Dragon - Dragon Companion - Dragon - Dragon Companion Part 12
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Dragon - Dragon Companion Part 12

96.DRAGON COMPANION 97.

Don Callander "But they're still out there?" Tom asked, gesturing seaward.

"Tide's high with the full moon. Dangerous waters along Sea Wall at such times, especially in fog. Fog lifted just this afternoon, ye*11 recall."

"And perhaps they saw no reason to hurry their departure," guessed Jamey. "Did they know you and your friends pursued them?"

"I don't think so," answered Tom. "Well, I've got to get back to my party and report on this, friends. If I return in an hour, will I still find you here, in case I need a boat out to these ships?"

The boatmen assured him they'd be on duty until well after midnight. The last of the sailors on shore leave from other ships in the roadstead wouldn't roll down to the strand before then and business would be brisk for a while thereafter.

Tom stood, brushed sand from his trousers, and headed back up the spit toward Slippery Slate.

"WAIT a moment, young bully," came a file-rough voice from the shadows of an alley as he passed. "We needs some drinking money and've elected ye to loan it to us!"

"Here, catch," said Tom instantly. He flung a fistful of vols into a pool of moonlight at the side of the road. There was a breathless scrabbling and a ragged arm shot out of the pitch-black alley to scoop up the money.

"Ah, a willing donor," cried another voice. "Wait, maybe there's more where that come from. Salty!"

"Enjoy your drinks," called Tom, moving at a fast walk up the cobbles.

"Here!" cried one of the thieves.

"Ho, let him go!" said the other. "Let's find a crib for the night, mate."

Tom slowed down when their voices fell well behind him. No need to make himself conspicuous by running, he decided. The town that had seemed so quaint in daylight had become sinister in the dark.

Within hail of the inn four hulking figures back-lit by the inn's bright windows, stepped in front of him from the side of the street. Tom slid to a stop and took a great breath to call out to the Dragon for help.

"Here, here, we're friends!" called Clem, holding his hands up to Tom. "In fact, we're about looking for you, Librarian."

Tom let his breath sigh out in relief and joined the fur trapper and his friends.

"Lady Rosemary is aboard a Gantrell ship far out in the roadstead, I believe," he told them. "I came back for help. They might sail at any moment."

"Tide doesn't turn for over an hour," said the longshore-man. "Although if they was spooked, they might shove off before. Take their chances with the Shoal Races." "So, Standing Bear ships are really here!" cried Clem. Tom told him of his conversation with the boatmen. "Know Old Petros and his son Jamey," said the roustabout. "They been lightering to and from ships for as long as I've been in Wall. I'd say you could trust their word."

"What's that!" cried one of Clem's trapper friends. He pointed to the sky.

"Just a Dragon," shrugged Clem. "Just a Dragon!" cried the other trapper. "Just a Dragon! Ye're traveling in strange company these days, Clem!"

Furbetrance, hearing their voices echo in the empty street, changed course and thumped down beside them.

"There are three suspicious ships in the roadstead," he said at once. "I swear Lady Rosemary is aboard one of them. I didn't see, but I could smell her and I heard a child whimper!"

"I found it out in another way," said Tom. "You confirm it."

"And so did I," Clem added. "A little man in fancy clothes came into the bar. Had the Standing Bear blazon on his sleeve. He left as suddenly. We set out to follow him to his ship, we four."

"If y6ur dandy boy is from one of the Gantrell ships," said Furbetrance, "he'll warn them of us."

"We've got to move fast!" Tom exclaimed.

"Likely they'll up-anchor, rather than come for us," Clem said. "How long for him to get back to his ship?" he asked the taller trapper.

"He left here, what? Five minutes ago? Did you see anyone when you came up the street. Librarian?"

"No one at all in the last five minutes."

98 Don Callander "Then he had a boat bring him ashore near the inn, I'd guess," said the other man. " *Twill take him a half hour's rowing in the turning tide, at least, to reach the far roadstead."

"Fastest way to get to the ships is Dragon-back," said Furbetrance. "Mount up, men!"

"Wait, now, how about Manda?" asked Tom.

Cried the Dragon, "She'll be safe where she is, trying on dresses and all. There's likely to be a bit of fighting where we're headed."

All five men sprang to the Dragon's head and shoulders, two perching in front of Clem's pack of furs. Furbetrance launched himself into the air once more.

"Let's take thought, now," Tom cautioned. "I don't doubt we can get to the Gantrell three-masters before they get under way, but what then?"

"We'll demand they release their captives or we'll sink all three ships. I can do it with a belch or two," exclaimed Furbetrance. "Ships bum beautifully."

"But so do Historian's daughters!" Tom objected. "They'll know we won't bum the ship that holds Lady Rosemary. They are the counters for any demand like that, ready to the scoundrels' hands."

"Right! Right!" admitted the flying Dragon. "What then?"

"Seems to me," put in Clem, "that craft and stealth are called for. If you put me and Tom aboard the big ship quietly, we can rescue lady and kinder before they knows it."

"Here's what we'll do, then," Tom decided. "A bold diversion out front, and a sneak attack from the rear!"

He pointed out the boatmen's fire. "Land near that as quietly as possible so as not to startle them."

Once on the ground, he approached Petros and Jamey, asking for their help.

"Take these three out to near the Gantrell ships and make a ruckus of some sort," he ordered, once a price had been agreed. "While they're looking at you, Clem and I will fly with the Dragon to the ship and take Lady Rosemary and her children right from under their noses."

"Done!" cried Petros. "Come along, Jamey. We'll take my boat. It's a bit larger than yours, and we both will row.

DRAGON COMPANION 99.

Give us a quarter hour, rescuers, and we'll be close aboard her, kicking up a dandy fuss."

"You lead the way, when we get aboard her," said Tom to Clem. "Rosemary doesn't know me but she'll remember you and come with no hesitation, I think."

"Pine by me," Clem agreed. "Wish we had better weapons, though."

The Librarian carried a sheath knife, more useful for din-ing than fighting, and the trapper carried a thinner, sharper, wickeder skinning knife that he was never without.

"Improvise," yelled Tom as the Dragon launched into the air once more. "In a last resort, we've got our Dragon. That's weapon enough for me."

"You can bet on it!" chuckled Furbetrance. He beat his wings for altitude, but silently.

"It'd be useful if we managed to claim a captive of our owna-an officer, if possiblea-who could tell us what this kidnapping was all about," Tom added, clinging to the Dragon's forward ears. "But Rosemary and her children come first!"

"Agreed!" said both his companions.

"WHERE are my menfolk and my Dragon?" wondered Manda to Squiller. Mistress Squiller had disappeared into the innkeeper's quarters at the back of the inn to "run up" the new frocks and skirts.

"Well, I wasn't informed, you see," apologized the innkeeper, "but one of the potboys told me that the trapper left the taproom with three friends a while back. He watched them go. They met the young Librarian on the street outside and a moment later the Dragon joined them. They all flew off, he said, but he didn't see where."

"They've found Rosemary!" exclaimed the princess. "Why else would they leave so suddenly. And without me, damn it!"

She returned to her room, ate a light supper alone, and sat at her window, listening to the night sounds of the seaport.

I wish they *d taken me! she thought angrily. But probably it's just as well. I'm not much at hand-to-hand fighting. Oh, Tom, be careful! You *ve less training in rough doings than even I!

DRAGON COMPANION 101.

Don Callander 100."I HAVE only one further question," called Furbetrance over the wind rush of his flight. "Where is Retruance? I scoured the area and saw no sign of him."

"It begins to look," said Tom, "that he never got as far as Clem's cabin."

"Woulda seen sign if a big Dragon had landed within a mile of my place," agreed Clem. "More later, friends!

There's the Gantrell fleet."

The moon was as high as it would get that night and unless someone aboard one of the ships looked straight up, he would not notice the Dragon overhead, circling in declining loops toward the topmasts, still in eerie silence. "Ahoy!" came a voice from the dark sea. "Ahoy the ship!"

"Who goes there?" shouted the officer of the deck.

"Stand off, you drunken swabs! Clear away! Clear away, I tell you!"

*That's our diversion," whispered Clem. "Now, Dra-gon!"

In the open boat, Petros cupped his hands to bellow, "Hoy, I say! Permission to put alongside! We've a man here wants to board ye!"

"You think Freddie is with them?" someone on the ship's poop deck asked a shadow that appeared from the companionway. "He's not back yet."

"Damned little snot!" snarled the new arrival. "He took the gig ashore more than an hour since. But why would he come out in a waterman's skiff?"

"Knowing our Freddie," said the first with a sniff, "two drinks and he forgot the gig. Loves the booze too much and too often for my liking, does Freddie."

"Careful what you say," warned the other, the captain. "He's a bad reputation with that sword of his, the squeak!"

"Ahoy, ahoy!" someone in the open boat was yelling.

"Permission a"

"Ho, the boat!" shouted the ship's commander. "Come up slow and lay off until I say to hook on. We've archers here with arrows nocked, waiting for a false move!"

"Coming on very slowly. Captain!" came Petros's voice over the dark water. Just then the moon chose to slip behind a bank of clouds, plunging the sea into ebony blackness.

"Get them archers up on deck," rasped the captain to his mate. "Keep *em quiet! Something's not right, here."

FURBETRANCE slid ever so lightly into the smoother water in the lee of the ship's stem. He lifted his head level with the ornate gallery outside the great cabin windows but let the rest of his great body sink under the waves.

Clem leaped onto the narrow gallery outboard of the stem windows and found the nearest port standing partly open. "HssstF he called to the Librarian. "Come on!" The Librarian almost slipped on the scales of the Dra-gon's head but managed to get a grip on the rail, then hook his left foot. In the meantime, the trapper had swung the diamond-paned transom full open and stepped cautiously over the sill into the big cabin, his knife drawn. Tom quickly followed.

"No closer!" called the captain to the skiff. "Bring a light to see who they are."

"The lad is a bit the worse for grog," hailed Petros with a laugh. "Toss a rope down and ye can hoist him aboard like a sack."

He laughed again at his own joke and the officers on the deck swore luridly.

"Someone fetch a bull's-eye!" shouted the First Mate. A seaman scrambled down a hatch.

"Wait!" said the Captain. "I spy another boat out there, coming this way. Too dark to see a"

"Make *em all wait *til we sort this out," suggested the Mate.

"Good idea!" the Captain snarled. "Hoy, the boat. Stay where you are now!"

"THAT'S a ship's gig," Jamey whispered to his Daddy. "Man in the sheets and two at oars only."

"We'll take *em," decided Clem's tall woodsman. " *Tis the dandy hisself what ran from the Slate."

"Lie low until they come alongside," ordered Petros. "When I speak to them, jump!"

" *Ware the boy-child's sword," said the short fur trapper.

"Not much he can do with a long knife in a short boat, 102 Don Callander though," said Jamey in a hoarse whisper. "Quiet now, hearties!"

TOM went at once to the door of the saloon that stood open to the companionway leading to the open deck past several closed doors.

"One of these cabins, I'd guess," said Clem in a low voice. "They'd not put a lady in the chains, I think."

"You'd better be right about that," muttered Tom. He stole down the corridor and silently swung the outer door to, sliding bolts across to lock it securely from within. "Now!"

He rapped on the first door softly. A man's voice answered sleepily.

"Ye're called for on deck, sir," called Tom softly. He stepped to one side. In a moment the door banged opened and a tousled, half-dressed officer stood blinking in the stronger light in the hall.

"Hold there!" snarled Clem, pressing his skinning knife to the man's throat. "Just step quietly back inside, won't you?"

He pushed the man backward onto his bunk, forcing him to sit down, mouth agape.

In a few quick moves the trapper sheathed his knife, spun the man on his face and lashed his hands behind him with a strip of his own blanket. A moment later he had gagged his victim and bound his feet.