Marker and Tombs obviously reckoned fierce glares would serve them best. It was an attitude which brought a smile to Brazier’s lips, as he began to ask them a series of questions, in a deliberately even tone of voice, none of which they were prepared to answer.
‘Why has Hawker taken his men away?’
‘Is a shipment of contraband on the way?’
‘Where is it landed?’
‘What signs are there to say when it’s due?’
‘What’s John Hawker’s role?’
‘Not much in the talkative line, Capt’n, is they?’
‘Doesn’t seem so, Dutchy. Any ideas?’
His musket was lowered and pressed against the back of Marker’s neck, which had his look change, the same with Tombs when Cocky copied his shipmate.
‘If they’re no going tae talk, they’re nae bloody use.’
‘Bit messy,’ Brazier decided. ‘Blood and brains everywhere.’
‘Wouldn’t matter out o’ outdoors,’ was Peddler’s opinion.
‘Quick too,’ Joe Lascelles said. ‘And Captain, I’d like to be on the trigger. Have these sods pay for every slave beaten by their kind.’
‘Too quick, Joe, there’s no suffering, for God only knows how many crimes they’ve had a hand in. Before a man meets his maker, he should have time to show repentance. Dutchy, there’s ropes hanging on the walls of the barn we were in the other night. Oblige me by fetching a couple of a good length.’
The attitude of Hawker’s men had changed from arrogant to fearful, even if the muskets had been pulled away, their eyes following Dutchy as he went out the door. But their faces froze again as Brazier repeated the same questions, to no avail, he smiling all the while, as though their not answering suited his purpose. Dutchy didn’t re-enter, he just called from the doorway to say he was carrying what was needed. This brought forth a gesture to tell the pair they should get up and go outside, all following until Brazier said,
‘Joe, tell Spafford’s men they can come out and there’s food on the stoop. They can feed themselves, but on no account are they to leave the house.’ He looked at Peddler, who had a questioning look on his face. ‘If any of them are going to run, now would seem a good time.’
It didn’t need saying, there was no way of keeping them here and guarded if they were determined to get away, while at the same time being able to take any action, whatever it turned out to be. They were five-strong and this was not enough to take on Hawker, without they were lucky.
The rain had been a shower, enough to wet the ground and the grass, but it had stopped, not for long by the look of the sky. Once outdoors Brazier pointed to the solitary oak tree standing proud in the middle of the marshland.
‘Is that the one you hid behind, Dutchy?’
‘Can’t see no other, your honour.’
‘Perfect for our purpose too.’ A nod got Marker and Tombs moving, aided by a musket shove in the back, Brazier alongside them talking in a friendly way as they made their way towards it. ‘I think I must tell you about how we treat people who do murder or mutiny in the navy.’
‘We string the buggers up,’ Cocky gloated, moving to look the pair in the eye. ‘An’ a fine sight it is tae see a man dangle.’
‘Did you know, Marker, in public hangings, if you or your relatives have the funds, you can pay the man in charge to attach weights to your lower legs, so when you drop, it breaks your neck and a quick death ensues? But we don’t have trapdoors in the service, we have only yardarms set high in the rigging.’
‘We ain’t killed no one,’ Tombs pleaded.
‘That I find hard to believe. If you work for a bastard like Hawker, I’d say it was almost the first thing he’d have you do, to prove your loyalty and also bind you to staying with him. There are tales of this being the pirate way. Capture a merchant ship and have any new recruits cut the throats of the crew.’
‘Ever cut a man’s throat?’ Peddler asked, in a matter-of-fact tone, to a pair of furiously shaking heads.
‘As I was saying,’ Brazier continued, his voice betraying no emotion at all, ‘we run a rope through a block on the yardarm of a first rate. Generally, these affairs take place on the flagship, a vessel of ninety to a hundred guns, but on the deck are members from the same ship as the fellow about to pay for his crimes, thus justice is served by his own crew. All the usual rites are observed, sentence is read, with the chance to confess and show remorse given, a chaplain to read a homily for a man about to look his God in the face. A final word is allowed before the command to stamp and go, which has the hanging party run along the deck, the sinner’s body taken into the air, to kick as the noose chokes the life out of him.’
‘Got to add, Capt’n, body’s over the water, so when he shits himself it don’t stain the deck.’
‘Good point, Dutchy, but not one to concern these fine fellows.’
‘And there he stays,’ Peddler added, ‘lashed off to a cleat. If’n the gulls want to peck at his eyes, well he’s not goin’ to note it, is he?’
‘Crows mair likely here, Peddler, though there’s gulls an’ aw,’ Cocky added, looking skywards.
They were now beneath the oak, with Brazier making a great play of examining the branches to pick out something suitable, still keeping Marker and Tombs aware of his thinking.
‘Trouble with a tree at this time of year is to find a branch that is both strong enough and clear enough of leaf growth to cast a rope over without it getting snagged.’
‘We don’t know ‘owt,’ Marker gasped, ‘we goes where we’s sent.’
The response was delivered in a jocose tone. ‘Well, perdition will do just as well as anywhere, will it not? Only it won’t be Hawker doing the sending for a change.’
‘Happen he won’t be far behind,’ called Joe, who’d caught up with them.
‘Dutchy,’ Brazier said, gesturing to a suitable branch. The ex-coxswain stepped forward to throw the coiled end of the rope so it went over the branch and unravelled, with his one-time captain, having taken the end, to then address the proposed victims.
‘I daresay, being Deal people you’ve done some time on boats and will be handy with a knot.’ The end was pushed forward. ‘You’ll be able to knock up a noose in a trice. I see a certain amount of nobility in a man having a hand in his own departure, a sort of confession of his sins requiring no words.’
‘No?’ Brazier enquired, as Marker violently shook his head.
‘Bit unfair, Capt’n,’ came a call, ‘one of these poor souls having to watch the other swing.’
‘Spoken like a Christian, Dutchy, so let us do them together.’ As the second rope was thrown, Cocky took the first and began to swiftly fashion a noose, the second rope taken by Peddler to do likewise as Brazier mused, ‘Let’s hope we have enough muscle to get you aloft at some speed, with only two men per whip. Lacking a block, the rope will not run smooth and this could prove your ordeal slow and painful. Still, nothing we can do about it, so let’s have you in place, shall we?’
The pair were shuffled forward to stand under a thick branch they could not avoid looking up at, a sound escaping both throats as the nooses were placed round their necks and adjusted. Dutchy and Joe took the end of one, Cocky and Peddler the other, to walk slowly away and take up the slack, so the nooses were pulled up under the chins, with Brazier assuming a position in front of them.
‘What you have to understand is this. If you’re not going to provide me with the information I need then, in common with the rest of existence, I have no use for you. In fact, you become a burden I have neither time nor the manpower to deal with. This, I fear, is my only solution.’
Their looks changed; was this a chance of salvation?
‘St Margaret’s Bay,’ Tombs shouted, adding, when Brazier’s expression changed, and ignoring Marker’s demand to shut up, ‘It’s where the cargo comes in.’
‘Well, well,’ was the calm response. ‘And how do you know when it comes in?’
Tombs, having started talking, was not going to stop and it all tumbled out, though in no real order. The ship in the offing, how it was guided into the bay, who unloaded it and the chambers in which it was stored, everything until his final outburst.
‘An’ I ain’t takin’ the blame for what Marker done, neither.’
‘Tombs, for the love of Christ, stop your gob.’
‘Not for you, Marker, always up Hawker’s arse, crawling for favour.’
‘What is it he did, which he fears I should be told about?’
‘He was with Hawker when they broke into your abode in Middle Street and boasted of it. Happen he’s the cause of yon poor soul bein’ burnt to a crisp.’
It was almost as if Brazier was silently communicating with Dutchy, for the rope tensed and the noose tightened, the tugging continuing till Marker’s heels were being lifted off the ground.
‘I didn’t whack the bugger on the top floor,’ he croaked. ‘It were another.’
‘Perhaps best you tell me everything.’
This was accompanied by a sharp tug, as if to say and damned quick. Brazier had to work hard to keep his expression blank as he heard how Hawker and his men had gone to Quebec House, just before the riot got going, and why, looking to find him and the four on the ropes.
‘So we were all intended to die in the fire?’
‘Dan Spafford would set the place alight, with no idea you was inside and knocked out. Hawker left him a broken winder to chuck his torch through. John hinted it was summat to do with what you did to him after you took him away from Cottington when he were groggy.’
‘Did Tulkington know?’
‘Can’t tell you,’ Marker moaned, as he felt another jerk on the noose. For good measure Cocky and Peddler tightened their line, which had Tombs cry out desperately.
‘Marker knows more’n me ’bout what happens at St Margaret’s. He can do chapter and verse, bein’ close to Hawker’s right hand.’
‘Lyin’ bastard.’
‘Too late, I think.’ Brazier looked past the pair to give a nod and they pulled in tandem, with Marker wheezing, ‘I’ll tell, I’ll tell.’
‘Then do so,’ came with a sign to ease the rope tension.
So Brazier heard about the identifying flag on the contraband ship, not only how it was guided into the bay, but who did the guiding and from where, how men were spread out to make sure no Excisemen were seeking to sneak up on the operation and the signal for trouble.
‘A single shot?’
‘Then everyone runs.’
When Marker finished talking, claiming there was no more to tell, Brazier had him go over it all again to make sure he’d missed nothing out. It had started to rain again and with the two bareheaded, their hair was soon plastered to their foreheads with water dripping off their chins − some of it, Brazier suspected, might be tears. Their tormentors were getting wet too, but hats and coats make it easier to bear. It was in an almost jocular tone he said,
‘You could have told me all this indoors, which would have spared you a soaking.’ He looked past them once more, to add, ‘I think the game has played out, don’t you lads?’
‘Game?’ Marker cried as the nooses fell off both chins, this to the sound of laughter.
‘Played it well, Capt’n, an’ no error,’ Dutchy chortled, which came with ‘Hear him’ from the other.
This got a slow bow, his smiling response, ‘I’d say we all deserve applause.’
But this evaporated as he put his face close between Marker and Tombs. For the first time Brazier allowed his true feeling to show. Gone was the urbanity, his voice was close to a snarl. ‘Do not bracket us with the likes of you, who will kill for a pot of ale, or do the bidding of a creature like John Hawker while grovelling for his attention.’
Isaac Tombs actually asked for forgiveness.
‘I’m in no position to provide it, but one day you’ll answer for your crimes. Let’s get these swine back inside, before I change my mind.’
There was no pride left in either man as they were led back to the farmhouse; they didn’t walk, they stumbled until they were back indoors. Spafford’s men were gathered in the kitchen, having fed themselves on the bread and eggs, with not much left.
‘See what you can rustle up, Joe.’
‘Not a lot after these greedy buggers have been at it.’
‘Don’t suppose they were fed much. In truth, I’m surprised Hawker fed them at all. But he must have left supplies for Marker and Tombs.’
Pointed towards a pantry this proved to be the case. There was dried and salted fish and smoked meats. Brazier told Dolphin Morgan to lock the pair in the room he and his mates had just vacated, into which they were pushed. But a look in a corner told Dolphin a task needed to be seen to. He pointed to the shit and piss bucket he had helped to fill and had been obliged to dispose of the day before.
‘Get hold of yonder pail, Marker, and take it out. An’ don’t go spilling any, or I’ll have you and Tombs lickin’ it off the floor.’
Once back indoors he found it was him under interrogation from Brazier, who wanted to know about everything which had happened in the time since he arrived in Deal, and he found many eager to oblige. How Harry Spafford had run his pa ragged, he never forfeiting trying to get the lad to change.
‘Wasted,’ Eastry Sam announced to general agreement. ‘He was a bad ’un from the day he was born.’
‘Which is what you were doing when you were taken.’
‘Aye, seekin’ to get him out of Tulkington’s clutches, an’ look how it turned out. They say shit floats an’ Harry was proof.’
‘That’s not how it started,’ Dolphin said. ‘You need to hear ’bout it all.’
Morgan referred to there being a meeting between Spafford and Tulkington, just the two of them in a closed carriage. ‘Never happened afore an’ didn’t look as if it went well, with Dan spittin’ bile later. So he decided we should do a bit of thieving by carryin’ off some of Hawker’s contraband.’
Which did surprise Brazier: to him it bordered on suicide.
‘Took it from right under his nose,’ sniggered Sam. ‘Rowed round Leathercote Point, into the bay an’ lifted as much as we could bear away.’
Next came the interception of the cargo of tea, which was admitted may have been a step too far. It had probably caused Hawker to grab Harry and take him to the slaughterhouse.
‘Sold us down the river in no time, the bastard. Hawker told Dan so, but he still wanted to get him back. There was no gettin’ him to see sense. Not even Daisy could get through and he and Dan been hugger since they were lads.’
‘Not that close.’ There was a pause before Dolphin added, ‘We had a word ’mongst ourselves, your honour, an’ if you’re looking to do the dirty on Hawker, we would be willin’ to give you a hand.’
‘I thank you and I’ll hold it in mind.’
He had no intention of involving them. It was easy to say they’d help and just as easy, having turned once, to turn again. But he had another question, having recalled what he’d seen in the barn the night they stole the bodies.
‘You say you rowed into the bay when you robbed Hawker, so where’s the boat?’
‘Two, your honours, cutters in a boathouse down on the flats.’ Seeing confusion Morgan added, ‘Sandwich Flats, on the strand right from here, with an old cove and his dogs set to go by regular and make sure no one breaks the padlock.’
Morgan went to a hook above the fireplace and took down a key, which was held up. ‘Oars and rowlocks are in the barn.’
It was moot if Morgan understood why the key was taken. Brazier had no idea if he would use it, but he was certain he didn’t want anyone else to. All eyes were on him, his old barge crew included, waiting for him to pronounce his intentions, something he would not have done, even if he’d had a set plan. What he had was information and it was not yet complete, the point made.
‘But I have people who are looking out for things in Deal. When I know more, then I − perhaps even we − can act. Until then, keep those two locked away and yourselves in readiness until we return.’
Once outside, Dutchy asked, ‘What now, Capt’n?’
‘I’m thinking on it,’ was all he got.
Brazier made for the barn to have a proper look at what was stored there. More ropes, which would have been for rigging repairs, barrels of tar and turpentine, odds and sods of blocks and tackle as well as a small keg of gunpowder, with a date chalked on top, probably the last day it had been turned to ensure the mix stayed right. Having taken all this in, it provided even more to think about.
‘Let’s go back to Zachary’s.’
Out at sea, the men Hawker had sent in the cutter spotted the flag for which they were looking, a set of fleurs-de-lys surrounding a heraldic key. Closing with the vessel, they were able to board and assure the master, who spoke broken English, a landing was possible the following night, and a check on the system of signals was carried out. There would be a single flashing lamp to the south of the bay to say it was safe to enter, followed by the deployment of the two guiding lanterns either side to ensure they steered clear of the rocks.
The porters would be on the beach with a gangway, waiting to begin immediate unloading, while it was confirmed an anchor would be dropped offshore, paid out on a cable, so the vessel could haul off without the need to raise sail. It was also a guarantee this could be carried out at speed, in the highly unlikely event danger threatened.
All matters agreed, the pair took to the cutter to sail back to Deal, coming ashore late in the afternoon. They were able to alert John Hawker, who in turn could get orders out to his men to prepare to get to their various stations on the morrow. There was no requirement to alert Henry Tulkington: he had nothing to do with this part of the operation, quite the reverse. It was essential he stayed well clear.