The Swimmer

by David Haynes

  May ignored the attempt to hijack the paper. “This must’ve cost you a fortune so far David and from your proposal, is going to cost a huge amount by the time it’s finished. Who’s in it with you?”

  “A small amount yes, business planners and financial advisors don’t come cheap, not to mention the initial exploratory work. But there’s no point in going into something like this half-cocked. I’m sure you’d agree.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “But I can only imagine the cost of buying the mine, even if it is just a landmark. Besides how much money is there in tin mining these days?”

  “My family have owned it since 1820; I didn’t need to buy it and you’d be surprised how much is to be made from mining the earth. Now then, what I’m proposing is a large double spread feature for next week’s paper. An interview with me of course and some photographs at the mine itself, both of the mine and me. Do you think you can handle that?”

  The last question struck May as a command rather than a request. “Yes of course, when do you want to do it?” She knew from previous experience of interviewing David she wouldn’t need any time to prepare the interview. The questions would all be carefully planned beforehand.

  “I thought if we went over to Levant today that would give us plenty of time to get the photos done and …” He dug into the inside pocket of his coat and produced a folded sheet of paper. “These should cover the initial article.”

  May unfolded the paper and glanced at the questions and answers which had been hand written. It was the usual propaganda David assumed the locals enjoyed. She bit her tongue and hid her real feelings. “Yes, they look fine.”

  David was already half way to the door. “Where were you yesterday anyway? I tried to ring you.”

  “Sorry David, I turned my phone off. I was having a really bad migraine so I went home to bed.” She lied.

  “Oh, I see, sorry. Shall we go in my car or yours?”

  “I’ve got to go on somewhere else after this David. I’m hoping to get the latest planning application list from Tom at the council. I heard they were applying to re-zone Stakers field again.” She lied again.

  “Not a problem. Separate cars it is and I’ll meet you there in ten minutes.” He walked out of the office. May let out a long sigh as she felt the vibration of his feet on the metal steps outside. She picked up her duffel coat, found her car keys and camera and followed him out to her car.

  The enigmatic wheelhouse loomed into view as she turned off the main road and rumbled along the track towards the mine. High hedgerows bordered the track on either side and she couldn’t escape the feeling she was driving through a tunnel leading inexorably into the earth.

  Directly in front of her was the mine itself, or what was left of it. The granite buildings were dotted with clumps of dull green moss all over their exterior and giant holes created false windows where solid walls had once been. Most of the buildings were roofless and those that had one looked likely to collapse at any time. Stretching along the coast and into the distance, the proud chimneystack sentinels stood defiant against the elements. Their crumbling silhouettes illustrating man’s failure to resist. The only building which stood proud and intact was the wheelhouse. It boasted a new slate roof and glazed windows.

  May pulled onto the car park behind David’s Land Rover and got out of her car. The wind blew straight off the sea and carried with it a damp mist which made her shiver. The same wind made a ghostly whistle as it explored the channels in the derelict buildings. She buttoned up her coat and stuck her hands deep into the pockets. The mine looked almost supernatural with the mist draped loosely about its robust elegance, but the scene was oddly alluring.

  The sound of David slamming his car door brought May out of her reverie with a bump. “There’s not much to see out here May. Come on I’ll show you where all the action is.” He marched off towards a metal fence which surrounded the mine and opened the enormous padlock. He beckoned her through and re locked the gate behind them. “There’s some expensive kit down here and I don’t want it going walkies.”

  Higher on the hill towards the main road, a small stooped figure watched as they entered the enclosed compound. The wind whipped savagely against her frame but she stood fast. She watched until they disappeared from her view and, hunched against the elements, she turned and walked slowly away.

  8

  Once David pulled the heavy wooden doors shut against the howling wind outside, the wheelhouse was surprisingly warm.

  “The survey teams have been down here for the last six months or so, but before that I had to have a team in to pump the mine dry. All but some of the deeper tunnels are sealed now.” David indicated for her to follow him. There were no windows in the building and it was lit only by emergency lighting. David started down a set of steps and May followed. The air was filled with the smell of oil and sweat.

  “How many bodies are there down here now David? Your business plan said there’d be some sort of service at church?” David was forced to duck his head as he entered the main room.

  “All but two were recovered in 1919 immediately after the disaster. Those final two weren’t found by my survey team, but then again that wasn’t really their remit, to look for bones I mean. Now put this on.” He handed her a yellow hard hat.

  May gasped at the scale of the room; it was enormous. As in the room above, it was lit with poor quality emergency lighting placed neatly along the rough-hewn walls. Dotted along the walls were box shaped indentations carved into the rock; there must have been hundreds. She walked to the nearest hole and put her hand inside; her arm disappeared up to her elbow and inside it felt icy cold.

  “They were for the miners to store their candles, helmets and whatever else they wanted to keep safe while they were down below. This space was once divided into four rooms which made up the dry. Basically they bathed in here after work, and all their underground clothes were dried on the hot water pipes which would have run through it. It’s enormous isn’t it? Imagine all those men in here May. Imagine the noise, the laughter, the industry of Cornishmen going about what they were born to do.”

  May could hear genuine admiration in David’s voice. He was clearly immensely proud of his heritage. She looked around the vast open space, and in the dim yellow light she could imagine flickering candlelight dancing on the stone walls, and the sound of miners’ chatter. The room smelled different from the wheelhouse. There was no trace of oil or sweat down here; it smelled clean, as if the miners’ soap had impregnated the rocks and was leaching slowly back out.

  David walked to the far end of the room. “Come on. Follow me, there’s more to see.” His voice echoed in the enormous chamber and as he reached the far side of the room he pulled a lever on the wall. A procession of lights raced along a tunnel beside him.

  “My God.” May whispered. “What’s down there?”

  “That’s where the boys went to work May.” He pointed down the narrow tunnel. “After you?”

  “Thanks David but I think I’ll be happier following you.”

  “No shoving me then.” David replied.

  The tunnel was wide enough for single file and not much more. It was uncomfortably claustrophobic, especially with David’s hulking figure in front. The same alcoves lined the walls, and on some of them, May caught glimpses of candle wax and illegible scrawls around them. The pleasant smell of soap had gone leaving only a cold, damp and metallic scent behind.

  “The miners would’ve all come this way to get to the shaft. Feels pretty claustrophobic doesn’t it?”

  “Just a bit.” May replied, “How much further is it?”

  David half turned. He looked more uncomfortable than she felt. “Just a little further; not getting to you is it?”

  There was no way she could see around his frame which made her feel anxious, not that she was about to tell him that. “Not at all, just not used to walking so far.” She tried too hard to sound cheerful but her but words sounded false.

  Aft
er a minute more David stopped and moved to the side. “Careful here, May.”

  As he cleared out of the way she could see an enormous pair of metal rods diving down into a hole. She inched forward to the precipice and peered in. Even with the metal barrier preventing her falling, she felt vulnerable. The rods disappeared out of view into an unfathomable inky blackness below. She sidled up to David.

  “So this is where the poor bastards went to work then?” She looked around the room which was larger than she first thought. Looking above she could see a jumble of polished steel driving into the rock. It looked complicated and expensive.

  “They weren’t poor, far from it. In the early days the boys made a decent wage from working down here; it was one of the most prosperous mines in the country, if not the world.”

  “And it also made your family very wealthy too I imagine. What’s that?” She pointed at the steelwork.

  “That’s what is called the man engine. I should say, it’s a recent incarnation of what was originally called a man engine. It’s what will take the miners down and I thought it only fair to those poor souls to keep the tradition alive.”

  May shook her head. “Come on David, I’m not up on my mining traditions, what is it? It sounds like a torture device.”

  David stepped forward and pushed a large red button fastened to the guardrail. May covered her ears as a terrible screeching sound echoed throughout the room and down the tunnel behind her. She watched as the rods jerked into life and began a rhythmic rocking motion. She stepped forward, intending to push the button to make the noise stop but when she reached the hole her eyes widened in astonishment. The button had obviously activated the lighting in the shaft. She could now see for miles into the earth below. She couldn’t help but be impressed.

  She saw David’s mouth move but the noise was deafening and she couldn’t hear a word he was saying. As she watched the rhythmic action of the rods, she was at once horrified and mesmerised by their brutal elegance. The rods were connected to small steel platforms which went up and down with perfect synchronicity. The fluidity of the movement was both beautiful and frightening.

  She knew it was futile but she pointed at the platforms and shouted. “What are those?”

  David leant closer pushing the side of his head towards her mouth. She shouted again. “It’s nightmarish David. Shut the machine off for God’s sake.”

  David pushed the red button again and the rods slowly stopped their incessant pumping. The shaft below was once again swallowed by the inevitable darkness.

  “And that’s the man engine in action. It’s like a glorified ladder really; those platforms going up and down are for the miners to jump on and off when they want to go up or down. This thing made going down two hundred feet a lot less time consuming than using a ladder I can tell you. Isn’t it a beauty?”

  May coughed; the damp air was catching in her lungs. “It’s not what I would call beautiful, David. It looks like a Heath Robinson invention.”

  “Heath bloody Robinson?” David asked incredulously. “This was cutting edge when it was introduced.”

  “Was cutting edge David. Was being the operative word. Couldn’t you have just got a lift like everyone else?”

  David exhaled loudly. “I’m really proud of this actually. Maybe you’ve got to be raised on mining to appreciate it.”

  May felt a twinge of regret over her negative attitude. “You’re probably right, David. I don’t really understand any of it, least of all a great, noisy lump of metal like that.”

  “This mine was one of the only places in Cornwall to operate a man engine. It actually made our mine the safest of all of them. Imagine the miners climbing up thousands of rungs to get to the surface after ten hours down there? Men fell all the time, exhausted men whose families relied on them in order to eat. You can imagine what a broken arm or leg did for your mining career can’t you?”

  He paused and stared upwards at the huge bracket holding the rods in place. “Of course it also ended the working life of the mine when it broke. I don’t suppose you fancy a ride down on it do you?” He held his finger above the bright red button on the control panel

  “And ended the lives of the men it dropped back into the pit I imagine. I think I’ll give it a miss this time, if you don’t mind.” The thought of descending down the shaft into the darkness filled her with dread, let alone descending on the man engine.

  David laughed. “That’s fine, I didn’t think you would want to. It’s dirty and wet down there and we’re not really dressed for it are we? I wanted to give you a flavour of what this is all about though and there’s nothing better than being at the scene of the crime, so to speak.”

  “Not funny, David.”

  “Sorry. Look, If we go back to the surface we can conduct my interview if you like? It might be a bit more comfortable up there”

  May remembered the digital camera she had in her coat pocket. “It’s not great lighting but maybe I should take a few shots down here. It would give the readers a sense of the scale.” She held the camera up and pointed it towards David. He raised his hand and covered the lens.

  “Not here, please.” He took his hard hat off and smoothed his thick, greying hair. “I’m not looking my best you see. I haven’t had chance to apply the dye this morning and I don’t want all my secret admirers going off me.” He laughed and walked past May to the tunnel.

  It seemed to take an age to reach the misty surface again, particularly since the walk was conducted in silence. “I thought, a couple of shots here, with the chimneys in the background? My photo should be in the middle of the page and the article surrounding it; the feature article of the paper. After all, there’s not much else to write about this edition is there.”

  ‘Just a dead swimmer and an article with the most sought after writer in the last decade. Apart from that nothing.’ May thought.

  “You’re right David. The chimneys will make it a very powerful image.”

  May took several photographs of David against a variety of backdrops and with an assortment of facial expressions and poses. She showed them all to David before he settled on the one which least made him look self-important.

  On the drive back to the office May realised David wasn’t the buffoon she’d taken him for. He was clearly a determined and powerful man and his eyes were set on one clear goal. She hoped it wouldn’t all come tumbling down on him, literally.

  She reached the office and collapsed in her chair. Publishing anything other than the pre prepared interview and story about the mine was not going to happen, not if she valued her job anyway. The article about Joe would keep for another month, at least until the likely furore about the mine had died down. His story deserved an edition all to itself, not compromised in the midst of a village squabble.

  With a resigned and heavy heart she switched the computer on and took off her coat. After a few minutes the computer automatically loaded her email inbox and immediately she saw in bold an unopened email from Joe. May instantly forgot the mine and clicked the message.

  ‘Call Me.’ the time of the message was 07.15am

  She checked the time on the computer screen and saw it was nearly noon. “Shit.”

  She picked up her mobile and tapped in the telephone number on the message. It rang twice before she heard Joe’s voice.

  “Hello?”

  “Joe? Hi, it’s May. Sorry it’s taken so long to call you, I was…”

  Joe interrupted. “Listen, that swimmer you’ve been trying to identify? Well earlier this morning I saw a little old lady throw a flower into the sea. Right where he used to swim. If I was still a copper, she’d be someone I’d be very interested in speaking to.”

  May’s spirits were raised another notch. “Have you seen her there before?”

  “Nope. I’ve not seen anyone do that in all the time I’ve been here. It’s possible I’ve missed her but it seems like an awful big coincidence that she arrived at the same time as he used to.”


  May quickly assimilated this new information. “I don’t suppose you recognised her?”

  She heard him laugh. “Apart from you I don’t know anyone else!”

  May shook her head. “Sorry, silly question. Can you describe her to me?”

  “Old, stooped and shuffling. Is that enough? Sorry, May but even through the binoculars it’s difficult to make out much detail. Thinking about it, I’m not sure why I’m telling you. Unless you see her you won’t have a clue who she is either.”

  A flash of inspiration hurtled into her head. “Do you think she’ll be back?”

  “I have no idea. Why?”