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By Root 2090 0

onto the same boat that had brought the message. Isaac’s face looked pale to Placide, who sat facing him, opposite the oarsmen, but this was from excitement now, not nausea. He had got over the last of his seasickness weeks ago. Today was a clear morning, with the wind freshening in the east. The boat tossed like a chip among the billows. The troughs were deep enough that at moments they could not see either ship. Monsieur Coisnon crouched, clutching the gunwales, but Placide felt lighthearted, and Isaac went so far as to drop an arm and trail his fingers through the sea-green water. Coisnon shook his head tightly and mouthed the word shark. Isaac, grinning cheerfully, raised his dripping hand and kissed his salty fingers toward the tutor.

Arrived, the boys climbed a swinging ladder to the deck of the Jean-Jacques.While Coisnon went immediately below to claim space for themselves and their trunks, the boys remained topside, flush with the excitement of the change and the activity. For some reason the two ships still held a tight parallel course, and the boat shoved off again toward La Sirène. Placide looked toward the western horizon, nudged Isaac when he saw the black curve of a dorsal fin break water.

For twenty minutes the porpoises swam and leapt around the Jean-Jacques and La Sirène, circling the ships with their flat tails flogging the water, jumping so high sometimes that their whole bodies left the waves to be outlined against the sky. Monsieur Coisnon, looking much more confident now that the broad deck of the larger ship was under his feet, reappeared to tell them how Dionysus, Greek god of wine, had turned the pirates who would kidnap him into dolphins. It was a bright moment for the three of them, but a few minutes after the porpoises dove without resurfacing, Placide noticed the boat returning from La Sirène, loaded down this time with Guizot, Cyprien, Paltre, and Daspir.

His heart regained its weary weight. Till this moment he had not realized how much it had relieved him to think they were quit of the four army officers. For the last couple of weeks it had seemed they had got up some conspiracy or scheme among themselves. They were forever whispering and sneaking sly glances at Isaac and Placide or, still worse, looks of pity.

Now Placide would not meet Isaac’s eyes. One after another the four officers came grunting and clambering over the railing . . . Though they’d said nothing to one another, Placide and Isaac had both hoped this transfer meant they would now speed ahead of the rest of the fleet on this new vessel, as the First Consul had assured them, to bring word of this expedition to their father. But in the event it was La Sirène that put on sail and left them behind, hastening to Guadeloupe, as they were told, with orders of the government.

One day after another slipped down behind the stern of the Jean-Jacques. Since putting out from Brest, the fleet had been scattered by some bouts of heavy weather. It was after the last of these storms that Isaac had made his complete recovery from mal de mer. But also the last storm had blown several of the squadrons out of touch with one another. Placide did not know if they were ahead or behind the main body of the fleet, but he was aware that he was no longer anxious for the voyage to end.

There was no special accommodation for them on the Jean-Jacques, the officers’ quarters and cabins of choice having already been claimed by others. Placide and Isaac swung in hammocks with the ordinary seamen, and slept the better for it. The food was vile, but no worse than aboard La Sirène. The army officers grew edgier by the day, however, as Daspir’s private stock of brandy dwindled down toward nothing.

One pearlescent dawn Placide happened to be standing by when a sailor fishing off the leeward side of the ship snagged a waterlogged branch, from whose crotch there flowed a trailing orchid, waxen yellow bulbs sealed and pickled in the salt. The army officers appeared and passed the flower from hand to hand, admiring it, nosing it for scent, which it had none. But