emerging near the bottom of the stalagmite and disappearing behind it. We didn’t know how deep the pool was but Dad didn’t hesitate. Holding his torch low to the water he stepped in, his foot finding a firm step just below the surface. Then he gingerly lowered his other foot into the water. This time he went in above his ankle before he touched the bottom. After two or three steps he stopped, the water just above his knees. “This is it” he said, “I don’t think the water gets any deeper. Let me get to the other side then you can all follow.”
We watched as Dad cautiously slid his feet along the bottom of the pool, slowly making his way across. But it didn’t get any deeper and in less than a minute he was climbing the few steps around the base of the stalagmite. He disappeared behind it and we could see the flickering of his torch, the shadows of stalagmites dancing over the ceiling.
“Come on over” his voice a hollow echo. “It’s safe and there’s plenty of room.”
One after the other we filed over, wading carefully along the gritty bottom of the pool, its dark water throwing a light show onto the ceiling. We climbed up around the stalagmite and joined Dad on a flat ledge of rock.
“Turn off your torches again” Dad said. This time the glow sprang out at us, brighter than before, and coming from behind a large stalagmite close to the wall of the cave. Without saying anything Dad stepped forward and moved around the stalagmite. We followed silently.
Behind the stalagmite there was a low opening in the wall, letting us into a tunnel that angled away to the right, its walls smooth and rounded, its floor smooth and worn, pieces of shell and sand crunching under our feet. The dank smell was much stronger and the light was much brighter. “It be the smell o’ the sea, by gum” whispered Barney.
The tunnel wound steeply downwards, the floor rough and uneven. At each step the glow grew brighter. Ahead I could see a bend, the sides of the tunnel touched with a soft blue light. And then, as we turned the corner of the tunnel, we burst suddenly into an enormous grotto, filled with crystal clear, emerald green seawater. Flickering shafts of sunlight speared through the water from the underwater opening to the sea, bathing the grotto in a rippling glow of blue and emerald. And there, in front of us, on a small beach of broken shingle and shells, a spray of shooting stars. Dozens and dozens of gleaming golden stars, scattered among the shells and sand and shining brightly in the reflected light.
The Kaurhole! The Princess Cave!
The Princess Cave
Dad wasn’t far out in his guess. The three hundredth step was lower down the cave by only seven steps. Than meant that the cave-in at the top of The Run near the old factory had covered about fifty steps. But the real key to the discovery of the cave had been Dad’s idea of turning off our torches. Without that Charlie would never have seen the glow of light behind the stalagmites, and we would never have found our way to the Princess Cave.
As we looked around the grotto we marveled at it. The Princess Cave was beautiful. Even after more than two hundred years. Barney was so overcome that he just sat above the small beach, puffing on his pipe, staring at the hundreds of gold doubloons scattered among the shells and watching the sunlight play in streams through the water and reflect across the ceiling in bands of blue light. He had tears in his eyes.
While Barney watched and puffed we all jumped down onto the small beach. The gold coins were everywhere, as if someone had taken them by the handful, and scattered them across the sand. We could see hundreds more at the bottom of the pool, flickering and glinting in the sunlight streaming through the underwater opening. And at one end of the small beach, embedded in the shells and sand like the mouldy skeleton of a dinosaur, lay the rotted timbers of an old boat. Part of one oar still hung from a rusty, crumbling rowlock. After two centuries there wasn’t much left of the dory. The bottom timbers were rotted and gone and only a few parts of the bow and stern were still visible.
While we picked up coins from the beach and waded into the water to get more, Dad picked around inside the boat. Near the bow he found several hoops of iron, almost rusted through, with pieces of curved timber still attached. He said that these were probably the remains of the rum kegs. When he held up a rusty piece of steel Barney smiled. “I be needin’ a good rum right now I be thinkin’” he said, with a wry smile on his face.
“Wow!” said Dad. “Just look at this.” Dad was crouched in the stern holding some ragged pieces of cloth. At least it looked like cloth. We all crunched over to the remains of the old dory.
“It’s leather!” said Dad “From the bags of gold.” He dug both hands into the broken shells and sand and when he pulled them free they were filled with dozens of gold coins. And in the hole he created we could see hundreds more. Thousands even. This was the treasure we had been searching for. “There must be thousands of gold doubloons here” said Dad. “It looks like the boat was carried in through the entrance in the big seas during the storm. The wash must have been enormous to take the boat so deep. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been carried into the cave. But what about Jimmy Herriott? What happened to him? Did he get carried into the cave with the boat”
“Andrew. Ye best be comin’ over here. I think we might be findin’ some answers.” Barney was standing away to one side of the grotto, near a long ledge that ran out over the water. Dad dropped all the doubloons into George’s hands and said, “Count these George.” While George knelt in the dory digging out gold we followed Dad over to Barney’s ledge.
Barney was leaning against the rock wall, puffing furiously on ‘Me Comfort’, and staring at something on the ledge. As we came up to him he turned on his torch and we all gasped. On the ledge we could see the soles of two pairs of boots, lying next to each other, unmoving.
“There’s someone there” squeaked Charlie. “Wh-who-oo is it?”
George pushed past Charlie. “It’s no-one. It’s not a person Charlie. It looks like a scarecrow.” But even as George spoke I could see that she didn’t believe it.
Lying on the ledge, next to each other like they were asleep, were two bundles of rotted clothes. Rags really, But under the rags were bundles of brown sticks. I realized that these were bones, a bony claw poking out of each frayed sleeve, and a grimacing, eyeless skull under each mouldy hat.
“Who is it?” asked Max. “Is it the Revenooer?”
“No Max. We’ve read the journals. I’m pretty sure we’ve found Jimmy Herriott and Martin Haggley” said Dad.
“Holy smoke!” said George. Charlie sobbed. Max gulped. I didn’t say anything
“Holy smoke for sure” said Dad.
Barney’s eyes were a bit misty. “Me heart tells me that this be Jim and Martin. And they be lyin’ here this two hunnert years and more. Amazin’ really, that they come through the Maw and all. But it be makin’ fer a sad endin’, that’s fer sure. I’m guessin’ they couldna escape what with the Revenooer blowin’ the Run and the mill and so on. So they’re mebbe survivin’ down here fer many a day. And I guess they be lost in the end te the hunger and the thirst. A sad endin’ fer two brave men it be. Right sad. And terrible too. But it be good that we found ‘em. Fer it mean that two good men are comin’ home. And after so long and all.”
I looked at Barney for a moment. Even though we had found what everyone had been searching for since 1737, Barney was sad. Maybe it was the finality of discovering Jim and Martin, and the Cave and the gold. An anti-climax perhaps, after so long, but maybe also a real sadness that their true fate had been discovered. We looked at them as they silently on the shelf of rock, where they had lain for more than two centuries. Then we left them alone on the shelf in the quiet grotto. But we didn’t leave the gold. Well, not all of it.
We filled Dad’s and Barney’s packs with as many doubloons as we could, then we solemnly waved goodbye to Jim and Martin and set off. It was time to go back to Looe and Polperro and give them the news. And what news it was! Jimmy and Martin were finally coming home. And they were coming home with the treasure!
The trek back up the t
unnel seemed to take far longer than coming down. Dad and Barney grunted a bit from the weight of the gold but we finally climbed out of the tunnel below the old factory. It seemed strange re-emerging into the real world. The late afternoon sun cast a golden glow across the headland. Even the ruins and undergrowth around the old mill seemed inviting. To our left we could see the red shaft of the lighthouse, bright in the late sunlight, behind it Long Nose Point and the Maw. The wind was still strong and white caps were flying from the waves rolling green into the Maw. To our right we could see Blind Bluff in the distance, and the white of the waves breaking at its foot. The clouds and the downpour of the morning seemed a distant memory.
There were still large puddles around the factory, but the steep track up to the main road had started to dry out. We hauled the gold and our gear up the track to Barney’s Piaggio and loaded the tray. When we climbed in the old car groaned loudly and settled onto its springs. “This be a heavy load” said Barney. “Best be drivin’ slow. I bain’t be wantin’ te be strainin’ me Piaggio.”
With that Barney turned the whining Piaggio back towards Polperro. As the Piaggio popped and squealed along the road, we bounced around in the tray. I felt excited that we’d found the
The Ghost of Smugglers Run Page 19
