A quick thank you to all of you who are reading, reviewing and putting the story on alert. I really appreciate it.
Five Go Mad on Flat Holm Island
Chapter Ten: Overground, Underground
At a little before three o'clock, Gwen led Toshiko and Owen out of the camp. They had washed and put on their cleanest clothes for the visit, partly to make a good impression but also to bolster their courage to cover for Jack and Ianto. Somehow the three of them had to engage the attention of all three lighthouse keepers for a couple of hours, and specifically keep them away from the windows looking north across the island for the next half an hour.
"We all clear?" asked Gwen, jumping over a small ditch.
"I think so." Toshiko was the least confident of the three. She was hopeless at subterfuge and was sure she would say or do something to give the game away.
"You'll be fine, Tosh," encouraged Owen. "Stick to the technical stuff, that'll be interesting for you anyway."
"Right," agreed Gwen. "I'll be the wide-eyed girl who knows nothing and needs everything explained to her and Owen can be somewhere in the middle."
"Thanks!"
"You know what I mean. We just have to keep them occupied which shouldn't be too hard."
They were close to the lighthouse now, the white tower soaring above them out of its two storey-high square base, used for living quarters, machinery and storage. The tower was not as tall and elegant as some lighthouses, the clean lines marred by the bulky base, but it was still impressive. Alongside it was one of the old gun batteries with the second huge gun pit and the usual assortment of metal and stone debris. The children mounted some steps onto the base and stood looking up.
"Hello there." Carew stood at an open door. "What do you think of her?" he asked, strolling over to join them.
"Impressive," replied Owen truthfully. "Can't wait to see inside."
"Do you live in these rooms?" asked Gwen.
"While we're on duty. In the old days, keepers had their families out here and used those cottages over there." He gestured to a couple of derelict cottages nearby. "Now we're only here for a month at a time, we bunk down inside."
"So it's a month on and a month off? Must be hard on your families."
Carew chuckled. "My wife likes it just fine. Says it kept us from getting on one another's nerves all these years. But come and take a look at the view from over here." He led the way to the south side of the lighthouse. "That's the view I wake up to every morning, pretty special, eh?"
"It's spectacular," agreed Toshiko. Before her was the wide Bristol Channel with the indistinct outline of the Welsh and English coastlines framing it on each side. The sky was huge, merging into the sea. She felt as if she was on the bow of a great sailing ship or cruise liner travelling the oceans and said so.
"Bet it's even better from up top," put in Owen.
"Can certainly see further. Come on in and I'll show you round," said Carew.
Gwen fell into step beside him. "We'd like to see everything, Mr Carew. Our teachers always ask us to write an essay on what we did during the holidays and this will be something really special to write about." She gave him her most winning smile.
"I suppose the other keepers are busy working," said Owen, risking a glance towards the cholera hospital. He could not see Jack and Ianto but that was where they were supposed to be by now. "Do you all have specific jobs?"
"They're inside. Nev should have the kettle on for tea, come on in and I'll introduce you and we'll tell you all about what we do out here." He ushered the three children inside.
-ooOoo-
"Good, they're inside. Give it a few minutes and then we'll start moving."
Ianto nodded, checking the pockets of his jacket once more: torch, matches, camera, notebook and pen were all there. He was warm inside the quarter-length jacket but it was navy and would, he hoped, help him blend in to his surroundings. Jack was wearing his greatcoat for the same reason and both had on dirty dark trousers. He watched as Jack, crouching down, peered round the end of the wall. The American was enjoying himself, had even rubbed mud onto his face as camouflage, and Ianto found himself smiling despite his own nervousness.
"You look ridiculous," he said. "We're not commandos."
"No harm in pretending." Jack grinned up at him, his teeth shining even more brightly in the dirty face. "We'd better start. You lead the way."
Butterflies danced in Ianto's stomach as he eased past Jack and made for the end of the trench. He used a row of straggly bushes for cover for much of the way. The final couple of yards were over open ground but only two of the lighthouse's lower windows faced this way. He made it to the trench and fell to his knees inside, pressed against the southern side. A moment later Jack was beside him, still grinning.
Shifting the coil of rope that he wore across his body, Jack said, "So far so good. Where's the trapdoor?"
"About halfway along. Ready?"
"For anything."
Ianto once again led the way, going forward on all fours to keep below the lip of the trench and thus stay out of sight. Luckily the sun had dried out the ground and there were only one or two muddy patches. The outline of the trapdoor was faint but, knowing what he was looking for, Ianto had no trouble picking it out. "This is it." He crawled over it and turned, awkward in the confined space, to face Jack.
"Is there a handle?" Jack was feeling the ground and found a straight, metal edge.
"Here." He moved aside some long grass and revealed a round, metal ring handle.
"This is very clever," whispered Jack. "They've planted grass on the door so it blends in."
"Time for admiration later. If we're going to do this, let's get on with it."
Ianto pulled on the handle and to his surprise – he had half-expected it to be locked or bolted - the door rose. It was hinged on the left hand side and rested against the side of the trench when fully open. No one leapt out at them. Jack peered in, head and shoulders blocking Ianto's view.
"There's a metal ladder, goes down to a platform. I'll go down, you follow when you see me switch on the torch. Close the door after you." He swung his legs round and lowered himself in.
"Be careful," whispered Ianto, heart in his mouth.
The ladder was quickly negotiated and Jack stood on the metal platform. In the light trickling down from above, he saw he was surrounded by natural rock. Reaching into his capacious pockets, he pulled out the torch and switched it on. Waiting only to see Ianto get into position, he flicked the torch around the space. The platform was around six feet square and steps, carved into the rock, led down on one side. Jack peered down, keeping the torch shielded in case there was anyone below.
"Jack, I can't see." Ianto's voice echoed eerily off the rock
"Sorry." Jack shone the light at the ladder and watched as Ianto quickly shimmied down. "Close the door all right?"
"Of course. That's why it's so dark."
"Oh yeah."
Standing beside Jack, Ianto switched on his own torch and swung the beam of light around. "Looks natural." Both boys were speaking softly, aware that voices and sounds reverberated in confined spaces. "Although these might be have been made by pick axes." He was at the wall to the right of the ladder running his hands over the faint marks.
"Quite the Howard Carter, aren't we? Now, shall we get on?"
The steps had been crudely hacked out of the rock. Narrow and uneven they had also been worn smooth by the passage of many feet. Luckily they were cut through the rock giving plenty of handholds on both sides as the boys carefully made their way down. Jack, in the lead, counted fifty seven steps before they reached a passage running from right to left. He shone the torch both ways. Behind him, Ianto did the same then turned his torch upwards. The passage, about five feet wide at the base, tapered inward and met twenty feet or so above their heads. It was utterly dark in every direction.
"Which way?" he whispered. Suddenly aware of being encased in rock, he fought down a wave of irrational claustrophobia.
-ooOoo-
"This is so homely," enthused Gwen, really getting into her role of wide-eyed innocent. "You look after yourselves very well."
"It's best to be comfortable," said Frank Carew.
The three lighthouse keepers and the children were in a large, L-shaped room. The longest side faced south and the sun was streaming in the half dozen windows onto two couches and several easy chairs set up at one end near an unlit coal-burning fire. In the angle of the L stood a pine dining table and six mismatched chairs. Around the corner, facing west, stood an easel and a number of canvases – some complete and others works in progress; all of seascapes. The artist had been introduced as Nev Carew, Mr Carew's nephew, and the youngest of the lighthouse men at thirty. He was also the shortest, only five feet four tall, and the only one to be clean-shaven. He chatted amiably to the children unlike the last of the keepers, Sam Evans, the man who had come to the jetty when the children had arrived. He stood at a window staring out, drinking his tea but not speaking.
"Finished?" asked Nev, standing up. "Let's show you round."
"Yes, please, said Toshiko jumping to her feet. She felt uncomfortable around Mr Evans and intended to stick close to Nev. "Can I help carry anything?"
Between them they loaded the tea things on the tray and took them into the kitchen at the back of the living block where there was also a small machine shop. Gwen chatted on inanely to Mr Carew as they climbed the stairs to the upper floor containing the bedrooms and a well-equipped bathroom. They did not stop, going up another flight of stairs into the base of the tower itself. The room was round, made of close-fitting limestone blocks. Stone stairs with a functional metal railing curved up the outer wall.
"Oh this is just what I imagined," gushed Gwen. "How far up does it go?" The stairs disappeared through a wooden floor some thirty feet above.
"To the top," replied Carew with a slight smile. Her evident enthusiasm had weakened his natural distrust of strangers, and of these children in particular.
She laughed at his joke, longer than it deserved. "I am so silly. Tosh is the one who understands all this." Gwen waved her hands vaguely. "She's a whizz at science and machines and stuff."
"You'll like the lantern mechanism then," said Nev. "Installed in 1889 and still running like a dream."
"Everything was built to last back then," she agreed with a smile. "Owen, there you are."
"Mr Evans was showing me his workshop," said Owen, entering the room and relieved to be with the rest of the group once more. Abandoned by the girls, he had been lumbered with the taciturn Sam Evans. It was hard going to keep up any kind of conversation and there had been long periods of silence. "This must be the foot of the tower, then. How tall is it?"
"Ninety eight feet." Mr Carew led the way up the stairs, setting a steady pace and only pausing on the two intervening floors to give his guests a short breather. The final flight of stairs was much steeper, more like a ladder and then were in the lantern room itself. "And this is the reason we're here," said Carew proudly.
"Oh, wow," said Gwen, drawn to the windows and the panoramic view. She made sure to stay on the southern side. "I can see so far."
"About twenty miles in every direction," confirmed Nev. "'Cos, you've come on a good day. In the winter it's not like this. Get gales, fogs and driving rain. Then you can't see the island!"
"Seems higher than a hundred feet," remarked Owen, standing on tiptoe to look straight down to the sea.
"Tower's ninety eight and cliff's sixty two. Add 'em up and you'll get how high we are," barked Mr Evans. He had opposed inviting the children but had been overruled.
"A hundred and sixty feet," said Gwen slowly, refusing to react to the gruff man's tone. "How far away can the light be seen?" She twisted round to look up at the central lantern – a huge light bulb inside four louvered glass panels.
"Twenty miles, of course," said Toshiko. It was all very well for Gwen to act the dunce but she was in danger of overdoing it. "If that's how far we can see, then that's the range of the light."
"Quite correct. Now, let me show you the mechanism." Nev led her down a couple of steps to stand below the lantern where brass and copper cogs, regulators and drive shafts of various sizes shone under a coating of lubricating oil. They began to talk about the technical specifications.
"What's the history of the lighthouse, sir?" asked Owen.
-ooOoo-
"Better try the other way," said Ianto. He and Jack had been walking for five minutes through the twisting passage, having decided to go right on the toss of a coin. "Nothing this way." He shone his torch into the darkness before him.
"Okay." They turned round and retraced their steps, walking in silence. The surrounding rock was making them both a bit edgy but neither was admitting it. "Here's the steps up." A small piece of white notepaper, torn from Ianto's book and held down by a pebble, marked the place.
"New territory now then," confirmed Ianto, continuing on.
A couple of minutes later they discovered more steps leading down. Ianto went first this time, taking his time and keeping a wary eye on what may lie ahead. Behind him, Jack had more opportunity to look around and therefore noticed the metal wall brackets first.
"Hang on," he whispered, stopping. "Look at these." He shone his torch on the brackets. Crudely made of iron now rusty with age, they had a double circle at one end and were buried deep in the rock. Jack pulled on it but it didn't move.
"What are they for?"
"Torches, I reckon. Those bundles of branches which are set on fire. You know the ones."
"I know. Could be right, and if you are that means this route's been used for a long time." Ianto turned to face down. "Come on."
They continued going down, Jack resuming his count of the steps, reaching seventy one before they came to another passage. This one ran out in front of them, sloping down. They continued forward, side by side as there was enough room, and a new sound, the first not made by themselves that they had heard since coming through the trapdoor, became louder as they progressed.
"What's that?" whispered Ianto, slowing his pace. It was a steady rhythmic thud that seemed to travel through the rock all round them.
"I think it might be the sea," said Jack slowly. He was walking slightly faster than his friend and reached the end of the passage first. He stopped, looking through an opening to his right. "There's light, natural light, ahead," he reported, grinning.
Stopping to leave a paper marker, it was a few moments later that Ianto followed Jack down another short flight of metal steps. The boys stood looking round them, staying in the shadow until they knew for sure no one else was down here. They were in a large cavern, forty or more feet high and twice that deep, open to the sea through an arched opening several yards wide. Sunlight streamed in and both boys turned off their torches and put them away. They were standing on one end of a wide ledge running along the cavern's back wall some thirty feet above a rocky beach; the high tide mark was clear about a yard below. At the other end of the ledge was a cave stretching back into darkness and containing stacked crates and boxes.
"What a perfect place for smugglers," said Jack. "Bring the boat in through the opening, it looks big enough, and store stuff in here until you want it."
"You think that's what's going on? Smuggling?"
"One way to find out." He grinned and strode along the ledge into the cave, pulling out his torch once more. He made for the nearest crates and started looking for an open one.
Ianto followed him, scanning the cavern more carefully and deciding it was probably a natural rock formation with manmade alterations. The cave was too smooth and regular to have been carved out by the sea, and anyway it was above the high water line. He shone his torch around the cave, spotting more steps down. Thinking they went down to the beach where cargo was loaded and unloaded, he went down a few steps to make sure.
"Oh my," said Jack. He had found a crate whose lid was loose and stood looking at the contents.
-ooOoo-
The technical discussion of the lighthouse workings went way over Gwen's head. Toshiko understood it all, that was clear, and Owen seemed to know enough to keep up and ask sensible questions. As she could add nothing, she jumped at Mr Carew's suggestion to go out onto the narrow balcony that ran round the outside of the lighthouse. Designed to allow access to the windows – for cleaning and replacement – it had a high railing for safety. Nevertheless, it was 150 feet above the sea and buffeted by the breeze making it feel very exposed.
"Gosh, this is fantastic," she said, holding onto the railing and looking out. Her hair streamed back behind her then whipped round into her eyes as the wind veered round the building.
"Pretty fine. See those rocks over there?" Carew pointed down and to the right. "That's where The Wolves went down back in 1736."
She looked at the jagged, exposed cluster of rocks. They seemed tiny from up here but were obviously dangerous enough to have wrecked the wooden ship. Carew had told them about The Wolves, a troop ship which had sunk with the loss of sixty soldiers in a storm. That tragedy had been the deciding factor in building the first Flat Holm lighthouse a year later. Until the early 1800s, a coal burning brazier had stood at the top of a short tower. Over twenty five tons of coal were needed each month to keep the flame alive and warn shipping off the dangerous coastline. It was upgraded to oil in 1820, when the current tower had been built by Trinity House, and the present fourteen foot diameter lantern installed in 1869. During all that time, it had been manned every day of the year by up to four keepers at a time.
"Want to walk round?" asked Carew. "Bird's eye view of the island from the other side."
Unable to think of a reason to refuse, Gwen smiled and edged round, her shoulders touching the railing and the wall. She hoped that Jack and Ianto were either back in camp or still exploring; it would be extremely bad luck if they chose this moment to pop back through the trapdoor. Holding her breath, she relaxed when there was no sign of the boys. Instead, she looked out across the jumbled ruins and rubbish of several hundred years of occupation of the island and realised there was hardly a foot of it that had not been used at some point. She was relieved to find that, even from this height, the tents were obscured by the cholera hospital. Raising her gaze, she saw Cardiff shimmering in the heat haze in the distance with Western-Super-Mare on her right and Barry and Penarth on her left.
"Not as good a view as the other way," she said with a laugh, continuing round the balcony until she reached the door and stepped inside. "Brrr, it's chilly out there."
"Want to try it, Owen?" asked Mr Carew.
"No thanks. Not got Gwen's head for heights." He noticed the patronising look from the lighthouse keeper but didn't care. There were some things he would not do and climbing around on the little balcony was one of them. An image of Jack popped into his mind. If he were here, he'd have been out there like a shot and probably started climbing up the railings to get to the very top of the tower. That would have shown Carew.
"Nothing more to see," said Evans abruptly, standing by the top of the stairs. "Let's go down." No one argued so they all started to descend.
They were soon at the bottom of the tower, through the living quarters and outside. All three children made their profuse thanks for the tour, shaking the hands of each of the lighthouse keepers in turn. To the girls' surprise, Owen suggested they stroll to the fog horn station and look round there before going back to the camp. He had managed a quick glance at his watch and realised Jack and Ianto might need more time. When they were away from the lighthouse, he explained.
"Don't want them watching us all the way back to camp. Better if they're looking in this direction."
"Good thinking. And we'll be able to see the camp, check if Jack and Ianto are back there," Gwen said approvingly.
"And if they aren't, hopefully we can keep attention on us."
"How?" queried Toshiko.
Owen shrugged. "No idea, but we'll think of something."
-ooOoo-
The slog back up the steps seemed to take much longer than the climb down. Ianto led the way, thinking hard and fingering the notebook in his pocket. It now contained a simple drawing of the cavern and a diagram of the way down as well as list of what they had found. This had taken some time and they were hurrying to get back up top. They had taken longer than agreed with the others who were now probably back in camp waiting for them.
The two boys had just reached the upper passage, the one that ran from right to left, and were heading for the steps up to the trapdoor when there was a noise from above. Pushing both torches down, Jack said into Ianto's ear, "Someone's up there."
"What do we do?" His voice was a mere breath of sound.
"This way."
Jack pushed Ianto right, along the passage they had explored earlier but which had appeared to lead nowhere. The route twisted a little but it was hard to tell if they were completely out of sight so Jack kept on pushing Ianto beyond the point at which they had turned back before. He hoped it was a dead end that no one else would want to use, that way they could stay hidden and try to escape later.
-ooOoo-
Gwen was pacing in front of Big Momma. It was five thirty and Jack and Ianto were still not back. While Owen was occupying himself building a fire and Toshiko took a shower, Gwen could not settle to anything.
"Where are they?" she asked again.
Owen did not bother to answer; he had no information on which to even make a guess. He added more tinder to the nascent flames. A moment later a scream, cut off suddenly, had them running to the farmhouse. Toshiko!
What has happened to Tosh? Will Jack and Ianto be discovered? Find out in the next chapter.