Shadow of the Hangman(19)
‘Why should a lord bother with a couple of escaped prisoners?’
‘We haven’t really escaped, Moses. As soon as the peace treaty was signed, it was our right to be released. They shouldn’t have kept us in Dartmoor. It’s a point we’ll make when we write to Lord Liverpool.’
‘I think we’ll just be pissing in the wind.’
‘Well, we’ve done enough of that in our time,’ said O’Gara with a laugh. ‘Trust me. The British have got their faults – and lots of them – but they believe in justice. That’s all we’re asking for. We may be free but all of our friends are still there, being punished by Captain Shortland and his men. The governor is cruel. He enjoys throwing prisoners in the Black Hole. I should know – I was one of them.’
‘Jake Hendrick was another. He went mad when they locked him away in the dark for a couple of weeks. When they let him out, he was still screaming.’
‘I walked out of there with a smile on my face,’ boasted O’Gara. ‘I wasn’t going to let the governor think he’d hurt me.’
Having sailed throughout the first night, they’d kept going until they came in sight of the Isle of Wight. Since they hadn’t eaten for over twenty-four hours, they looked for somewhere to land. A deserted cove allowed them to slip unseen ashore and to haul their craft onto the beach. They then climbed a rock face and took their bearings. There was a farmstead in the distance. After waiting until light began to fade, they approached stealthily and watched until their chance came. While O’Gara stole food from the kitchen with practised deftness, Dagg grabbed a bucket of water that stood beside the pump. They went hundreds of yards before they dared to fill their bellies and slake their thirst. Keeping some of the stolen rations, they made their way back to the boat and set sail once more.
Fate was less kind to them on their second night. Without warning, the wind dropped so they were forced to float for much of the time. More worryingly, dark clouds obscured the moon and stars so that they had no idea where they were or in what direction they were moving. When the wind suddenly freshened, it brought driving rain at its back and the two combined to create a storm of gathering ferocity. During their years in the navy, O’Gara and Dagg had weathered many a tempest but only in a frigate with a trained crew to battle the elements. This was a much more threatening experience altogether. Buffeted by the wind, lashed by the rain and tossed helplessly up and down by the heavy swell, they were effectively sailing blind. Neither man had the slightest idea that another vessel was bearing down on them in the inky darkness. One moment, the sailors were bravely coping with their multiple problems; the next, they were struck by something large and powerful enough to smash their boat in two.
Flung into the sea, O’Gara and Dagg were soon swimming for their lives.
They gathered at the shooting gallery to discuss the events of the previous night. When Peter Skillen explained what had happened, Gully Ackford and Jem Huckvale shook with mirth as they envisaged Medlow dangling from a beam. Charlotte, however, was less amused by the account of her husband’s nocturnal exploits. She had already heard one version of it and repetition did not impress her any the more.
‘You’re courting danger if you take on the Bow Street Runners.’
‘It was they who set up the encounter,’ said Ackford. ‘They sent someone here in the guise of Everett Hobday to draw Peter and Paul into that house. I had the sense to let Jem trail the impostor back to Mayfair. As it happened, the property was indeed owned by the man whose name I was given.’
‘That contented me at first,’ explained Huckvale, taking over, ‘but I thought it best to be doubly sure. When I spoke to a second neighbour, I learnt from him that Hobday was an old man who suffered badly from gout.’
‘We soon got Medlow’s real name out of him,’ recalled Peter. ‘When you’re trussed up like a turkey and hanging by your feet, you have an incentive to answer questions honestly. Before we gagged him, Simon Medlow revealed the full dimensions of the plot and enabled us to turn the tables on Micah Yeomans.’
‘Bravo!’ cried Ackford, slapping the desk for emphasis.
‘I raise my hat to Peter and Paul!’ said Jem, whipping it off his head.
‘I see no cause for congratulation,’ said Charlotte. ‘Peter and his brother committed a crime. What will happen if this Simon Medlow sues them for assault?’
‘He would first have to answer for his own crimes, Charlotte,’ said Ackford, ‘and there are plenty of those. In committing the latest, he posed as Hobday and entered the man’s house when he had no legal right to do so. I don’t think he’d dare recount the circumstances that led to him being given the treatment he deserved.’