A Crack of Light Fades

"You fool," thought Cutter as he lay shivering and shaking in the deep, rank compartment of the ship his ribs groaning in pain as he gasped each mouthful of repugnant air. He had been down here drinking tepid water, fending off the rats that were as big as Scottish Terriers, and trying to keep from being thrown around the space like a rag doll. Now, he had just blown his only legitimate chance of escape.

His marine guardsman who was narrow in the shoulders, long in the nose, and had ears that stood perpendicular from his head had just left his bowl of gruel and water sloshing about the floor. After being down in captivity for several weeks, Cutter had convinced his guard, Simon Noblitt, to smuggle him extra rations of bread and rum. He needed the rum to keep his wits and the bread helped him recover most of his strength. Cutter had to promise him a shilling a day for bringing down the extra food, but he had to be ready when the time came.

Cutter had begun to like his guardsman. Simon, the Royal Marine, had only been on board the ship since its last port of call, and consequently received the lowest of the low duties on board the ship. Simon was from one of the poor sections of London and had joined the Marines on his own volition to avoid the Naval press gangs that ravished the harbor fronts and poor sections of the city. It didn't take Cutter long to convince the Marine that he needed help.

However, if Cutter was going to escape his dark, dank prison then he was going to need more than Simon's help. He had just offered Simon the equivelant of a year's salary to help him escape, but to Cutter's horror, the Sargent of the Watch was waiting outside the door. For Cutter's efforts he received a musket thumping in the ribs and back. To make matters worse, the seargent, a bull of a man, had split his gruel over the floor and three large rats were devouring faster than Cutter could swing a feeble foot at them.

Simon had been promising, but now he'd have another guardsman and the seargant would make sure that this new marine would not be succeptable to the wiles of the vagabond of land and sea, Captain Cutter!

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