Doctor Who_ The Highlanders Part 13

Grey shook his head. 'I don't follow you.'

'It's quite easy,' said the Doctor. 'The Prince disguised himself as a Highlander and was taken prisoner with the rest of the rebels.'

Despite himself, Grey's steely eyes gleamed as he leaned forward. 'And where is he now?'

The Doctor started twiddling his thumbs. 'I wonder what that information would be worth. Let's see now...' He raised his hand and started counting on his fingers.

Trask gave a sudden growl, his hand going to his cutla.s.s, and pulled it out of his sheath. 'Leave him to me,'

he said, 'I'll burn it out of him.'

'No,' Grey stopped him. 'What do you think it's worth, Doctor?' he said, his tone heavy with sarcasm.

The Doctor looked up at the deck head for a moment before replying. 'Shall we say...' he finished his computation, '... ten thousand guineas, yes?'

Meanwhile outside, Kirsty and Polly, their oars carefully m.u.f.fled to avoid making a sound, had rowed across the firth and were now sc.r.a.ping against the side of the brig.

Kirsty stood up and looked through the small porthole.

She turned back to Polly and shook her head. 'Not this one,' she said, 'it must be the one further round.'

Polly, grasping the rough timbers of the brig, started pulling the boat further round towards the other porthole from which a faint light was s.h.i.+ning.

'Right,' whispered Kirsty.

Polly leaned over the bow and grasped one of the Brig's securing lines stretched out to a nearby buoy, and held the boat alongside the hull.

Kirsty stood on one of the thwarts and gazed through the porthole. Inside, Jamie and w.i.l.l.y had dozed off. Colin, his wound still throbbing, was leaning back beside the porthole, in a dream between waking and sleeping. He heard a voice that seemed to come from his thoughts, which were back with his family in the beautiful glen they called home.

'Father. Father. Father,' the voice called.

Colin, still in his dreams, smiled. He imagined his lovely young Kirsty running along the path to welcome him home. 'My child,' he called.

Kirsty's voice came through a little more urgently.

'Father, listen to me.'

Colin nodded, still in his dream. 'I see you, Kirsty.'

'Ye canna,' the voice said, 'I'm out here.'

'Aye.' Suddenly Colin came to and snapped up. 'Och, I must be dreaming.' He looked around him wildly. 'Kirsty!'

he called.

Kirsty's voice came through the porthole.

'Whist, Father,' she said, 'keep your voice down.'

'Where are ye?' Colin said.

'In a boat,' said Kirsty, 'outside here.'

Colin turned, looked out of the porthole, and put his hand through to clasp Kirsty's soft one. 'My Kirsty.' Colin was in tears. 'Are you well, child? You've come to no harm?'

Kirsty nodded, also unable to keep the tears from her eyes. 'I'm aye fine. And ye, Father?'

'Much better,' Colin whispered, 'a world better for hearing your voice, child. But you canna stay here. They'll find ye.'

'Then quickly, Father,' said Kirsty, 'take this.'

She pa.s.sed him a pistol through the porthole and Colin pulled it in, amazed. 'It's a miracle. I must be in a dream.'

'Nae dream, Father,' Kirsty's voice came through, 'we have arms for all of you, and a plan. Now come closer.'

Colin put his ear to the porthole. 'Listen to me.'

15.

The Fight for the Brig Grey glanced meaningfully over at Perkins, then looked back to the Doctor. 'You drive a hard bargain Doctor, but no matter. We agree. Now where is the Prince?'

'The very last place you'd think to look for him,' said the Doctor.

'Well?'

'Right here on this s.h.i.+p.' The listening men broke away in disbelief.

Trask reached for his sword hilt again. 'Let me have him,' he said.

Grey's thin mouth curled. 'A dangerous jest, Doctor.'

The Doctor nodded eagerly. 'Did you mark the young Highlander with me? The piper?'

'Piper?' Grey tried to remember, then shook his head.

'With soft hands and face. Did you notice his hair?' He looked around. First Trask, then Grey, then Perkins all shook their heads. 'Unmistakable,' the Doctor went on.

'He is the Prince.'

Despite themselves, the others were now carried along by the Doctor's earnest manner, which was in such contrast to his former flippancy.

Grey leaned forward once more, his eyes searching the Doctor's face. 'You had better be very sure.'

'Would I have come here and placed my life in your hands if I had not been very sure?' said the Doctor, his green eyes wide open, projecting the child-like candour he could turn on when he wanted to.

Trask, anyway, was convinced. He slammed his hand on the table, then swung towards the door. 'We'll smell out the Pretender right now, by heaven.'

Grey nodded. 'Perkins,' he said. But Perkins needed no further bidding. He followed Trask to the door.

'One moment,' said the Doctor, 'aren't you forgetting something?'

Grey turned back. 'What?'

'I'm the only one here who knows what he looks like.'

'He's right,' said Perkins. The others looked back suspiciously for a moment and then Grey nodded his head.

'Then come you with us. Hurry!'

With Trask's hand on his arm, the Doctor was pulled out of the cabin.

Down below in the hold, all was apparently as before.

Colin, Jamie and w.i.l.l.y seemed as deeply asleep as the other men, all wrapped in their long tartan plaids. The door at the top of the companionway creaked open and Trask appeared holding a lantern. He started climbing down quietly, followed by Grey, Perkins, the Doctor and two armed sailors.

As they a.s.sembled at the bottom of the ladder, Grey held his hand to his lips. 'Proceed softly,' he said. 'If they suspect whom we're searching for and know to be here, we'll have a riot on our hands.'

Holding the lantern high, they started to move forward across the crowded deck, examining the faces of the sleeping men as they went. As Trask held his lantern above the Highlanders, the Doctor examined each one in turn, shaking his head and leading them further and further towards the far end of the hold.

'Well, Doctor?' came Grey's impatient whisper. 'Is there no sign of him?'

'Perhaps he's further over,' said the Doctor. He pointed to the far side of the room where Colin and Jamie could be made out by the porthole. 'That looks like him over there.'

Not liking his tone, Grey's voice dropped into a silky menace. 'If you've made a mistake, Doctor.'

'No,' said the Doctor, 'that is him, there!' He pointed over to Jamie, his voice raised, just as the entire floor came to life.

' Creag an tuire Creag an tuire.' Jamie's high pitched voice rang over the room as the Highlanders leapt to their feet swords, pistols and muskets at the ready.

'No firearms, lads,' Colin called, but his advice was unnecessary. As the two sailors turned to run for the companionway, they found a dozen swords at their throats.

Grey, Perkins and Trask were similarly surrounded. Only Trask, pulling his large cutla.s.s, made a fight for it at the far end, cutting down the Highlander opposite him. Swinging the huge cutla.s.s back and forth, he cleared a path for himself until his back was against the wall.

'You'll not get Henry Trask alive,' he called.

The Highlanders drew back until w.i.l.l.y came forward, holding his lantern. 'I dinna want ye alive, Trask,' said w.i.l.l.y.

Trask's face fell for a moment as he saw his old adversary. Then he leaped forward, raising the cutla.s.s and swinging it in a blow that had it landed would have taken w.i.l.l.y's head from his shoulders. But w.i.l.l.y, stepping back, handed the lantern to Jamie and brought his own sword up.

'Keep back, lads, he's mine,' called w.i.l.l.y.

The Highlanders watched as the two men, their swords flas.h.i.+ng as they sought an opening in the narrow deck s.p.a.ce, fell to in furious combat.

Meanwhile, Jamie ran to the companionway and, sword in one hand, lantern in the other, turned to the others.

'Follow me, lads,' he said. 'The fight's not over yet.' He clambered up and out onto the deck, followed by the Highlanders.

w.i.l.l.y, weakened by his long confinement, was getting the worst of the fight. He appeared to falter, and his cutla.s.s dropped.

Trask lunged forward eagerly. 'I have you now,' he said.

But w.i.l.l.y, with a flick of the wrist, knocked Task's cutla.s.s up and stabbed home in Trask's shoulder.

'I'm relieving you of your command, Captain Trask,' he said.

But the large, fearsome Trask was not yet done for. His cutla.s.s slashed w.i.l.l.y's arm. 'Not yet,' he said. As w.i.l.l.y fell back wounded, Trask ran for the companionway and the deck.

Up on deck, Jamie and the Highlanders were fighting the sailors of the Annabelle Annabelle. They had now cornered them on the p.o.o.p. Two sailors lay dead, and one Highlander was nursing his wounds on the skylight, when Trask appeared.

'To me, boys,' he called. 'I'm still master here.'

Ben appeared from behind the mast. 'Not for long, mate,' he said.

Trask reacted for a moment at the apparition of someone he considered dead. 'You?' he said. 'I'll make sure of thee this time, boy.'

He raised his cutla.s.s just as Jamie swung over the p.o.o.p on the end of a rope and with all his force kicked Trask over the side of the Annabelle Annabelle into the dark waiting waters. into the dark waiting waters.

'Ah,' said Ben, a little disappointed. 'I was gonna try my karate on him.'

'What?' said Jamie.

'Karate,' said Ben.

'Och,' Jamie turned away. 'Whatever that is, it would not have worked against that monster.'