The Smuggler's Cave

by George A. Birmingham

"I've always known you were quite right, Agatha, dear," said the vicar plaintively, "and that I ought to do something wrong. My difficulty was to find out something that I could do. I really didn't want to restore a church or write a book about heretics, and nothing else seemed to offer itself. But now—— Lord Colavon, I'm greatly obliged to you, and I regard this as just the opportunity I wanted. Agatha dearest, don't say anything more."

But that was asking too much of Mrs. Eames. She did say a great deal more, though nothing to dissuade the vicar from his determination to pursue the crown of sainthood through the ways of wrong-doing. Having withdrawn her opposition to Jimmy's plan she flung herself eagerly into a discussion of the best ways of carrying it out. There were a great many details to be arranged. Young Bunce's tackle, for instance, which was still in the church, was plainly insufficient for the work of hoisting things out of the cave. The rope was not long enough. As the police were blocking the ordinary entrance to the cave someone would have to be let down to the cave and afterwards hoisted up. Jimmy volunteered for the work but objected to trusting his life to young Bunce's frayed rope. He proposed to buy a new outfit of ropes and blocks, some materials for the erection of a derrick in the church and perhaps a windlass. It was regarded as undesirable to make such purchases in Morriton St. James, where the suspicions of the police might easily be aroused. Here the Pallas Athene proved its value. With such a car it would be possible to rush off to Southampton, thence to Portsmouth, afterwards, if necessary, to Plymouth, places in which such gear might be purchased, a rope here and a block there, without giving rise to inquiries.

There was the question, a much more difficult one, of the disposal of the smuggled goods after they had been lodged in the church.

"They can be piled up in the old pew in the chancel," said Mrs. Eames, "and the curtains drawn. No one ever goes there."

"But they can't always stay there," said the vicar. "I shouldn't like the feeling that the church was full of brandy."

"I don't see how we could possibly take all that stuff away," said Beth, "or where we could put it if we did."

Here Mary made a suggestion, though not a very helpful one.

"I'll carry my stockings away with me," she said, "and I'll take yours, too, if you like, Beth."

"Couldn't we leave it to Hinton and Linker to take away their own things?" said Beth.

"Certainly not," said Mrs. Eames vindictively. "It was Hinton and Linker who got us into this trouble, and I'll never agree to their being rewarded for it."