Tongues of Serpents Page 0,27

this remark: he believed in the discipline of the service, and still felt himself at heart a serving-officer; if he had been forced beyond the bounds of proper submission to authority, it had been most unwillingly. But denial froze in his throat; that excuse was worth precisely the value that their Lordships would have put upon it, which was none.

Tharkay left him to wrestle with it a moment, then added, "There are alternatives, if you wished to consider them."

"To sit here on the far side of the world, seeing Temeraire wholly wasted on the business of breeding, and condemned to tedium and the absence of all society?" Laurence said, tiredly. "We might, I suppose, do some work for the colony: ferry goods, and assist with the construction of roads - "

"You might go to sea," Tharkay said, and Laurence looked at him in surprise. "No, I am not speaking fancifully. You remember, perhaps, Avram Maden?"

Laurence nodded, a little surprised: he had not heard the merchant's name from Tharkay since they had left Istanbul, nor that of Maden's daughter; and Laurence had himself avoided any mention of either for fear of giving pain. "I must consider myself yet in his debt; I hope he does well - he did not come under any suspicion, after our escape?"

"No; I believe we made a sufficiently dramatic exit to satisfy the Turks without their seeking for conspirators." Tharkay paused, and then his mouth twisted a little. "He has been lately presented with his first grandson," he added.

"Ah," Laurence said, and reached over to fill Tharkay's glass.

Tharkay raised it to him silently and drank. A minute passed, then leaving the subject with nothing more said, he abruptly added, "I am engaged to perform a service for the directors of the East India Company, at his request; and as I understand it, several of those gentlemen are interested in outfitting privateers, to strike at the French trade in the Pacific."

"Yes?" Laurence said politely, wondering how this should apply to his situation. What service those merchant lords might require, in this still-small port, Laurence could not understand, though it explained at least why Tharkay had come - and then he realized, startling back a little in his chair, that Tharkay meant this as a suggestion.

"I could scarcely fit Temeraire on a privateer," he said, wondering a little that Tharkay could imagine it done: it was not as though he had not seen Temeraire.

"Without having broached the subject with the gentlemen in question," Tharkay said, "I will nevertheless go so far as to assure you that the practicalities would be managed, if you were willing. Ships can be built to carry dragons, where interest exists; and a dragon who can sink any vessel afloat must command interest."

He spoke with certainty; and Laurence could take his point. A dragon could never ordinarily be obtained for such a purpose; as yet they were the exclusive province of the state. They and the first-rates and transports which could bear a dragon were devoted to blockade-duty, and to naval warfare, not to the quick and stinging pursuit of the enemy's shipping. Temeraire would be unopposed, and a privateer so armed would be virtually at liberty to take any ship which it encountered.

Laurence did not know how to answer. There was nothing dishonorable in privateering - nothing dishonorable in the least. He had known several men formerly of the Navy to embark on the enterprise, and he had not diminished in respect for them at all.

"I doubt the Government would deny you a letter of marque," Tharkay said.

"No," Laurence said. It would surely suit their Lordships admirably. Temeraire wreaking a wholesale destruction among French shipping would be a great improvement over Temeraire sitting idly in New South Wales, with none of the risks attendant on bringing him back to the front and once again into the company of other impressionable beasts, which he might lure into sedition.

"I will not urge it on you," Tharkay said. "If you should care for the introduction, however, I would be at your service."

"But that sounds quite splendid," Temeraire said, with real enthusiasm, when Laurence had laid the proposal before him in only the barest terms. "I am sure we should take any number of prizes; Iskierka should have nothing on it. How long do you suppose it would be, for them to build us a ship?"

Laurence only with difficulty persuaded him to consider it as anything other than a settled thing; Temeraire was already inclined to be