12

A Call to Battle!

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“They found the fault, Davy.” Ailish sagged against a wooden packing case. “Paddy’s been accused of being a Fenian and driving spikes through the cable. You should have seen the crew. They turned into an ugly, bloodthirsty mob.”

“But you said he wasn’t the one. Are you still so sure?” Davy asked, a mocking light in his sea-green eyes. He was sitting cross-legged on top of his usual crate and, in the hazy light with dust motes dancing in the air, he appeared an apparition from a mystical world.

She thought of how things looked – very bad; then she thought of the feeling she got from Paddy – very good.

“He’s innocent. This whole sabotage thing makes no sense.” She ran her fingers through her chopped hair. Her da’s smiling face flashed into her mind. She remembered once when she and her mother had done their hair in exactly the same style, twining flowers into the complicated braids; then, laughing, they’d shown him. He’d said he was a blessed man with two of the most beautiful colleens in Ireland to call his own. Blinking rapidly to clear the image from her mind, she returned her attention to Davy.

“At first, I thought Dalton was bluffing to make Paddy give him the money, threatening to show the captain the incriminating picture, but then the faults began. After what happened on deck, that picture would put the nails in Paddy’s coffin for sure. No one would believe he was only at the meeting to have a listen.” She shook her head. “The timing of the faults is so blasted convenient. When I first came on board, I overheard Dalton threatening Paddy and within hours the first fault happened, and then during the storm, I made the mistake of exposing Dalton as careless in front of his gang and Paddy defended me. Again, Dalton threatened him, and bang! We have another spike through the cable. It’s hard to believe it was coincidence. I wouldn’t put it past Dalton to have arranged the faults to put pressure on Paddy. After all, eighty pounds is a whopping lot of money.”

Agitated, she paced up and down. “What scares me is how Dalton is encouraging the men to take the law into their own hands and arrange an accident for the Fenian, who everyone now thinks is Paddy. Dalton saw to that.” She halted her march. “And if the crew doesn’t toss him overboard, Dalton will give the picture to the captain who will haul Paddy away for treason. Either way that thief will scoop the money! A dead man can’t complain someone stole his fortune.”

The more she thought about it, the worse it looked. “I’ve got a bad feeling we’ll soon be reading about ‘the wealthy Rufus Dalton’ in the Irish Times.”

“The very wealthy Rufus Dalton – he’d have your statue too. This is a dusty business,” Davy agreed.

“Dusty? It’s downright dirty!” Ailish cried, leaning on the box again. Sometimes she thought Davy enjoyed all this intrigue a little too much. She sighed. “The famous missing two-pound horse... Since our search of Dalton’s room didn’t turn up turnips, do you think he could have put it in the ship’s safe?”

“Nay.” A crease furrowed Davy’s brow. “If he had, the loose-lipped grog hounds who work for the purser would blab it about for sure.”

“Dalton is the only one who knows where that horse is.” Ailish idly picked at a splinter on the crate as she thought. “It’s him who’ll have to lead me to the stash. The Great Eastern is too mammoth to search deck by deck, room by room and time is growing short. Paddy told me the cable-laying will go much faster as soon as we get closer to Newfoundland. Once we reach port, Dalton will abscond with Paddy’s money, sell my da’s horse, and then disappear for good.”

One solution popped into her head. “We could follow him around the clock. I could take the first watch and you could trail him while I’m sleeping.”

Davy shook his head. “Unless he had some reason to go and check his treasure, all we’d end up doing is watching him as he worked, ate and slept. You already did that and it turned up ashes. I don’t go on deck unless it’s for some-one incredible and extraordinary and Dalton is neither. Besides, Charlie’s a gruff one and keeps me too busy.”

He cocked his head. “Speak of the devil! There’s his lordship calling me again.”

Ailish looked around. She hadn’t heard anything, and then there it was. The sound of a hammer blow striking iron. Far away like a distant echo. Keeping a ship this size from springing a leak was surely a full time job.

“Ails, have you thought about what would happen should you be a clever girl and find your horse? No one is going to believe an Irish stowaway owns a valuable statue like that.”

Ailish hadn’t thought about it, but Davy was right. And she had no doubt Dalton would get his cronies to back up a claim that it was his. Things looked bleak.

An image of her ma and da came into her mind again. Ailish knew their life had been hard, but her parents never gave up no matter how steep the mountain. They simply kept at it. Her da always said, “It’s during the tough times that your mettle is tested. Anyone can be brave when your belly’s full and the roof don’t leak.”

These were her tough times. She straightened. She was Ailish O’Connor, and she was not going to give up and let Dalton win!

“We have to turn the tables on Rufus Dalton.” She smiled. “I think lashings of revenge are called for, plus I plan on winning this war. To win completely means I have to find my da’s fabulous horse and clear Paddy of suspicion. That’s a challenge worthy of an O’Connor and maybe, if I really am a clever girl…” she had a twinkle in her eye now, “I can do both at once.”