,” said Sir John, interrupting. “You kept a diary?”

  “I did, yes.”

  “You have it now?”

  “No, sir. I surrendered it to Admiral Sir Robert Redmond. I trust it is still in his possession.”

  Sir John responded with silence. Beneath my hand I felt his shoulder tense.

  “No accusation of murder came from Mr. Hartsell immediately following the captain’s death then?” said Sir John after near a minute’s delay.

  “None, sir.”

  “When did Mr. Hartsell first inform you of his charge of murder against you?”

  “Late in the afternoon, the day before we anchored at London Bridge. We were in London roads waiting to enter. Members of the crew speculated as to the reason we had not proceeded to Portsmouth. They wondered would this mean shore leave m the great city, and so on their behalf I asked Mr. Hartsell. We were on the quarterdeck at the time. I recall his words exact. He said, ‘Mr. Landon, we are putting into London so that you may be tried in court-martial for the murder of Captain Josiah Markham. And now that you know, I think it only fitting that you confine yourself to quarters. Go to your cabin. Your meals will be brought to you there.’”

  “And what was your reaction?”

  “Amazement. I was quite overwhelmed. Having served under him for over two years, I knew it was no joke. Besides, there was another matter between us with which this fitted.”

  “What was that other matter?”

  “I had made a threat against him.”

  “For what cause and of what nature?”

  “In general, Lieutenant Hartsell was a good officer and played the part of captain very well. Having had a command in the French War, he brought authority to the position. He was a good sailor and calm in battle. Yet as a man, Mr. Hartsell’s conduct left much to be desired. His ascent to full command allowed him to give full rein to his unnatural propensities.”

  “Be careful with your accusations,” the admiral warned his nephew darkly.

  “I would make none, ” said Lieutenant Landon, addressing Sir Robert directly, “had he restrained himself to his liaison with Mr. Grimsby, but he began to prey upon the midshipmen —upon mere children! I heard him boast of it to Mr. Grimsby. He called them his harem.”

  “I will hear no more of this,” said the admiral, pounding his desk with his fist.

  “The threat!” shouted Sir John over the admiral. “What of the threat?”

  “Yes, yes, the threat,” said Mr. Landon, himself near shouting. “Midshipman Sample came to me, told me of acts that had been forced upon him by Lieutenant Hartsell. He had appealed to the Reverend Mr. Eagleton and got no satisfaction. The boy, who was but thirteen, asked me to intervene. I went to Lieutenant Hartsell and warned him that if he did not cease these acts with the midshipmen, I would bear witness against him on the matter when we returned to Portsmouth. That, I believe, is when he fabricated his charge of homicide against me in a letter from India, whose contents Sir Robert has made known to me. All this is recorded in my diary — including the death of Midshipman Sample who, one week after his conversation with me, fell or was pushed by Mr. Boone from the fore-topsail yardarm to his death —he may even have jumped. I was belowdecks at the time and did not see. And did Mr. Hartsell cease his practices after my threat? After the child’s death? He did not. He was only more secretive in them.”

  “Enough, Lieutenant,” said Sir Robert, jumping from his chair.” We have heard quite enough. Mr. Byner, take him out. Tell the marines to show him back to the Tower.”

  Byner jumped to the order, scattering his pages over the floor, grabbing Mr. Landon by the arm and jerking him with unnecessary roughness toward the door.

  Sir John called after him: “Thank you, Mr. Landon. Now at last we have the full story, and you told it well.”

  The lieutenant’s reply was naught but a grateful look as he was pulled through the door.

  The admiral had circled round the desk. He confronted Sir John, hands on his ample hips, bending angrily to Sir John, who remained seated. They were thus face-to-face for a long moment before the admiral spoke in what was not much more than a whisper.

  “You are satisfied, are you. Jack? Now you have the story, as it were? What is it that has driven you on but morbid curiosity —that and a desire to sully the reputation of an institution you once claimed to love! You wish to befoul the name of the Navy in repayment for the loss of your sight. I understand it now—you, who were once a hero to me, to all of us.”

  Sir John then spoke evenly, calmly, and coldly: “I wish only to see justice done for that innocent young man who is your nephew.”

  “Yes, he is my nephew, and I love him well, but I love the Navy better. Jack, there have always been such as Hartsell in the service. These things happen, but in the larger sense, they do not exist. They cannot exist, for England believes in its Navy, has always believed in its Navy as in no other institution. To let such a scandal as this out would besmirch it in such a way that fathers would never again send their sons to be midshipmen. Worse, the Navy would be held to ridicule, to contempt. Don’t you see?”

  During this heated oration, Mr. Byner reentered the room, yet so quietly that I was not sure that Sir John had noted his presence. I gave a slight squeeze to the shoulder beneath my hand. Though I was sure he had caught my signal. Sir John gave no sign.

  “I recall,” said he, “that you pled with me to find witnesses, teach Mr. Byner my ‘tricks,’ as you called them, do anything necessary to save your nephew. Now I find ‘anything necessary’ excludes the
truth. How has it come to this? There is even a diary kept by him which would corroborate all that he has said. You have it. It must be entered as evidence under the rules of any criminal proceeding, even the Navy’s. Do you intend to withhold it?”

  That last question brought forth a gesture from Sir John, a hand extended to the admiral, which he returned sharply to his chest, slapping the fingers of my hand as he did so. With this, he returned the sign to me.

  I doubled over of a sudden as if in great pain, recovered a bit, then whispered in his ear. Having listened, he turned to me in annoyance.

  “But you said you were done with that, ” said he gruffly.

  “I know, but …”

  I grimaced then and held my belly.

  “The lad had a touch of diarrhea last night. It seems now to have returned. Could you … ? Could Lieutenant Byner … ?”

  The admiral sighed.” Yes, yes, of course. Lieutenant, see the lad to the necessary down the hall. Wait for him. We cannot have boys of such an age wandering around the halls of the Navy Board alone.”

  And so out I went, Mr. Byner all but taking me by the hand. I played my role throughout, continuing to grimace, doubling over once or twice more along the way. In all modesty, I thought I did quite well.

  In any case, Mr. Byner seemed convinced. He hurried me along down a long hall and around a corner, threw open a door and pointed inside.

  “In here, ” said he, “and be as quick as you can.”

  He slammed the door after me.

  The place was lit by two candles set in holders against the wall. Though small, as such rooms always are, it was quite the best of its kmd I had seen since my time in Lord Goodhope’s residence a year or more before. This one was also equipped with a cistern and had a proper washstand, as well.

  I waited inside near five minutes, counting the minutes out by sixties. Sir John had reckoned this about the maximum length of time our stratagem might be made to work. He had devised it as a way of speaking at greater length to Sir Robert without Mr. Byner present or listening at the door. He did not trust Mr. Byner, not in the least.

  When the time was up, I pulled the chain and set the cistern going with a great sustained splash. As I left the room I fumbled with the buttons on my coat, as if putting myself back in order.

  “Come along,” said Mr. Byner.

  And that I did, hopping along beside him, as a sick man might when suddenly made well.

  Whatever more had been discussed between admiral and magistrate had not taken as much time as expected, for I found Sir John waiting for me in Mr. Byner’s outer office, my hat in his hand. The door to Sir Robert’s larger office was now closed. I knew not quite what this meant.

  He said a civil, though far from warm, goodbye to the lieutenant, and we started off down the stairs. He cautioned me with a finger to his lips against speaking inside the building. Only when we emerged onto Tower Hill did he speak — and then in the gravest tones.

  “Ah, Jeremy,” said he, “what an infernal matter this is. It is worse than I thought and as bad as ever I feared.”

  ELEVEN

  In which the court-martial

  of William Landon

  takes place

  It is no short stretch between Tower Hill and Number Four Bow Street, and in the late morning, with dray wagons, carriages, and coaches plodding through the teeming streets, our route along Thames Street, Fleet Street, and the Strand moved so slow that there was naught for our hackney driver but to permit his two nags to plod along slow with the rest. Thus had Sir John more than ample time to relate to me the content of the conversation as it continued between him and Sir Robert in the absence of Mr. Byner, to comment upon it, and to rail against it. He seemed to hold nothing back from me. So much was said, reader, that I feel it best to summarize the greater part of it and quote him only where it does seem pertinent in some particular way.

  Sir John brought up the death of Lieutenant Jonathan Grimsby. What could that have been but murder? In spite of the official findings of his inquiry, Sir Robert had tacitly admitted the likelihood of homicide by consenting to move Mr. Landon to the Tower. And why should Mr. Grimsby have been murdered? Because he communicated to Sir John the true situation aboard the H.M.S. Adventure as regards the midshipmen; all that he said there confirmed what was said minutes ago by Mr. Landon. And Grimsby offered to testify on Landon’s behalf.

  (Sir Robert objected that such testimony would be tainted by the fact that Grimsby, according to Mr. Landon, had engaged in unnatural relations with Mr. Hartsell. Sir John brushed this aside.)

  Then there was the matter of the counsel appointed by Sir Robert. Lieutenant Byner was at best incompetent and at worst traitorous. Sir John pointed out that Mr. Byner was present during the interrogation of the ship’s surgeon in Portsmouth; he had heard from his lips that the helmsman on the fateful day when Captain Markham was lost, one

  Tobias Trlndle, had given out that though Mr. Landon had made a great effort to save the captain, nothing could have been done to bring him back once he had begun to slip over the taffrail. This account conformed perfectly with Mr. Landon s description of the action. Tobias Trindle would have made a strong witness for Landon s defense, but he was murdered the night before, shot between the eyes as he lay in bed. Sir John declared that he had withheld the name of Tobias Trindle from others; that he would vouch for his young assistant, Jeremy Proctor; and that surely Sir Robert would do nothing that would so brutally hamper his nephew’s defense. That would leave only Mr. Byner who had heard the name of the potential witness from Mr. MacNaughton, and it would seem likely that he had passed that name on to another; and that other would have caused that potential witness’s murder. Sir John urged Sir Robert to be careful what was said and entrusted to Lieutenant Byner.

  (Sir Robert declared that Mr. Byner was his executive officer and that of course he trusted him and would continue to trust him. As for the death of Tobias Trindle, it was probably a personal matter —some low, seaman’s quarrel that resulted in his murder, over a woman no doubt. He thought it unlikely that it had anything to do with the coming court-martial. And by the by, it was doubtful that a seaman would be permitted to testify in contradiction to his captain, doubtful that a seaman would be permitted to testify at the court-martial of any officer.)

  Sir John said there was another whose name he could give as a potential witness —that of the chaplain and schoolmaster, the Reverend Mr. Andrew Eagleton. Yet Mr. Eagleton would only testify were he summoned by subpoena — and then not dependably. He was, Sir John declared, frightened half out of his wits by Lieutenant Hartsell, and in fear of him had probably distanced himself a hundred miles from London, not to return until the court-martial be done.

  (Sir Robert responded that for all the reasons Sir John had given, there was really no point in summoning Reverend Eagleton.)

  Here, reader, I shall begin to quote Sir John as he spoke to me in that slow-moving hackney carriage, in order that you may grasp the intensity of his passion in this matter:

  “At this point, Jeremy, ” said Sir John to me, T challenged Bobbie. I said to him, ‘You seemed earlier to have a wish to save that young man. Now you have set a course against him. How comes it that you have so altered in a few days’ time?’

  “He said to me then, Jack, I have never changed in this, for when I first heard from my nephew this matter of Lieutenant Hartsell and the midshipmen, I forbade him to speak of it to anyone else. And I told him that under no circumstances could it be brought up in the course of the court-martial. But the lad seems determined to tell his tale of Hartsell and the midshipmen.’

  “Bobbie said that his nephew derived satisfaction from telling his tale this morning to me, that he may be tempted foolishly to try to spread it further. He insisted that the lad had a chance in the court-martial if he restricted his testimony to the matter of Captain iMarkham, but none at all if he bladdered on about Hartsell. And then he added that we would soon find out about that, for the panel
had been chosen. An admiral and a captain are traveling up from Portsmouth tomorrow. The court-martial will take place in but two days’ time.”

  “Two days! ” said I to Sir John.” But is that regular, sir? The Adventure has been at anchor less than a week.”

  “Whatever they may determine is regular, ” said he to me.” That is a truth about the Navy that I seem to be learning late in life, lad. It is disheartening to understand how little I knew about it during those four years I served. It seems the Navy is a law unto itself, a country all its own in which the ordinary rules of conduct and procedure need not

  apply-

  “Did you note what Bobbie said to me, accusing me of wishing to sully the reputation of the Navy in revenge for my lost sight? How dare he say such a thing? How dare he?”

  Sir John brought his stick down sharp upon the floor of the carriage in a rare display of anger.

  “Indeed, sir! ” I was truly filled with indignation on Sir John’s behalf

  “I loved the Navy as no other did. If asked beforehand, I would have said, ‘Yes, I will give the Navy my eyes. I will give it my life!’ When I think now of the years I pined for my lost career, how I took as second best the hfe in the law that my brother gave me —I do wonder at my own stupidity, truly I do! I see now that I was made for the law, and if I came to it by a somewhat devious path, then that is unfortunate; yet the important thing is that I came to it. By God and by Jesus, I love the law, and she’s a better, fairer mistress than the Navy ever was. If Bobbie thinks that he may frighten me away by mouthing such grossly untrue suppositions in my face, then he has the matter dead wrong. He should not be trying the case in the first place because of his relation to the accused. He has meddled in it as no judge should. He has seized Mr. Landon’s diary — not as evidence pertinent to the trial but to sequester it that it may never be introduced. Yet, by some means, Jeremy, I promise I will see some justice done tor that young man.”