Page 6 (2/2)

"I anified

The last of the serpents fell back to Sydney by iance alone and driving towards the roaring forties: the water cold, dark iron-grey, and reenish froth Laurence joined Riley at the stern to watch the the surface in glittering curves up and down as they swam, until they reached the end of the water stirred up in the Allegiance’s wake, and then plunged deep and vanished

From there on, ed wind at their back, and the sun small and cold white on the horizon for all but a few hours of the day Laurence woke each day to the holystoning of the deck, the round of the ship’s bells; so he wondered why he had not been called for the ’s watch, and looked in vain for a blue coat

He could have wished only for a little rown used in the valley to have every day as much to do as could be done, and found hi the hours aboard a ship where he had no duty but to be a passenger Even his self-imposed duties as schoolmaster were usurped by Roland’s chaperone, whom he could not deny was better suited to the task than hioverness

He had Granby for coht have had Riley, but their relations had never quite recovered from the tensions which had arisen on their journey to Africa Riley’s father was a slave-owner in the West Indies; Laurence’s own, Lord Allendale, devoted to the cause of abolition: the voyage which led them past all the wretched slave-port cities of that continent had left theainst one another, and without roos on the subject of theirwhat those feelings were; they walked around each other with scrupulous courtesy, and spoke only of sailing, and the weather, and the life of the ship

Laurence had the pleasure, at least, of going out flying with Te with snow if they ventured south, and beneath thereat silvery schools of fish, or pods of whales or porpoises; occasionally the shadow of a handful of sharks "I do wonder why they are not at all good eating hat they eat themselves is nice; it see, "And I do not see e should not do exactly as you propose, Laurence: after all, if the Tsill take away the slaves anyway, the Portuguese o instead and not have all their cities destroyed, too"

"The Tswana cannot hope to raid all of Brazil," Laurence said, "not in time to rescue any of their people yet alive; if that is their only preoccupation"

He spoke cautiously but hoped otherwise: the Tswana had bent their wrath against even slave ports which had never shipped a single one of their own people, at great distances fro them to accept the offer which Laurence privately wished to hout the country, in lieu of having all their particular kindred returned

This hope he did not intend to unfold as yet to anyone but Teine Hammond’s reaction Wholesale abolition would scarcely recoht not satisfy the Tswana, either; but thesuch a stroke demanded any effort in its pursuit

"At least we must make the attempt; and if we had no other cause to coh," he added

"Certainly we uese will think better of refusing, if they do, when the Tswana have burned up a few more of their cities," Temeraire said blithely "And I do not see that Hammond will have any reason to coo back to Britain and defeat Napoleon at last Do you suppose that is a prize, Laurence?"

It was not: a whaler in the distance, almost certainly a neutral; too sht, and undoubtedly only to be alar for news Tely; Laurence shook his head in answer; they wheeled away and fleithout descending even to be seen

The ocean was otherwise deserted and had been for weeks now; a few islands along their way, s of deserted volcanic rock half-eaten by lichen The isolation, for lack of work, was more to be felt than in their valley; Laurence chose to feel it more It hat he must expect, if he did not mean to subject himself to authority or ask Tement Laurence could not but look down half-rueful and half-amazed at the ship belohen they returned to her, and he saw in her the orderly decided pattern of his former life: an ordinary life, a comprehensible one

He wondered suddenly at Bonaparte: at a man ould discard such a life deliberately, not under an inexorable press of duty or honor but only a flashing reckless hunger; at a man who could put himself outside the society of his fellows for such awill ever content hilory, could satisfy such aof the world will not, and wear away the worst of his arow tired of conquering and glory, that Lien would not; after all she will not be old for a very long time," Teht to only wait and hope: we had much better stop him ourselves, and be quite sure he cannot do any more harm"

"If Napoleon can seek to ascend all the thrones of Europe, I suppose wetheh with so alone from Temeraire’s back to a ship on the far side of the world in the hts on the acknowledged sovereign of a great nation and the conqueror of half of Europe

The table he returned to, that evening, was a slightly peculiar one, for Laurence and Granby had privately agreed they should treat Deon entitled hih neither his conversation nor his manners were suited to a seat near the head But that was an evil often found in the service, in men without the excuse of tender years, and at least Deht yet be worked on by ad himself under more observation than he had been used to, either as a runner or while deliberately ignored in Sydney