by L K Harcourt
Dan did not reply straightaway, his mind having to shift gear from the 1700s back to the present day. ‘But you don’t like me – well, you know – that way, do you? You can’t because well, we both know why,’ he replied slowly, in a soft monotone.
Emma hesitated a little and her pale cheeks coloured slightly.
‘You don’t need to say anything,’ said Dan. ‘I know that you and Louise are having a relationship, it’s pretty obvious. John and I, not that we were trying to listen, but we heard you both making love last night. We heard your screams of passion.’
‘Do you mind, do you judge me badly for it?’ said Emma, slowly. ‘Just tell me if you do, I would like to know.’
Dan turned round to her and took her arms in his. ‘I mind,’ he said, ‘only in that it wasn’t me. I’m not bothered about you being a lesbian. It doesn’t change who you are, you’re still my friend and I still care loads for you. I wouldn’t care whether it was a man or a woman that you were with. But I care that it isn’t me. You have been single, as far as I could tell, for all of the last couple of years at least, and now we go on holiday and lo and behold suddenly you’re in a relationship with one of us. I wish it was me Emma, that’s all. But I’m not right for you, I can’t be right because . . .’ His voice trailed off, as if too much had been said already.
Now it was Emma’s eyes which brimmed with tears. ‘Oh Dan, I don’t know what to say to you. Faint heart never won fair lady, as the saying goes. If you had asked me out last year, I daresay I would have said yes. Certainly I would have gone on dates with you, you are so charming and kind and sensitive and you are like me – vulnerable and insecure and I want to, I don’t know, put my arms round you and protect you.’
‘Emma,’ said Dan, interrupting, ‘I don’t want you to be my mum, or to bandage my finger when I cut it. I want you as a woman, as a lover.’
‘You want me for sex, is that what you are saying?’ replied Emma curtly.
‘If I said yes to that would it be such a bad thing?’ countered Dan. ‘Louise clearly enjoys having sex with you. Of course I want that but I want everything else besides. I want you in so many ways. I want you by my side, I’d love to take you out for romantic meals and all that sort of thing. Romantic walks down country lanes, anything, everything that couples do together. I know that sounds trite to but that’s how I feel. But it can’t happen because you’re with Louise and, if you’re that way inclined then clearly it can never happen. I’m just disappointed that’s all but at least now we know where we both stand and we can go on being good friends. Can’t we?’
‘Oh Dan, it’s more complicated than that. I’m not a lesbian, but it would appear that I am bisexual, although I have never fancied girls before,’ replied Emma, earnestly. ‘But yes, I do fancy Louise. More to the point, as a woman I just find myself deeply taken with her beauty, and I suppose, quite flattered that she has shown such an interest in me.
‘But I’m not sure at all I would fancy any other woman, I certainly never have before. Listen, I can and do find men attractive and I do like you Dan, I was looking at you the other day when you and John were prancing about on that sandbank in your tight swimming trunks. I had some naughty thoughts about both of you – but especially you.
‘And I do think we communicate and we have something special. Look, what Louise and I have done I never meant to happen and I don’t regret it but Dan, realistically, we aren’t going to become partners. We won’t be returning to uni in the autumn with our arms linked and announce to the world we’re a gay couple. It’s just not like that. I am swept away by Louise but there isn’t a future in what we have and we both know it.’
‘You know that John fancies Louise like mad, don’t you?’ said Dan.
‘Yes and I think that it is reciprocated to some extent,’ continued Emma, matter of factly. The way they were the other night, I know that nothing happened between them but they were, how shall I put it, comfortable together. I could almost see them being together.’
‘But anyway Emma, what are you saying about me and my feelings for you? That I shouldn’t give up, or that it was a close-run thing and if I’d acted sooner I would have had a chance but now I’ve missed the bus?’
‘I don’t know,’ replied Emma. ‘I know that I like the fact that you like me, and that’s all I can say for now.’
Dan was about to reply when he heard voices and footsteps coming up the staircase.
‘We couldn’t stand the suspense any longer,’ said John, smiling. ‘Well Dan, have you managed to get anywhere with that old diary? Please tell me it recounts the tale of some creaking old Spanish galleon laden with gold and silver that got wrecked off the Cornish coast, and that it holds the key to where the treasure remains hidden to this day. And, because it is written in a foreign language, its secret has never been discovered.’
‘You know John, sometimes I think you must have psychic powers,’ replied Dan, slightly startled by that. John looked at him in surprise. He had been joking of course.
‘Look, everyone sit down and I’ll talk you through what I’ve learned,’ said Dan. ‘I haven’t been able to translate much of it, of course, because it’s far too long and it is such a slow process but I’ve got the crucial last few entries.’
The others did so and all looked at Dan expectantly.
‘Right,’ he said, ‘well that was actually quite a good guess by John, although I’m sure any treasure is long gone. This diary was from a Spanish vessel, I don’t know whether one would call it a galleon, but it would have been quite a large and important ship and it was in these waters in 1780. It was written by the ship’s captain and traces the voyage from San Sebastian, a port on the northern coast of Spain, up the Bay of Biscay, and round the Cornish coast.
‘It looks to me like it might have been heading for the English Channel perhaps or one of the ports along the south coast. But anyway, a storm blew up and the ship got into difficulties very close to here, I would guess on the rocks we can see from where we are.
‘It foundered with the loss of nearly everyone on board. The captain, however, survived and continued to write diary entries after the ship went down. He recalls how he attempted to salvage what he could before the locals got down to plunder the wreck. It would appear that the boat was laden with numerous valuable items including several tons of gold bullion and gold and silver coins.
‘Now I would guess from what I read that much of it ended up in Davy Jones’s locker but the captain did manage to rescue some of it, including a chest of gold bullion. He found and scooped up many dozens of gold and silver coins and placed them into the chest. He came upon an old tunnel leading beneath the sea bed along which he hauled the chest and other belongings. The captain encountered two caves, one of which had a kind of semi-hidden recess containing a natural shelf and this was where he hid the most valuable belongings, including the salvaged treasure.
‘Obviously it has no doubt long since been plundered along with everything else and in any case, I would guess that the tunnel has been blocked up like the others.’
The others listened almost open-mouthed.
‘I know I said it as a daft joke,’ said John, ‘but is there any chance that this cargo was never found and that its secret lay undiscovered because the only clue to its whereabouts was this old Spanish notebook and no-one has ever translated it – until we came along?’
‘Who knows?’ said Dan. ‘I would say it is certainly possible that no-one has bothered to try to decipher this book and if they did, the chances are they would have started at the beginning, made some headway and never got any further. I only found out what I did by turning to the end. Certainly, stranger things have happened. The diary might well have been scooped up with other miscellaneous possessions and just ended up gathering dust in the lighthouse cellar, to be completely forgotten about.
‘But that doesn’t alter the fact that countless years and decades have passed when anyone could have wandered down that tunnel and come acros
s its hiding place – in which case, they would have had no need to translate the diary.’
‘We shouldn’t get too carried away, I suppose,’ said John, thoughtfully. ‘After all, as you say, the discovery of that treasure only required a simple exploration of the tunnels and the caves they led to, albeit, they appear to have found a very good natural hiding place.’
‘Yes and you’re also assuming that the Spanish captain himself didn’t come back for it, presumably that was his intention,’ pointed out Emma.
‘Who knows what happened to him,’ said Dan, rubbing his chin. ‘I wouldn’t necessarily fancy their chances as Spaniards and Catholics at the mercy of local Protestant people in this sort of locality in the 1780s. Most likely they would have been taken prisoner – or suffered a worse fate. Felipe certainly didn’t carry on his diary did he? Perhaps this and other possessions were seized from him and have stayed in the local area ever since.’
‘So where do we go from here?’ asked Emma, looking round at the others. ‘Is there any chance we could try to find that passageway?’
Louise, who knew the area far better than the others, was sceptical. ‘We could try,’ she said, ‘but the difficulty would be working out exactly which passageway he meant. And even if we do discover it, my guess is that it will have been well and truly blocked up. To my knowledge all the network of tunnels to and from Gunwalloe Cove were closed off many decades ago.
‘And in any case, I don’t think there’s much hope of us getting ashore today, I’m afraid.’
Louise was right. A magnificent storm continued to rage all around them. The four looked up from the antique notebook in front of them to gaze out at it.
‘It’s whipping up into a real gale now,’ said Louise. ‘It does that round here, you get the most ferocious weather conditions and then, suddenly, it all goes calm again. Just imagine being on board ship in that!’
It didn’t bear thinking about, and needless to say there were no boats to be seen on the water either in the bay or out to sea and that was a clear sign that sea crossings were not to be attempted.
‘It’s a shame, I am just itching to get into those coves again and see if there is any chance of finding that tunnel,’ said John, ‘even though I know it is extremely unlikely we will even find trace of it, let alone be able to walk down it.’
The others agreed, it would at least have been fun to try. Somehow, a day mooching around the lighthouse reading books and drinking coffee now seemed rather dull by comparison.
‘Well look,’ said Dan. ‘We could spend some useful time trying to work out where that tunnel might start from, doing some intelligent guesswork, and that would make it easier. I don’t suppose we have a map of the coast do we Louise, or some nautical charts for the area round here?’
Louise thought hard. ‘We could have a good search around,’ she said. ‘There might well be something. I still haven’t fully explored this lighthouse.’
‘Oh hang on,’ said Emma, suddenly. ‘What about the architectural plans for the lighthouse that we found in that bundle of papers in the cellar? That showed the topography of Wreckers’ Island and the nearby coastline.’
Dan hadn’t thought of that. He had been so engrossed in the Spanish captain’s diary he had forgotten about the drawings and diagrams relating to the lighthouse and island itself. Certainly it was worth a look.
He fetched the diagrams and spread them across the table. They all gathered round. There was a scale drawing of the island as it looked prior to the construction of the lighthouse and another showing how it was intended to look afterwards. On both, the rocks around the island were marked and both showed the coves along the coastline. But neither showed any detail of the caves or indeed, any tunnels running off them.
‘I suppose it’s to be expected,’ said John. ‘After all, these diagrams are intended to show the features of the island and the structure that was to be built upon it, namely the lighthouse. The shoreline areas are marked simply to give the context and a sense of scale.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Dan, ‘and if you look, there is a lot of detail given for the island, including the little jetty and the outbuilding, even the perimeter wall is marked.’
‘But that doesn’t help us does it,’ said Louise, a little impatiently. She could be rather impetuous at times, and she found this painstaking studying of old diagrams rather tiresome. ‘However detailed they are, they are no use, because what we want is some sort of map that indicates tunnels radiating from the cove, and in particular going under the seabed. So a map of the island, however detailed, isn’t relevant is it?’
‘Probably not,’ murmured Dan, staring in fascination at the diagrams as if, to him at least, they were relevant. His soft grey eyes flicked from one to the other and back again. ‘Now that is interesting,’ he announced.
‘What is?’ asked Louise, ‘I thought you just agreed with me that the maps probably weren’t relevant? We need to find the tunnel that the Spanish captain walked up from the shore and we don’t have any idea where that might be. We’ll just have to leave it until the weather clears up and when it does, take the boat over and have a sniff around.’
Dan didn’t respond, he was fixated on the diagrams, constantly looking first at one and then the other.
‘Oh come on, stop being mysterious,’ snapped Louise in frustration, ‘if you’ve seen something interesting, then tell us.’
‘I don’t know whether it is interesting or not, but it might be,’ replied Dan. ‘If you look at that drawing of the island with the lighthouse and outbuilding sketched on, do you see that circle marked on the floor of the outbuilding? At first I thought it indicated the outside toilet or something.’
‘Yes, I would think you’re right,’ said John, jumping in. ‘That would be my guess.’
‘Ok, then how do you explain this?’ pointed out Dan. ‘If you look at the original diagram showing the island before anything was built, that small circle still appears in exactly the same place. And if you look carefully, there are two small lines of dashes running away from it. Well, what do you think that might mean?’
Emma clutched his arm in excitement. Dan could at times be a little obscure and academic and his points rather opaque – but she always got onto his wavelength far quicker than the others. She saw what he meant. ‘What’s the weather doing now,’ she said, ‘let’s get outside and take a look!’
At that moment white foam splattered across the windows, propelled high into the air from the swirling sea below. The wind was throwing itself about with as much venom as ever, but the rain seemed to have subsided.
‘Take a look at what?’ demanded Louise and John.
‘Oh can’t you see what Dan is getting at?’ said Emma. ‘That circle indicates something in the ground located underneath the outbuilding. But it appears on both plans so clearly whatever it is was already there before the outbuilding was constructed. The question is, what is it? And why should there be little dashes leading away from it, as if indicating, perhaps, a tunnel of some kind?’
‘It might be drainage for the toilet and washing facilities,’ countered John.
‘Yes that’s what I would think if it didn’t also appear on the original plan before anything had been constructed,’ said Dan. ‘Whatever it is pre-dates the lighthouse, that is why it appears on the first diagram. And the fact that it is also marked on the subsequent diagram suggests that it still exists in some form. What I’m saying is that this might be evidence of a very old tunnel leading from this island. Perhaps a tunnel once used by wreckers, perhaps even the reason why Wreckers Island got its name.’
‘Right,’ said Louise, ‘this is interesting, but it doesn’t get us any further towards establishing the whereabouts of the tunnel used by the Spanish captain does it? He walked down a tunnel from the shore, leading beneath the seabed.’
‘Yes but don’t you see,’ said Dan, ‘it’s a long shot perhaps, but this might be the same tunnel – the island might have been the place it led to.
And why not, when you think about it? What a great strategic advantage that would give to any smugglers and wreckers in the know, to be able to use a little island in the bay, linked to the shore by a secret passageway, with underground caves along the way!’
‘Oh and just think,’ chimed in John, ‘surely there must be a chance, just a small chance, that the tunnel has been sealed up from the shore many moons ago, but possibly no-one has thought to seal it from this island – particularly if the outbuilding to a lighthouse has sat on top of it these last 150 years!’
‘And the treasure, therefore, might still be there, is that what you’re saying?’ asked Louise, finally getting the picture.
‘Yes,’ said Dan quietly, ‘it might be. All the more so if the shoreline entrance was blocked up a long while ago preventing access to it that way, and if, over the last 150 years, the other end of the tunnel beneath the outbuilding on this island since became inaccessible.
‘The key thing is, has it actually been sealed? Possibly not, since the outbuilding itself would have been under lock and key and under the watchful eye of the resident lighthouse keeper for many decades, in the days when the place was manned all year around. Anyway, we have an exciting little project to tackle this afternoon, right here on this island!’
‘But before we do,’ protested Emma, ‘let’s get some lunch. I’m getting hungry.’
The others agreed. There was hardly any need to rush. With the weather so bad, it was unlikely they would be going anywhere that day.
The four went over to the lamp room window and stared out, almost flinching as the rain and spray lashed against the glass. The sea was still rough, with towering waves showing no sign of abating. They all went down to the kitchen. Louise and Emma got out the crusty bread they had bought the previous day and started to make some sandwiches. ‘Does anyone fancy a beer?’ asked Louise.
‘No,’ cautioned Dan. ‘Let’s keep a clear head this afternoon – and celebrate with a beer afterwards if we get anywhere.’
