A Certain Threat (The Merriman Chronicles Book 1) (14 page)

Merriman strove to appear calm and relaxed but was too eager to hear Andrews
’ report to keep up the pretence.  “Well now David, sit down and tell me what you have learned.”

“
She appears to be an ordinary trading vessel Sir, but there was something about it that didn’t feel right.  I can’t put my finger on it, it’s more an impression I had, that the captain and the passengers had a sort of guilty look about them.”

“
Who are the passengers then?”

“
Three of them Sir.  A small man, name of Thomas Jones though he doesn’t sound like a Welshman.  His story was that he had been delivering confidential documents to a lawyer in Dublin.  Another was tall and thin with a very dark complexion and black hair, gave his name as John Trevor.  He is a Welshman, spoke mostly in Welsh so I couldn’t understand what he was saying.  The third is a biggish man rather flabby round the middle and has a double chin, his name is John Richards  He said he was a merchant, trading in Irish linen.  He had been to Dublin to order more stock.  None of them had any papers or anything to prove what they said was true and they said that they hadn’t met before boarding the ship.  Strange thing is Sir, I caught the fat man glancing at the little man as though for reassurance.  That’s all Sir, except to say that there was nothing suspicious in the hold or captain’s cabin.  I hope that is what you wanted to know Sir.”

“
It is indeed David, I think that this will be most helpful. Oh, one more thing.  Can you describe the smallest man again for me?”

“
Yes Sir, as I said, a small man, quite inoffensive looking I thought.  He wore spectacles to read a small book he carried.  Funny little man he was with a face all wrinkled like a walnut.  A sort of shifty look he had, wouldn’t trust him an inch.”

“
That’s it!” exclaimed Merriman, “You have done well Mr. Andrews.  I’m certain I know who those men are.  If I’m right it is certain they are up to no good.”

“
I see Sir”, said Andrews, “are we going to take the ship?”

“
No not yet, we’ve no reason to, except suspicion, which as you  know is no substitute for evidence.  Please be good enough to ask Mr. Jeavons to allow the ship to proceed. We’ll follow at a distance until the daylight has gone.  My compliments to Mr. Cuthbert and I’d like to see him in here.”

When Merriman appeared on deck again the light had almost gone and the small vessel ahead was almost invisible in the gloom.  He grinned to himself,
“They must be worried men on that ship, wondering why we are following them. Perhaps we have worried them enough for now.”  He turned to his officers who were standing silently by.

“
Mr. Jeavons, Mr. Cuthbert has a course for you to take us back to where we left Mr. Grahame.  We must be off that coast not later than nine o’clock tonight.”

But although they remained at anchor there for over six hours with lookouts being changed every hour to keep them fresh, no signal was seen. The night was clear so the signal would not have been missed.

The day was fine and cold with a strong, steady wind out of the south-east.
  Aphrodite,
with all plain sail set and sailing close to the wind on the larboard tack, sliced through the rising seas
occasionally crashing into a larger wave and flinging spray high in the air which blew back over the deck, wetting officers and men alike.  Merriman stood high on the weather side revelling in the performance of his ship and thinking of ways in which he could increase her speed.  Some weight transferred from forr’ard to aft should help her to rise easier to the seas and giving the rudder more bite as well would allow her to come about a little quicker too,

He called to mind the stowage of stores, water barrels, casks of meat and provisions, powder and shot.  Eight or ten tons should make a difference.  He motioned to Lieutenant Jeavons and explained what he wanted.  It would mean difficult and possibly dang
erous work for a Master’s mate, the Purser and a working party of seamen but if it increased the ship’s speed by another knot or two, that extra speed may prove to be valuable in future.  “I’ll have the log read every quarter hour Mr. Jeavons. I hope to see a difference over the next hour or two.”

Once it had become obvious in the early hours of the morning that Mr. Grahame was not going to appear, Merriman had decided to investigate the north and west coasts of the Isle of Anglesey.  The missing Revenue shi
p had to be hidden somewhere and there was nowhere along the North Wales coast where it could be concealed without being seen by Mr. Flitwick’s riding officers and coast watchers.  If the plan really was to attack the
Dorset
, then the ship must be concealed near enough for a message to reach it in time to intercept the
Dorset.

The nearest place was Anglesey, with so many small bays and inlets it offered plenty of places for a small ship to lie hidden from seaward.  With miles of grazing and farmland and onl
y scattered villages inland, the chances of discovery would be little enough especially if the local folk had been threatened by the thieves and were too frightened to resist.  Besides, the local folk would not want to draw the attention of the authorities because probably they were all reaping some benefit from smuggling.

And so, thrashing south easterly it was Merriman
’s intention to round Holy Island down to Cymyran Bay keeping well offshore and then to turn back as close inshore as he dared to inspect every possible place where a ship might hide.  He reasoned that it would be useless to look into anywhere which dried out between tides as the gang would want to be able to move the ship at short notice.

By the taffrail at the very stern of the ship, the Ma
ster was instructing the two midshipmen and a master’s mate in the mathematics of navigation but Merriman could see that little Mr. Shrigley was finding it hard to concentrate, his eyes straying repeatedly to  where one of the lookouts was precariously perched at the mizzen mast-head .

“
Mr. Shrigley, it may be tempting to look elsewhere but if you don’t pay attention to what Mr. Cuthbert is telling you, you’ll never learn to find your way about at sea.  Remember that knowledge is a treasure but practice is the key to it and practice makes perfect.  When you have finished with him Mr. Cuthbert, I want to see him aloft with a telescope.”  The crestfallen Shrigley bent over his slate, his face crimson with embarrassment.

The moving of some weight aft seemed to
have had some effect on the speed of the ship but not as much as Merriman had hoped for.

Of course word of what they were doing had spread like wildfire amongst the crew and they were agog with excitement.  Merriman had promised an extra tot of rum to the
first man to make a sighting of what turned out to be their quarry and once the ship turned North West and closed the shore, extra lookouts were placed on each mast.

“
Mr. Cuthbert,  I want to be as close inshore as you believe to be safe, just inside the ten fathom line should do, but keep well off round the headlands, I know that several of them have outlying rocks.”

“
Aye-aye Sir” replied the Master.  If he felt irritation at being told his job he was careful not to show it.  “I’d like a man in the chains too Sir, with a leadline, it will help to verify the readings on the chart.”

“
Very well, see to it if you please Mr. Cuthbert”.

As the
Aphrodite
moved slowly back along the coast nothing was seen except small fishing boats and lobstermen and the occasional small trader.  The normal shipboard noises of the low voices of the working parties, creaking timber and shouted orders were augmented by the flapping of canvas and the squealing of blocks as the ship changed course repeatedly to round the headlands.  Over all, the regular shouts of the leadsman “By the mark ten”, or seven or thirteen fathoms or some other depth according to the leather marks fastened to the line.  Rounding Holy Island again, the strong tidal stream flowing against them slowed the ship but on the whole Merriman was pleased with the way the ship handled.

Past Holy Island the ship turned east then north but still there was no sign of what they were lookin
g for.  Rounding Carmel Head and passing inshore of the West Mouse Rock, which had been the cause of many a wreck, Merriman began to feel a little more hopeful.  The north coast of Anglesey had more small bays than the west coast, many of which could hide a small ship.  Keeping well clear of the notorious Harry Furlough’s Reef, the
Aphrodite
moved slowly eastwards.

“
Deck there,” the lookout’s hail drew everyone’s attention. “A ship Sir.”  The man was pointing to a small headland.

Merriman couldn
’t wait for anyone else to climb up to report, he had to see for himself.   With no time to think about the dignity of his rank, he snatched a telescope from the rack and almost ran up the ratlines to the maintop. Settling himself near the surprised lookout he leveled the glass.  “Where is it man? Never mind, I’ve got it.”

It was late afternoon by now and at any other time of day they might not have seen the ship.  It was tucked behind a small headland blending well with the land behind it and only visible from a certa
in angle.  Fortunately the sun was setting behind the
Aphrodite
and its low rays reflecting from the window of a small cottage drew the eye and highlighted the mast.

It was indeed a cutter.  The single topmast had been sent down but the long jib-boom was c
learly visible projecting beyond the headland.  Merriman felt a moment of satisfaction that his reasoning had been right and as he slowly climbed down to the deck he pondered on what action to take.  Turning to the First Lieutenant and the Master who were trying to look relaxed and unexcited, he said “I believe it to be the ship we are looking for Gentlemen.  Some effort has been made to conceal it so a closer look will be needed.”  He paced up and down for a few minutes.

“
We will not alter course for ten minutes so that any watcher there may well think that we have seen nothing to interest us and that we are going away.  Then lay a course for Ireland, we must find Mr. Grahame.”

Back in the solitude of his cabin, Merriman we
nt over and over in his mind what had happened in the last few days, trying to put events into some kind of order.  He ticked the points off on his fingers.  First of all the Revenue cutter had been seized.  A boy had been saved by Owen’s brother who had muttered something about Irish and French before he died.  Owen had managed to get himself involved with the smugglers and had killed the man that the smugglers said had betrayed the crew of the cutter.   Owen had overheard the smugglers aboard what he thought to be a French ship speak about the Royal yacht
and their plans being ready.
 
All these facts together confirmed that the smugglers were indeed part of the gang who took the cutter.

It had been confirmed at the Admiralty that French agents were defini
tely involved with Irish insurgents and Mr. Grahame had agreed that it was entirely possible that the French and Irish could be combining to make an attack upon the
Dorset
.

And now there was the strange
matter of the passengers on the small trader which they had stopped late yesterday afternoon.  Merriman had no doubt that one of them was the lawyer Jeremiah Robinson.  He had been certain of that when he saw him through the telescope and Lieutenant Andrews’ description of the man confirmed it even though he had described himself as a linen merchant by the name of John Richards.   And the small man must have been Beadle, his clerk. Merriman suddenly remembered Beadle in earnest conversation with the clerk in the Chester Customs House.  That was the connection with the revenue service and their cutter.

The third man, what was his name? Ah yes, John Trevor, a Welshman, tall with dark complexion and black hair, on the same ship as Robinson and Beadle, could he not be one of the three men that Robinson had been in
such a hurry to avoid introducing to Merriman and Captain Saville in the White Lion Inn in Chester? Could that man be the leader of the smugglers that Owen had met? Owen had also reported that a large quantity of contraband was passing through Chester and that the leader of the smuggling gang was a typical Welshman.

There was now no question in Merriman
’s mind that these men were up to no good, otherwise why would they conceal their real names, and there was also the odd question about Sir William Forrester.  That he knew the lawyer was obvious and he was traveling back from Ireland on the same day although separately.  Why would a wealthy man like that be involved with smugglers?

Suddenly he remembered the other man with Robinson at the hotel.  It was the
card cheat from the inn at Oxford, he was certain.  How and why were all these people connected?

All the different strands of information were beginning to weave together, Merriman
’s mind was racing.  If the ship lying concealed in the little bay was indeed the stolen cutter, then it was his duty to re-take it. A cutting-out operation just before dawn was the ideal way.  He had the force to do it, maybe this was what the Admiralty had in mind when the marines had been put aboard.   But there was Mr. Grahame to be picked up tonight, would there be enough time to find him and then retrace their course back to where the ship was hidden?

His restlessness drove him up on deck again to pace backwards and forwards, hands clasped behind him and his head bent down, o
blivious to the fact that the frown of concentration on his forehead was so severe that all on deck, assuming him to be angry about something, were at pains to keep well away from him.

None the less, his seaman
’s instinct subconsciously took note of wind and weather and as the darkness closed in it was the veering of the wind and the sudden bustle of activity as the watch was called to trim the yards, that settled his mind on the best course of action.

“
Mr. Jeavons, Mr. Cuthbert, in my cabin if you please, with the chart we are using at the moment.”  Settled round the table with the chart spread out between them, Merriman told the First Lieutenant and the Master what he had in mind.

“
The first thing we must do is find Mr. Grahame.  He’ll be looking for us before midnight and I intend to be close inshore there long before that.”  He thought for a few moments, “Mr. Grahame was expecting trouble on this expedition ashore so I think we should have a boat even closer inshore to look for his signal.  An armed boat’s crew and some marines just in case he’s in difficulties.  Mr. Laing will command.”

“
That’ll please Mr. St James, he’s been fretting that his men were only so much cargo” said the Master. “Something for ‘em to do at last.”

“
Quite so.  It is also my intention Gentlemen, to recapture that ship we saw earlier, which I believe to be the Revenue cutter.  We’ll need to be back there in good time to attack at dawn.  Obviously this depends upon how quickly we have Mr. Grahame back aboard but if he’s in good time and the wind holds fair, I believe we can do it.  What do you think Mr. Cuthbert?”

“
Aye Sir, I can have the ship in position in time as long as the wind holds and as you say, as long as we don’t have to wait too long for Mr. Grahame.  Do you know exactly where you want landfall to be made Sir.”

“
Yes I do, but I’ll hold a council of war later.  It is possible that plans might have to be changed if Mr. Grahame has other information, so we must wait until he is back.”

La
ter that night the
Aphrodite
lay hove to close inshore on the Irish coast, approximately at the same point that she had been two nights ago.  An occasional adjustment of the sails and rudder kept the ship on station.  Lieutenant Laing was ready to take the ship’s cutter with a crew of  ten armed and eager seamen and five marines with their sergeant.  Their orders were to keep their eyes skinned for a signal and to get ashore as fast as they could when they saw it.

“
It is imperative that Mr. Grahame is brought off safely Mr. Laing,” instructed Merriman.  “He should be alone although it
is
possible that he may have another man with him, but if there are any others attempting to prevent him leaving, then you must do all you can to save him.  Your men will have their cutlasses and the marines will have their muskets and bayonets.”