Anyway, they were grumbling about it, and according to the medic Pieter who was serving soup at the time, Darius was there having a sop and some broth.  At first he moved away from the commotion, but as it grew, he chewed them up one side and down the other--spunk, that, as there's not a man among'em who probably couldn't toss him over the gunnel with one hand while slappin' his face with the other.  But he told'em that they'd agreed to a deal, and should keep it; and that if they didn't like it, they could surely get off at the next port.  I made a point of thanking him--never had to thank a stowaway before that I recall--during dinner.  I imagine he's saved me a bit of trouble.  I certainly don't need my security people and my deck hands smashing each other up.  There are undoubtedly plenty of hazards ahead which can do that well enough.

  I'm not one to pass up a ship in distress; I've been there myself more than once, and can tell you that help has sometimes come in the nick of time.  I can't say I blame those who do ignore distress flags, what with the number of pirate fakes being near as great as the number or true troubled ships, but I can't agree with them.  The sea is a rough enough place as it is, without cutting our own throats by ignoring ships adrift.  I notice that few of these same captains will fail to investigate a valuable derelict, even though there are as many pirates using that ploy as there this one.  The day I find myself more concerned with lining my pockets that with whether another sailor needs my help is the day I give up the sea.  Needless to say, we investigated.

  Fearing that she might be aground, I drew in no closer than about three hundred yards.  I wanted a security team to row over and investigate the situation before I risked anyone else.  Balcon assigned his best man, Brown, to lead the mission.  He wanted the cannon ready, and stayed behind to give the orders on that.  Brown took Walt; and from the deck crew he took Thomas and David.  He also took Darius, that stowaway I assigned to medical.  Seems that he's been taking a few pointers on the use of a bow from Brown (and that man can shoot the warts off a baby's buttocks), and the security people felt they should have a medic to assess the situation, and better to take one that had some chance of defending himself.  So they rowed over, and we waited.

  Well, it was a few minutes; we knew there was trouble when we heard the first explosion.  Someone had fired a pistol over there.  It was several minutes before we the first cannon fired, and we knew it was bad news.  Balcon gave the order to return fire, and Rob started plotting the escape path to get out as quickly as possible.

  Brown's story goes like this.  There was a rope ladder hanging from the gunnel when they got there, so he led the way.  He ordered Darius to stay in the boat.  Once he, Walt, Thomas, and David reached the deck, they began spreading out to explore.  Abruptly they were ambushed.  They fought their way back to the gunnel, but Walt took a slug from a pistol, and Brown had to get him out.  David made the ladder first, and was headed down rapidly; but some pirate hacked through one of the ropes at the top, and he nearly fell.  Swinging back and forth, he managed to get down to the boat, and began moving it out a bit.  Darius fired an arrow at the pirate trying to bring down the ladder, and he disappeared from view.  Thomas leapt over the gunnel some distance away, and David was headed to pick him up.  But Brown reached the gunnel with Walt slung over his shoulder.  He could see immediately that the ladder would be of no use at all, so he dumped Walt into the brine, and then turned back to get a pirate off his back.  He hoped that everyone else had made the boat, but wasn't really in a position to jump himself.  He had heard cannon fire both on the pirate ship and from ours, which was not good, But he wasn't quite desperate enough to go over the gunnel backwards, not knowing where the boat was below him, and he wasn't crazy enough to turn his back on the battle in progress.  So it was a couple minutes--and a nasty gash in his left arm--before he was able to disable his opponent and leap over the gunnel.

  By the time he hit the water, the others had all made it to the boat, and pulled Walt in also.  Someone extended an oar and pulled him to the gunnel, and David and Thomas had them moving as fast as a rowboat of five passengers can move on two oars almost before he had pulled himself inside.  Rob must have seen them, because he shouted for the main masts to be unfurled, and the ship began moving forward.  The pirates meanwhile were trying to tack, to turn themselves about to follow; and we were unfurling all sails as quickly as the short-handed deck crew could manage.

  The rowboat met us on the way--David and Rob had figured their directions very well--and Darius grabbed the rope ladder we had lowered, while Brown held on to his legs to keep him from getting yanked from the boat.  Darius had already stopped Walt's bleeding, and bandaged up Brown's arm--Evan says that Walt wouldn't have made it but for Darien's good work.  But Thomas grabbed the ladder, and David grabbed Walt.  By the time David was half way up the ladder, Thomas had the trailing ends secured to the thwarts--which was good, because we were picking up speed, and the little boat was beginning to bang against the hull even as Darius climbed the ladder.  Brown was next, and finally Thomas reached the rail, and began hauling up the boat with the help of a couple other deck hands.  Darius and Brown helped get Walt to the kitchen so the Doctor could get a look at him.  He's going to be all right, but he's also going to be off duty for a few days.

  On that count, it appears our stowaway may have a few talents of which we were unaware.  There was one pirate stumbled up from the crew quarters with blood pouring from his midsection; I haven't confirmed it, but the rumors are that Darius put a ball into him, although where the lad got a gun no one has guessed.  It is clear that a moment after a gun was fired, Darius showed up behind another pirate threatening one of the engineers (who had been caught in bed--quite a number of crewmen were awakened by pirates bursting in, it was that much a surprise), and slugged the man with his walking stick, then killed the fallen pirate with his own cutlass, charging off to join the fray; however, by the time he reached the deck, the sense of his position got him, and he began treating the fallen, patching up a few lesser injuries, then hauling one of the deck hands down to the kitchen, where the doctor was able to keep him alive (prognosis is positive, as Evan would say).  Balcon and Brown were able to drive the other pirates off the deck and over the gunnels, back to the brine, and the deck hands mopped up the dead.  Maybe they'll think twice about attacking a ship of the Great Circle Trading Company in the future.

  Of course, most of the crew is off the ship, engaging in various forms of drunkenness and debauchery; just as long as they all are ready for duty by noon tomorrow, and there are no problems with the local authorities, I don't see that I should interfere.

  Apparently, Darius is responsible for those pirates a few weeks back. Tonight he showed up with three hundred fifty diktar from the sale of a cutlass he picked up from one of the slain.  I've locked it in the strongbox, and made a note in the books.