Doctor Who_ The Roundheads Part 22

Richard got up and stalked towards them. 'Now, Doctor, tell me the truth. Will this nation be a republic? And will my father be its sole ruler?'

The Doctor decided to change tack. He a.s.sumed a rather fearsome expression which somehow seemed all the more frightening to Richard on such an una.s.suming little man.

'Richard Cromwell,' he said gravely, 'you must take us to your chambers and deliver unto us this strange book.'

Richard swallowed nervously. 'I must?'

The Doctor nodded slowly. 'Then and only then will all the mysteries of time be opened to you.'

Richard licked his dry lips and nodded to the guard, who had come to escort the Doctor and Jamie back to their room.

'Very well. Come with me. I'll speak to my father. Try to get responsibility for you.'

He led the way out of the room.

'"Come into my custody," said the spider to the fly,'

whispered the Doctor to Jamie.

The young Scot was not amused. 'What're we going to do now?'

The Doctor put his hands behind his back. 'Don't worry.

I've got an idea. If that works out, then...'

'Then?'

The Doctor ran his hand through his untidy black hair.

'Then I think it's time we got out of here.'

Ben and Winter raced across the rolling deck, the latter clutching at Ben's arm to prevent herself toppling over.

The crew of the Demeter Demeter were already racing to their stations as their captain pulled a battered telescope from her huge green coat and jammed it against her eye. were already racing to their stations as their captain pulled a battered telescope from her huge green coat and jammed it against her eye.

She squinted, then nodded feverishly. 'I see her.'

Ben leaned over the side and peered through the spray.

'Pirates?'

Winter offered him the telescope. 'Talk of the devil.'

Squinting to see through the crude instrument, Ben made out the lines of an all-too-familiar s.h.i.+p, racing through the waves towards them.

'It's the Teazer Teazer!' he gasped.

Winter nodded her ma.s.sive head. 'Aye, Ben. It seems the Pole's not content with this secret package. He wants to return to port with booty from us!'

Ben handed her back the telescope. 'What do we do?'

Winter looked at him in surprise. 'Do? Do, lad? We do what any self-respecting mariner does in times such as these.

We fight!'

Ben swallowed nervously. 'Yeah, I thought you were going to say that.'

Winter swung round, her great bosom jostling, her coat flapping like a sail around her.

'To your posts, men!' she bellowed. 'Let's give 'em a taste of our Cannon!'

So saying, she drew her sword and tottered off across the deck her wooden leg hammering on the planks. She pulled open the door of her cabin and emerged a moment later with a brace of cutla.s.ses. Tossing one to Ben, she made for the entrance to the lower deck, where the cannons were located.

Ben caught the sword and tested its weight in his hands. It was surprisingly heavy and he curled both hands around its hilt to give himself courage.

There was a loud report close by, followed by a plume of white water as the Teazer Teazer's cannons fired their first salvo.

Ben raced down the wooden stairs to the second deck where Winter and her men were already hard at work. Hugh, the cabin boy, was ramming wadding and powder into the closest of the great iron guns while a small man, stripped to the waist, was doing the same with its twin.

Winter clapped the telescope to her eye again and thrust it out of the square porthole that enclosed the cannon. 'She's fast. I'll give her that!'

There was another tremendous boom and Ben felt the Demeter Demeter rock as the percussion echoed around her hull. rock as the percussion echoed around her hull.

Winter staggered and almost fell, then, with a twinkle in her eye, struck a flint and lit the fuse of the first cannon.

'Back!' she roared and Ben jumped out of the way as the fuse hissed and spluttered.

Then the cannon reared backwards, a great cloud of smoke and fire belching from its mouth..

Ben raced to the porthole and looked out. The cannonball had missed Stanislaus's s.h.i.+p by a wide margin. Winter cursed and flapped her great arm at the next cannon along.

Fire!' she croaked. 'Keep firing until we get the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!'

The second cannon spoke with a belching roar but this time Winter didn't wait for the outcome. Spinning around on her wooden leg like a crazed ballerina, she began to hobble back up the stairs to the top deck, brandis.h.i.+ng her cutla.s.s and bellowing with rage.

Instinctively, Ben followed, resisting the urge to carry his own cutla.s.s between his teeth. He pulled at the handholds and propelled himself up the stairs.

On the deck, all was confusion. Smoke from both s.h.i.+ps cannons enveloped everything and Ben could only just make out the crew, tearing from point to point on the slippery surface.

The Demeter Demeter rolled again as another cannon shot from the enemy vessel thundered into the sea by her side. rolled again as another cannon shot from the enemy vessel thundered into the sea by her side.

Winter clattered towards the s.h.i.+p's wheel and pushed the pilot out of the way with a tremendous shove.

'By G.o.d!' she screeched, her grizzled hair almost bristling with energy. 'That Pole will not have my s.h.i.+p!'

She spun the wheel around and the Demeter Demeter began to respond, lurching and creaking at the sudden change of direction. began to respond, lurching and creaking at the sudden change of direction.

Ben joined her on the p.o.o.p deck and glanced anxiously at the increasingly close Teazer Teazer.

'Why risk this when his mission's so important?' he bellowed above the din.

Winter kept a tight hold of the wheel, her silver nose flas.h.i.+ng in the winter sun.

'Ah, the arrogance of the n.o.bility!' she spat. 'He thinks he's untouchable, the cur. But we'll outrun him, or sink him. I stake my life on it.'

Ben was not so sure. The masts of the enemy s.h.i.+p were heaving perilously close into view. He could already see the crew lining up to board them.

'Ben!' cried Winter. 'Get those cannons firing, will you, or, by G.o.d's wounds, they'll be upon us.'

Racing across the deck, Ben couldn't help but wonder at the irony of finding himself in the middle of such a scene.

'Funny,' he muttered to himself. 'I always wanted to be a pirate.'

He took the stairs down to the lower deck three at a time and found a state of utter devastation. A blast from the Teazer Teazer's cannon had scored a direct hit, knocking out the deck's armoury completely.

'Oh bIimey!' groaned Ben, looking around at the dead and wounded that littered the room.

He found young Hugh unconscious on a pile of sacking and slapped the boy's pale, smoke-blackened face until he came round.

'Hugh!' he barked. 'Come on! I need your help.'

The boy looked dazed, then focused on Ben's face and nodded. Ben grabbed his skinny arm and dragged him back up the stairs to the upper deck. He bent down to the boy's level.

'Now look, son, you're going to have to steer the s.h.i.+p while me and the captain take on those pirates, all right?'

Hugh looked dumbfounded but then found his voice. 'Me, sir? The wheel?'

Ben held the boy's face between his hands. 'You can do it.

You know you can. Now get up there and tell the captain I need her down here.'

Hugh nodded and grinned, his teeth showing white through the grime that covered his face. He raced up to the p.o.o.p deck.

Ben turned and raised his cutla.s.s.

The Teazer Teazer was right by them now, sc.r.a.ping alongside the hull, its crew ready to jump s.h.i.+p. was right by them now, sc.r.a.ping alongside the hull, its crew ready to jump s.h.i.+p.

Ben took a deep breath and waited for them to come.

'You're insane!' screeched G.o.dley, forcing himself back against the walls of Stanislaus's cabin and clutching his cloak around him.

Stanislaus sat in his chair, unperturbed by the booming cannon fire which shook the room.

'Do not distress yourself, my friend,' he said in his heavily accented voice. ''Tis no matter. We have the package and now we will have a little sport before we return to London.'

G.o.dley shook his handsome head, his features blanched with fury and nausea.

'This is hardly the time, Captain. You know the urgency of our plan. What if something were to go wrong? What if this s.h.i.+p is sunk? What then?'

Stanislaus smiled coolly and leaned back in his chair. 'The Teazer Teazer will not sink, sir. I promise you that. Besides, we know that we had visitors last night. One glance at my strongbox and the information provided by our friend Ashdown tell us that it was that s.l.u.ttish captain, Winter. It would be better for all of us if she were not involved in this... adventure at all.' will not sink, sir. I promise you that. Besides, we know that we had visitors last night. One glance at my strongbox and the information provided by our friend Ashdown tell us that it was that s.l.u.ttish captain, Winter. It would be better for all of us if she were not involved in this... adventure at all.'

G.o.dley groaned. 'To risk everything for some pathetic vendetta! 'Sblood, there will be a reckoning if this ever gets out!'

'Then it must not get out,' said Stanislaus firmly, 'Eh, Mr van Leeuwenhoek?'

He turned to face the third occupant of the room, a bald, almost skeletally thin man, swathed entirely in black like a huge, malevolent bird. His skin was dry and cracked like old parchment and when he smiled, as he did now, his mouth appeared more like a blackened maw. He let out a throaty chuckle and then his mouth sealed again like a rat trap.

Stanislaus laughed too and glanced towards the window.

'Well,' he said, rising to his feet. 'I suppose I had better go out and win the day.'

With a tremendous tearing screech, the Teazer Teazer slammed against the hull of Captain Winter's s.h.i.+p as though they were two great wooden whales in conflict. slammed against the hull of Captain Winter's s.h.i.+p as though they were two great wooden whales in conflict.

A great cheer went up and Stanislaus's disreputable crew began to pour on to the decks of the Demeter Demeter. They teemed everywhere, clambering up the rigging and swarming like rats into the cabins and below decks.

From his vantage point behind a pile of coiled wet rope and a stack of gunpowder barrels, Ben swallowed nervously.

The cutla.s.s in his hand was shaking as he contemplated jumping out and facing the pirates head on.

The Demeter Demeter's crew began their fight-back at once, swords clattering against the enemy's as men executed frantic manoeuvres across the decks, looking like gaily dressed crabs as they scuttled about and executed their dance of death.

Right before Ben, a swarthy chestnut-haired man was bravely fending off a much bigger and more fearsome pirate whom Ben recognised as O'Kane.

The Irishman's bright-green eyes and vast, knotted red beard that spilled almost down to his waist seemed to blaze with energy. He laughed to himself as he forced the smaller man to jump hither and thither over the deck.

Ben was on the point of leaping out to his crewmate's rescue when O'Kane ducked a blow and brought his cutla.s.s swinging round to pierce the other's belly. There was a dreadful popping sound and the sailor's innards spilled from him like a cork from a bottle.

Thrusting his fist into his mouth to stop himself from gagging, Ben sank back behind the coiled rope and closed his eyes.

O'Kane, meanwhile, stood ankle deep in the other man's steaming guts as they spread in a red pool over the deck. He looked about, anxious for another fight, and was just about to move off towards the action when the sound of retching stopped him in his tracks.

Moving carefully towards the pile of rope, his broad head moving from side to side and his green eyes flas.h.i.+ng dangerously, he followed the pool of gore.