LITMIR.BIZ

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yet seen him, but Temeraire had been looking over at the town – sixteen sheep were being driven into a pen – very handsome sheep – and he saw MacArthur pause, and halt, and look as though he might go away again.

      Temeraire might have let him do so, and had a quiet morning of reading, but he had not enjoyed his meal and in a peevish humour said, ‘In my opinion it is quite rude to come into someone’s residence only to stare at them, and turn pale, and go, as if there were something peculiar in them, and not in such absurd behaviour. I do not know why you bothered to climb the hill at all, if you are such a great coward; it is not as though you did not know that I was here.’

      ‘Why, in my opinion, you are a great rascal,’ MacArthur said, purpling up his neck. ‘What do you mean by calling me a coward, because I need to catch my breath.’

      ‘Stuff,’ Temeraire said, roundly, ‘you were frightened.’

      ‘I do not say that a man hasn’t a right to be taken aback a moment, when he sees a beast the size of a frigate waiting to eat him,’ MacArthur said, ‘but I am damned if I will swallow this; you do not see me running away, do you?’

      ‘I would not eat a person,’ Temeraire said, revolted, ‘and you needn’t be disgusting, even if you do have no manners,’ to which Laurence coming around said, ‘So spake the pot,’ rather dryly.

      He added, ‘Will you come and sit down, Mr. MacArthur? I regret I cannot offer you anything better than coffee or chocolate, and I must advise against the coffee,’ and Temeraire rather regretfully saw he had missed the opportunity to be rid of this unpleasant visitor.

      MacArthur kept turning his head, to look at Temeraire, and remarked, ‘They don’t look so big, from below,’ as he stirred his chocolate so many times it must have grown quite cold. Temeraire was quite fond of chocolate, but he could not have that, either; not properly, without enough milk, and the expense so dear; it was not worth only having the tiniest taste, which only made one want more. He sighed.

      ‘Quite prodigious,’ MacArthur repeated, looking at Temeraire again. ‘He must take a great deal of feeding.’

      ‘We are managing,’ Laurence said politely. ‘The game is conveniently plentiful, and they do not seem to be used to being hunted from aloft.’

      Temeraire considered that at least if MacArthur was here, he might be of some use. ‘Is there anything else to hunt, nearby?’ he inquired. ‘Not of course,’ he added untruthfully, ‘that anyone could complain of kangaroo.’

      ‘I am surprised if you have found any of those in twenty miles as the crow goes,’ MacArthur said. ‘We pretty near et up the lot, in the first few years.’

      ‘Well, we have been getting them around the Nepean River, and in the mountains,’ Temeraire said, and MacArthur’s head jerked up from his cup so abruptly that the spoon he had left inside it tipped over and spattered his white breeches with chocolate.

      He did not seem to notice that he had made a sad mull of his clothing, but said thoughtfully, ‘The Blue Mountains? Why, I suppose you can fly all over them, can’t you?’

      ‘We have flown all over them,’ Temeraire said, rather despondently, ‘and there is nothing but kangaroo, and those rabbits that have no ears, which are too small to be worth eating.’

      ‘I would have been glad of a wombat or a dozen often enough, myself,’ MacArthur said, ‘but it is true we do not have proper game in this country, I am sorry to say I know from experience: too lean by half; you cannot keep up to fighting weight on it, and there is not enough grazing yet for cattle. We have not found a way through the mountains, you know,’ he added. ‘We are quite hemmed in.’

      ‘It is a pity no one has tried keeping elephants,’ Temeraire said.

      ‘Ha ha, keeping elephants, very good,’ MacArthur said, as if this were some sort of a joke. ‘Do elephants make good eating?’

      ‘Excellently good,’ Temeraire said. ‘I have not had an elephant since we were in Africa: I do not think I have tasted anything quite so good as a properly cooked elephant; outside of China, that is,’ he added loyally, ‘where I do not think they can raise them. But it seems as though this would be perfectly good country for them: it is certainly as hot as ever it was in Africa, where they raised them. Anyway we will need more food for the hatchlings, soon.’

      ‘Well, I have brought sheep, but I did not much think of bringing over elephants,’ MacArthur said, looking at the three eggs with an altered expression. ‘How much would a dragon eat, do you suppose, in the way of cattle?’

      ‘Maximus will eat two cows when he can get them, in a day,’ Temeraire said, ‘but I do not think that is very healthy; I would not eat more than one, unless of course I have been fighting, or flying far; or if I were very particularly hungry.’

      ‘Two cows a day, and soon to be five of you?’ MacArthur said. ‘The Lord safe preserve us.’

      ‘If this has brought you to a better understanding of the necessity of addressing the situation, sir,’ Laurence said, rather pointedly Temeraire thought, ‘I must be grateful for your visit; we have had very little cooperation heretofore in making our arrangements from Major Johnston.’

      MacArthur put down his chocolate cup. ‘I was speaking last night, I think,’ he said, ‘of what a man can make of himself, in this country; it is a subject dear to my heart, and I hope I did not ramble on it too long. It is a hard thing, you will understand, Mr. Laurence, to see a country like this: begging for hands, for the ploughshare and the till, and no one to work it but an army of the worst slackabouts born of woman lying about, complaining if they are given less than their day’s half-gallon of rum, and they would take it at ten in the morning, if they could get it.

      ‘In the Corps, we may not be very pretty, but we know how to work; I believe the Aerial Corps, too, might be given such a character by some,’ MacArthur went on. ‘And we know how to make men work. Whatever has been built in this country, we ha’e built it, and to have a – perhaps I had better hold my tongue; I think you have been shipmates with Governor Bligh?’

      ‘I would not say we were shipmates,’ Temeraire put in; he did not care to be saddled with such a relationship. ‘He came aboard our ship, but no-one much wanted him; only one must be polite.’

      Laurence looked a bit rueful, and MacArthur, smiling, said, ‘Well, I won’t say anything against the gentleman, only perhaps he was no’ too fond of our ways. The which,’ he added, ‘certainly can be improved upon, Mr. Laurence, I do not deny it; but no man likes to be corrected by come-lately.’

      ‘When come-lately is sent by the King,’ Laurence said, ‘one may dislike, and yet endure.’

      ‘Very good sense; but good sense has limits, sir, limits,’ MacArthur said, ‘where it comes up hard against honour: some things a man of courage cannot bear, and damn the consequences.’

      Laurence did not say anything; Laurence was quite silent. After a moment, MacArthur added, ‘I do not mean to make you excuses: I have sent my eldest on to England, though I could spare him ill, and he must make my case to their Lordships. But I will tell you, I do not tremble, sir, for fear of the answer; I sleep the night through.’

      Temeraire became conscious gradually, while he spoke, of being poked; Emily was at his side, tugging energetically on his wing-tip. ‘Temeraire!’ she hissed up to him, ‘I oughtn’t go right up with that fellow there, he is sure to see I am a girl; but we must tell the captain, there is a ship come from England—’

      ‘I see her!’ Temeraire answered, looking over into the harbour: a trim, handsome little frigate of perhaps twenty-four guns: she was drawn up not far from the Allegiance, riding easily at anchor. ‘Laurence,’ he said, leaning over, ‘there is a ship come from England, Roland says: it is the Beatrice, I think.’

      MacArthur stopped speaking, abruptly. Emily tugged again. ‘That is not the news,’ she said, impatient. ‘Captain Rankin is on it.’

      ‘Oh!

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