Smuggler's Glory (29 page)

“
She reminds me of Harriett, but in a less eccentric way,”
Archie said after several moments of companionable silence. “I like
her.”

“
It’s nice that you two are having a cosy little chat, but do
you think we might just get on with it now? I don’t know about you,
but I am bloody freezing and have to move before frostbite sets in
and I can’t shoot my bloody pistol.”

They had
raided many houses in the past, preferring to operate stealthily
rather than blasting their way through. Assured that the area was
clear of curious eyes, all three men broke from their cover and ran
across the small path toward the back of the long row of workmen’s
cottages.

He had
seen enough within the village to know that the large black
carriage arrived at the tavern and deposited the occupants who used
the building to await nightfall. As soon as it was dark they would
make their way over to one of the small terraced houses whose
owners had mysteriously vanished several months earlier. It was
located directly opposite the entrance to the mine
shaft.

Within
minutes Simon, Archie and Pie were standing at the back door
waiting while Archie picked the lock. Pie stood at his back ready
for any surprise attack while Simon carefully scanned the tunnel
entrance and the houses around them for any sign of imminent
threat.

Within
seconds the door swung silently open.

“
Anyone home?” Pie mouthed, nodding upward to the
bedrooms.

Archie
shrugged and turned to the steps at the same time while Pie began a
sweep of the ground floor.

They had
agreed that they would search the house and yard before making
their way to the tunnel entrance at the rear of the houses. They
had all taken turns in keeping watch on the back of the houses for
several nights and knew the single tunnel, dug as a fire escape
when the mine was operational, was being used to get to and from
the main mine buildings on the hill opposite. It was the perfect
crime really, because the mine was virtually inaccessible, and
nobody saw anyone leaving or arriving.

So many
people had simply vanished from the village, practically overnight,
that most of the villagers were living in fear that they would be
the next to disappear without a trace. Simon wondered if the
nosiest had gone first, but given the marshes that lay around the
moors knew he would never get any proof. As a result of the
unanswered disappearances of their own, it had been virtually
impossible to get any of the villagers to talk to them about
anything. Luckily, Archie had recognised one of the men as a gang
member who had been working out of St Issey, and another fitted the
description Hugo gave them of one of the men he had seen enter the
country in the wee small hours of the morning. It had been all they
needed to know they were on the right trail.

Simon
shifted uncomfortably, keeping one eye on the tunnel entrance and
one eye on the back of the house in case anyone returned to the
property.

Moments
later, both Archie and Pie reappeared and made their way over to
him. Searching the house was the easy part of tonight’s operation.
What they had to do next was most probably one of the most
dangerous things he had ever done in his entire life. The tunnel
entrance was open; clearly the smugglers hadn’t seen the need to
block it to prevent anyone else gaining access, probably because
most people were just too scared to challenge them.

There
was no way of getting to the tin mine separately. They all had a
better chance of getting out alive if they stayed together. The
complex web of tunnels and exploration shafts on the map Mr Kempton
had given them was simply mind-boggling. Unfortunately, that meant
that if they came across anyone coming toward them, they had no
option but to fight and hope they weren’t hemmed in on both
sides.

Lighting
their torches, Simon took the lead and led his colleagues down into
the bowels of hell. In parts the sides of the shaft were so tight
that they had to shuffle sideways; the ceilings so low that they
had to crouch down and shuffle forward on hands and knees. They had
to stop several times to get their bearings and make sure they were
using the right shaft, and once or twice had to stop because they
were certain they heard someone moving. But with their senses
dulled by the close confines, it was difficult to tell if they were
just hearing their own noise.

It
seemed to take far too long before the shaft began to open once
more, allowing them the space to be able to stand upright again.
None of them spoke, instead resorting to using the hand signals
they had been trained to use when stealth was required. At the
first opportunity Pie took over the lead, leaving Simon to follow
and Archie to bring up the rear.

They
reached the last few feet when they became aware of a sentry
walking slowly past the entrance. With their vision of the area
narrowed by the high walls on either side of them, Pie shuffled
forward to peer into the room bathed in soft candlelight. They
waited until the guard passed again before Pie leapt forward and
took the man out. Dragging his body into the shaft took no time,
leaving Simon and Archie free to search the room. At the far side,
next to the bank of windows, sat a door that connected with what he
presumed was an office. It was the room that Simon had seen a
candle burning in the window on a nightly basis. It remained in the
window, flickering away gently until just before dawn when it was
extinguished and the guard circling the perimeter of the mine
disappeared.

Simon
was closest to the door when the soft scuffle of footsteps preceded
the sudden shouting of a man who appeared in the tunnel entrance
behind them.

“
Les intrus! Arrêtez-les. Rapide! Nous avons les intrust!” was
yelled over and over until Pie’s heavy fist silenced
him.

Chaos
ensued. The door behind Simon burst open, and a man appeared with
his gun drawn. Shots burst throughout the room. In the light of the
room behind the gunman, Simon could see three people hastily
shoving papers into bags, their movements quick and panicked. One
man disappeared, pushing Simon into action.

“
Watch out!” Archie yelled, at the same time that Simon felt
strong hands grab him around the stomach and drag him down to the
floor. He rolled over a couple of times, only then realising that
it was Archie who had taken him down. The knife that had been aimed
at Simon’s heart was now safely embedded in the wall above their
heads.

He
didn’t have the time to thank his colleague. Pie was in a brutal
fight with one of the men who had surged out of the office. Simon
spied three more guards run past the window, and knew they didn’t
have much time. They had to get their hands on the papers before
they vanished.

Bursting
through the office door, he used his gun to take out one of the
Frenchmen who didn’t run fast enough to get out of the way. “Over
there!” he yelled to Archie, pointing to the darkest corner of the
room he had seen another of the men disappear to. He wasn’t sure
where the third had gone, but was fairly certain he had gone into
the shaft that lay open in the room beyond.

Determined not to lose his quarry, Simon headed in that
direction, aware that Pie had moved to join him. His progress was
thwarted with the arrival of the three guards he had seen outside,
and for several long moments he was drawn into the battle of his
life. Men seemed to be everywhere. The three guards, three people
working at the tables. It was impossible to tell if there had been
anyone else in the tunnel behind them.

“
Shit!” Archie swore, spitting blood out of his mouth before
joining Pie’s fight with one determined guard. A swift slice of his
blade was enough to draw an end to that particular battle, leaving
them free to search for the man who was missing and the fourth
outside guard who usually toured the perimeter. Aware that the man
had heard the gunfire, the Star Elite fanned out to go
hunting.

Together
they worked their way around the site of the disused tin mine,
completing a thorough sweep of both the inside and the grounds.
They found the Frenchman carrying the satchel stuffed full of
papers; a small fat gentleman who sweated as much as he babbled. At
first he had tried to threaten them, until Archie had told him
quite pointedly where he could shove his threats, in his own
language, and then the French intruder took to pleading, offering
them untold fortunes if they let him go.

Fed up
of the constant babble that blocked the sound of anyone moving
around them, Simon lifted his gun, pointing it straight at the
Frenchman’s head.

“
Fermer,” he growled in perfect French. “Un autre mot et vous
mourrez.”

The
Frenchman lapsed into silence and stood when Simon waved his gun
upwards. Archie completed a thorough body search, relieving the man
of a small knife, a pistol and his shoes which Simon dropped into
the gaping mineshaft behind them. It took several long moments
before they heard the dull thud of them hitting the bottom of the
shaft.

Fairly
certain that the entire operation wasn’t being run entirely by
Frenchmen, Simon briefly contemplated questioning the man there and
then. Hugo, however, had men waiting in Launceston to find out what
they wanted to know. It was down to Simon, Pie and Archie to get
the Frenchman there alive. Anyone else they needed to round up
would then become evident and would be traced. But first, they
needed to find out if the man in the tunnel was accompanied by
anyone else who was now lying in wait.

“
Qui est-ce que vous attendez?" he demanded, grabbing the
Frenchman by his shirtfront.

The
Frenchman shook his head frantically. “Nobody,” he replied in
flawless English. Simon should have known he would be adept in the
language of the country he planned to invade.

“
You aren’t the kind of man who likes unexpected deliveries,”
Simon growled, lifting the man a bit higher. The Frenchman
swallowed, but remained stubbornly quiet.

“
Who else is in that shaft?” he demanded, his patience wearing
dangerously thin. Lifting the Frenchman higher until his toes
touched the floor, Simon watched his face turn purple as he
struggled for breath.

“
Who?” His voice whiplashed around the room.

“
I don’t know what you want,” the Frenchman argued, clawing at
Simon’s arm in a desperate attempt to be allowed to
breathe.

“
Then you die,” Simon snarled, lifting his gun and placing it
at the Frenchman’s head.

“
Monsieur Lindsay,” the Frenchman cried, his eyes turning
bloodshot.

Simon
dropped him and watched the Frenchman slumped to the floor, rubbing
his throat and glaring balefully at Simon.

“
Monsieur Lindsay?”

“
Oui,” the Frenchman nodded slowly.

“
He brings the Frenchmen here where your comrades make the
forged papers. Then you smuggle them out with their new identities
in the black carriage,” Simon snapped, watching the Frenchman’s
eyes grow round in surprise. “Oh, we know,” he murmured all too
softly. “We know more than you realise, Monsieur
Archambault.”

The man
at his feet froze, his small round eyes flickering from Simon to
Archie to Pie and back again, as he realised that he hadn’t been
quite as clever as he thought he had.

“
Never mind,” Simon sighed. “We will round up the rest later.
Just tell me one thing and I will ask my boss to be lenient with
you.” He bent down until he was staring directly into the
Frenchman’s eyes. “What does Monsieur Lindsay want with Thistledown
Manor?” At the Frenchman’s puzzled look, he explained. “The big
house across the valley.”

“
The tunnels,” Archambault stammered. “They go to the
house.”

Simon
had to work hard to keep his face impassive. Although he had
searched the cellars, he had never found anything to prove that
such a thing existed. What did the French know that he didn’t? It
seemed implausible that the mines ran so far, beneath such rugged
and unpredictable moorland. It was at least half a mile, if not
further.

Dragging
the Frenchman roughly to his feet, Simon threw him through the
door, where Archie tied the man’s hands up and Pie took delight in
adding a gag. “There were at least two more in the tunnel,” Pie
reported, nodding toward the gaping black void behind them. “Do you
want me to go first?”

“
No, I think we stay above ground for now,” Simon replied,
patting the satchel of papers Archie was holding. “It is harder to
pick us off if we are out in the open. In the shaft we are sitting
targets.”

“
Amen to that,” Archie sighed, relieved that they wouldn’t have
to go back into the closest thing to hell he had ever
experienced.

As the
well-trained fighting unit they were, together they left the
building and began their return to the village. The village was as
silent and empty-looking as it had been when the evening had first
began but, despite the cold night air, Simon felt an added chill
snake down his spine. He had been outside, searching the moors at
all hours of the night, spending many hours in bracken while he had
been living in the one house the smugglers most wanted. He should
have just waited for them to come and pay another ‘threatening’
visit. More importantly, he should have sent Francesca away to
Hugo’s the very first day he arrived in Much Hampton.