Chapter 9
We both descended the stairs to the main deck. Sergeant Peck walked down onto the pier and spoke to the three constables waiting there. All three unwrapped the blankets or coats to reveal shotguns and oak handles or a pry bar.
The three officers took post by the gap in the wall of crates that led to the alley. From there they could see anyone attempting to leave the ship and would also see anyone who tried to enter the cabin behind us.
He then returned to my side and we both looked into the cabin corridor.
We stepped inside.
There was no light in the corridor apart from that which came from the open door, as we entered we blocked that light and were walking into deep shadow and darkness.
I found myself blind within no more than a few feet and stopped. From behind me I heard the sound of a match striking and suddenly a flickering flame sprang up in the sergeant’s hand. A small candle he had pulled from one pocket or another.
“Good thinking sergeant, let me have that and I’ll go first.”
He handed me the candle and I walked a few steps to the first cabin on my left. This door was unlocked and more like a normal door
It opened to a simple push and the light from the candles reveals a strangely shaped room. The curve of the wall and roof which I had seen from the deck left much of the room low and claustrophobic, the floor was covered in a great pile of rags and scraps of canvas. Piled higher around the edges and lower at the centre of the room. It looked for all the world like a giant nest of some sort but this could not be where the crew slept, what sort of men would huddle together on the floor in a nest of rags?
There seemed to be no furniture in the room save for a few hooks on the walls for hanging clothes or coats. No chairs, no beds or bunks.
I had no desire to search under the rags and as we sought something the size of a bear it was clearly not hiding her.
Then with a start a thought came to me, did bears live like this, could this be the monsters lair. No my rational mind replied. The outer door had been locked and the door to this room had been closed, did this monster politely open and close doors.
Having reassured myself I then noticed that my right hand was in the pocket of my coat, my police revolver held in a death grip. I forced my hand to relax and slid it out of the pocket.
I returned to the corridor, perhaps a little faster than was warranted, perhaps not.
As I passed I tapped the wall on the right, it was solid and without any sign of a hidden door. It seemed that the stairway down to the hold took all of the space that would have been a cabin.
A few steps further on we came to the pair of doors, one left and one right. I chose the door on the right to open first. The door had opened no more than a crack when the stench hit me. I pressed my right sleeve against my nose to try and block the foulness that drove me back a step.
Like the docks on a hot summer day when the entire cities sewage had been dumped there to mingle with the discarded fish from the days catch. The stench was beyond belief and beyond endurance.
I step back again then turned and walked quickly to the welcoming light of day and the fresh air of the deck. Sergeant Peck was right in front of me, as soon as I had turned to flee he had done likewise.
We both reached the deck and drew deep breaths of the fresh clean air.
“Cough. Might want to let that one air for a bit inspector. Something died in there and that’s the honest truth.”
I whole heartedly agreed with him on this one but before I could reply I noticed movement on the docks. All three constables had seen us rush from the cabin choking and gasping, they had taken steps towards us as if to offer help.
I waved them back. “The air in the cabin is truly foul; we will let it clear for a minute. Nothing to worry about.”
They did not look reassured by my words and it was at that point that my mind began to speculate as to what the smell was, had we found the rotting corpse of another victim?
After a few minutes I tried to enter the cabin again and found the smell little diminished so I returned to the cargo hatch and spent some time trying to see if there was anything stored below that was not hidden by canvas.
“It’s a bit better now sir.” Sergeant Peck’s call broke my train of thought and I realised I had been day dreaming. Clearly this time in hospital was having a greater effect on me than I had thought possible. Day dreaming of all things.
The stench was much diminished now but still foul enough to be most unpleasant. I stepped back into the corridor and walked to the opposed doors. I pulled the door to the right closed. That one could be left for a while.
Instead I opened the door to the left and found another room much like the first, another nest of rags and cloth. What manner of ship was this? Did the crew truly sleep in these rooms? If not the crew then who, or what, slept here?
Again I had no desire to turn aside the rags and search more deeply so I stepped out of the room and closed the door.
One door remained, at the far end of the corridor. We took the few steps required to reach this last door and I tried the handle. It was locked.
The captain’s key did not fit this lock, it was small, and more like a household lock than the heavy and secure locks that have sealed the main doors into the cabin.
“We may need to search these rooms a little more carefully sergeant.” The thought was unpleasant but we needed to search this room.
Sergeant Peck stepped past me and in a single movement kicked the door, the thin wood shattered, the lock was smashed and fell to the planks of the deck.
“Doors open sir.”
I limped to the open door, the lock torn out of the cheap wooden panels.
The room was shadows and darkness, the shapes of furniture and nameless lumps on the floor.
Suddenly my mind spun, my thoughts twisted. I knew this, I had done this. Where was Garrety?
As quickly as it had come the confusion vanished and I was myself again. Sergeant Peck was peering into the dark room, this was not a dream. I stepped to the doorway and lifted the candle to cast light into the room.
Beside me Sergeant Peck drew a deep breath then exhaled it. “Bugger me. Er sorry sir.”
In front of us was a narrow stair which ran to the left and down. The entire aft of the cabin was an open space and set several feet lower that the deck on which we stood. It was filled with machinery and the strong smell of smoke and steam and coal dust.
I stepped into the room and down the stair to the floor. This room extended forward, under the cabins above, the space no more than a few feet high and filled with coal. More coal was piled in bins along both walls to a good five feet in height, Bronze tanks, water most likely, stood behind the mass of machinery and along the stern.
Sergeant Peck had walked straight up to the machine and was now rubbing his hands on the wheels and sides of the great device, muttering as he did so.
“Triple expansion, forced draught. Secondary expansion chamber, high pressure bleed. A beauty, what a beauty. Drop fed coal loading. Twenty two knots easy.”
I coughed. “Sergeant I had no idea you were so knowledgeable about steam ships.”
He managed to look embarrassed without his expression changing. “Sort of a hobby sir, you won’t be mentioning this to anyone will you sir, don’t want people getting the wrong idea.”
Now he definitely looked embarrassed. “Of course not sergeant, a gentleman does not go gossiping.”
He looked relieved and was about to turn back to the steam engine.
“Still your knowledge is most useful, you seem to have a good grasp on what this is.”
“Yes sir. This is a wonder. French forced draught intake on a triple expansion drive. Even the navy haven’t started using these yet. Long thin hull, this beauty diving her. Twenty three knots, maybe more.”
He paused as my puzzled look registered.
“She is fast sir, very fast. Outrun most ships, a few sailing ships can catch her if they have the wind but she will outrun most anything else. Nothing the excuse lads have will even get close and I reckon she can outrun the navy as well. Real beauty.”
I glanced at the coal and water tanks. “Fast yes, but what sort of range?”
He looked at the coal bins and then stepped round the steam engine to gauge the size of the water tanks.
“Well at full speed she will be thirsty and hungry, Spain for sure, Italy maybe. If she runs slower and burns less coal, America maybe, South Africa, maybe the Arab nations. Of course she can always refuel on the way.”
I considered that carefully, that sort of range and speed suggested that this ship had cost someone a great deal of money. What sort of cargo where they carrying to pay for all of this.
Click.
This was something the excise men should be appraised off, perhaps even the navy.
What had attracted the monster to this ship, the young man in the tavern had said the monster was taking their bith shugg something. Perhaps that was the value that made this ship worthwhile.
Click.
What was that?
“Did you hear something Sergeant?”
He was clearly focused on the boiler and gearing of the steam engine and had heard nothing.
Click.
It seemed to becoming from forward but at this level. Behind the coal bins. Was there anything under the other cabins. Of course, the cargo hold.
“Sergeant I heard something in the cargo hold, I’m going to have a look.”
He grunted to say he had heard me though he did not speak.
I went up the stair and along the corridor to the ships deck, turning to the open double doors and onto the staircase down to the hold.
Click.
There it was again, closer now, clearly coming from the hold.
I walked down the stairs to the shadow filled hold, I was alone, the sergeant was still in the engine room but somehow that was not important.
In front of me was a clear area, a walkway between the cargo led from here along the centre of the hold to the bow. Directly in front of me were crates piled one upon the other. Canvas sheets covered the top but I could see the lower crates and some markings on them. I recognised the letters but not the language.
I stepped toward the centre of the hold and the cleared walkway. As I did so the glint of dull metal caught my eye. One of the strange barrels of aluminum was on its side in the clear area, the top smashed in and the contents gone just as I had seen in the sewer where I fought the rats.
Beyond it was torn canvas and several more of the small barrels scattered on the path next to a stack of many more to the side. There were dozens stacked four or five high, perhaps scores. The ropes and canvas that secured them was ripped apart on the side and several gaps showing where barrels had been taken from the pile.
Click.
This time it was close, very close. Just beyond the pile of metal barrels. Where the shadows became deepest. Where there was movement within the shadows, a dark form, massive, shoulders far wider than mine. Strange shadows and shapes. Almost like horns and scales.
We both descended the stairs to the main deck. Sergeant Peck walked down onto the pier and spoke to the three constables waiting there. All three unwrapped the blankets or coats to reveal shotguns and oak handles or a pry bar.
The three officers took post by the gap in the wall of crates that led to the alley. From there they could see anyone attempting to leave the ship and would also see anyone who tried to enter the cabin behind us.
He then returned to my side and we both looked into the cabin corridor.
We stepped inside.
There was no light in the corridor apart from that which came from the open door, as we entered we blocked that light and were walking into deep shadow and darkness.
I found myself blind within no more than a few feet and stopped. From behind me I heard the sound of a match striking and suddenly a flickering flame sprang up in the sergeant’s hand. A small candle he had pulled from one pocket or another.
“Good thinking sergeant, let me have that and I’ll go first.”
He handed me the candle and I walked a few steps to the first cabin on my left. This door was unlocked and more like a normal door
It opened to a simple push and the light from the candles reveals a strangely shaped room. The curve of the wall and roof which I had seen from the deck left much of the room low and claustrophobic, the floor was covered in a great pile of rags and scraps of canvas. Piled higher around the edges and lower at the centre of the room. It looked for all the world like a giant nest of some sort but this could not be where the crew slept, what sort of men would huddle together on the floor in a nest of rags?
There seemed to be no furniture in the room save for a few hooks on the walls for hanging clothes or coats. No chairs, no beds or bunks.
I had no desire to search under the rags and as we sought something the size of a bear it was clearly not hiding her.
Then with a start a thought came to me, did bears live like this, could this be the monsters lair. No my rational mind replied. The outer door had been locked and the door to this room had been closed, did this monster politely open and close doors.
Having reassured myself I then noticed that my right hand was in the pocket of my coat, my police revolver held in a death grip. I forced my hand to relax and slid it out of the pocket.
I returned to the corridor, perhaps a little faster than was warranted, perhaps not.
As I passed I tapped the wall on the right, it was solid and without any sign of a hidden door. It seemed that the stairway down to the hold took all of the space that would have been a cabin.
A few steps further on we came to the pair of doors, one left and one right. I chose the door on the right to open first. The door had opened no more than a crack when the stench hit me. I pressed my right sleeve against my nose to try and block the foulness that drove me back a step.
Like the docks on a hot summer day when the entire cities sewage had been dumped there to mingle with the discarded fish from the days catch. The stench was beyond belief and beyond endurance.
I step back again then turned and walked quickly to the welcoming light of day and the fresh air of the deck. Sergeant Peck was right in front of me, as soon as I had turned to flee he had done likewise.
We both reached the deck and drew deep breaths of the fresh clean air.
“Cough. Might want to let that one air for a bit inspector. Something died in there and that’s the honest truth.”
I whole heartedly agreed with him on this one but before I could reply I noticed movement on the docks. All three constables had seen us rush from the cabin choking and gasping, they had taken steps towards us as if to offer help.
I waved them back. “The air in the cabin is truly foul; we will let it clear for a minute. Nothing to worry about.”
They did not look reassured by my words and it was at that point that my mind began to speculate as to what the smell was, had we found the rotting corpse of another victim?
After a few minutes I tried to enter the cabin again and found the smell little diminished so I returned to the cargo hatch and spent some time trying to see if there was anything stored below that was not hidden by canvas.
“It’s a bit better now sir.” Sergeant Peck’s call broke my train of thought and I realised I had been day dreaming. Clearly this time in hospital was having a greater effect on me than I had thought possible. Day dreaming of all things.
The stench was much diminished now but still foul enough to be most unpleasant. I stepped back into the corridor and walked to the opposed doors. I pulled the door to the right closed. That one could be left for a while.
Instead I opened the door to the left and found another room much like the first, another nest of rags and cloth. What manner of ship was this? Did the crew truly sleep in these rooms? If not the crew then who, or what, slept here?
Again I had no desire to turn aside the rags and search more deeply so I stepped out of the room and closed the door.
One door remained, at the far end of the corridor. We took the few steps required to reach this last door and I tried the handle. It was locked.
The captain’s key did not fit this lock, it was small, and more like a household lock than the heavy and secure locks that have sealed the main doors into the cabin.
“We may need to search these rooms a little more carefully sergeant.” The thought was unpleasant but we needed to search this room.
Sergeant Peck stepped past me and in a single movement kicked the door, the thin wood shattered, the lock was smashed and fell to the planks of the deck.
“Doors open sir.”
I limped to the open door, the lock torn out of the cheap wooden panels.
The room was shadows and darkness, the shapes of furniture and nameless lumps on the floor.
Suddenly my mind spun, my thoughts twisted. I knew this, I had done this. Where was Garrety?
As quickly as it had come the confusion vanished and I was myself again. Sergeant Peck was peering into the dark room, this was not a dream. I stepped to the doorway and lifted the candle to cast light into the room.
Beside me Sergeant Peck drew a deep breath then exhaled it. “Bugger me. Er sorry sir.”
In front of us was a narrow stair which ran to the left and down. The entire aft of the cabin was an open space and set several feet lower that the deck on which we stood. It was filled with machinery and the strong smell of smoke and steam and coal dust.
I stepped into the room and down the stair to the floor. This room extended forward, under the cabins above, the space no more than a few feet high and filled with coal. More coal was piled in bins along both walls to a good five feet in height, Bronze tanks, water most likely, stood behind the mass of machinery and along the stern.
Sergeant Peck had walked straight up to the machine and was now rubbing his hands on the wheels and sides of the great device, muttering as he did so.
“Triple expansion, forced draught. Secondary expansion chamber, high pressure bleed. A beauty, what a beauty. Drop fed coal loading. Twenty two knots easy.”
I coughed. “Sergeant I had no idea you were so knowledgeable about steam ships.”
He managed to look embarrassed without his expression changing. “Sort of a hobby sir, you won’t be mentioning this to anyone will you sir, don’t want people getting the wrong idea.”
Now he definitely looked embarrassed. “Of course not sergeant, a gentleman does not go gossiping.”
He looked relieved and was about to turn back to the steam engine.
“Still your knowledge is most useful, you seem to have a good grasp on what this is.”
“Yes sir. This is a wonder. French forced draught intake on a triple expansion drive. Even the navy haven’t started using these yet. Long thin hull, this beauty diving her. Twenty three knots, maybe more.”
He paused as my puzzled look registered.
“She is fast sir, very fast. Outrun most ships, a few sailing ships can catch her if they have the wind but she will outrun most anything else. Nothing the excuse lads have will even get close and I reckon she can outrun the navy as well. Real beauty.”
I glanced at the coal and water tanks. “Fast yes, but what sort of range?”
He looked at the coal bins and then stepped round the steam engine to gauge the size of the water tanks.
“Well at full speed she will be thirsty and hungry, Spain for sure, Italy maybe. If she runs slower and burns less coal, America maybe, South Africa, maybe the Arab nations. Of course she can always refuel on the way.”
I considered that carefully, that sort of range and speed suggested that this ship had cost someone a great deal of money. What sort of cargo where they carrying to pay for all of this.
Click.
This was something the excise men should be appraised off, perhaps even the navy.
What had attracted the monster to this ship, the young man in the tavern had said the monster was taking their bith shugg something. Perhaps that was the value that made this ship worthwhile.
Click.
What was that?
“Did you hear something Sergeant?”
He was clearly focused on the boiler and gearing of the steam engine and had heard nothing.
Click.
It seemed to becoming from forward but at this level. Behind the coal bins. Was there anything under the other cabins. Of course, the cargo hold.
“Sergeant I heard something in the cargo hold, I’m going to have a look.”
He grunted to say he had heard me though he did not speak.
I went up the stair and along the corridor to the ships deck, turning to the open double doors and onto the staircase down to the hold.
Click.
There it was again, closer now, clearly coming from the hold.
I walked down the stairs to the shadow filled hold, I was alone, the sergeant was still in the engine room but somehow that was not important.
In front of me was a clear area, a walkway between the cargo led from here along the centre of the hold to the bow. Directly in front of me were crates piled one upon the other. Canvas sheets covered the top but I could see the lower crates and some markings on them. I recognised the letters but not the language.
I stepped toward the centre of the hold and the cleared walkway. As I did so the glint of dull metal caught my eye. One of the strange barrels of aluminum was on its side in the clear area, the top smashed in and the contents gone just as I had seen in the sewer where I fought the rats.
Beyond it was torn canvas and several more of the small barrels scattered on the path next to a stack of many more to the side. There were dozens stacked four or five high, perhaps scores. The ropes and canvas that secured them was ripped apart on the side and several gaps showing where barrels had been taken from the pile.
Click.
This time it was close, very close. Just beyond the pile of metal barrels. Where the shadows became deepest. Where there was movement within the shadows, a dark form, massive, shoulders far wider than mine. Strange shadows and shapes. Almost like horns and scales.