Three Ships

Chapter Six

Laura cried out but her father held her firm. She looked at him and he kept his head down tooin case Blackwell, standing aghast only a hundred feet away, turned and saw him grinning.

"Calm yourself, dear girl," her father reassured her as Blackwell now ran over to the cliff edge, "not everything is as it appears. Trust me – the lieutenant is perfectly safe."

More of Blackwell's men joined him on the cliff edge and he ordered them to descend in search of their companions.

Laura cocked her head. "What have you and he been up to?"

"No time to talk now. Get up the tower, my girl, and hoist a new message. We need help from the shore."

Laura nodded, already mentally counting out the signal flags she would need.

"What are you going to be doing?" she asked.

"I'll secure the cottage then join you in the lighthouse. Our friend Mister Blackwell will not be happy shortly."

Satisfied with the arrangements, Laura retrieved the flag box and climbed halfway up the stairs to the small window. She pulled the previous signal in like so much laundry, then set the new message.

She completed the climb to the top and looked out. Even without a spyglass, Laura could see stirring on the shore already. She chanced a look over in the other direction. A flushed and angry Blackwell stood halfway between the cliff-edge and the lighthouse, looking up at the signal flags and her. Laura offered a cheeky wave.

His face turned a furious puce shade before he turned and erupted into a tremendous bellow to his men on the edge of the cliff now hauling their injured compatriots up off the rocks below.

Milly the goat wandered into view, her ears erect at Blackwell's roar. Laura watched the animal's head drop as it ran as fast as her four little legs could take her – right at Blackwell's rear.

The man was cannoned onto his face and Milly bleated her satisfaction before trotting off.

Laura doubled over in laughter but then stopped abruptly asa door slammed downstairs and there came the sound of drawers being opened and closed violently. Her heart pounded. The villains were inside and ransacking her home!

Then came her father's voice: "Laura! Where's my telescope?"

Her heart resumed its normal rhythm.

"I have it up here with me," she called down.

She heard him close and bolt the connecting door to the tower and start making his way, seat first, up the stairs.

"Head up to the light and tell me what you see," he called ahead.

From her vantage point, she could see Blackwell had regathered what remained of his dignity and his men. The leader gesticulated wildly with his cutlass. She then trained the telescope across to Ashton-On-Sea.

The townsfolk, attracted by the flare, were now reacting to the flags. Shesaw MrFletcher and Dickie, the Reverend Harman and a few other townsmen casting off in the roiling and choppy waves that still separated St Joseph's Rock from the shore.

Laura relayed the information to her father.

"And what of Renten?" his disembodied voice demanded. "Check the schooner!"

"The schooner? How on earth did he get there?"

She edged around the lantern to look south though the telescope. Renten was just bringing a dinghy alongside the schooner.

Her father spoke from the doorway as he struggled to his feet.

"Where the lieutenant dropped off the edge of the cliff is a small ledge and fissure. You know the Rock is full of them. That one leads across to the ocean side but is narrow and hazardous. The lieutenant's mission was to draw Blackwell's men shore side then slip through to their vessel."

Laura put the glass back to her eye and could see the lieutenant's dark hair ruffle in the breeze and his shirt stretched taut across his back as he hefted a small barrel on to his shoulder.

"What in heaven's name is he doing?"

Renten nimbly climbed up a rope ladder and tossed the barrel on the deck before scrambling up over the deck rail himself.

"He has a surprise planned for our visitors," said her father, limping to her side

Laura passed the telescope to him. To her surprise, he didn't spare a moment looking at Renten, but instead set the focus on the brigands on the ground.

They too had noticed the two small boats from Ashton-On-Sea making their way to Saint Joseph's Rock. Blackwell's men had gathered around him.

Without the advantage of the telescope, Laura could only guess at what they were saying. They did not look at all pleased.

"We need more time," he father muttered, handing her the telescope once again.

"More time for what?" she asked to an empty room. Her father was already making his way downstairs.

She followed after him.

"Father!"

He was hobbling precariously down the stairs for speed, putting the least weight possible on his injured foot.

"We need a further distraction. The signal cannon should do it," he called back to her.

Laura followed him into the kitchen where he opened the pantry door. From behind a sack of potatoes, he pulled out a small barrel similar to the one she had seen the lieutenant carrying.

"Gunpowder! Mother would be cross at you bringing a whole barrel into the house!"

He ignored her scolding, instead telling her to fetch along couple of the small cannon balls he had hidden among the onions.

Outside, on the eastern side of the lighthouse, the small cannon stood pointing out to sea.

Her father prepared the cannon, priming it with gunpowder and lighting the fuse as Laura nervously waited for them to be discovered by one of Blackwell's men.

As good fortune would have it, they remained out of sight behind the cottage, arguing volubly with their leader.

"Right-o Laura, get back inside– "

Bang!

The little cannon fired, the report disproportionately loud to its small size, and it immediately attracted attention.

In fact, before they could go more than a few paces, ten men with cutlasses drawn stood between them and the safety of the cottage.

Blackwell stepped forward.

"You," he thundered, his arm shaking with fury as he pointed to them. "You two have become too meddlesome."

"Big Arms! No Nose! Take them inside and tie them up." The two men who stepped forward clearly deserved their nicknames.They pinned their arms behind their backs and began marching them towards the cottage, Laura's father moaning in pain at being forced to put weight on his injured ankle.

Behind them, Blackwell roared at his men.

"The rest of you find that fool Smithy and look for Tinder while you're at it. He's not been seen since first light. He can't have gone far on this flyspeck."

Close to the cottage, the lighthouse keeper stumbled.

"Father!" Laura cried out in alarm. "You big brute, let go of me. My father is hurt!"

After a few strong tugs, No Nose decided to let her go. She rushed to her father and wrapped her arms around him.

"Just a few moments more," he muttered. "A few moments more..."

"Hey! What you be mutterin' 'bout?" Big Arms asked.

Laura helped her father back to his feet and he took a hesitant step towards the cottage. Then a smile split his face as a flash of light, brighter than the sun, was reflected in the cottage windows.

Laura turned rapidly to see the strange phenomenon and a fraction later the sound caught up.

BOOM!