Mrs Flannagan's Trumpet Page 8

  As she nodded at him she answered, ‘Aye, you’re right, Ted. You’re right.’

  She can hear. She can hear as well as me. Eeh, the old faggot! But why? Why had she pretended to be deaf?

  Eddie had no time to give any kind of answer to his own question for now all other thoughts were wiped away from his mind as he watched what his granny was doing; and as his eyes became round with amazement he was sure now that he was dreaming and it was all part of that nightmare, because his grandmother had gone into the cupboard that ran along the side of the room, and right opposite to him to the side of the bed the wall was moving, it was swivelling round …

  Eeh! My!

  ‘Go in, both of you, but stay still near the wall.’

  Mr Reade’s eyes were as wide as Eddie’s as they stood side by side against a wall. They couldn’t have hoped to have stood abreast because the place in which they were standing wasn’t any more than two feet wide.

  Eddie now watched his grandmother, who was holding a lamp in one hand, move a lever that was head high and as she pulled it downwards the door slid back into place.

  Mr Reade now followed his granny and he followed Mr Reade, and, his mouth open and his eyebrows stretching to meet his hairline, he gazed about him. They had taken no more than three steps along the narrow passage and now they were in a long, narrow room, a doorless room, but one which was furnished. At the very far end he made out the shape of a bed, and nearer the middle was a table and two chairs, and against a wall was a book rack that held a number of books; next to it, a small writing desk. But at his feet, and his eyes became riveted on them, a number of steps dropped into deep blackness.

  ‘Here!’ His granny was holding out a candle to him and one to Mr Reade. ‘It’s too dangerous to take the lamp, and if one of us drops a candle, well, we can always get a light from the others. Now do what I tell you, because…well, there’s places that if you put a foot wrong it could be your last. An’ I mean that, Ted.’

  ‘Aye, Maggie, just as you say.’

  ‘Well, come on.’ Carefully now, she eased herself through the hole in the floor and onto the steps below, and then, when her head was just visible above the floor she continued, ‘Hold tight to the rope banister, the steps are slippery.’

  And they were slippery. More than once Eddie felt his feet almost give way under him. The stairway was no wider than the passage that led from the bedroom and was so steep it seemed almost vertical.

  He breathed a sigh of relief when he reached the bottom and into what looked like a room similar to the one above. But his relief was short-lived, for his granny was pointing down to another hole and saying, ‘The steps on this part are few and far between, it’s mostly slope, and at one point where it narrows you’ll have to walk sideways. But I’ll tell you when we come to it.’ And without further words she went forward and down.

  And down. And down. And down.

  Eddie knew that they must be somewhere inside the actual cliff, yet he had the weird feeling that they were descending into the bowels of the earth.

  ‘Now.’

  Obeying his granny’s order, he turned sideways and although he himself passed easily through the aperture he saw that Mr Reade had had to pull his stomach in.

  His granny was standing still now, the candle held high, and, pointing ahead, she said, ‘The passage widens further along but stick close to this side of the wall, especially at the widest part where the loop is. Anyway, just follow me closely.’ And on this she went ahead again.

  Eddie hadn’t to be told to stick close to the wall; the place was giving him the creeps, and he grabbed at it as he went along and his bewildered mind was noting two things; it wasn’t slimy as he would have expected it to be, and the air down here wasn’t foisty. It was neither hot nor cold, but there was a constant roar of noise and it was getting louder every minute.

  Ooh!

  The passage had suddenly widened out and he was following Mr Reade around the loop—and it was a loop, like three parts of a circle—and there just at the place where they would have stepped had they walked straight on was a hole, and partly covering it were two planks of wood. But up from its depths was coming a concerted roar as if it were a pit full of wild animals.

  His stomach gave a heave as he came to the end of the loop for now his feet were within a foot of the edge of the hole. He had never felt fear like this before. He had the desire to cry out aloud, like a frightened bairn would, or pray. He did neither, for his granny was yelling, ‘Watch your feet! It’s a slope. Hang on to the rope!’

  He hung on to the rope, clutching at it as if his life depended on it as his feet almost gave way beneath him. Then of a sudden his fear left him for it was swamped by fresh amazement. He was in a cave, a big cave, and it was full of candles; they were strewn all over the floor, bursting out of boxes, thousands upon thousands of candles. They were treading on them.

  His gaze was brought to his granny now where she was lifting a rope ladder from a hook in the rock wall. Handing it to Ted Reade, she said, ‘Do you think it will hold? It’s many years since it was used.’

  Eddie watched Mr Reade tugging and pulling at the black tarred rope; then he nodded and said, ‘Except for the ends it’s still good.’

  Now both he and Eddie watched her go to the wall of the rock from where protruded a lever similar to the one that closed the stone wall up above. But as her hand gripped it she turned and looked over her shoulder at Ted Reade and, her breath coming in gasps, she said, ‘You’d better help me, it’ll take some opening. It’s like the ladder, it’s many a year since it’s been used.’

  ‘Which way does it turn?’

  ‘You push it up, then around, a full half-moon.’

  He was a strong man was Ted Reade, but when he went to push the lever he couldn’t budge it.

  ‘Oh my God!’ The agonised words brought Eddie’s eyes to his granny again and as he went quickly forward to add his strength to that of Mr Reade he almost slipped on the candle-strewn floor; instinctively he stooped down, and picking up a handful of squashed tallow and cords, he turned to his granny and said, ‘Perhaps it wants a grease?’

  ‘Aye, yes.’ She nodded quickly, and Ted Reade grabbed the tangled mass from Eddie’s hand and rammed it round the joint of the lever. Then applying all his strength to it, he pushed once more. There was a small grinding movement and the iron handle slowly inched forward, then stopped. Again Ted rubbed in more grease and again he pushed the lever, this time with Eddie’s fist next to his. And now, creaking and groaning, the lever moved its required half circle, and as it did so there was a grinding and screeching as if stones were being crushed in a mill as a narrow slab of rock slowly edged inwards, leaving an aperture about four feet high and two feet wide; and on its opening the thunder of the sea as it roared into the cave enveloped them.

  Eddie was straining to see over his grandmother’s shoulder where she knelt on the floor looking downwards into the cave, when her cry, which was higher than the wind, startled him: ‘Davy! Davy! He’s there! He’s there!’

  As she knelt back Ted looked over her head and down into the cave and what he said was, ‘Aye, my God! He’s there all right.’

  ‘Get by a minute.’ His granny was screaming now, and they jumped aside and stood and watched as she took the two hooks that were attached to the rope ladder and clipped them into staples one on each side of the aperture; then throwing the ladder out into the cave, she shouted, ‘You’ll both have to go down. If you can lift him up I’ll get him in.’

  Eddie had no time to register further amazement for now, following Ted, he found himself climbing from the aperture, which was flush with the cave wall, down the inside of the cave.

  He shuddered as the cold water flooded his boots but his own discomfort was soon lost in the emotion he felt as he looked down on his grandfather, his white hair red with blood, his beard matted, his face grey. He looked lifeless.

  As Ted put his arms under the old man’s shoulder and hoisted him
upwards he yelled, ‘I don’t see how we’re going to lift him up there. We want a sling, a rope or something.’ He yelled now above the sound of the wind and lashing water.

  ‘Have you a rope, Maggie? We want a rope!’

  His grandmother’s face disappeared for a moment; then she was looking down at them again and yelling, ‘There’s none here. But wait, wait, there’s one at the loop.’

  ‘Laddie’—Ted was shouting again—‘help to hold him upright out of the water till I feel if he’s breathin’.’

  Using all his strength now to support the drooping figure of his grandfather, Eddie watched Mr Reade pulling open his grandfather’s jacket and waistcoat and thrusting his hand inside them. And when he nodded deeply at him, then yelled, ‘He’s a tough ’un, he’ll take some killin’, but somebody’s done his damnest to bring it off,’ Eddie drew in a sharp relieving breath.

  When the coil of rope fell, it hit Eddie on the head, but he made no protest; he just held on to his grandfather as Ted looped the rope under his arms.

  ‘I’ll go up first,’ Ted yelled now. ‘And pray to God this ladder’ll hold. You push on his feet from the bottom, lad; that’ll take some of the weight. All right?’

  ‘All right.’

  Eddie, pushing with one hand on the soles of his grandfather’s boots, while clinging desperately to the swaying rope ladder with the other, unconsciously paid tribute to his training in the shipyard where climbing almost vertical ladders was part of his daily work. But in this present case the pace was so slow he imagined they were climbing the complete cliff face. Then when he thought his arms would break, of a sudden the pressure was gone, and he heaved a sigh of relief as he saw his grandfather’s legs disappearing into the aperture. The next minute he was at the top of the ladder and into the cave himself, there to hear his grandmother crying, ‘Oh Davy! Davy! Oh my God! Who’s done this to you?’

  She was kneeling by the side of his grandfather now and she turned and looked up at Ted, saying, ‘He was the kindest man on earth, who would do this to him? Surely not Hal? He’s been so good to Hal; he didn’t like him but he’s been good to him.’

  ‘Get up, Maggie.’ Ted raised Mrs Flannagan to her feet, saying as he did so, ‘Somebody wanted him out of the way, that’s sure. But why? That’s the question. There wasn’t a better man livin’ than him. But now we’ve got to get him to bed, Maggie, and as quick as possible. An’ that’s gonna be easier said than done, for we’re gonna have our work cut out to get him back up that treacherous passage…Whoever cut that out wasn’t thinkin’ of comfort. And there’s that door.’ He pointed towards the gap in the rock. ‘I’d better close it.’

  A few minutes later he was standing by Mrs Flannagan again and she was looking up at him, saying, ‘You’ll go easy with him, Ted?’

  ‘We’ll go easy with him, Maggie. You go on ahead an’ give us light.’

  ‘Can you manage his legs, lad?’

  ‘Yes, I’ll manage his legs.’

  Eddie waited a moment as Ted heaved the limp body upwards with the back towards him, then with his arms under the old man’s oxters and around his chest, he said, ‘Right?’ and Eddie answered, ‘Right,’ before taking in a deep breath, and stooping, gripped each of his grandfather’s legs in the crook of his arms. And so the perilous journey began.

  Ted had of necessity to walk backwards and trust in Mrs Flannagan’s hand on his shoulder to guide his steps.

  They rested three times before they reached the loop, stopping immediately they came upon the awe-inspiring hole, and again when they were past it.

  The journey seemed to be never-ending and became almost impossible when they had to press and pull his grandfather through the narrowest part of the passage, but his fear, Eddie realised, had left him once they had passed the roaring hole.

  However, both he and Ted were nearing the end of their strength when they reached the lower room and the foot of the steps, and as they rested for a moment Mrs Flannagan, her voice holding a pleading note, said, ‘One last effort, Ted.’

  It seemed unfair to Eddie in this moment that his granny hadn’t yet recognised his part in the effort. But what did it matter? That would be the day when he got a word of appreciation from his granny. The main thing now was to get his granda up this last flight of steps.

  When he heard his granny say, ‘Lay him on there, Ted,’ as she pointed towards the bed in the far corner of the cave room, he showed no surprise, for his main concern now was to lay his part of the burden down before his arms snapped.

  ‘On there, Maggie?’ Ted’s words came out between gasps.

  ‘Aye, for the present.’

  When they had laid Mr Flannagan on what, on closer inspection, Eddie saw to be a very narrow single bed, more like a couch, he stood panting and rubbing at his arms while he watched his grandmother examine the wound on his grandfather’s head, then open his coat and lay her ear to his chest. And with fresh amazement he again thought, Eeh! She can hear as well as me, the old twister. But why the trumpet?

  His mind hadn’t time to give himself any answer to the question before his granny said, ‘The cuts are not deep, and his heart’s going strong, thank God…Would you get his coat and trousers off for me? I’ll be back in a minute.’ And with this she hurried down the room and from their view. But she was back again within a few minutes, her arms laden with bedding and nightclothes.

  ‘He’ll likely get his death in here, won’t he, Maggie?’

  Mrs Flannagan shook her head at Ted as, with her own hands, she stripped off the wet vest and pants from her husband’s body; then both Eddie and Ted went to her aid when she attempted to dress him in the thick flannel nightshirt. This done, she indicated that he should be rolled onto his side so that she could put blankets underneath him. And not until he was wrapped warmly in the bedding did she straighten her back and say, ‘The temperature never varies in here, it’s neither hot nor cold, and there’s no damp. No-one has ever got rheumatism through laying on that bed.

  ‘Now—’ She patted her cheek twice with her hand before going towards a tall-backed chair and dropping onto it. Looking from one to the other, she said, ‘I’ve been thinking. On the journey back I’ve been thinking a lot, Ted. To my mind whoever did this to him had a purpose. As I see it they wanted him to be found down there in the cave; his body having been dashed against the rocks in the confined space would account for the blood on him and the crack on his head.’ …

  She paused and Ted said, ‘I’m not followin’ you, Maggie. Why should they want him to be found down there?’

  ‘Because if they had dumped him in the river, it’s ten to one he would have come back with the tide after three days and it could have looked like foul play and the pollis could have worked back to those he was seen with last. But on the other hand, being found on his own property, so to speak, they could put it down to him falling asleep down there—he walked the beach a lot, you know that, Ted—or that he was waiting for a boat coming in, a certain type of boat’—she nodded her head at him—‘and he was cut off by the tide. Or they would just say he was drunk; it was well known he liked his drop. So from what the lad here saw down on the beach’—she indicated Eddie with a motion of her hand—‘my smooth-tongued nephew is in this up to the neck. As I see it, when they send somebody to stroll along the beach and come upon him accidentally’—she put out her hand and touched the bed—‘and they don’t find any body they’ll think he did go out with the tide. So Ted, I mean to bide my time and see what transpires, and give them enough rope to hang themselves. By then, please God, I’ll know what all this is about, for when he comes round he’ll put some light on the matter. But in the meantime he’ll have to have a doctor. Would you go and ask Doctor Collington to pay me a visit, Ted? Tell him I’m very much under the weather.’

  ‘You mean old Collington? But he’s been retired these eight years or more, Maggie.’

  ‘Retired or not, he’ll come, Ted. Just say to him, “Maggie Flannagan needs you,” and he’l
l be here as quick as his trap will bring him.’

  Ted kept his clear blue eyes on her for a moment before nodding and saying, ‘Just as you say, Maggie, just as you say. I’ll be away then.’

  ‘Thanks, Ted. And I’ve no need to ask you not to forget your oath?’

  Ted’s countenance was stiff as he replied, ‘Now, Maggie, I think you should know me better than that.’

  ‘Aye, Ted; I’m sorry.’

  As Mrs Flannagan rose, saying, ‘I’ll see you through,’ Eddie cleared his throat before blurting out, ‘I think there’s something more you should know, Gran, an’ you an’ all, Mr Reade.’

  They both turned now and stared at him, and he swallowed again before he said, ‘Well, it’s like this…’ And he went back to the happening on Wednesday evening and the conversation with his grandfather yesterday dinner time.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me this last night?’ His grandmother’s voice was recognisable by its old tone.

  ‘Well, you were so troubled, so worried, and at the same time I didn’t think for one minute that Hal Kemp would be bad enough to do anything to me granda.’

  ‘That fellow, Mr Van, as you call him’—Ted was nodding now—‘gentleman like. Aye. Aye, when you come to think of it it’s makin’ sense, fittin’ in. I saw him one day last week comin’ off Abel Denkin’s boat. Now what would a gentleman like him be doing with the like of Abel Denkin ’cos, you know, Maggie’—he was now nodding at her—‘there’s runnin’ and runnin’. A drop that warms you on a winter’s night is one thing, but there are other things not so pleasant. An’ I’ve been hearin’ rumours of late.’ He now nodded towards the bed and said, ‘You’re right, Maggie; there’s something fishy about all this, and the Captain must have cottoned on to it. Anyway, trust me; I’ll keep both me eyes and ears open.’

  ‘Thanks, Ted.’ The worried lines on her face softened as she ended now, ‘You’re like the answer to a prayer. I don’t know where we would have turned the night if it hadn’t been for you because me and the lad here’—she inclined her head towards Eddie—‘we would never have got him up out of that cove on our own.’