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 & 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 & 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 & is prepared to go to any lengths to silence Emily & Pearce. So when a smiling stranger offers Pearce & his companions the illegal yet profitable opportunity to fetch a contrab&-laden ship from a French port is all as it seems? Are Pearce & his Pelicans sailing into prosperity
- or danger?