The Black Moon (40 page)

They found the-convent on rising ground north of the town. So far they had not been stopped. The great risk was a patrol. If they were once challenged they were lost, for only Tregirls spoke French well enough to pass a casual word without raising suspicion. But again, equating it with England, Ross thought what pat
rols would be tramping the
streets of a Cornish town?

In sight of the high surrounding wall they squatted and Ross told them quietly of the plan of the building in front of them.

'Behind that high wall is a little town. There is one large building and four smaller ones spread over an area I suppose as big as Grambler Mine. Around it is a park, with trees, wheat fields, a vegetable garden, pasture land and a lake. This is so that the nuns could be self-supporting. Now there are no nuns but little else has changed . . . We have no certainty as to which building Dr Enys will be imprisoned in, but I a
m told that as a physician one
would expect to
find him in the main one. Now
as to this main building. It is to the left of the gate as you go in, and the door into it is on the left of the building itself. The main gate
through that wall has a grille through which callers may
be viewed before it is opened. Just beside the gate
on the inside
a sentry
box has been built where two sentries are posted night and day
.’

He stopped. A cricket was creaking and sawing in the bushes.

`Tell 'em no more, young Cap'n,' Tregirls said. `Else you'll discourage them.'

'Speak for yerself!' said Jacka Hoblyn. A quarrelsome man, Jacka, whom Ross had always been able to control. But he had not reckoned with the long immurement with Tregirls in the Energetic.

Ross said.: `As you go in through the main door you will be i
n an entrance hall, which leads
to a church. This church, which of course has been stripped of its religious emblem
s, is the biggest room
in the building, and sleeps five hundred prisoners every night. But to the right of the entrance hall as you go in is another door leading to a chapter house, which has been turned into a guard room. Here all the rest of the guards will be at night
-
usually six. They seldom patrol the building since there is hardly a path for them to do so among the sleepers. Beyond the church is a row of cells, a recreation room and a refectory. These of course are no longer used for their original purposes but are simply sleeping and living quarters for the prisoners.

'That all the guards there is, sur?' asked Ellery.

`No. Another dozen or so live in the laundry which is about three hundred yards from the main building. They are the off duty guards who can be called on in an emergency. But I am told that usually only about half that number is there, since many privately prefer to slip back to their homes for the night.'

`Or to somebody else's,' said Tholly.

'Six
- twelve - that's fourteen at the least,' said Drake, `that's if the alarm be raised. But d'you hope to get in without raising 'the alarm?'

`We think we may'
said Ross.

It was eleven before they moved. A thin slive
r of moon was just setting. The
Dutchman thought the guards on t
he gate were changed at 10 p.m.
6 a.m. and 2 p.m. The wall surrounding the convent was about ten feet high and had been ornamented with
steel
spikes to discourage climbers. The door in the wall was of oak studded with iron, and the grille
slid
sideways in it about five feet from, the ground. When the knock sounded the
guard slid
back the grille... to see who
wanted to came in at this
time of night;
'Quels poissons peche-t-on ici
?' Tholly snarled in his thick
voice. `
Eh? Eh? - Voici mon ' prisonnier! Un Anglais qui s'echappe de votre petite creche! Je l'ai attrape pres de chez moi!
'
He he
ld Bone by the collar and shook him.

`Let me go
' Bone gasped. `Let me go ! Ye're choking me!'

After a long pause bolts slipped back. The guard peered out.
'Qu'y a-t-il? De quoi s'agit-il? Qu' voulez-vous? Je ne sais pas de
-' Tholly struck upwards with' his dagger into the guard's stomach.

The man gave a scream which choked itself into a gurgle as blood flooded into his mouth. Bone caught him as he was falling; Tholly went past him to meet the second guard just emerging from their little hut. Ross was close behind him but Tholly was first, striking with his iron hook. The second man collapsed with a monumental clatter of musket, hat, sword, belt, equip
ment and dead weight. Within a
minute all eight of the intruders were within the wall, the door shut behind them, waiting and listening.

After that terrible noise there was silence. The crickets were busy with their dry violin solos all along the foot of this wall.
In the great building to their
left six lights showed. They waited for more lights to go on. Another building low and squat to the right. Could this be the laundry? It was all in darkness. An owl flitted by.

Ross bent to examine the second Frenchman. `You've killed him too,' he said to Tholly.

Tregirls hunched his shoulders and coughed. The exertion was bringing on his asthma. `You don't have the same delicate touch, like. Not with this.' He lifted his hook.

Ross made them wait longer than any of them wanted to. Then they moved across grass and gravel and grass again to the door of the main convent building.

It was a small door, round-topped, oaken and solid but without a grille. A lantern hung in the wall above it but was not lighted. Ross rat-tatted sharply at the door, aloud authoritative rap, and waited. Nothing happened. He tried the ring latch but it would not turn. He rapped again.

Footsteps. A French voice grumbling, muttering to itself, clearly not expecting superior officers but supposing some other guard was being a nuisance. Clack of a key, Screech
of a door. A man in shirt s
leeves holding, a lantern Ross. thrust a
p
istol into. his chest. The man
opened his mouth to shout; Ross's raised fingers sto
pped him; he took a step back;
Tholly
snatched the lantern as he was
about to drop it.
Door thumped back with a thud.
Then they were in, Nanfan grasping the guard's hands, Bone thrusting wadding in his mouth.

A door ajar at the end of the passage; a slit of light falling on panelled wall and tiled floor. Ross slid towards it, Tholly and Drake behind him. As they reached it a man came out. Ross shoved him reeling back into the room and, they followed him. Four other men; three at a table playing cards and an empty chair, money on the table, glasses, a jar. The fourth man was standing by the sl
it window putting on his tunic.

`Stay,' said Tholly. `Quiet all. Move and you're dead men.'

Jacka Hoblyn had one of the other pistols, Ellery the third. They were all in the room now, a big room, Nanfan and Bone holding the man they had first captured. Jonas unwound a rope from round
his
waist and with this they began to tie up the six men. Little was said. The man by the window tried to argue, tried to struggle. It did him no good. But it was a long job, tying and gagging them all. Trying on the nerves. It was a full fifteen minutes before they were all done to Ross's' satisfaction. Failure h
ere would mean failure of the
whole scheme.

`Now,' he said, and li
fted down a bunch of eight big
keys from behind the door.

With two lanterns from the room, leaving it in darknes
s, they went out into the hall
to the further door which led into the church. This was locked and bolted. A key fitted; they slid the bolts very carefully. At this stage essential not to give the impression they were coming to let the prisoners out. If this idea communicated itself there would be a mad, rush for the doors and a general alarm.

A vile stench of unwashed bodies, sickness, sweat. The church, which was perhaps two hundred feet long by forty broad, doubled its width at the transept and soared into lofty Gothic arches. They had come in by the west door. All the chairs and ordinary furnishings had gone; the floor was an unmoving, unsavoury carpet of human beings, packed so tight they might have been woven together. Here and there one tossed and moaned; some snored; the vast majority lay quiet, whether asleep or awake, as if they knew that only by
remaining quiet
could they stay alive. God, thought Ross, am I back in Launces
ton prison rescuing Jim Carter?
Do all men's lives run in cycles?

He. stared down
at his feet. Twenty men to be called on within a few paces. But which to choose? He saw an eye gleam in the light of t
he lantern. He stepped across a
couple of men.

`Hey, you
Wake a minute. We're new to this camp. Just come. Direct us, will you?'

`God 'elp you, matelot. What's there to direct? There be no room to lie 'ere. More room up by the altar.'

`I was directed to find Dr Enys. Know you where he is?'

'Who? Never heard o' him! Clear out and let me sleep!.'

The man had put his head down, but Ross caught his emaciated arm and pulled him up.

'Listen - we have to know!
'

`Hark yourself, dog!' Ross's arm was flung off. `I'll have no man lay 'is 'ands on me. If ye so much as-'

Ross took a firmer grip and shook the man. The man kicked and waked. two others lying near. `There's someone ill!' `You're English, are you not? What sort, of help is this? Listen, I wish to know! Dr Enys! You must all know Dr Enys!'

`Enys`?' said one of the other men, sitting up. He was a naked cadaver, but somehow still alive. `Rot you, Carter, with your evil temper. Who's this? Who are all these? New men? God help ye all
! Enys? Yes, we all know Enys.'

`Then where is he? Where
does he sleep?'

`Not here, matelot.'

'In 'this buildin
g - o
r another?'

`Oh, this, if you can find 'im. He'll be not far from the infirmary. He never is, I'll say that for 'im. But he don't sleep there. Try one o' the cells this side o' the refectory.'

`Which way?'

'Oh, damn your eyes! Go up to the altar. In the south transept's a door leading to the sacristy. Beyond that's' the infirmary and then this row of cells. He's like to be there.'

`Thank you, friend.'

His lantern held high, Ross began to pick his way among the other' skeletons sleeping, on the floor, Bone bringing up the rear with the second lantern. The procession of men wound its way up the church. It was impossible to do so without waking some of the massed sleepers, for there was no room to step between, Once or twice men in the middle of the
croc, stumbled in the half
dark, and curse followed them.
Ross knew well he was leaving curious men behi
nd hint as well as wakened ones.
New arrivals, he was sure, did not enter unaccompanied by guards and carrying
two lanterns, and in the middle
of the night.

The door into the sacristy could not be opened for sleeping men. Two had to be pulled to their feet and, more thoroughly awake than the rest, pursued the intruders with questions. One of them was very young, very alert
-
probably a midshipman
-
and he was the first to guess that they had no business here. He scrambled to his feet and grasped Drake's arm, but Drake could only shake it off and smile and follow the rest. The boy followed them. In his scarecrow state he looked scarcely older than Geoffrey Charles.

Into the infirmary. Here the stench was doubly vile, but the sick men had little more room to toss and turn. They were in rows like corpses in a casualty station after a battle. At least there was a light: a single candle, in a lantern hung so high that no one could reach it. It cast geometric shadows, illuminating one sick and ghastly face, leaving another in shadow. A ragged old man with a black beard was t
ending a delirious patient. He rose as
they came in.

`Who are you? 'There's no more room in here.'

`I
am Captain Poldark. We are seeking Dr Enys.'

`I'm Lieutenant Armitage of the Espion. You cannot wake him now. He's been off duty but an hour. I have some little medical knowledge.'

`It is not his medical knowledge we seek. Where does he sleep?'

Armitage looked at them doubtfully.

`What are, you here for?' demanded the young midshipman. `Sir, I think they have no business here!'

`No business with you,' said Ross. `We seek Dr Enys and mean only his good. I assure you, Lieutenant Armitage. My word as an officer.'

`Look, sir,' said the mids
hipman, `this man has a dagger.
Why are they here?'

`To slit your throat,' said Tholly, looming behind him, `if
ye need more air than will come through a shut mouth.' Armitage was staring at Ross. `Have you broken in?' `Come with us to Dr Enys and I'll explain.' Armitage said: `I cannot leave here. Enwright, take them
to Lieutenant Enys.'

`Aye, aye,
sir

As they left, a sick man was crying out, for, water, and Armitage went to him. The midshipman led the way into a stone c
orridor with cells opening off
to the left. The cell doors were not shut and at the third Enwright stopped.

`I believe he is here.'

Ross went in. There were eight derelict men in the cell, and he held up the lantern, peering to find his, friend. They were all bearded, and he thought there was no one here he sought. Then one at the end stirred and sat up.

`What is it? Do you want me?'

It was a physician's reaction, used to waking to a sick call.

`Yes, Dwight,' said Ross. `We want you.'

To Ross he was at first unrecognizable, with the heavy beard, black freckled with grey, and the skeletal features. He could hardly have weighed more than seven stone. The skin of his face was disfigured with sores. Deep sunken eyes, made him look a man with a short term to his days.

At first he was unbelieving. Then he was doubting. Then at last he was reluctant.

Because he had half expected it Ross was the more urgent. `Look, Dwight, eight of us have risked our lives for this! You have done your share here. Now you owe a, duty to others. If you d
o not come willingly, you come
by force!'

`Oh, it is not that I do not deeply appreciate what you have done. But some of these men in my charge are on the verge of dying-'

'And_ what of you? How near are you to dying?'

Dwight made a deprecating gesture. `We all take our chance together. All these men with me in this cell have received a little medical training from me
in the last twelve months, but
they could not take over-'

`There are no other doctors - no other surgeons?'

'Oh, yes, four. But we all have more than we can do, and-'

`So should we go home without you?'

'Oh, Ross, it is not that. No, no. I thank you more than I can say-'

`Believe me, we are not out of the wood yet, and every moment you argue adds to the danger. But when we are gone these other men, can get free if they will. We came this far secretly so as not to create a panic breaking out-'