PIRATE: Privateer Read Online Free PDF Page B

the air and clattered on to the deck of the urca. The crew paid no attention. They were busy with buckets, dipping up seawater to douse the
fire.
    Anne-Marie tapped her prisoner on the shoulder. ‘Over you go,’ she said cheerfully. Felipe, white-faced, slid over the side and began to swim back to the urca.
    Hector glared at her. ‘We agreed no piracy,’ he said accusingly.
    She showed white teeth in a mischievous smile. ‘I only said that I would pay for what we needed. How long do you think it would be before they sent the
guarda costa
after us? With
only a single foresail it’ll take Captain Fonseca at least a week to get to Cartagena, enough time for us to finish exploring the wreck. Then we head for Tortuga.’
    She glanced back at the urca. The plume of smoke was gone. The fire must have been under control.
    ‘Captain Fonseca has suffered only a scorched deck, and perhaps an injury to his pride,’ she said.
    When they reached the
Morvaut
Anne-Marie climbed aboard first and, turning, held out her hand for Hector to pass up his satchel of maps. He stood up and held out the satchel at
arm’s length. At that moment Yannick deliberately caused the tender to tip. It was a sudden, violent lurch, intended to throw Hector into the water. Caught off-guard, Hector lost his balance
and seized the proffered hand. With one smooth movement Anne-Marie hoisted him safely up to the deck. For a long moment she stood, holding his hand in hers. Then she gave a brief and unmistakable
squeeze of invitation.

THREE

    M ORVAUT
WAS FINALLY on her way to Tortuga, running comfortably before a steady north-west breeze. Hector, Dan and
Jezreel had gathered on the foredeck in the last of the evening sunshine. They were looking on as Jacques weighed out their hack silver into four equal portions. He was using an ingenious set of
balance scales he had rigged up from a soup ladle and pewter dipping bowl.
    ‘Nearly fifteen pounds’ weight a share,’ announced the Frenchman. ‘Add the jewels and cobs, and I’d say that each of us is £200 richer than when we started
out.’
    ‘Worth the effort, even if not as good as Phipps,’ said Jezreel. The success of William Phipps was legendary. He had located the wreck of a great galleon, the
Nuestra
Señora de la Pura y Limia Concepción
, on shoals north of Hispaniola and brought up thirty tons of silver. Phipps’ success had earned him an audience with the English king
and a knighthood.
    ‘Phipps took scores of divers with him as well as a Bahamian tub,’ Hector pointed out. He felt that Dan’s solo effort should be recognized. Phipps’ salvage team had
deployed a wood-and-leather diving bell weighted with lead. It was crude but effective in helping the divers ransack the wreck. Dan had merely jumped overboard from the
Morvaut
, with a heavy
stone to pull him down.
    ‘If we brought back as much as Phipps, we could wipe clean the slate,’ said Jezreel.
    Hector wondered if Jezreel was secretly hoping that one day he would be able to return to London and go back to prizefighting, as either a contestant or a manager. Watching Jacques stow their
salvage portions safely into two knapsacks, he doubted that the Frenchman had similar ambitions. Returning to France would be difficult for Jacques. He would wear a galérien’s brand on
his cheek for the rest of his life and there was a second brand, V for voleur, on his right hand, between thumb and forefinger. As far as Hector was aware, Jacques had no family and the only women
he had left behind in Paris were ladies of easy virtue. Dan, by contrast, was free to return to his people any time he chose. Yet Dan enjoyed travelling, and the Miskito people considered it
normal, even desirable, for a young man to wander away from home and see the world.
    Hector glanced aft.
    Anne-Marie was nowhere to be seen, and he presumed she was in the cabin. Two of her brothers, Yannick and Yacut, were busy on some rope work while Roparzh was at the