“It’d be risky to take Renown into the upper end of the bay. But we might get at ‘em from the peninsula here, all the same, sir, if you’d give the orders.”
“God bless my soul!” said Bush, the exclamation jerked out of him.
“What orders?” asked Buckland.
“If we could mount a gun on the upper end of the peninsula we’d have the far end of the bay under fire, sir. We wouldn’t need hot shot—we’d have all day to knock ‘em to pieces however much they shifted their anchorage.”
“So we would, by George,” said Buckland. There was animation in his face. “Could you get one of these guns along there?”
“I’ve been thinking about it, sir, an’ I’m afraid we couldn’t. Not quickly, at least. Twentyfourpounders. Two an’ a half tons each. Garrison carriages. We’ve no horses. We couldn’t move ‘em with a hundred men over those gullies, four miles or more.”
“Then what the hell’s the use of talking about it?” demanded Buckland.
“We don’t have to drag a gun from here, sir,” said Hornblower. “We could use one from the ship. One of those long ninepounders we’ve got mounted as bow chasers. Those long guns have a range pretty nearly as good as these twenty-fours, sir.”
“But how do we get it there?”
Bush had a glimmering of the answer even before Hornblower replied.