The Toll-Gate Read online

  ‘What are you wishful to do?’ Chirk asked.

  ‘Keep Henry Stornaway’s name out of it, if I can. If I can’t, get him out of the country before Stogumber knows the whole!’

  ‘And Coate?’

  The Captain’s jaw hardened. ‘No. I’m damned if I will! No, by God! There are two dead men at least to be laid to his account, for I’ll swear it was he who shot those guards! He and that man of his, maybe. That’s another thing, Jerry! We could reveal these chests to Stogumber, but he wants more than the gold: he wants the men who stole it. What proof is there that Coate was the arch-thief?’

  ‘Well,’ said Chirk, stroking his chin reflectively, ‘it would look uncommon like he must have done the business – him being at Kellands, wouldn’t it?’

  ‘It might look smoky, but unless Stogumber has proof, which I’ll swear he has not, it’s not enough to warrant an arrest. Lord, I don’t know what I am going to do, but give me a little time before you go to Stogumber!’

  His wry smile twisted Chirk’s lips. ‘Didn’t I tell you I’d had my orders from that mort o’ mine I was to do what you tell me, Soldier? I won’t deny that if it was Rose’s cousin which had run his head into this noose I’d feel the way you do. I’ll stand buff, and there’s my famble on it!’

  He stretched out his hand, and John gripped it warmly. ‘Thank you! You’re a damned good fellow! I have one day at least to consider what I can do: I fancy Stogumber won’t do much spying today. He’ll be feeling as sick as a horse, and will very likely keep his bed. But he’s been recognized: we have to bear that in mind! That must have been why he was set upon last night. If Coate were to take fright, and run for it – why, that would solve the thing for us! If he don’t – lord, I wish I saw my way!’

  ‘I daresay you will,’ Chirk replied. ‘I’m bound to say I don’t, but that don’t signify.’ He looked up at John. ‘Was Ned Brean in this?’

  ‘I think, undoubtedly,’ John said. He glanced round at the encircling gloom, and Chirk saw that the good-humoured expression had quite vanished from his face. ‘There was the gate to be passed, and there must have been an urgent need of a strong man to assist in carrying these chests from the lane to this place. There were no wheel-ruts off the lane, nor could a heavily laden vehicle have been dragged across the ditch. The chests must have been carried by hand – and Henry would be useless for such work.’

  ‘What queers me,’ said Chirk, ‘is how they ever got ’em down that “regular stairway” of yours! Why, it was as much as I could do to get down holding on to the wall, and any rock that came handy! If I’d tried to carry anything, I’d have foundered, sure as a gun!’

  ‘I fancy they lowered them with ropes. They must have!’ John said, picking up his lantern, and walking round the cases. ‘Yes, here we are! A couple of coils of stout rope.’

  Chirk was frowning. ‘If Ned was working with Coate, where is he?’ he demanded. ‘I remember what Benny said about being woke up by a waggon one night, and Ned going off like he did. What took him off again last Saturday, and where did he pike to? Did he get scared, d’ye think?’

  ‘No, I don’t think that. I think – he came here.’

  Chirk glanced up swiftly, a question in his face, and then his eyes travelled as swiftly to the one open chest. ‘It was him broke that open? Tipping the rest of ’em the double?’

  ‘Trying to, perhaps. He didn’t succeed. The chest is full.’

  Chirk got up with a jerk. ‘Look ’ee here, Soldier – ! What’s in your noddle, for God’s sake?’

  ‘Where is he?’ said John significantly. ‘Why did the news that Brean had gone away alarm Henry Stornaway so much? Why did Henry come here the night before last? And what did he find here to make him look as though he had seen a ghost?’

  Chirk passed his tongue between his lips, and cast a staring look about him. ‘Maybe – we’d do well to search a bit more!’ he said, a trifle thickly. He gave a shiver. ‘God, I’ll be glad to be out of this place!’

  The light from John’s lantern was being cast on to the ground, slowly moving in a wide arc. ‘If he was surprised here – and killed here, there should be some sign of it.’

  ‘There was no call to kill him!’

  ‘There may have been a fight.’

  ‘Ay, likely enough!’ Chirk said, after a moment. ‘He’d have fought, Ned would.’

  He said no more, and for a few minutes only the rushing noise of water, which seemed to come from deep within the hill, broke the silence. Then the Captain’s lantern was lowered, and he knelt, keenly inspecting the ground. Chirk, who had been searching along one of the walls, saw, and trod quickly over to his side. The Captain pressed the palm of one hand on the ground, and lifted it, and held it in the light.

  Chirk swallowed audibly, and said in a rough voice: ‘Where did they put him? We got to find him, Soldier!’

  ‘Follow the bloodstains,’ John replied, rising and moving forward, his eyes fixed to the ground. ‘He bled a great deal, Chirk. There was a sticky pool of it where I laid my hand. This looks like some more of it.’ He stooped again. ‘Yes. And here!’

  ‘Going towards that other passage you saw,’ Chirk said. ‘I’m for trying that way: they wouldn’t have left him here, and the chests being here no one had any call to go farther.’

  He walked forward, and his lantern presently found the hole in the rock. It was narrow, and low; more blood was to be detected there; and after one look at it, Chirk went on, John following him.

  The passage was only a few feet long; it opened into a far broader and loftier passage, colder than all the rest, and with water dripping from the rock. Chirk stopped short, exclaiming: ‘There is a river, and we’ve come to it! Lord, I never saw the like of it! Look at it coming out of that tunnel in the rock! It’s quite shallow, though. Do you tell me a little stream like this can flood the whole place?’

  ‘Yes, when the water rises. Look at the slime on the walls! It goes up as far as you can see.’ John began to walk along the passage, beside the stream. It plunged into the rock again some fifty yards on, where the passage came to an end, blocked by a mass of loose rocks and rubble, which showed where a part of the roof had fallen in. John set his lantern down, and, his face very grim, began to remove the stones and the boulders from the pile. Chirk came to join him, and in silence followed his example. A choking sound broke from him suddenly, and he sprang back, shuddering. A hand was protruding from amongst fragments of rock, piled up in a rough cairn. In another minute John had uncovered the upper half of a man’s body. He picked up the lantern and held it above the body. ‘Well? Is this Brean?’

  Chirk nodded, his eyes on an ugly gash where the neck joined the shoulder. ‘Knifed!’ he said unsteadily. ‘His hand – Soldier, it was like a slab of ice, and wet – slimy wet!’

  ‘Do you wonder at it, in this temperature? I don’t know how long a body might remain here without rotting: some time, I daresay. That’s just as well, for Stogumber must see this! Help me to cover it again! This is what Henry found – and it’s my belief he didn’t know Brean had been murdered, but suspected it, and came because he suspected it.’

  ‘If Coate did this –’

  ‘Either he, or his man, Gunn. He must have had some inkling of what Brean meant to do. He may even have been watching him at night. It seems certain he followed him here.’

  ‘I don’t hold with Brean trying to diddle him, but he didn’t have to murder him!’ Chirk said, with suppressed violence. ‘He’s got pistols, no question! He could have held Ned up easy enough! What does he want to stick a damned chive into him for?’

  ‘I should imagine that once he knew Brean was unsafe he meant to kill him. He may have mistrusted his aim in this poor light, and so preferred to use a knife. He seems partial to knives. If it hadn’t been for you, I suppose Stogumber’s body would have been brought here as well.’

  He straigh