The Moghul Page 17

  Mackintosh watched as the last grains of red marble sand slippedthrough the two-foot-high hourglass by the binnacle and then hemechanically flipped it over. The moon now cast the shadow of themainmast yard precisely across the waist of the ship, and the tide hadbegun to flow in rapidly. The men of the new watch were silentlyworking their way up the shrouds.

  "Midnight. The tide's up. There's nae need to wait more." He turned toCaptain Kerridge, who stood beside him on the quarterdeck of the_Resolve_. George Elkington stood directly behind Kerridge.

  "Let's get under sail." Elkington tapped out his pipe on the railing.Then he turned to Kerridge. "Did you remember to douse the sternlantern?"

  "I give the orders, Mr. Elkington. And you can save your questions forthe pilot." Captain Jonathan Kerridge was a small, weasel-faced manwith no chin and large bulging eyes. He signaled the _Resolve_'squartermaster and the anchor chain began to rattle slowly up the side.Then the mainsail dropped, hung slack for a moment, and bellied againstthe wind, sending a groan through the mast. They were underway. Theonly light on board was a small, shielded lantern by the binnacle, forreading the large boxed compass.

  The needle showed their course to be almost due south, toward the barat the mouth of the Tapti. On their right was the empty bay and ontheir left the glimmer of occasional fires from the shoreline. Thewhipstaff had been taken by the Indian pilot, a wrinkled nut-brown manthe Shahbandar had introduced as Ahmet. He spoke a smattering ofPortuguese and had succeeded in explaining that he could reliably coverthe eight-mile stretch south from Swalley to the unloading bar at theTapti river mouth in one turn of the hourglass, if Allah willed. Withhigh tide, he had also managed to explain, there were only two sandbarsthey would have to avoid.

  And there would be no hostiles abroad this night. Even the Portuguesetrading frigates were safely at anchor off the river mouth, for thisevening their captains had been honored by an invitation to attend thegathering at Mirza Nuruddin's estate.