Excellent, as always. Aubrey takes his shipmates to the Red Sea to seek a French galley loaded with treasure. It turns out to be a trap — somebody warned the enemy. Stephen searches in Malta for the guilty party and helps a woman who is being blackmailed by the French who hold her husband hostage. The husband escapes, and Stephen manages to rescue the woman just before the French agent murders her. Jack finds out that his ship, the Surprise is about to be sold out of the service.