Moira kept her word to the Chief. She didn’t sell me to the restaurant that served ape steaks, instead she gave orders that I should be locked up and kept alive.
Carl and Kevin took me down to the cellar, where they pushed me into a small room with flaking brick walls. As soon as the door closed behind me, I began to inspect the room. If I could escape there was just a chance I could get across the river and reach Prince’s Dock before the Valkyrie cast off. But time was short. The vessel was due to sail as soon as the tide turned.
The door was solid and had two locks. There were also bolts on the outside. The only window in the room was right up under the ceiling and the filthy cracked glass had bars over it. However much I heaved and pushed, the bars didn’t move even a fraction of an inch. I slumped down, my back against the cold rough wall.
There was no way out. 198
I tried to imagine what the Chief was thinking about at that moment. Would he try to overpower Gordon and come back to rescue me? I shut my eyes tight and hoped he wouldn’t try. The thought of Gordon’s pistol made me feel sick.
Hours passed. The light from the small window grew darker until eventually there was just one pale line across the floor. Then I heard approaching steps echoing along the corridor outside. The bolts were drawn and the door opened.
It was Carl, accompanied by a big, heavily-built fellow in shorts and a woollen cardigan. It was the same man who’d been sweeping the yard when the Chief and I arrived at the house that morning.
The big man stared at me wide-eyed. His face was battered and lop-sided—a real bruiser’s face.
“You are to be the ape’s keeper, Bernie,” Carl said. “Come down a couple of times a day and give it water… Yeah, and whatever it is that apes eat. And don’t forget to bring down a pot—we’ll have to hope it knows what it’s for or you’ll end up mopping up its muck from the floor. Do you understand?”
The big man—his name was obviously Bernie—nodded reluctantly at the same time as shooting an unfriendly look in my direction. 199
“Right then,” Carl said to Bernie. “Let’s go!”
And they went.
At some point far into the night I must have fallen asleep. When I woke I could hear the sounds of heavy traffic and voices passing along the street outside. A wave of fear ran through me when I remembered where I was and why I was there.
A little while later big Bernie arrived with a bowl of water and a couple of bread rolls. He gave me a threatening look out of the corner of his eye but said nothing.
The tide must have turned several hours before, which meant the Valkyrie would already be well down the river. She might even have reached the estuary and set sail on her voyage.
That thought actually made me feel a little less anxious. At least I no longer needed to worry about the Chief. He was at sea, where he really knows how to handle things.
It’s impossible to say in advance how long it will take to sail across the Atlantic. It all depends on the winds. But given the time of year I reckoned that the soonest the Chief could be back in Glasgow was eight to ten weeks. So I was likely 200to be sitting in solitary in this mouldy cellar for at least two months.
Unless I managed to escape, of course. In which case I would try to get to Li Jing in Gourock and I was sure she’d help me make contact with Ana and Signor Fidardo.
I had a plan and that made me feel good. All I had to do now was to put up with things and wait for an opportunity to escape.
The days and nights passed slowly, very slowly. I slept through as many of the twenty-four hours as possible and spent the rest of the time walking round and round the small room trying to think of anything that would occupy my thoughts.
Since I had nothing but four brick walls to look at, hearing quickly became more important than vision. The great city never fell silent and at regular intervals trains passed on their way to or from Glasgow Central Station. For a few days I tried to pass the time by learning to distinguish different kinds of train by the noise the rails made. It was a boring game.
Right from one of the first evenings I realized that there must be some sort of bar or pub in the building. There were nights when the shouting and yelling echoed down the corridors and made it impossible to get any sleep. The celebrations would go on into the small hours and be at their worst around closing 201time. I’d hear people shouting and arguing outside the small cellar window and acrid wafts of tobacco smoke, sweat and spilt beer seeped through the broken pane.
Bernie was my only visitor. Morning and evening he would bring down water and something for me to eat. Usually it was bread or porridge. The pot—which was actually a bucket with a lid—was emptied twice a day.
There was no question of trying to overpower Bernie. Given all the scars and marks on his face, he must have been in hundreds of fights.
Every new day was exactly like the one before. Nothing happened and I had nothing to do. After a week or so I began to feel a sense of panic: how was I going to hold out?
But late one evening something finally did happen. I heard raised voices and footsteps out in the corridor. The bolts were drawn back, keys turned, the door opened and Carl and Kevin entered, each carrying a large wooden box. They were followed by Bernie carrying two boxes, one under each arm. They dropped their boxes on the floor and Carl told Bernie to fetch more boxes while he and Kevin began stacking them. 202
For one moment I considered hurling myself past Carl and Kevin, but almost immediately I had a better idea.
I got to my feet and before either of the ruffians could stop me, picked up one of the boxes, carried it to the corner and stacked it on top of the other boxes.
Carl and Kevin exchanged looks of astonishment.
“Did you see that? The ape is copying us,” Carl said.
Bernie appeared in the doorway with another box. As soon as he put it down, I went up to him and took over.
Kevin started to laugh.
“You carry on bringing the boxes down, Bernie. Carl and I will see to the stacking down here.”
Kevin and Carl sat down, opened a bottle of beer each and watched as I stacked the boxes that Bernie lugged down from the lane. Once it was all done, the keys rattled in the door as they locked it.
I might be back in solitary again, but it didn’t bother me now. Carl and Kevin had realized they could make use of me and my long, lonely, empty days would probably soon be over.