Devil to Pay

BY ALEXANDER KENT

The Complete
Midshipman Bolitho

Stand Into Danger

In Gallant Company

Sloop of War

To Glory We Steer

Command a King's Ship

Passage to Mutiny

With All Despatch

Form Line of Battle!

Enemy in Sight!

The Flag Captain

Signal—Close Action!

The Inshore Squadron

A Tradition of Victory

Success to the Brave

Colours Aloft!

Honour This Day

The Only Victor

Beyond the Reef

The Darkening Sea

For My Country's Freedom

Cross of St George

Sword of Honour

Second to None

Relentless Pursuit

Man of War

Heart of Oak

B
Y
P
HILIP
M
CCUTCHAN

Halfhyde at the Bight of Benin

Halfhyde's Island

Halfhyde and the Guns of Arrest

Halfhyde to the Narrows

Halfhyde for the Queen

Halfhyde Ordered South

Halfhyde on Zanatu

B
Y
J
AN
N
EEDLE

A Fine Boy for Killing

The Wicked Trade

The Spithead Nymph

B
Y
J
AMES
L. N
ELSON

The Only Life That Mattered

B
Y
J
AMES
D
UFFY

Sand of the Arena

The Fight for Rome

B
Y
D
EWEY
L
AMBDIN

The French Admiral

The Gun Ketch

Jester's Fortune

What Lies Buried

B
Y
B
ROOS
C
AMPBELL

No Quarter

The War of Knives

B
Y
D
UDLEY
P
OPE

Ramage

Ramage & The Drumbeat

Ramage & The Freebooters

Governor Ramage R.N.

Ramage's Prize

Ramage & The Guillotine

Ramage's Diamond

Ramage's Mutiny

Ramage & The Rebels

The Ramage Touch

Ramage's Signal

Ramage & The Renegades

Ramage's Devil

Ramage's Trial

Ramage's Challenge

Ramage at Trafalgar

Ramage & The Saracens

Ramage & The Dido

B
Y
F
REDERICK
M
ARRYAT

Frank Mildmay
or
The Naval Officer

Mr Midshipman Easy

Newton Forster
or
The Merchant Service

Snarleyyow
or
The Dog Fiend

B
Y
V.
A.
S
TUART

Victors and Lords

The Sepoy Mutiny

Massacre at Cawnpore

The Cannons of Lucknow

The Heroic Garrison

The Valiant Sailors

The Brave Captains

Hazard's Command

Hazard of Huntress

Hazard in Circassia

Victory at Sebastopol

Guns to the Far East

Escape from Hell

B
Y
J
ULIAN
S
TOCKWIN

Mutiny

Quarterdeck

Tenacious

Command

B
Y
J
OHN
B
IGGINS

A Sailor of Austria

The Emperor's

Coloured Coat

The Two-Headed Eagle

Tomorrow the World

B
Y
A
LEXANDER
F
ULLERTON

Storm Force to Narvik

Last Lift from Crete

All the Drowning Seas

A Share of Honour

The Torch Bearers

The Gatecrashers

B
Y
C
.N.
P
ARKINSON

The Guernseyman

Devil to Pay

The Fireship

Touch and Go

So Near So Far

Dead Reckoning

The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower

B
Y
D
OUGLAS
R
EEMAN

Badge of Glory

First to Land

The Horizon

Dust on the Sea

Knife Edge

Twelve Seconds to Live

Battlecruiser

The White Guns

A Prayer for the Ship

For Valour

B
Y
D
AVID
D
ONACHIE

The Devil's Own Luck

The Dying Trade

A Hanging Matter

An Element of Chance

The Scent of Betrayal

A Game of Bones

On a Making Tide

Tested by Fate

Breaking the Line

Copyright © 1973 by C Northcote Parkinson

First published in the United States by Houghton Mifflin Co., 1973

First published in the United Kingdom by John Murray Ltd, 1973

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher. Requests for such permissions should be addressed to McBooks Press, I.D. Booth Building, 520 North Meadow Street, Ithaca, NY 14850.

Cover painting:
Capture of the Fort of Saint-Jean-d'Ulloa on

23 November 1838
by Jean Antoine Theodore Gunin.

Courtesy of Chateau de Versailles, France/Bridgemen Art Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Parkinson, C. Northcote (Cyril Northcote), 1909-

Devil to pay / by C. Northcote Parkinson.

p. cm. — (Richard Delancy novels ; no. 2)

ISBN 1-59013-002-2 (alk. paper)

1. Delancy, Richard (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Great Britain —History, Naval—19th century—Fiction. 2. Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815 —Fiction 4. Guernsey (Channel Islands)—Fiction.

PR6066.A6955 D48 2001

823'.914—dc21                                  2001037008

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Printed in the United States of America

9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2

The Devil to pay and no pitch hot

The “devil” was the outboard plank of the ship's deck, the seam between it and the ship's side being wider than any other and needing more oakum and pitch when caulking and paying— hence the possibility of the hot pitch running short before the seam was caulked.