Greenbeard (9781935259220) (38 page)

“How long before the first cut is completed, Frank?” said the Captain, suddenly serious.

Mr Benjamin stared at the ceiling, one eye shut. “Twelve hours, more or less, Cap'n.”

“Hmm, then we must work through the night, I'm afraid, Frank. Time presses on me!”

“That will need lamps to light the cutting work. It cannot be done just by feel.”

“Peter, can you get a tent rigged over the raft? I do not want to show even a glim of light which may be seen from the sea.”

“That does not present any difficulties, Captain. There is sailcloth, and it can be painted black. Surely a screen around would be sufficient? A
blindée
, as the French would say? The men will need air in this heat, even at night.”

“Excellent! Yes, do that before twilight. Can you cope with that, Frank?”

“Surely, Captain. There are other strong men in the crew, and the bully-boys will need sleep. If the strong men are paired on the saw with one of Len's boys in daylight they will learn how to do it, and we will be able to continue through the night, I suppose.”

“Are there any problems that you can foresee, either of you?”

“I am worried about the saw, Cap'n,” said Mr Benjamin, “a couple of the diamond teeth have shattered, and I fear that more will do the same, and as there are less teeth, there is more force upon those that remain, and we must make four cuts to open the … discus and gain access to its interior. Will the saw last long
enough?”

“There are another seven diamond saws in the hold, Frank. I thought it best to be over-prepared. We cannot stop to go to the Antwerp diamond-bourse for more, after all.”

Mr Benjamin and Blue Peter digested this news in silence.

“Come, gentlemen, I could not advertise that we had a fortune in diamonds in the hold! The crew are loyal, and every one a rich man already, but the temptation to creep down and jimmy a few sparklers out would have been too much for some, I'm sure, even though they are very small diamonds.”

“Eight diamond saws, Captain?” said Blue Peter wonderingly. “They must have cost enough to make King Croesus curse!”

“Well, Peter, as I said, they are quite small diamonds, mostly of a poor yellowish colour, and not cut into many facets as are diamonds for jewellery, so I got them at a very good price!”

“Good gracious! Even so …” said Mr Benjamin, shaking his head. “In that case I think we may have the
discus
vessel opened in about forty-eight hours, two days at most, if we saw continuously night and day without respite.”

Mr Benjamin stood up and clamped his hat back on his head, bid them good-day and left to continue supervising the cutting.

“Sylvestre,” said Blue Peter in a low voice, “this is the extramundane craft in which you made your escape, is it not?”

“Ah, Peter! You have a quick and intuitive mind!” smiled Captain Greybagges. “Indeed it is! I was inexperienced in handling such things - a regular landlubber! – and I hit the waters of the bay moving at a great speed. I was lucky to keep my body and soul intact, but the craft was badly wrecked, the glass cupola upon its top smashed, and it sank like a stone.” He poured himself more coffee and took another biscuit. “Let us finish our coffee, then perhaps do a turn upon those blasted air-pumps to encourage the others!”

 

 

It took forty-two hours to saw four cuts in the hull of the extramundane craft, creating a square hole. Mr Benjamin and Loomin' Len ceremoniously made the final strokes of the diamond saw and the last connecting finger of blue-green-tinted metal parted with an audible
clink
in the early hours of the second day,
shortly after the ship's bell rang the beginning of the first dog-watch. In the yellow glow of the whale-oil lamps two bully-boys lifted out the sawn section, expressing muttered surprise at how light it was, despite being as thick as a hatch-batten. A quiet spatter of applause came from the rail of the
Ark de Triomphe
, where most of the day-watch and the waisters had joined the night-watch to witness the feat.

Captain Greybagges clambered down onto the raft. He bowed a mock formal bow to Mr Benjamin, took the proffered lantern and was the first to peer into the dark inside of the lenticular extramundane craft. He was grinning broadly. He handed the lantern back to Mr Benjamin, who peered inside and grinned when he withdrew his head from the aperture.

“Not a trace of water or damp, Captain! And no obvious sign of damage. We are blessed with good fortune!”

The bully-boys hissed and muttered, outraged that Mr Benjamin should speak thus and attract bad luck.

“Quick, Frank! Knock your knuckles on the side of the ship! Hard as you can! Now whistle and turn round three times widdershins!” He took Mr Benjamin's shoulders and spun him round anticlockwise. “Ah, there, Frank! Any ill turns of fate that may have been brought by your words are averted by our seamanlike wisdom and prompt action!” He winked at Mr Benjamin and continued in a lower voice. “You know what to do now, Frank. Carry on!”

Captain Greybagges climbed back up the side of the frigate with the aid of a dangling rope and addressed the assembled pirates.

“Mr Benjamin spoke without thinking, but he is right! Things are looking very fine and ship-shape! You are all curious as to what this strange metal sea-shell contains, but there is no treasure in there, nor any gold or jewels. BUT!” and he spoke in a loud commanding voice, “in there are some devices which we will need, which I expected to find, which will enable us to do some great things! You will see them as Mr Benjamin and his lads bring them into the ship, so you
will
see them and do not need to sneak onto the raft to get a peek, but they do not look like much, I tell you, just some metal boxes and drums. Do NOT get in Mr Benjamin's way! Do NOT be foolish from mere curiosity! Do NOT touch these things! If you do you will be like an ape in a powder-magazine
with a tinder-box!
Let Mr Benjamin and his lads do their work, and I promise you that in the next weeks you will see some sights that will astound you. Wonders that shall amaze and delight you! Just
you be patient awhile! NOW you day-watch fellows and you waisters must go to your hammocks and sleep, for there is more hard work to be done upon the dawn, which is close upon us. Hard work, yes indeed, and plenty of it, but labour handsomely, my fine buccaneers, and we shall have a little jollity before we leaves this bay. We shall have a
boucan
! Two oxen, three hogs and three sheep are coming to be roasted for your pleasure. Mr Bucephalus! Mr First Mate! Give these stout pirates a double ration of rum, so they may sleep as sound as babies! And the same for the dog-watches when they stands down.”

The pirates went to their hammocks, accompanied by a low mutter of talk, leaving just the night-watch on deck, and Mr Benjamin, his skilled men and Len and the bully-boys on the raft in the dim glow of the lamps.

 

The first device was brought out from the strange seashell in the mid-morning, and indeed it did not look like much; a lead-grey cylinder with some flanges, bumps and hollows on its smooth surface. Mr Benjamin, his eyes now red from lack of sleep, and his small team of apprentices-turned-pirates – a watchmaker, a scientific-instrument maker, two millwrights, a coppersmith and a maker of brass trumpets and horns – clustered around as two of Loomin' Len's bully-boys hefted the grey cylinder through the square hole and placed it on a wooden stollage. A block-and-tackle lifted it onto the deck and then it was carried below into the bowels of the ship. Another identical grey cylinder followed three hours later, and then another, and then another. Whispered reports flew round the frigate:

“
They have bolted it to the flat plate on the iron keel, under the foremast! The larboard plate!” – “Mr Benjamin dropped a wrench on his foot and howled in anger and cursed most foully!” – “Now there are two of them bolted to the for'ard keel!” – “The watchmaker has had a finger crushed under the bottom of one when it slipped, but he has wrapped a silk kerchief around it and he works on! His finger, of course, you lubber, the kerchief went around his finger!” – “Now two of them are bolted to the aft keel, side-by-side!” – “They are joining all four of them to the copper bars, working to a secret plan of squiggles on a square of paper! No, nobody knows why! I said it was a secret plan, didn't I, have you got ears of sailcloth?
”

 

At dusk Captain Greybagges told Mr Benjamin to stop and rest, for he, his skilled team and the bully-boys has now been working without respite and sustained only snatched snacks for two-and-a-half days. Then he
ordered
them to
stop, for they were unwilling to obey and would have defied him. After a hot meal and a pint of iced rum-grog they fell asleep where they sat or stood, still mumbling that they could carry on, surely they could, and friends carried them gently to their berths, removed their shoes and tip-toed away. Miss Chumbley and the leader of the island women tended to the clockmaker's finger as he slept, cleaning the wound with warm water and vinegar, bandaging it with cotton cloth and splinting the finger with a thin strip of rawhide, sufficient to restrict movement but not so stiff as to cause discomfort. The watchmaker muttered between his snores, but did not awake.

 

Jack Nastyface and Jake Thackeray sat on the mizzenmast mainsail crosstrees, which had become their accustomed spot for a yarn and a smoke, eating a handful of Jake's biscuits, watching the sun lift itself over the horizon. The air was still cool, but the brassy rising sun foretold a hot morning, which in Nombre Dios bay was no surprise.

“Look! There goes Mr Benjamin and his mechanics,” said Jake.

“And eager as foxhounds! Mr Benjamin has not even taken his air-bath!” said Jack. “But see, he gives his wig and spectacles to Len and douses his head under the seawater pump. And he goes straight for the raft, his hair still wet! What wonders will he bring out from the scallop-shell today?”

“Another fascinating grey lump of something-or-other, no doubt. What were those things?”

“The Cap'n knows, and maybe Mr B and his mechanics, but nobody else does, although they do not let that inhibit them from making guesses. Let us be about our business, Jake, for those mechanical fellows have shamed us all, and any slacking today will be much remarked, and not in a kindly way.” Jack slid down the backstay, and Jake climbed carefully through the lubber's hole and down the ratlines. Pirates in the rigging called out “har-har, you old woman!” but he ignored their comments with the unshakable dignity of the one who holds the serving-ladle at mealtimes.

 

The next wonder to emerge from the ‘scallop-shell' was not a grey cylinder, but a vaguely spherical object with flat faces, also grey, but a darker blue-grey. It was manhandled through the square aperture in the extramundane craft's hull
with great difficulty, for it was almost too big to fit and seemed to be very heavy. Whispers went from mouth to ear round the crew:

“
Mr Benjamin called it a dodecahedron! No, I don't know what that is!” – “It is stuck in the starboard companionway!” – “Mr Chippendale has been called! He has cut away the bulkheads, and now it moves again!” – “Mr B says there must be no more squashed fingers, so Chips is cutting a hole in the ‘tween-deck planking!” – “Bulbous Bill and Izzy are rigging a hoist, with a tackle suspended from the main-deck hanging knees!” – “It sits on the large plate in the middle of the keel, upon the centreline!” – “They are clamping it with bolts!” – “The copper bars are being attached to it! Mr B calls for tallow mixed with powdered copper! No, I don't know why!” – “It is in place! Mr B praises Len's boys for their muscles and Chips, Bill and Izzy for the ingenious tackle-work!” – “Now Mr B calls a break for food and water!
”

 

Mr Benjamin and his team ate beef stew, tearing off hunks of bread to sop up the juices, drinking draughts of iced water, sitting on tool-chests and kegs in the waist of the frigate. The cook collected the plates, and Jake Thackeray brought them coffee and cakes on a tray. They lit pipes and sat at ease. Mr Benjamin took paper diagrams from a battered leather case and passed them around, listening to comments and questions. The members of the crew who contrived to walk nonchalantly past reported that the papers were as incomprehensible as Chinese - lines and squares, symbols, squiggles, hieroglyphs and runes – but that they were discussing them earnestly, and that the talk that was overheard made no more sense than the papers.

Captain Greybagges came up from the Great Cabin and joined them, accepting a cup of coffee and a slice of honey-glazed lardy-cake.

“Fine work, Mr Benjamin, and you fellows, too!” said the Captain. “I assume that there is only the one more thing to be retrieved?”

“Well, that and a few little odds and ends,” said Mr Benjamin thoughtfully, lifting his wig to scratch the top of his head.

“It is already getting a little late in the day, and you have worked as hard as Trojans. Do it tomorrow, for it may be delicate work, and you will need to be rested. There is the fitting of the new instruments to the binnacle to be done, which is not such heavy labour, as Mr Chippendale will do the necessary carpentry. Under your supervision, of course.”

“Aye-aye, Cap'n!” said Mr Benjamin with a nod and a smile. “That is a
sensible plan. The connexions to the demiheptaxial mechanism are mostly already in place, thanks to Sid here,” he indicated the watchmaker with a nod, “so the work on the binnacle will go quickly.”

“And how is your hand today, Sid?” enquired the Captain.

“Painful, but bearable, begging your pardon, Cap'n. Luckily it is the left hand.” He raised the hand in question, the bandage now stained with black grease and smears of the tallow and copper-dust mixture, which was as bright as sign-writers' gold paint in the low sun.