'Algiers is damn hot' Gabriel thought as he sat in the small apartment. They had rented it as a base of operations until they could pinpoint the Lord Fitzroy's family and their location. So far the info was lacking, very lacking. Stash had left a couple days previous in order to try and find out more information, saying that it would come easier if he didn't have a small army at his back. "Bah" Gabriel grumbled, he had been left behind to keep the rest of the Glastons out of trouble, and with Dismas and a couple others that had been a job and a half.

Suddenly the door flew open causing everyone in the small apartment to leap up. Stash Solstar sauntered in, smiling at all his friends.

"Grab ye kits mates, we gots a ship ta catch!"

Gabriel bent over and grabbed his sword before walking over to Stash.

"Where in the bloody hell have you been? We've been in this god forsaken town for a week now, and you were nowhere to be found for half of it."

"I've been finding out tha latest on our mission mate, where tha lord an his family be held, by how, ye know, tha paticulars."

"Aye, aye, And?" Gabriel said irritably

"Well here be tha caper so far. Tha lord got hisself captured by on o tha local Dey's corsair lords. And well this here paticular corsair lord got hiself involved wit a attempt ta oust tha local Dey. One that failed I might add. Sos this here Corsair Lord loaded our Lord and his family on a galley and be sailin fer Constantinople, in hopes tha he cin trade our lord fer protection."

"They've left Algiers?!?"

"Aye, but we cin still catch them. Easy Peazy, mate. But we gots ta get ta tha docks, I've a ship waitn."

Shaking his head Gabriel turned to everyone in the apartment "Well, you heard the man. Get moving!"

He watched as Stash, still smiling, left to lead the way to the docks. He had a bad feeling about this, but he always had a bad feeling when Stash was involved.

"No Dis, you can't take her with you. No I don't care what she can do, get out of here!" Groaning and rolling his eyes, he made one last check of the small room. Everyone was out and following Stash. He left to bring up the rear of the small band.

Algiers was a nice town really, if you could get past the heat, the stink, and the fact that every fifth man was sizing you up to see if you could be robbed, swindled, or taken to be sold to the slavers. Aye, a really nice town. Gabriel watched their backs as they made their way to the docks. Stash wasn't making too brisk a journey of it, although he seems to be in a rush in the apartment. 'He must of hired a fast ship' he thought. Galleys were notoriously slow, relying on the oars of their slaves rather than sails, but against the wind or when there was no wind, they could keep going where a sail ship couldn't.

It wasn't long before they were on the docks, Gabriel's pondering making the time go by faster. As he followed Stash he was lead down to a small wharf where a small Bermuda Sloop laid tied up. It's crew busily getting the ship ready to sail, loading supplies and checking the rigging. He walked up to Stash as the other man stopped at the gangplank to the ship.

"All aboard mates, we sail on tha tide!" Stash called out.

"Well Stash, I'll give you this. You didn't get us a tug. Who's the Captain?"

Gabriel grimaced as that infernal grin crossed back over Stashes face.

"Why mate, ye lookn at him!"

It took a moment for him to get his mouth working again, but he did. "You Are! How in the HELL are YOU the CAPTAIN!" Gabriel gave a twinge as a look crossed over Stash's face that reminded him of when someone stole his candy when they were kids.

"Well mate, I bought her."

Stunned yet again Gabriel spoke slowly just so he could make sure he didn't fall off the pier. "You bought her? How did you buy her?"

Well I found a local merchant tha were willn ta take a draft out on me bank back home. She were only 700 guinea. See it seems that non o these lot around here knows how ta sail her, they were right happy jus ta get rid o her."

"700 guinea? Thats more than your ma an da left you."

"Aye, but with tha prize money from our last lil voyage, I had jus a lil more than that. Course that went ta buy tha rest o tha crew."

"Stash, what are you going to do after this? I'm pretty sure, no matter how thankful this lord is, he isn't going to reimburse you that much."

"Oh, I'll worry bout that when tha time comes."

Gabriel looked around, at the small sloop, at her crew, and back to his friend. "Well since I'm the ranking Royal Navy officer here, I'll captain."

Stash held up a finger, and gave a sly smirk "No mate, ye forget. Gabriel Arringale be a ranking officer. John Hellion be a slem nobody, rated able at most. So I'll be Cap'n this here lil craft." Stash patted Gabriels shoulder as he passed him to go down the gangplank. Half way down Stash turned. "Oh, an iffn ye don mind thare mate. Could ye salute when ye talkn down ta me?" Stash paused before the broad grin came back on his face. "Now, ye commin?"

Gabriel rubbed his eyes as he nodded and mumbled "I'm coming." This was definitely not going the way he thought it would.

The Sloop was a flurry of activity. It's crew flying up rigging, running out the few cannon it had, and handing out boarding weapons.The Galley had been on the horizon since dawn, and they were catching her fast. The sloop was a fast ship, and it had the wind right where it liked it the best. Gabriel was impressed, he never though Stash could handle her, but he was. The various sections came up and reported in, all were at the ready, and he made his way to Stash to inform him. And to find out just what the lunatic had planned.

"Everyone's set."

Stash just nodded. "Better get ta ye satation mate, tha fun goin ta start here soon."

Nodding Gabriel headed back down to the main deck, he was in command of the guns, the rest of the Glastons each taking the gun captain position for each of the guns. He watched as the ships came closer together, the galley was larger than he had expected. Much larger, in fact. That galley was the size of a small warship, it had to have at least forty guns, and a couple hundred crew, not counting the slaves that were rowing. He looked around, the sloop had twelve guns, and less than a hundred on board. They were badly outmatched, to say the least.

Sharply he looked back up at Stash, and regretted it. Stash had a wild smile on his face, one that Gabriel had only seen once before, back when they were kids. Back then, the neighboring town boys had come over to try and take over the local pond. They had been looking for a fight and no amount of talking was going to change their minds. Those boys had been older, bigger, and twice as many as the Glastonbury kids, but Stash lead a charge right into them, the rest of the kids following. They had sent the invader boys running, with many bruises. Stash had that look back then. Right before he had lead a charge against an overwhelming enemy. Gabriel turned back to the Galley. He hoped Stash knew what he was doing.

The Galley started to turn to engage, it was a really slow ship, and it wasn't turning fast enough. The sloop was quickly coming up on the aft section. The galley's oars were silhouetted against the water, now he understood why Stash had him load chain shot. If they could tear those oars up, it would hinder the galley even more than it was.

"Lower your guns mates, and fire at the oars when they bear!" Gabriel yelled at the crews.

The first volley tore into the oars, sending splinters and pieces of wood flying into the sea breeze. The galley responded with the two aft chasers, the only guns she could bring to bear on the sloop. But the gunnery wasn't lacking, one of the balls slammed into the deck not ten feet from Gabriel. He yelled at the crews, hurrying their reloading. The fire on the far side was just as devastating, oars and pieces of wood flying through the air. The sloop started to turn, and he ordered the crews to the starboard guns, these had been loaded with grape. The wind was perfect, the sails caught it and the deck raised up giving the starboard guns a perfect shot on the galleys decks. They fired again, but he couldn't tell how well the shots had been, the smoke was getting to thick now.

"Gabe, give em another before we go in!" Stash yelled.

He nodded and urged his crews to move faster, the staggering fire wasn't navy like, but it was good enough for this. Again he heard a crash, both balls had hit this time, and one of the port guns was knocked loose. He ran over to help secure it, as another staggering volley of fire slammed into them. The galley had turned enough to get some of her broadside to bear, but it was too late. The sloop crashed into the aft castle of the galley with a wrenching grind.

"Boarders away!" called Stash, as he passed Gabriel. "Better hurry mate, ye goin ta miss all tha fun!"

With one last look to the gun to make sure it wouldn't cause any more damage, he took off after Stash, pulling his cutlass. The aft castle was too high for them to just climb across, but the crew was tearing up the wall of it and on to the deck by the use of several grapples. He followed them up, and before he could even get both feet on the deck he was forced to roll out of the way of a scimitar. Finishing the roll he slashed out and caught his adversary on the legs, causing hi to fall to the deck where he could be dispatched.

Gabriel stood up and got his bearings. The Galley no longer had several hundred, the deck was awash with the blood of those their grapeshot had cut down. They had been overconfident because of the sloops size and hadn't taken effective cover from the fire. He charged into the fight, working his way to where he could help where here was needed. A boarding pike shaft caught him in the chest, and he went down onto the deck, the wind knocked out of him. He turned around just in time to see the pike man double over and fall, Stash standing behind him with a smoking pistol. Stash gave him that wild smile, before diving back into the chaos of the battle. He pulled himself off the deck and followed, gutting one of several that were trying to get a gun turned around towards the boarders, the others fled rather than face him. Hollering, he got several of the sloops crew to move the cannon in the opposite direction, firing into a mass of the galley's crew that were coming up the aft deck. The cannon had been loaded with grape, and tore threw the crew. Then as he watched, the crew of the Galley started dropping their weapons and diving overboard, abandoning their ship. Glastons and the remaining sloops crew helping them over the side when and where they could.


Gabriel stood in a bit of shock, they had taken the ship. He watched as Stash ordered men to release the slaves, and others to tend to the wounded. He glanced about, from the looks of it all the Glastons came through the fight, although a few had cuts and other small wounds. He walked up to Stash as a man, woman, a boy and a girl came up.

"Gabe, I'd like ye ta meet Lord Fitzroy, an his fine family. Ye grace, this here be Gabriel Arringale o tha Royal Navy." Stash said, then leaning he said "But Call him John Hellion, he be in disguise jus in case I mess thins up."

Gabrial glared at Stash as he shook the proffered hand.

nice ! hehe I love these-ooc