The Wreck of the Ten Sail Read online

  The men were already out the door, and I pulled on the boots to follow.

  “Wait,” she called to me.

  I turned to look at the girl standing in the empty cell.

  “You can’t leave me. They’ll think I had something to do with this.”

  I wanted no more blood on my hands. “Hurry, then. Come with us.”

  “Not without my father.”

  Every run-in I had with a woman made my life more complicated. Still, I couldn’t leave her.

  “We don’t have time to get him.”

  “He can guide these waters as well as any man and help you find the treasure you were asking about,” she said.

  That changed things. If her father could do what she said, it would be worth the risk. Mason was a good navigator, but these waters required local knowledge, and that alone might be the difference between escape and death.

  “You go to the ship and pull anchor. From the look of her, she’s faster than any anchored in the bay. Their larger ships are on the ocean side. For them to stop you, they’d have to sail around the island, and they won’t risk the east end at night. That same reef took the Convent and those other boats.”

  I was impressed with her knowledge. “Then where are we to meet?”

  “There’s a small sound to the east of the bay. Mind the points and stay in the channel. It’s only a couple of miles across the land. We’ll be there before you,” she said before she left the guardhouse.

  “Your name?” I called after her.

  “Shayla,” she answered and ran down the path.

  I wasted no time. “Gather round,” I whispered to the men.

  We stood in a tight circle off to the side of the building. “Haul those guards into the cell and close the door. That way nothing will look amiss to a passerby. Blue, can you lead us to the ship?”

  “We need the canoe, Mr. Nick. The pier is no good.”

  “Right, then. We follow Blue, then board the ship from the bay side. No matter what, we’re getting out of here tonight.”

  The four of us grabbed the bodies and dragged them inside. I removed the darts from the men’s necks. Let them wonder what mysteries killed these men. The last thought I had before closing the door was that we were pirates again, but our other option was certain death. We followed Blue into the brush, fighting against the sharp palmetto leaves and small cacti as we went. My feet hurt inside the boots, but it would have been worse without them.

  Suddenly, when we were no more than ten feet into the brush, Blue stopped and held his hand for quiet.

  “Someone run the other way.”

  At first, I thought he meant the girl, but he knew she had gone and would recognize her light footfall. “A man?” I asked.

  “There must have been three of them,” Rhames said. “Little bugger missed one.”

  I doubted Blue had misjudged the situation, but nevertheless we had been discovered. “Better move, then,” I concluded.

  We ran through the brush, now careless about the noise we made and certain an alarm had been sounded. The brush thinned suddenly and we found ourselves in an open pasture. The cuts on my feet were chafing against the leather of the boots, and I knew I was holding the group back. “Blue. How far to the canoe?” I called ahead, wincing from the pain.

  “Not far, Mr. Nick.”

  “Go on. I’ll find it and come in the second load.”

  I saw him confer with Rhames and Swift, who ran back for me. They hoisted me between them and I draped one arm over each of their shoulders. Like the three-legged races I remembered from my childhood, we made our way across the pasture and found the bay. Blue and Mason ran to the water and started to remove the palm fronds from the canoe.

  The narrow craft was made for two, so it rode low in the water with Rhames, Swift, Mason, and me in it. Blue stayed in the water, clinging to the stern as Rhames and Swift took the first shift with the paddles. With the extra weight, we had little freeboard and I feared even the smallest wave would swamp the boat. Thankfully the moon had not yet risen and there was no wind. With a bit of luck, we would blend into the night and make it back to the ship.

  An hour later the lights from the town came into view. We closed on the Panther, but as we did, we noticed a number of lights aboard. We were too late.

  “Slow down and paddle to shore,” I called to Rhames.

  Rhames turned and gave me a questioning look.

  “Bastard governor’s gone for the treasure,” Swift muttered.

  Near shore, I jumped out to beach the boat. There was nothing the four of us could do now. With no arms between us, save Blue’s blowgun, we would have to wait them out. We sat on the jagged rocks for what seemed like hours before the last light moved down the ladder and onto a waiting boat. The jovial voices of the men, fresh from looting our ship, carried across the bay.

  Disheartened, we piled back in the canoe. We paddled straight out into the bay on a course that would take us out of sight of the settlement. Lanterns were visible along the coastline and I guessed they were searching for us on shore. I assumed they didn’t know about the canoe. Regardless, we were careful to make a wide loop before approaching the ship. If we were seen boarding the ship after killing two of their men, they would surely fire on us.

  By the time we turned to the ship, the moon was in the sky and the light it cast showed the land toward the northeast. I picked out the two points where Shayla and her father were to wait for us and wondered if they would make our rendezvous.

  With the Panther’s hull now screening us from the settlement, we changed course and headed directly for the ship. Slowly, we slid next to her. Although the tide was in our favor for the moment, it would make our escape that much harder. With only a light wind, we needed the assistance of the outgoing tide to exit the bay. I willed the moon higher in the sky, knowing when it hit its apex the tide would be at its peak and start flowing outward. But it had only been up for an hour, leaving half the night before it could aid us.

  As we brushed the hull of the ship, we called up to the deck, hoping the governor had not taken the crew as well. Finally Lucy’s head appeared over the rail.

  “Drop us a ladder,” I called up to her.

  Minutes later we were on deck and I assessed the damage.

  Red confirmed that the treasure was indeed gone. Keeping my composure, I tried to reassure them.

  “Nothing you could do,” I said.

  Red and Lucy stood silently with their heads down. That’s when I noticed what else was missing.

  “Where’s Rory?”

  “Strange thing about her,” Red said. “She showed them straight away where the treasure was, and then asked that they take her to see the governor.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  “There’s nothing to be gained staying here. That bastard governor will arrest us at first light and either take the ship or burn her,” Rhames said.

  I was hesitating, wanting to be certain of Rory’s intentions. If she had a plan to help us, I needed to know, but there had been no indication of that and I was faced with the uncomfortable reality that Rory’s actions were treachery, plain and simple, that I had been played the fool.

  “Right, then,” I said with more confidence than I felt. “Might as well get a jump on the tide and pull the ship.” I turned my head to feel the direction of the wind, hoping it would allow us to sail out of the bay against the tide, but I barely noticed any. “Maybe it’ll freshen with the sunrise. If we can reach the mouth of the bay by then, we can catch it.”

  “There’s a couple of small islands not a day’s sail from here,” Mason said. “If we get out of here, we can head towards one and regroup.”

  I looked at the chart spread out on the navigation table. It would have been more comfortable in the cabin with a lantern, but we didn’t want the light to alert anyone watching from shore that we were preparing to slip from the harbor. Let them keep thinking the handful of folk they left aboard were half-drunk and waiting for the rest of thei
r crew.

  “I’ll take first turn on the oars,” I said and went to the ladder. Really, I wanted to get some time alone to think about our situation and get out of the judging gaze of the men. Rhames took the wheel and Swift and Red went forward to retrieve the anchor. Blue and Lucy had already gone below to make more darts for their blowguns.

  “I’ll give a hand,” Mason said and climbed down the ladder behind me.

  Of the crew, my only sure ally right now was Mason. We sat next to each other on the bench seat and started gently rowing towards the stern to catch the hawser that Swift was waiting to toss. It hit the deck of the small boat and Mason tied a bridle to two belay pins attached to the skiff.

  We waited in silence while they raised the anchor. I winced as the links of the chain rattled through the opening in the bow, loud enough to attract attention if anyone was listening. I took the chance of a slight delay and called for them to slow down. Anxiously, I watched the shoreline for any sign that our escape had been noticed, but there was no action, nor any movement from the boats in the harbor. Finally the anchor left the water and was secured by the two men.

  We were drifting with the tide now, its movement taking us in the wrong direction—toward the pier. With a sense of urgency, Mason and I took to the oars and pulled with everything we had. The initial effort required to get the boat moving against the flow of water was backbreaking, but once done, although we were not moving fast, the hull slid silently through the water at what I guessed was about a knot. It would be hours of grueling work, but once the tide turned we would easily be in a position to raise sail and escape through the bay’s entrance, though the lack of wind was still troubling.

  “What about those natives?” Mason asked as we settled into a rhythm.

  I had not forgotten about Shayla and her father. “Don’t guess there’s much we can do for them having to tow the boat and all.” In truth, I had little interest in them. I was still smarting from Rory’s possible betrayal and wanted nothing to do with another woman.

  “Send Blue in the canoe,” he suggested. “We could use their knowledge if we return.”

  I knew at least I would be back for the treasure, if not to find out where Rory stood, and it was true we would need help, but I was curious about Mason’s interest. As he had joined the crew later, he was not vested in the treasure we had lost. Only the silver ballast was his, and right now he was wealthier than the lot of us combined.

  “What is it about that wreck that you would risk everything to come back for it?”

  “There you have me,” he said. “Rumor is that the single silver ballast in the hold is part of a large batch cast by the English governor in Jamaica to trick pirates and privateers. With the king’s son aboard one of those boats, there would surely be treasure as well. But thirty years ago, the English were at war with France, and the Spanish who still ruled these waters would plunder any foreign ship they came across. You’d want to hide your riches if you were them, and the story goes they had it cast into ballast and hidden in the keel.”

  “But the old man said the wreck was deeper than they could dive.”

  “It is, but there’s something else he didn’t tell you. They found and searched the Convent, which led the convoy, but she was just a military ship. It was the Ludlow carrying the ballast that was never found.”

  Now I understood his interest, but how could it help us, and how could we reach it? Regardless, it would be worth having a guide and supplementing our skeleton crew with two more bodies, if nothing else. If Blue was willing to search for them, there was no harm in taking on the two passengers.

  “Rhames,” I called to the ship, less cautious than before. We were now at least a mile from the harbor, and I had looked back several times and seen no sign of pursuit. And why would they? They had our treasure… and Rory.

  “Yo,” he called back from the forepeak.

  “Get Blue into the canoe. We’re going to see if we can find the old man and his daughter. He could come in handy as a pilot.” I wasn’t exactly lying.

  “Aye. We could use a set of eyes that knows what’s what.”

  A few minutes later I heard the sound of the canoe moving towards us. The sleek craft quickly pulled alongside and I saw Lucy was with Blue.

  “Be faster with two, and I’m not leaving him to run off with no local,” she said before I could ask.

  I nodded. The canoe could take the weight. “You know where to look for them?” I asked Blue.

  “We’ll find them,” he answered and they paddled silently away. There was no doubt he would find them. We watched them disappear into the darkness, then I called back to Rhames to spell us. He sent Swift and Red and we exchanged places.

  Back at the wheel, I wondered if the rumors about the wreck and its fortune in silver were true. Without the treasure in our hold, we were no longer worth much to anyone. Perhaps it was worth risking a return to the island.

  There were few ways to come across treasure in the Caribbean, and treasure hunter sounded a lot better than wrecker, those sketchy characters that worked up and down the Florida coast and the Bahamas looking for ships in distress, sometimes even luring them onto the reefs.

  But how could we reach riches too deep to free-dive for?

  Mason joined me a few minutes later and I began questioning him about the procedure.

  “It’s all new,” he said excitedly. “A helmet of sorts that has a faceplate you can see through, with a hose run from a pump on the deck of a boat.”

  I had to admit I was entranced.

  “I saw a piece in a newspaper a while back,” he continued, “about two brothers on the continent who fashioned one to allow firefighters to enter burning buildings.”

  “Where would we get something like this?” I asked, dreaming about the possibility of breathing underwater and finding treasure. Suddenly, it wasn’t just this one wreck I was interested in, but the hundreds of ships laden with gold that had gone down in these waters over the centuries.

  He thought for a few minutes. “Havana would be the most likely place to find what we need. It’s only two days’ sail.”

  I wasn’t sure it would work, but it wasn’t as though we had another plan. Besides, an idea was forming in my head. The salvage operation could give us the ideal cover to get back to Grand Cayman.

  I felt the boat pick up speed. The moon was on its way back to the horizon, and the tide had turned. Keeping an eye out for Blue and Lucy, I called for the skiff to return to the Panther.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  High in the rigging, I strained to see through the predawn glow, scanning the horizon for the canoe with Blue, Lucy, and, if we were lucky, the two locals. We were near the north end of the sound and just a mile from the ocean. There was no sign of them and I was getting worried.

  There was still little wind but I could see ripples on the water. I felt a small puff every few minutes that indicated there might be a change with the dawn. Blue and Lucy were somewhere to the east and I needed to spot them quickly before the rising sun blinded me. The first rays were already peeking above the horizon. Squinting into the light, I could just make out something moving near the mouth of the sound. It was a canoe riding low in the water.

  “There they are!”

  I saw Mason shield his eyes and then noticed the look on his face. When I looked at the canoe again, I understood his concern. With our drift and their position, we would be past them before they could reach us.

  Another puff caught me off guard, further convincing me that the wind would be up soon, and blowing from the southeast—perfect for our destination. But the fresh breeze and the friendly tide worked against any hope we had in recovering the canoe. Mason changed course to move us out of the main current, drifting as close to the edge of the sound as he dared without knowledge of the water. He had Swift drop the lead and call soundings from the bow. We were in less than two fathoms of water, as shallow as we dared.

  The boat was still moving too fast.


  I jumped from the rigging, ran to the hold, and slid down the ladder. I rifled through the locker until I found a spare foresail, then, with the canvas under my arm, I made for the deck and called Rhames and Red over.

  “Fashion a sea anchor,” I said as I crossed the deck in the direction of the cabin. Inside the galley, I found the fishing line we had used a few days earlier. It would serve. I took both spools to the stern rail, shooting a quick glance back at the men tying bowline knots to the sail. They clearly understood what I wanted.

  A proper buoy would have been better suited for what I had in mind, but I had nothing other than a rope fender. Untying it from the rail and attaching it to the end of the fishing line, I tossed the fender over the stern and paid out the line. Just before the first spool was about to run out, I wound several loops around my arm, tied the bitter end to the next spool, and paid out that line as well. The second line was nearing its end now, and I glanced up at the fender now floating several hundred feet behind the boat.

  I tied the line off and helped the men drop the drogue into the water. The force of the wake threatened to yank the canvas from our arms, but we held on until our progress slowed enough to tie off the lines.

  I was able to see the sail had done its part to slow the ship, but from the speed and angle the canoe was traveling, I knew they would fall behind us. I had to signal Blue that the fender was behind the boat.

  I went below, grabbed a small piece of mirror from the cabin, and climbed back into the rigging. I caught the sun on its surface and reflected the light toward the canoe. With no prearranged signal, I did my best to catch their attention, then I moved the light from the stern to the fender. There was nothing to do now but hope they understood.

  I climbed back down and took a position near the starboard rail. With the speed of our ship slowed and the current working in their favor, they were making good progress, but they were still going to miss us. The buoy line was our last chance. I went to the stern as they approached, now close enough to see the distressed look on their faces as they realized their predicament. The two men were paddling for all they were worth and I thought for a second they might have a chance, but the stretch of water between us seemed to be growing.