The Unknown Ajax Read online

  ‘It’s got to be done, lad, if I’m to bring you off. I’ve no time to do more than stop the bleeding the best way I can, and it’s bound to hurt like the devil, for I’m packing it tightly, and you’ve a bullet lodged there, you know. Come, now, swallow another mouthful, and you’ll be champion!’

  Richmond obeyed. He was lying relaxed against Hugo’s arm, and he looked up at him, saying: ‘I lied to you! I had to. It was my responsibility: I couldn’t leave them in the lurch! I had to see all safe. I was in command, you see, because it was my scheme.’

  The Major looked down at him, slightly smiling. ‘Happen you’ll shape to be a good officer, after all,’ he said. ‘Lean forward again now: I’ve nearly done.’

  ‘Go on! I’ve got him,’ Vincent said. ‘I’m damned if I know what we do next, though! You’re not going to try to convince the Excisemen he’s been with us all the evening, are you? If we could get rid of the bloodstains here, in the house, which we’ve no hope of doing, the tracks will lead them to the side-door, as soon as there’s light enough for them to be followed.’ He felt Richmond writhe, and his hold on him tightened. ‘Keep still! You’re very well-served if it does hurt: I’ve no sympathy to waste on you! How you can have been such a crass fool as to have gone out on this damned, disreputable business tonight, after all that Hugo said to you, after assuring me you weren’t in mischief, inspires me with only one desire, and that’s to wring your worthless neck!’

  ‘I had to! The casks were still here!’

  ‘Still where?’ Vincent said sharply.

  ‘Here. In the passage. Ever since the last run.’

  ‘What passage?’ Vincent demanded, looking down at him in sudden, astonished suspicion. He could not see his face, however, for a pang of exquisite anguish had made Richmond gasp, and lean his forehead against his supporting arm. Vincent stared down at the top of his dark head. ‘Are you trying to tell me you’ve found the secret passage?’

  Richmond managed to utter: ‘Yes. This end. Spurstow found – the other – ages ago.’

  He stopped, quite unable to continue speaking for several moments. Vincent glanced quickly up at Hugo, but Hugo’s attention seemed to be fixed wholly on what he was doing. Vincent, violently irritated, was obliged to choke back an impatient demand to know whether he was listening.

  He was certainly the only one of those present to remain unmoved. Mrs Flitwick, letting the scissors fall from her fingers, ejaculated: ‘Lawk-a-mussy on us, whatever do you mean, Master Richmond?’

  ‘Richmond, you didn’t?’ Anthea said, quite incredulous.

  ‘The boy’s raving! Doesn’t know what he’s saying!’ pronounced Claud, who had sat up with a jerk.

  ‘Yes, I do. Not difficult – once we’d cleared – the blockage,’ Richmond said thickly. ‘Roof had fallen in – not far from the other entrance. Think it must be – where there’s that dip – in the ground –’

  ‘Never mind that!’ interrupted Vincent.

  ‘No. Well – Spurstow only used it – to store – the run cargoes – till I found out – and knew – must be the passage – and made him – help to clear the blockage. Devil of a task, but managed to do it. Easy, after that. Only had to work out – where the other entrance must have been. In the old part of the house, of course. Cellars. Bricked up. Only fear was – might be heard when we broke through. Servants’ quarters – too close to the old wing. But bad thunderstorm one night – did it then!’

  ‘Well, I’ll be damned!’ said Claud, who had been listening, open-mouthed, to these revelations. ‘You know, there’s no getting away from it! – Young Richmond’s a hell-born babe, all right and tight, but, by Jupiter, he’s a bit of a dab!’

  ‘A bit of a dab to use this house as a smuggler’s store?’ said Vincent, in a voice of scathing contempt.

  ‘I’m not a hell-born babe!’ Richmond lifted his head. ‘It’s no worse than letting them use the barn by the Five Acre – which they’ve always done! Grandpapa wouldn’t say so!’

  ‘My God – !’ Vincent’s eyes again went to Hugo’s face, but he was still not attending. ‘Listen, you young sapskull!’ Vincent said harshly. ‘Can you see no difference between that and becoming yourself a smugger?’

  ‘Oh! Well, – yes, but I didn’t think it was so very bad. I only did it for the sport of it! I don’t benefit by it – and in any event – when Grandpapa said he would never let me be a soldier – I didn’t care about anything any more! You wouldn’t understand. It doesn’t signify.’

  ‘Master Richmond, Master Richmond!’ said Chollacombe, tears of dismay in his eyes. ‘Never did I think to hear –’

  ‘No sense in talking like that!’ snapped Mrs Flitwick. ‘A judgment – that’s what it is! A judgment on those as should have known better, and nothing will make me say different!’

  ‘Sticking-plaster!’ interrupted Hugo imperatively.

  Polyphant, who had constituted himself his assistant, started, and said hurriedly: ‘Yes, sir – immediately! I beg pardon, I am sure! I allowed myself to be distracted, but it shall not occur again! And the scissors! Mrs Flitwick, the scissors! – Good gracious me, ma’am– Ah, I have them!’

  Richmond, wincing as Hugo began to cover his handiwork as tightly as he could with strips of the sticking-plaster, said: ‘Any way – I did it! Ottershaw was always suspicious of Spurstow. Began to watch the Dower House whenever he got word a run was expected. Made it devilish difficult – to use the place. That’s how – I came into it. Saw how I could make Ottershaw look as blue as – as megrim. I did, too. He don’t know now – how the kegs were got into the Dower House. We ran them up here, from the coast, and took them the rest of the way through the passage. But I never had them kept at this end of the passage! Or let them be taken away from here – until tonight, when – nothing else I could do. Knew I might have to, so had it all – trig and trim. Ponies in the Park. Had the kegs carried there: too dangerous to bring ’em up to the house. Only thing was – knew Ottershaw was hot on my scent – couldn’t be sure he wasn’t keeping some kind of a watch on this place too, so – had to lay a false scent. That’s why we did the thing – so early. Ottershaw’s grown too – fly to the time of day. Had to make him think it must be the real run, and we’d hoped to get away before any watch was set on the place. He did.’ Richmond’s head was up, and his sister, gazing at him in horror, saw the glow in his eyes. ‘It was the best chase of them all – my last!’ he said, an exultant little smile on his pale lips. ‘You don’t know – ! If only I hadn’t taken it for granted I was safe on our own ground! – I ought to have known, but I’d shaken off the pursuit, and never dreamed there’d be anyone watching for my return here. I’ve never come back before except by the passage. Jem said I’d be taken at fault one day, but he’s got no stomach at all for a close-run thing. He didn’t like it even when we took all the casks in broad daylight once – pulling in mackerel-nets! Swore he’d never go out with me again, but I knew no Exciseman would think anyone would dare do that, so it wasn’t really very dangerous.’ A tiny laugh broke from him. ‘We were hailed by a naval cutter: you should have seen Jem’s face! But the kegs were hidden under the mackerel – we’d got the Seamew spilling over with them! I offered to sell ’em to the lieutenant aboard the cutter: just joking him! – and of course we came off safe!’

  Claud, who had been listening with his eyes starting from their sockets, drew a long breath. ‘When I think of the way we’ve been living here, never dreaming we’d be a dashed sight safer in a powder-magazine – ! Well, at least there’s one good thing! No need to be afraid he’ll go to Newgate! Well, what I mean is, he’s stark, staring mad! Ought to have put him into Bedlam years ago!’

  ‘Not mad!’ Vincent said. ‘Rope-ripe!’

  ‘There!’ said the Major, pressing down his last strip of sticking-plaster. ‘Cut, Polyphant! I fancy that will do the trick.’

  ‘Beautiful, sir!’ said Polypha