Blind Corner and Perishable Goods Page 6

  (6) In addition to their other duties: Carson will take sole charge of the cars and the electrical apparatus, Rowley will act as quartermaster and cook, Bell will clean the quarters and maintain the water supply.

  (7) No one will leave the castle without acquainting me.

  (8) The first sign of any approach will be immediately signalled.

  (9) There will always be someone in the kitchen if there is no one on guard.

  I can remember no more, but these rules show that Mansel did all that he could to guard against surprise and to ensure that our work should go forward with the least embarrassment.

  For all that, we were none too well placed. To gain the curtilage of the castle, without being observed, was singularly easy, and the well was two hundred yards from the garden door, so that anyone at all curious and prudent could watch our labour by the hour, and any sudden, determined aggression by three or four armed men would be difficult to counter.

  We sat on the terrace for a while before going to bed, and heard some music from London, and at length the news, and but for Mansel, Hanbury and I, I think, would have sat there most of the night, for a full moon was shining out of an empty sky and the prospect which the terrace commanded seemed more lovely than ever.

  We were up and abroad the next morning before it was light, and, as soon as the alarms had been tested, repaired to the well.

  Mansel had all ready a measuring-line. This was a very fine cord knotted at every inch and tagged at each foot, and at each end was fastened a lump of lead. The use of this proved that what the well-digger had said of its capacity was substantially correct, for the well was two-thirds full of water, and its depth was ninety-six feet. Allowing for the facts that the man would have spoken of metres, and not of feet, and that in so many years a deposit had surely been formed at the bottom of the well, we had no reason to suppose that his actual figures were not as good as ours. Sixty-two feet of water lay in the well.

  I have already said that the well was twelve feet across, and, after a moment’s calculation, Hanbury drew in his breath.

  “That chamber is sealed,” he said, “faster, I fancy, than even the well-digger dreamed. If we had a pump—”

  “We should be no better off,” said Mansel. “A pump can push water, but to pull it up from a depth is beyond its power. If we installed a plant to supply the house, to make sure of water we should have to sink the pump; and no pump that ever was made could empty this well. Whether we can do it by bucket I can’t possibly tell, but I’m told that the last six months have been unusually dry, and so, if we go all out, I think we may be able to beat the springs.”

  Hanbury examined the cupola which sheltered the well.

  “We have two pulleys,” he said. “If we put a beam across and above the windlass, we can use two buckets together and, with the windlass, three.”

  “That’s right,” said Mansel. “And now here’s another point. We must make a gutter to take the water away. If we don’t do that, it’ll find its way back into the well.”

  Then he picked up a stirrup and, looping the leather on to the hook which was dangling over the well, asked me if I would go down and see what I could.

  I was only too ready to comply, but before I descended he made me put on a warm coat against the chill and fastened about me a length of fine rope. I then set my foot in the stirrup and gripped the chain, and Hanbury working the windlass and Mansel paying out the rope, I passed down into the well.

  When I was close to the water, I bade them stop, and when they had made all fast, they let down the searchlight.

  The well was beautifully built, and I do not believe such masonry is often rendered today. The stones had been finely cut, and, though no doubt they were cemented together, they were fitted so close that the cement did not appear. There were no bars at all, nor any foot or handhold that I could see, but presently I discovered a series of niches regularly cut in the wall, one above the other and about two feet apart. They were scarce an inch deep, and I could not believe that there was any man, living or dead, daring or skillful enough to rise or descend by this means. Happening, however, to look round, I perceived another series, exactly corresponding, a quarter of the way round the well. These were more deeply cut; and it immediately occurred to me that these niches had supported one beam of a wooden stage on which the men had stood whilst building the wall. Sure enough, on the opposite side were the niches for the other beam, one twice as deep as the other; so that, given four clean-cut beams, the men who were working could have raised their stages as they pleased, without any help, two feet at a time. One or two pieces of wood were rotting on the surface of the water, and, here and there, little ferns were growing apparently out of the wall, but otherwise, except that the sides were weatherstained, the well, so far as I could see, was as sound as a bell, and might have only been finished the week before. I could not see the spring working, although I peered very hard, and, since the surface of the water seemed to be motionless, I came to the conclusion that such water as we had drawn had been replaced in the night, and that, having filled this pool to the brim, the little underground stream had resumed its course. And here I soon saw I was right, for there was no watermark above the surface and the well was plainly full.

  All this information I cried to Mansel and Hanbury and both were greatly delighted at the fine condition of the well; but, as I hung there, seemingly so far beneath them, the magnitude of our task appalled me and I felt that the silent guardian of the leather bag was to prove a more formidable enemy than Ellis him self.

  Then they pulled me up, and the atmosphere seemed sultry after the chill of the well.

  Then we went back to the stables, where was some sawn wood, and before it was time for breakfast we had fixed a beam upon the free pillars immediately under the dome, and had lashed a pulley into place upon either side. Whilst we were doing this, Carson and Bell were bringing up planks, of which we had found quite a store, for with these we meant to make a gutter, in the shape of an endless trough, to conduct the water away. By the time we had settled upon the line this should take, it was seven o’clock, so we left the business there and returned to the house.

  At breakfast we came to a decision of some importance. This was, plainly, that we should not attempt to conceal our endeavours to empty the well. It was therefore, arranged that Mansel should drive to Lerai as soon as he had bathed, and acquaint the landlord of the inn with our intention. He proposed to display great annoyance at being saddled at the outset with such a labour, and, on being asked the reason for our resolve, to say that last night we had drawn up the remains of a baby, which meant, of course, that the whole of the water was foul. He would then procure ropes and buckets and other implements, and even give out that, if after one or two days we needed assistance, he should desire the landlord to find us some men.

  So he and Carson left at half past eight, taking the Rolls, whilst Hanbury and I returned at once to the meadow to set to work upon the troughs. With nails and hammer these were easy to make, and, as soon as Bell appeared, we gave him a pick and shovel, and set him to cutting the groove in which our gutter should lie.

  Within the hour the bell by the well told us of Mansel’s return, and five minutes later we saw him appear in the meadow and come towards us.

  “Did that bell ring?” he said shortly.

  “Yes,” said Hanbury.

  “Then, if you please,” said Mansel, “never disregard it again.”

  And there he left it, for as I have said, he was a man of few words; but there was that in his voice which there was no mistaking, and Hanbury and I felt as guilty and ashamed as though by some folly we had ruined our enterprise.

  Then he told us that his tale had been well received, and that the landlord seemed genuinely distressed at our predicament, “for such,” said Mansel, “he plainly regards it; and when I said that we must empty the well, he threw up his hands. However, when I said that, unless the well could be cleaned, I should give up the place, he s
ent for buckets and ropes, and promised to come up this evening to see what help he could give. I then sent a wire to Maple’s, telling them not to dispatch my furniture; I fear it may puzzle them, but it supported my case and cleared the air.”

  Here Carson appeared with a bucket as big as a bath; indeed, two men could not have carried it full, but it was made, I imagine, to receive refuse or to hold a store of water upon which a cook could draw. And I must frankly confess that it did my heart good to see it, for I felt that, if we have a giant’s task before us, it was something, at any rate, to have a giant’s tools to use.

  By the time we had finished the gutter, which led down out of the meadow into a kind of combe, it was nearly eleven o’clock, and we sat down and drank some beer which Carson had brought.

  Then Bell was sent to the kitchen, and Rowley came up in his stead; Mansel went up to the point in the farther wood, from which, as I have said, a man could observe some of the neighbouring ground; and Carson and Rowley took one rope, and Hanbury and I the other.

  The work was hard to the point of severity, but the sight of so much water coming up out of the well was fuel to our endeavours, and we worked for twenty minutes without a break. Long before this Mansel had come to our assistance, for to land the buckets, when full, needed another man, and, lame as he was, he performed this awkward task as he did most things, that is to say, as though he had practised it all his life.

  When we stopped for luncheon, we had taken eight feet of water out of the well.

  When luncheon was over, we sat on the terrace for a little, under the shade of the limes.

  Hanbury was asleep, Mansel was reading Lockhart’s Life of Scott—without which work, he said, he never travelled, because it was the best host a man’s mind could have—and I was lazily regarding the opposing country, when I noticed a patch of haze a great way off. I had hardly remarked it before it disappeared, and it came to me in a flash that it must have been dust. At once I rose and took the binocular, and, since I knew precisely where to look for the road, I was in time to see a closed car flash into and out of view on its journey South.

  When I told Mansel, he nodded and said he was glad.

  “It’s high time,” said he. “If they hadn’t appeared today, I should have been uneasy. I like the other side to do the obvious thing.”

  With that he put up his volume, and, asking me to tell him when the car reached the spot from which we had first seen Wagensburg, rose to his feet and began to pace the courtyard, with his hands behind his back and his head in the air.

  Presently the closed car appeared beyond the river, and when I reported this, Mansel called the servants, and I roused Hanbury and told him what was afoot.

  Then Mansel spoke to us all.

  “We are going to be visited,” he said, “by five very angry men. I think there’ll be five, and I’m sure they’ll be angry. This is a good place to receive them for several reasons. I think perhaps I’d better play host, but I shall want some support. Mr. Hanbury will take the gateway, and Mr. Chandos the road; Carson will take that window, and Rowley that; and Bell will occupy the loft. Please be ready, but nobody show himself until you hear me say ‘Now.’ And whatever happens, don't fire. I believe in baring the teeth, but to use them, except to bite back, would be very foolish.”

  Then the stable doors were opened, the Rolls was brought out, and out of her we were armed—the servants with sporting rifles, and Mansel, Hanbury and with a pistol apiece.

  The servants had been through the War, and took this quietly enough, but I never was so much excited in all my life, and pictures of blood-letting and feats of arms rose up before me like so many common rooms of which I had been made free.

  Then the car was returned to the stables, and the servants went to their posts, while Mansel showed Hanbury and me how a pistol should be handled, and that the safety-catch was the stile between life and death. After that, Mansel took Tester and shut him up in the house, and, when he came back, we sat down on the wall of the well, by the side of the house, until we should hear the car.

  While we were there, Mansel inquired if there was any one line which we thought he should take in dealing with Ellis and his friends, “because,” said he, “beyond recommending them to return to the deuce, I’ve no plan at all. I don’t propose to deny that we’re looking for treasure, and I propose to announce that we’re cleaning the well. If you can’t conceal, advertise; it’s the next best thing. But I’ve little else in mind, except that this courtyard is as much as they’re going to see.”

  Hanbury and I had no suggestion to offer, if for no other reason, because to think at all clearly was beyond our power. This mean state of mind, I am sure, was due to our expectation of what was to come, and since this failing is one which I have never cured, I have the more reverence for Mansel who, I think, could await the Powers of Darkness themselves without turning a hair.

  Presently we heard the drone of a car climbing into the woods, and Hanbury and I passed out of the great gateway and sat down behind the chapel where we could not be seen.

  As I afterwards found, the car contained five men, all of whom alighted, three only of whom spoke. These three were Ellis, the man whom I had knocked down and the other who had answered Mansel at the level-crossing. The last was addressed by his companions as “Rose”—Mansel told us later that he was undoubtedly Rose Noble, a man of some position among thieve—and my friend was called “Punter,” though whether that was a nickname I cannot say.

  The car came to rest on the terrace, and we heard them alight but for a moment or two they spoke between themselves, as though they had not seen Mansel, and believed the courtyard empty.

  Then:

  “Can I help you?” said Mansel.

  When Ellis replied, his voice was shaking, and his speech thick with wrath.

  “Yes,” he said, “you can. You can pop along off my land. That’ll save me the trouble of putting you out.”

  “Oh, are you my landlord?” said Mansel. “Because, if you are, you can help me to clean out your well. It seems to have been used as a cemetery, and I didn’t come here to get typhoid.”

  Ellis began to rave, but Rose Nobel put him aside. “What’s this wash about landlords?”

  “It’s very simple,” said Mansel, stifling a yawn. “If he owns this estate, he’s my landlord. If he doesn’t, he isn’t. So in any event the question of putting me out will not arise. But I tell you frankly I’m fed up about this well. Supposing—”

  “Cut it out,” said Rose Noble. “Ellis here’s got you down. This place was for sale, and he’s bought it.”

  “And I hold a fifty years’ lease,” said Mansel. “If he wasn’t told, he should have been. But perhaps they thought if he knew he wouldn’t buy. And now about this well. When I took the place I was given to understand—”

  “You’re a great believer in bluff,” said Rose Noble. “You don’t believe me?” said Mansel. “Well, that’s as you please. But if I am not here of right, why did they give me the keys?”

  There was a moment’s silence.

  Then:

  “Lease be damned,” roared Ellis. “I’ve bought the — place.”

  “That gives you,” said Mansel, “no shadow of right to be here. Unless I’m behind with my rent, you can’t set a foot on this land—for fifty years.”

  At this there was a great uproar, and I slipped into the road and up as close as I dared, to see that all was well.

  Rose Noble and Punter were holding back Ellis, while Mansel was sitting still upon the rim of the well, with one leg cocked over the other, and a pipe in his mouth.

  Presently the storm abated, and Ellis suffered Punter to lead him away to the car, on the step of which he sat down and mopped his face, while Rose Noble continued to play the hand.

  “Leases and what-not,” he said, “don’t cut much ice with me. The Law’s well enough in its place, but I guess we can do without it this afternoon.”

  ‘If you mean,” said Mansel, “tha
t you want to stay here and talk, I won’t ask you to withdraw for a quarter of an hour.”

  That,” said Rose Noble quietly, “is exactly what I meant.”

  With that, he took out a cigar and leaned his back against a tree.

  Do you seriously think,” he said, “that we’re going to sit right down and let you lift the treasure under our eyes?”

  Not for one moment,” said Mansel cheerfully.

  “Then,” said Rose Noble, “why don’t you face the facts. We’re five to one and two boys: this isn’t exactly Holborn: and we’re not afraid to strike.”

  “I know Ellis isn’t,” said Mansel.

  At that Ellis started up with a volley of oaths, but Rose Noble cursed him into silence, and returned to the charge.

  “You know where that treasure is?”

  “I do and I don’t,” said Mansel. “To be perfectly frank, I was going to start looking today, but this infernal well has upset my plans. You must have water, you know.”

  “Quit that line,” said the other sharply. “And tell me—what do you know?”

  “Yes, I see the fire-arm,” said Mansel. “But it doesn’t faze me. Unless I misjudged you, you’re not going to make the mistake which was made not far from Chartres three weeks ago.”

  “How long are we going to stand this?” he cried.

  “Put it across the — once for all. Shove the cards on the table. I’m sick of being chewed.”

  Rose Noble disregarded him.

  “You drew on me,” he said quietly, “by the side of the railway line. You made a hole in my car.”

  “Two,” said Mansel. “Two holes, counting the petrol-tank.”

  The other lighted his cigar.

  “Two holes,” he said slowly. “And Punter knocked down. And in spite of all that, I’m going give you your choice.” He threw away the match and folded his arms. “Give us your map or plan or note or whatever it is; give up possession quietly; give me your word to keep out of Austria for the next six months, and I’ll let the three of you go.”