Lieutenant John Pearce is considering his future. Lacking funds, an
occupation if he leaves naval service, or the evidence of perjury he
once held against Captain Ralph Barclay, the brute who pressed he
and his friends into the navy, his prospects are not promising.
Ralph Barclay meanwhile has problems of his own. His wife Emily is
refusing to live under the same roof as him and she has the means to
get her own way: the perjury evidence Pearce believes lost at sea.
Barclay's slippery clerk, Gherson, has as much at stake as his
employer and is prepared to go to any lengths to silence Emily and Pearce.
So when a smiling stranger offers Pearce and his companions the
illegal yet profitable opportunity to fetch a contraband-laden ship
from a French port, is all as it seems? Are Pearce and his Pelicans
sailing into prosperity Â- or danger?
