The Sea and the Sand

by Christopher Nicole

  Yet how he wished they were bound for Lisbon, instead of Gibraltar. Then he would be able to make sure for himself that she had arrived safely and had found her passage to England without difficulty. But of course she had arrived safely.

  They saw no other ships at all until two days later, when they were within sight of the Rock, and overtook an English convoy beating up the Strait. The sight of the ships in convoy surprised Toby, as so far as he knew the Algerians had not been so foolhardy as to declare war on His Britannic Majesty. But as he was well out in front of the squadron, he contented himself with signalling the identity of the huddle of ships to the nearest frigate, for remittance to the flagship, then passed them to be first into the so-well-remembered harbour, dipping his ensign to the battery on the outer breakwater, and informing the harbour master, who was quickly out in his dory, that he sought berths for ten United States’ warships on passage into the Mediterranean.

  He was immediately piloted to the appropriate place, where several American vessels were already moored. His own ship secure, he swept these other ships with his telescope, and felt an almost painful sensation as he saw the name Dolphin, Baltimore, not a hundred yards away. There could hardly be another vessel with both that name and registry.

  ‘Mr Mowat,’ he said quietly.

  ‘Aye-aye, sir,’ was the ready response. Mowat, like the entire crew, had grown to appreciate his hard-driving captain, because of his consummate seamanship on the ocean crossing; they had encountered two full gales, and lost not a spar.

  ‘There is a call I wish to make,’ Toby said. ‘Will you break out the captain’s gig, if you please.’

  ‘Aye-aye.’

  Mowat hurried forward to give the necessary orders, while Toby paced the deck impatiently, looking towards the stranger every few seconds. But he knew his mood was not merely anxiety to have news of Felicity. It was also due to the fact that he was now virtually arrived at their destination, Algiers. He supposed he, and all his men, the entire fleet, indeed, were in a state of some excitement. No matter how the war with Great Britain had truly gone, the United States Navy had come out of it with enormous prestige. No one could doubt that had the struggle continued for a few more years, the British, with their tremendous resources in men and ships and material, would undoubtedly have taken or sunk every American vessel. But yet had the Americans not proved that, given even conditions or better, they were a match for any navy afloat?

  But that was only the half of it. A good number of these men had served with Barron and Preble and Rodgers in the Mediterranean ten years ago, and not a man of that squadron but had deeply felt the humiliation of having to negotiate with the thugs who controlled the Barbary States, and pay them ransom for the release of American seamen, rather than treat them as what they were, pirates and murderers who deserved nothing better than the hangman’s noose. But now at last, that was going to be put right. Commodore Decatur’s orders were known throughout the fleet. There was risk involved, certainly, to those Americans now held captive in Algiers. But President Madison had weighed the balance, and concluded that such a risk had to be accepted, to prevent similiar fates overtaking Americans in the future, and to secure that very principle for which they had gone to war with Britain, the freedom of the seas. They were a fleet bent on retribution. That was enough to make the blood of any man tingle.

  The jolly boat was ready, and Toby took his place in the stern for the short row across to the Dolphin.

  ‘Who is there?’ came the call from the brig’s anchor watch.

  ‘Lieutenant Tobias McGann, United States Navy.’

  There was a brief silence from the brig, and Toby could make out three men in earnest conversation. He frowned, and his heart gave a curious thud. Then one of the men advanced to the open gangway. ‘Welcome aboard, Mr McGann.’

  ‘You’ll wait,’ Toby told the coxswain, and swung himself up the ladder to face the short, bluff man in the blue coat.

  ‘Mr McGann? Carruthers, master of the brig Dolphin.’

  Toby shook hands. ‘You’ll pardon this uninvited visit, sir, but I believe you may be able to give me some information I seek.’

  Carruthers seemed to gulp. ‘News,’ he said. ‘Oh, indeed. You’ll have been some time at sea.’

  ‘Three weeks, Mr Carruthers.’

  ‘Aye,’ Carruthers muttered. ‘But I am showing no manners, keeping an American officer standing about the deck. You’ll come below, Mr McGann, and take a glass of wine.’

  He hurried for the companion hatch, and Toby followed, aware that the crew had gathered forward and were staring at him. The thudding of his heart increased. But what could have happened? There was no sign of any damage to the brig. Then an illness? He ducked his head to enter the cabin, where Carruthers was busily pouring two glasses of wine.

  ‘Your very good health, Mr McGann.’

  ‘And yours, Captain.’ Toby did no more than brush his lips with the glass; he was out of the habit of taking alcohol at sea.

  ‘Well, sir, sit down, sit down.’ Carruthers sat opposite. ‘You’ll not have heard, then, that England and France are again at war.’

  ‘The devil,’ Toby said. ‘So soon? What is the cause now?’

  ‘Oh, the same, sir. Bonaparte. He has returned and taken over the country, and is raising armies left and right, meaning to take on the whole world once more.’

  ‘Well, well,’ Toby said, relief flooding through his system. If that was the cause of Carruthers’s agitation. ‘That is important news, indeed, Mr Carruthers, which will interest my commodore. But it is advantageous to us, I have no doubt. There will be no officious interference with our plans. I thank you, sir. But what I really seek is news of my wife. She was a passenger with you to Lisbon, was she not?’

  ‘Well, yes, sir, she was.’ Carruthers’s agitation visibly increased.

  Once again Toby was aware of a peculiar breathlessness. ‘Whatever you have to say, man, spit it out,’ he commanded. ‘She is unwell?’

  ‘Now that, sir, I cannot say. We made a good crossing, and were fortunate, it appeared, in that we arrived in Lisbon the day before the Southampton packet was due to sail. Mrs McGann went ashore immediately and booked a passage on the packet, and then returned to the ship. She informed me that she was due to join the packet at midnight that very night. But it appears that she never did, sir.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Toby refused to think for the moment until he knew what had happened.

  ‘Just that, sir. She had left her boxes on board Dolphin. Indeed, sir, they are still in that cabin right over there. And as I say, when she returned from the shipping agent she told me she intended to fetch them before boarding the ship. Then she took herself ashore to look at Lisbon. But she never came back for her boxes. I was unaware of this, sir. My ship was securely in port, unloaded and awaiting a cargo, and I was early to bed and sleeping sound, having left instructions with the anchor watch that Mrs McGann was to be assisted in any way she wished. It was not until the next morning that I was informed that she had never returned for her boxes … and the packet had then sailed.’

  Toby got up, opened the door to the cabin Carruthers had indicated. He did not recognise the boxes; Felicity would have bought them in New York, he presumed, during his absence. He released the straps and raised the lid of the first. And immediately recognised her clothes, as well as her scent.

  ‘Are you saying my wife went to England without her clothes?’

  Carruthers licked his lips. ‘Well, sir … that was a possibility, of course. And one which had to be taken into account.’

  ‘But you have something else to tell me.’ He returned to the table and sat down, drank his wine without thinking. He still didn’t want to think, right this moment.

  Carruthers refilled the glass. ‘Well, sir, my cargo was slow in appearing … it was to be Portuguese wine, you understand, from the Oporto district to the north. It never did arrive, and so you find me here in Gibraltar, seeking freight to carry home, at g
reat expense and inconvenience to my owners and myself. But I considered it my duty to remain in Lisbon until I knew for sure that the wine was not going to be delivered, and thus I was still in port when the packet returned the following week, when I learned for certain that your wife had not been on board.’

  ‘You mean you sat in Lisbon for an entire week and more, knowing something had happened, but doing nothing about it?’

  ‘Well, sir …’ Carruthers flushed beetroot red. ‘There were circumstances …’

  ‘What circumstances?’

  Carruthers hesitated, and then sighed. ‘Mrs McGann, when she left Dolphin for her tour of the city, did so in the company of a man named Marquand. An American gentleman, sir, and he seemed a very respectable person, too. He has sailed with me before, and always proved a most pleasant shipmate.’

  ‘She went off with this man to look at the city. How long could this have taken?’

  ‘That depends on how far afield they would have gone, sir. But they do seem to have spent the day together. When I attempted to trace them, I discovered that they had been seen together on the beach at Cascais — that is several miles outside the town, and …’

  ‘On the beach?’ Toby snapped.

  Carruthers sighed. ‘Sitting together, sir, talking. And then I found out that they had dined together at a small restaurant in Lisbon itself. They were well remembered there, because they had come in early and been the only customers at that time. They left the restaurant together, the innkeeper said, to return to Dolphin for Mrs McGann’s things. But they never did so, as I have said.’

  Toby’s brows were drawing together as he at last understood what the man was trying to suggest. ‘Are you telling me that my wife had a liaison with this man?’

  ‘Sir, I … I could not believe it was my duty to interfere.’

  ‘I should break your neck,’ Toby growled. But his stomach seemed filled with lead. Felicity and another man? It could not be possible. And yet … did he really know her any better now than he had ten years ago? He had thought he did, knowing all the while that her mind was a closed and private world. A mind which he certainly knew had been exposed to every foible of mankind by Mohammed ben Idris.

  And equally, he knew that she had been becoming bored with life on the farm and her husband away, and likely to be so often in the future. He felt sick.

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Carruthers agreed. ‘But then, when it was certain that she had not boarded the packet, I first of all feared that she and Mar-quand might have been set upon by footpads. But the authorities could find no trace of any such catastrophe. To my great relief, I may say. I then attempted to make some enquiries about Marquand, as to where he lived in Portugal, and so on, and could find no trace of him at all. He took his things from Dolphin, that I know, and then he entertained Mrs McGann for a day, that I know … and then he just disappeared.’ Carruthers gulped. ‘Along with your wife.’

  Toby’s whole being seemed to have become encased in a metal frame, pressing ever closer, calling upon him to leap to his feet and wreck the entire ship, in his anger and despair. But he kept control of himself with an effort.

  ‘This man,’ he said. ‘This Marquand. You say he has sailed with you before? You must know something about him. He is an American, you say? From where?’

  ‘Why, from New Orleans, I believe, sir. But he has lived in New York for some time, and conducts an agency there.’

  ‘What sort of agency?’

  ‘Well, sir, he acts as a buyer for certain European parties, negotiates sales for them and so on.’

  ‘What European parties?’

  Carruthers looked embarrassed. ‘Well, sir, his clients are mainly Moorish gentlemen. You understand that with relations between the Barbary States and the United States being somewhat strained, these gentlemen prefer to conduct their business through agencies. As to the ethics of the agents themselves, certainly in time of open warfare between our country and these people, well … I would have thought it was close to treason. However …’

  ‘By God,’ Toby muttered, a huge white light seeming to explode inside his brain. Of course Idris would have known he had little chance of ever intercepting Felicity at sea. But he had had his creatures, led by this man Marquand watching her and waiting for her ever to leave the farm.

  ‘What I was going to say, sir,’ Carruthers hurried on, ‘was that you must understand that when I sailed from Baltimore with Mr Marquand amongst my passengers I was unaware that Algiers had declared war upon us. Therefore I had no reason to refuse Mr Marquand a passage …’ His voice tailed away as Toby stood up.

  ‘I thank you for your information, Captain Carruthers,’ he said. ‘I understand that no blame can be attached to you for what has happened. I would like you, if you will, to have those boxes sent on deck and lowered into my gig. I will attend to them. And haste, if you please, captain. I have a deal to do.’

  *

  Stephen Decatur drove his fingers through his receding black hair. ‘The devil,’ he remarked. ‘By God, that creatures like Marquand should be accepted as American citizens … it is a sorry life we lead, to be sure. However, Toby, we must do the best we can.’

  ‘And what will that be?’ Toby demanded. His brain still found it difficult to accept that Felicity might have been returned to Idris, with everything that would entail for her. It was too nightmarish a concept for his imagination. But he had to look facts in the face.

  ‘You intend to challenge the Algerians to fight or surrender. Well, with this force you command, they may well surrender. You then have a list, as I understand it, of all American vessels and all their passengers and crew known to have been taken by the pirates. These vessels, or adequate compensation for their loss and their people, you will require to be released on threat of a bombardment. You may well succeed in all of these aims, Stephen. But does any of that assist me? Felicity’s name is not on any of those lists, simply because she was not taken from an American vessel on the high seas. Nor can we prove she is in Algiers at all. Car-ruthers, for one, is quite sure she is having an affair with Marquand and has simply run off, and you may be sure that is the prevailing opinion in Lisbon. But even supposing we could prove it, do you suppose, after having gone to such lengths to get her back, that Idris is likely to admit to possessing her? But even supposing he does, and then offers compensation for her as if she were merely one of the other American captives … my God, compensation? For Felicity? I think I am going mad.’

  Decatur sighed. ‘What would you have us do, Toby? This all happened better than two weeks ago. If Marquand was working for Idris, Felicity will have been returned to Algiers some time ago.’

  ‘If?’ Toby asked in a low voice.

  Decatur flushed. ‘I cast no doubts upon Felicity’s honour, Toby, and you should know that. But it is at least a possibility that Marquand abducted her for his own purposes.’

  ‘She is in Algiers,’ Toby said. ‘I know it.’

  ‘I agree that if we do not accept that, then we really have no idea of where to start looking. But if she is in Algiers, having been returned there two weeks ago …’

  ‘She is irrecoverable as my wife,’ Toby snarled. ‘I have heard all those arguments before, remember?’

  ‘I was going to say,’ Decatur’s voice was quiet, ‘that she very likely is dead by now.’ Toby stared at him.

  ‘I doubt Idris meant to take her back into his harem,’ Decatur said gently. ‘He will have been after vengeance.’

  ‘If he has killed Felicity,’ Toby said, now also speaking quietly, ‘if he has harmed a hair of her head, I shall throttle him with these two hands of mine, if I die in the act.’ He stood up. ‘I will submit my resignation in half an hour.’

  ‘Your what?’

  ‘I wish to be relieved of my command, sir,’ Toby said formally.

  ‘Now I know you have lost your senses.’

  ‘Not at all. I know what I have to do is beyond the scope of your orders.’

  ‘And what
do you have to do? Raise an army and storm the city?’

  ‘I must certainly get myself into Algiers, one way or another. It should not be difficult. I speak the language.’

  ‘And once there you will rescue Felicity from the clutches of the dragon, and carry her off like some knight of old.’

  ‘I will at least try to do so.’

  ‘And if she is dead?’

  ‘As I have said, I shall avenge her.’

  ‘And then die yourself, Toby, Toby … Look, in addition to my list of vessels and crews taken by the pirates, I have also been instructed to demand the heads of those guilty for these depredations. I do not have any names, but one of them is most certainly Mohammed ben Idris.’

  ‘Do you really suppose he will be handed over to our justice? Do you not suppose he wields as much power in Algiers as he ever did in Tripoli? You will find that he is mysteriously absent from the city, when you make your demands. No one will know where he has gone, but you may be sure his women and treasures will have gone with him. That is an added reason for me to have reached him before you commence your assault. Stephen, there is nothing you and your squadron can do which will regain Felicity. I know that. There is nothing I can expect you to do. This is a personal matter between Idris and myself.’

  ‘And if I do not accept your resignation?

  ‘I will desert.’

  Decatur scratched his head. ‘So you are facing me with a choice of putting you in irons, here and now … or detaching you to carry out a secret mission.’

  Toby’s heart leapt. He had never supposed his friend would fail him.