Mrs Flannagan's Trumpet Read online

  Eddie looked down at his grandfather, and his grandfather nodded and said slowly, ‘I’m…I’m sure, boy, there…there was somebody in the fish hold, somebody who wanted to get out. They’re not very deep the holds, you know. They could have been kneeling or even lying down and thumping upwards with their feet, but they couldn’t shout because they were likely gagged. What…what you must do is keep an eye on Penny and Daisy because…because, boy, that is their business, little girls. I’m certain of it. The swines! The swines!’

  Eddie’s mouth opened, then closed abruptly when his granny’s toe caught him on the leg just above his boot, and he realised that she hadn’t told his grandfather of the latest happenings. But now he bent over the old man and said, ‘I’ll…I’ll get that news to the coastguards, Granda. They’ll…they’ll know what to do.’

  ‘Aye, lad, you do that and quick, because if I’m not mistaken there’s some poor little mite under that hatch and God help her if she’s not rescued.’ He shook his head now from side to side on the pillow, saying, ‘To think in this day and age these things are still allowed to happen.’

  ‘Lie quiet now, Davy, lie quiet. I’ll be back in a minute.’ She patted his shoulder. Then taking Eddie by the arm, she indicated that he follow her, and when once again they were in the bedroom she looked at him sadly for a moment, saying, ‘Boy, I know that you’re dead on your feet, but it’s essential that the pollis or the coastguard know what your granda has just said. And…and when Ted comes I’ll get him to help me bring your granda into the bedroom.’

  ‘But…but how will you explain, Grandma?’

  ‘Leave it to me, boy, I’ll think up something. It’s unimportant at the moment. What is important…well’—she lowered her head—‘you know what is important as well as I do.’

  ‘Yes, Grandma. I’m goin’.’

  As he went out of the door she called after him, ‘Take something from the pantry and eat it on the way, keep your strength up,’ and again he said, ‘Yes, Grandma.’

  But when he reached the kitchen he didn’t go into the pantry, he knew that if he ate a bite it would choke him.

  He was leaving the yard when he saw a figure hurrying towards him across the green, and such was his relief that he felt like throwing his arms about Mr Reade.

  ‘What’s this now, lad, more trouble?’

  ‘Terrible trouble, Mr Reade, terrible.’ He was walking quickly back with Mr Reade towards the kitchen again. ‘The two girls, they’ve gone.’

  Ted Reade stopped dead in his tracks. ‘What!’

  ‘Aye, aye. If you go upstairs me grandma will tell you all about it, and she wants you to help to get me granda out of the cave room.’

  ‘But…but hold your hand a minute, boy.’ He caught hold of Eddie’s shoulder. ‘When did this happen?’

  ‘Late on this afternoon. Me granny twigged what Hal Kemp was up to and she sent me post haste for you and told the girls not to go further than the yard. And when I came back there she was, me granny, on the cliff top like a mad woman. They had both disappeared. But me granda’s come to an’ he says that Hal Kemp and the Belgian fellow was on Abel Denkin’s boat, and that’s where he himself was knocked out, and he was sure there was somebody in the hold.’

  ‘God Almighty! What are things comin’ to? Well, lad, this is beyond me and what my fellows can do, so you’d better tell the coastguard and the river pollis an’ all.’

  ‘I’ve told the coastguard, Mr Reade, and they’re telling the pollis, but…but me granny wants me to let them know about Abel Denkin’s boat.’

  ‘Abel Denkin’s!’ Ted Reade spat out the words. ‘By God! I’m tellin’ you this, boy, there won’t be much left of Abel Denkin and your Mr Hal Kemp if my fellows an’ the fishermen lay their hands on them afore the pollis or the coastguards. I’m tellin’ you there won’t be much of them left. Smugglin’ is one thing but white slavery with bairns is another. Aye, by God, it is that! But go on, lad; take to your heels.’

  Eddie took to his heels, but just at a trot, carrying a lantern now. He made for the coastguard station again.

  On reaching it he found a different man on duty but he seemed conversant with all that had happened, and when Eddie told him about Abel Denkin’s boat the man said, ‘Good, good. And you say your grandfather is back? How did that come about?’

  ‘I…I don’t know.’ Eddie stammered, ‘I just got in and…and there he was, and me granny sent me post haste…back here.’

  ‘What a business! What a business! It’s going to be a long night for everybody. Go on back home, lad, and try not to worry. If it’s humanly possible the bairns will be found.’

  Try not to worry! As his granny said, those were the silliest words in the language when put together like that. The fact is one should worry until the thing that was causing the worry was solved, ’cos if you didn’t worry you would do nothing about it, would you?

  When he reached the house again there were two strange men in the kitchen, one in plain clothes and one in uniform. His granny, who had been talking to them, turned as he entered the room and said, ‘This is me grandson,’ and he warmed to her for a moment as she added, ‘He’s never been off his feet since last night, he’s dead beat.’

  The man in plain clothes nodded towards him and said, ‘Hello there. Nasty business this, nasty business. Your grandmother has told us all she knows but if you don’t mind I would like you to go over it from the beginning, right back from when you first saw Mr Kemp and his Belgian friend together.’ The man now pulled a chair out for him and as he sat down he was aware that perhaps for the first time in his life he wasn’t being treated as a boy, and so it wasn’t in the faltering tones of a boy that he repeated all he knew about Hal Kemp and his foreign friend.

  It was about fifteen minutes later when the visitors were about to take their leave that his granny asked them, ‘Are you away now to search the boat, Denkin’s boat, that’s lying out there?’

  When neither of the men replied for a moment but exchanged glances his granny cried in her old raucous fashion, ‘Why in the name of God are you hesitating? You heard what I told you, what my husband said, there’s somebody on there already if my two haven’t joined them?’

  ‘Mrs Flannagan—’ The plain-clothes man put his hand on her arm and said softly, ‘In a game like this, a serious game like this, you cannot accuse anybody on hearsay, you’ve got to catch them with the goods on them, so to speak. If there was anybody on that boat yesterday it’s not likely they’re still there; and it’s not likely either that your grandchild or your little maid has been taken aboard, not yet anyway. The boat, to all intents and purposes, is lying off there waiting for high tide; that it’s not lying at the quay with the others is neither here nor there; there’s no law against its anchoring out a bit, and they could always say they were doing a bit of inshore fishing. What we reckon is that they have arranged a time for picking up their cargo and…well, it’ll be up to us to stop them loading it. But on no account do we want them to be forearmed.’

  Eddie watched his grandmother nod slowly as she said, ‘Well, there might be something in that, but do you realise that I’m nearly beside meself with worry?’

  ‘We realise that, Mrs Flannagan.’

  As the plain-clothes man spoke, the constable who was standing slightly behind Mrs Flannagan now signalled to Eddie that he should go outside, and so after a moment he rose and, picking up the lighted lantern that he had set on the lamp rack near the kitchen door, he said, ‘I’ll show you down the yard.’

  ‘That’s good of you, boy,’ the plain clothes man said; ‘two lanterns are better than one…Goodnight, Mrs Flannagan.’

  ‘Goodnight. And you’ll let me know as soon as you hear anything?’

  ‘The moment we hear anything at all we’ll send someone along. Goodnight.’

  Out in the yard it was the policeman who now said, ‘It’s no use worrying her more than is necessary, but you yourself, lad, will have guessed by now that we’re not dealing wit
h a gang of young ’uns who are playing at pirates, and nobody but a fool would leave a boat out there for the river pollis to trip over, now would they? They must know by now that the whole coast is alerted. How we look at it’—he turned and indicated the plain clothes man—‘is that Abel Denkin’s boat is simply a decoy; while we’re waiting for them to load their precious cargo it will be in the process of being trundled off to another part of the coast where likely another boat is lying in wait. So it’s up to us to find this particular boat. But we can’t do much till daylight, you understand?’

  Aye, he understood; and at the same time he saw that he had been gullible. Of course, it was as the river police said, men in a game like this were no amateurs.

  The thought made him feel sick again. His voice was thick and cracked now as he asked, ‘Do…do you think you’ll be able to find them?’

  ‘Well, it won’t be for want of tryin’; and although we can’t do much on the water until dawn we intend to search the whole shore; there’s caves and nooks and crannies along the whole stretch that they just might be using. On the other hand, what we must also take into consideration is that they may not ship them at all for weeks but keep them hidden somewhere. There’s always those who’ll do anything for money, and the most unsuspected houses could be acting as prisons. It’s been known to happen.’

  Eddie stared dumbly at the man; the new aspect he was putting on the situation appeared more terrifying.

  The plain-clothes man now said, ‘Go on and stay with your grandmother. By the way, has she no relatives that she could call on at such a time as this? She needs someone in the house anyway to help nurse the captain.’

  ‘No, no, there’s only my mother and…and she’s away in hospital. She’s not well.’

  ‘Oh! That’s a pity. Well, goodnight, boy. We’ll be seeing you soon.’

  ‘Goodnight, sir.’ He turned and went back into the kitchen, and as he did so he thought, Yes, this was the time his granny did need some help, some woman…perhaps Biddy. Biddy would be back from her Sunday jaunt across the water now. He’d go down for her.

  He said this immediately. ‘Granny, I’ll go down and tell Biddy to come up, eh?’

  Mrs Flannagan looked at him for a moment, then moved her head slowly as she said, ‘I’d thought of that but I didn’t want to put you to another trail.’ Then her head slightly to the side, she said, ‘Why did you go out with the men? Did they want to tell you something? Nothing much escapes me you know, boy; that bit about the lantern wouldn’t have deceived a child. They came with one lantern, they could go back with one lantern. And they say the men only get into the river pollis if they’ve got cats’ eyes.’

  He hung his head for a moment, but presently said, ‘They think there may be another boat lying along the coast somewhere and they’re just using Denkin’s as a blind.’

  He watched her bite on her lower lip. ‘Aye, yes, that’s possible,’ she said. ‘And it wouldn’t have worried me any more if they had told me, it would only have proved that they have got their heads screwed on the right way and they’re up to all the tricks of that evil lot. Anyway, sit down here and have this bite to eat, then you can do as you said and go along to Biddy’s.’ She shook her head now. ‘It’s funny, I’ve known Biddy McMann all my life—she came here to work when she was eight years old and I was but three—but I’ve never known her to be in the right place at the right time yet; she’s never there when she’s wanted. It wouldn’t surprise me when you got there to find the place in darkness because she’s spending the night over the water with that no-good son of hers who’ll neither work nor want.’

  Half an hour later when Eddie was swinging the lantern before the darkened windows of the cottage he thought, and not for the first time, Me granny’s a witch.

  He was tired, he was weary and worried sick, but as he returned along the coast road, one small spark of comfort was given him as he saw the pinpoints of light from the lanterns stretching away along the shore. As the river police had said, they were leaving no stone unturned.

  Chapter Seven

  Eddie slowly opened his eyes. When he tried to lift his head he groaned aloud; he had been sleeping in the armchair to the side of his grandfather’s bed. He had a crick in his neck; and as he moved his head from side to side he looked across to where his grandmother was sitting in the other chair and he saw what he imagined had woken him up. She was slapping the side of her face vigorously with her hand and talking away to herself, making use of a number of small oaths. ‘Damn you! Damn the thing! Nerve complaint. Come and go, they said.’ Slap! Slap! Slap!

  ‘You would play up at this time, wouldn’t you? Don’t tell me I’ve got to wear that blasted trumpet again, and for real now.’ Slap! Slap! Slap! ‘Aw.’ She became aware that Eddie had woken up. Pointing to her ear, she said, ‘It’s acting the goat. Couldn’t hear a thing.’

  He rose unsteadily to his feet and, going towards her, he said, ‘Don’t worry.’ Those silly words again; he was as bad as the rest. Then turning and going to the side table, he picked up the trumpet and brought it to her and, putting it to her ear, said, ‘It’ll come back when this is over.’

  ‘What!’ She turned her screwed-up face toward him.

  He shouted now, ‘It’ll come back, your hearin’ll come back once all this business is over. It’s because you’re worrying that you’ve lost it.’

  She took the trumpet from his hand and there was a pitiable look on her face as she said, ‘You were shouting, I know, and I could hardly hear you, but as you say once me mind’s at rest…aw, dear God, haven’t I enough to put up with!’ She now looked towards the clock. ‘Five o’clock. I’ll go down and make a pot of tea.’

  ‘No, you stay where you are, I’ll see to it.’ He was shouting into the trumpet again.

  She made no protest but nodded at him now, saying, ‘Half sleep is worse than no sleep at all I think; you don’t know if you’re dreaming or still awake.’

  As he reached the door, he stopped. Her words had stirred something in his mind. It wasn’t her slapping her ear that had woken him, but a dream, like that dream that he’d had the other night. He had seen that man again, the one in the peak cap and the reefer jacket, the young man with the jolly face. And…and what had he done?

  He turned now and looked towards the side of the bed where the door led into the cave room. The man had taken him through there, he had taken him by the hand and pulled him down the steps, down the slopes. He remembered now that he had pulled him so quickly that his feet hadn’t touched the ground at all. Then when they got to the place where the loop was and the two planks over the crevasse, he had disappeared; like a flash of lightning he had disappeared. But he himself had gone bounding on down the slope and into the candle room. And there he had opened the door that led into the cave, and it was the thunder of the waves dashing against the rocks that had woken him up.

  ‘What is it? Why are you looking like that?’ His granny was coming towards him.

  He shook his head, then mouthed, ‘I…I had a funny dream.’

  ‘What?’

  When he went to mouth the words again, she said, ‘Oh, blast!’ and, going quickly back to the table, she picked up the trumpet, put the cord round her head as if in resignation, and held the horn to her ear, and he shouted into it, ‘I had a strange dream. I…I was remembering it.’

  She looked at him. ‘What kind of a dream?’

  Again he was shouting into the trumpet, but as he did so he looked towards the bed in case he should wake his grandfather, but the old man was deep in sleep as his snores proclaimed, and so he said, ‘I’ve…I’ve had it afore. A man in a peak cap, like…like a sailor fellow. He came and took me through the door there.’ He pointed towards the head of the bed. ‘He dragged me through, pushing and pulling me down the steps. I sort of knew he was leading me to the cave, but when we came to the loop where the crevasse is he disappeared and, well, I seemed to go on, and when I opened the door the noise of the waves inside the cav
e woke me up.’

  He watched his granny slowly take the trumpet from her ear and stare hard at him for a moment before turning and looking towards the head of the bed, and her mouth was open when she looked at him again and she said, ‘You say he pulled you through there?’

  He nodded at her now, and he watched her head going back on her shoulder and her eyes move round the room as if she was looking for somebody floating in the air. When she brought her gaze back to him she said, ‘Uncle Dan.’ Then again, ‘Uncle Dan.’ And now her voice a whisper, she added, ‘Dear God! Dear God! It just could be. It’s just as me father described him…Come back.’ She now dragged him back from the door, shot the bolt in it; then hurrying across the room, she said, ‘Light the candles.’

  While, with shaking hands, he lit the two candles that were standing in brass candlesticks on the side table, he watched her hurry into the cupboard. Then, his amazement as fresh as it had been when he first witnessed the wall moving inwards, he went to step through the aperture but paused as his granny, bending over the bed, touched her husband’s face, then muttered, ‘He’s all right; he’ll sleep for hours. Go on. Go on.’ She was pushing him in her impetuous way now into the wall room. But when they stood above the stairway she grabbed a candlestick from him and preceded him down the steps.

  It was as he went down the slope clinging on to the rope balustrade that the fear returned to him again, and he questioned why his approach to that one spot in this whole eerie passageway should create such a feeling in him. He had only been past it twice but it seemed to him as if he had known the place all his life. He tried to analyse his fear. Was it because the place seemed evil? No…no, he couldn’t say it gave him the impression of being evil or horrifying. Well then what was creating this feeling? The terrible noise that came from the depth of the hole or just the hole itself?