CHAPTER X

SIR JOHN CUSTANCE COMES UPON THE HOUSE OF HELZEPHRON

Mr. Trewhella was an elderly Cornishman, with welcoming manners, the

native shrewdness of his race, but without guile. We got on famously

from the word "go." He had three bedrooms and a large sitting-room to

let. His wife, who had driven into St. Ives, was, he asserted, a good

cook. As for Thumbwood, he could wait on us and live with the landlord

and his wife. Finally, there was an empty barn which would hold our car

very comfortably.

"And what would you be thinking of paying, zur?" asked Mr. Trewhella.

"I shall leave that to you. I may tell you that the gentleman I am

preparing for his Oxford examination is wealthy. He is a Japanese

nobleman, and as long as you make us comfortable ..."

This had the desired effect. The landlord became expansive in his slow

way, and showed me all over the premises of his quaint and rambling

dwelling. It was a wild and fantastic spot, an ancient haunt of

smugglers and wreckers, I learnt. The back-yard opened straight into the

short pneumatic turf above the cliffs, the brink of which was not more

than two hundred yards away. Here the stream, which flowed past the inn,

descended in a series of miniature cataracts to a tiny cove of

deep-green water, almost enclosed by two towering precipices, crowned

with jagged spires and pinnacles of rock. There was a little scimitar of

golden sand far down at the water's edge, and the scene was one of

savage grandeur that I have rarely known surpassed in all my travels.

As he stood on the height and looked down, I saw something which seemed

strangely out of place. A line of street rails, with wooden rollers at

intervals between them, fell at a dizzy angle from a spot some ten yards

away on the turf, ending abruptly on the level, and in front of a

smallish hut of corrugated iron.

"What is the rail for?" I asked. "Surely you don't haul the

boats"--there were two of them lying on the beach--"right up to the top

of the cliff! It must be two hundred and fifty feet!"

"Nigher three hundred, zur. No. Them rails belong to bring up machinery

and stores for Tregeraint Mine by Carne Zerran. They do come by sea in a

lil' steamboat. 'Tes more convenient so. There be a lil' oil engine in

that shed to haul 'em up in trucks. I let the land, for 'tes all mine

down-along, and they do pay me ten pound a year."

We strolled back to the house, Mr. Trewhella proposing a Cornish pasty

and beer for lunch.

"Now you mention it, that gentleman who was keeping house for you just

now said that he was a mining engineer."

The landlord's big, weather-beaten face wrinkled like a stained window.

He began to heave and chuckle, finally exploding in a bellow of

laughter.

"Mr. Vargus!" he spluttered, "Mr. Vargus! He _thinks_ he be a mining

engineer, but a knows no more about it than my pig! He be a clever

gentleman, sure 'nuf. He do have some braäve knowledge to machinery,

I'll allow. But mining, and tin-mining!"

Mr. Trewhella could find no further words to express his contempt for

the mining attainments of my friend with the refined and evil face.

"You see," the landlord continued, as we ate our pasties, "I'm an old

mine-captain myself, bred and born to it. 'Tedn't likely as I could be

deceived. When I heered that a gentleman had come into Tregeraint Manor

and the old mine, and proposed to work it, I laughed, I did. I know

every inch of Wheal Tregeraint, and fifty years ago it was a fine

property. To-day them amatoors up along'll never get enough tin out to

oxidize, let alone smelt."

"Who are they, then, Mr. Trewhella?"

"That's what lots of folk asked when they first come here in twos and

threes. They're gentlemen, zur, like yourself, that's what they are.

Never was such a thing known in these parts, though folk are used to 'em

now. There's Mr. Helzephron, a Cornishman himself, and should know

better, Mr. Vargus, you seed, Mr. Gascoigne, a mad young devil if you

like, and near a dozen more. They all live together in the greät house

on the cliff and work the mine theyselves. Never no one else allowed.

They cooks and does for themselves, just as if they was in a mining camp

in California."

"No women, servants or anything?"

"Never an apron. My missus belong to say they lives like Popish monks,

which she see when travelling with a lady among the Eyetalians. 'Not so,

my tender dear,' says I. 'I never heered that Popish monks spent most of

their evenings in the village inn with a bottle of Scotch whisky afore

each man, and precious little left by closing time!'"

"A hard-drinking lot then?"

"Wonderful at their liquor. I tell you, zur, it's good for me! Now I've

got used to them and their funny ways, I wish they'd stay for ever.

Speaking from a strictly business point of view, that is. But soon

they'll find out they've lost their money and they'll jack it up. 'Tes

not in reason as they can go on, though they do seem so full of hope and

certainty, as you mind to up! But I _know_."

He was obviously pleased with my interest in his talk. I wondered what

he would have said if he had known who I was and why I was there? Under

a calm exterior, a professor munching potato pasty! I was filled with a

furious excitement. The man's gossip was worth a sovereign a word. Here

was, moment by moment, what looked like complete confirmation of our

suspicions. And yet, even as I realized this, I realized also how

infernally clever the scheme was. Without the clue which Danjuro and

myself alone possessed, there was nothing in the world to connect

Helzephron and Tregeraint with the business that was ruffling the calm

of two continents.

It was not my game to ask more direct questions than I could help. It

was better to let the racy stream flow on, with a word of comment now

and then. I ventured a calculated one now.

"Fools and their money are soon parted," said I.

"You may say that, zur! And they've poured out money like water.

Electric light, oal sorts o' cases full of new-fangled machinery, and

that mystery made about the silly old mine you'd think it was a seam of

diamonds."

"It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good, Mr. Trewhella!" I rose

from the table as I spoke. "But what you say about a dozen or more

gentlemen drinking nearly a bottle of whisky each rather surprises me.

I'm no foe to honest enjoyment, but ..."

I put on a slight primness of manner, as became the character I

sustained.

The landlord nodded vigorously. "'Tes so!" he agreed, "and most onusual.

They be gentlefolk, sure 'nuff, but shall I tell 'ee what I think?"

"What's that?"

"I think as most of 'em's dropped out, so to speak. I shouldn't be

frightened if as their families didn't have anything to say to 'em, and

they've nowhere much else to go. Mr. Helzephron knows what he's about,

he do. I judge by a kind o' reckless way they have, 'specially the

younger gentlemen. They don't seem to mind about ordinary things same as

most. Well, I suppose this fool tin-mining keeps 'em out of mischief."

I wondered.

When I set out upon the return journey I took another route. I found

from the landlord that by skirting the coast for a mile in the direction

of St. Ives I could come upon a moorland path that would take me to the

little railway-station of St. Erth. I could then catch a train for

Penzance. My ostensible reason was to vary my walk, my real one that by

this change of plan I should pass by and have a view of Tregeraint Mine

and the Manor House.

"Not that you'll see much or get close," said Mr. Trewhella.

"How is that?" I asked.

"I told you that Mr. Helzephron"--apparently the hawk-faced man had

dropped his military title in Cornwall--"do make a mystery of his

peddling mine. He goes further than that. The mine buildings and the

house are surrounded by two fences of barbed-wire and the Manor by a

high wall. 'Trespassers,' notice boards belong to say, 'will be

prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law'!"

"Well, I shan't attempt to trespass, Mr. Trewhella!"

The landlord laughed. "Mine prospectin's not in the way of a larned

gentleman like yourself. Maybe it's as well. Mr. Helzephron has got two

dogs he turns out at night, and terrible ugly customers they be. Mr.

Vargus do tell me that they be Tibetan mastiffs, which am the largest

dogs in the world. They look like a sour-faced Newfoundland with heavy

ears, only bigger."

I tramped away from "The Miners' Arms." Although I recognized the fact

that we were only at the fringe of discovery, my mind was made up. Thick

darkness surrounded me, but I was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt

that Major Helzephron, and no other, was the man for whom the whole

world was hunting.

And as I thought of him and the crew of lost and reckless men who did

his will, the fair landscape seemed to darken, the sweet airs to be

tainted....

The path I traversed was the coastguard's path, as I could see by the

white-washed boulders to serve as a guide by night. It was never more

than two or three yards away from the brink of the savage precipices

that fell for two hundred and fifty feet sheer to the water. The ocean

was on my left; on the right the great hill, known as Carne Zerran,

towered up, and the edge of the high moors cut the sky. On that side it

was as though one were walking at the bottom of a cup.

After about half a mile of the path, it suddenly left the cliff edge,

and turned inland. For several hundred yards the brink was guarded by a

semicircle of barbed-wire fence, which made it impossible to approach. A

notice board informed the wayfarer that here, owing to old mining

operations, the cliff was extremely dangerous.

It looked so, indeed. The edge was broken and irregular. I saw that it

ran out in a curious headland for a considerable way, a mere wall of

rock with a razor-back path on the top, which curved round again and ran

parallel to the cliff on which I was, making a mighty chasm from which

rose the cries of innumerable sea-birds. There was a narrow mouth

seawards, and another headland jutted out to make a cove like the one at

the inn, though that, of course, had no winding cañon at the end.

I crept up to the brink, where the wire fence began, and, lying down,

with one arm round the first post, peered over.

It was a terrible place. The rock overhung so for hundreds of yards that

I could not see the bottom. But the other side of the cañon was clear to

view, a great wall of black rock, where sea-hawks nested, and

inaccessible to the boldest climber. To the right the cove seemed to be

of fair size from horn to horn, but it was no tranquil spot like the one

at the back of the inn. Even on a calm day like the present, the

Atlantic ground swell poured in with tremendous force, and was broken

with ferocious whirlpools and spray-fountains by toothed rock-ledges a

foot or two below the surface. The smallest boat could not have entered

Tregeraint Cove and lived there for a moment.

For some reason or other the place affected me most unpleasantly, and

it was with a little shudder that I retreated and skirted the fence

which guarded the dangerous part of the cliff. When I had passed by

this, the path turned at right angles and went inland.

As I turned I saw, perhaps a furlong away, the house of Helzephron.

It lay upon the eastern slope of Carne Zerran, an ancient, grim-looking

house of granite, long, low, and of considerable size. A few stunted

trees grew round about, and a fairly extensive domain of gardens, as I

supposed, surrounded by a high wall. Using my prism glasses, I could see

that this wall was topped by iron spikes. Of course, I was considerably

below Tregeraint as on the sloping hill-side, and it lay quite open to

view. Higher up, and beyond the house, was the derrick, engine-house and

sheds of the mine, with here and there dumps of débris and various

sheds.

Although the wire fences, which I soon made out, went round the whole

property, it lay quite open to the view. And when I had passed it, and

climbed to the table-land of the moor beyond, I saw that it would be

even more open to the eyes--spread out like a map, in short.

One thing was already certain. There was nothing whatever in the nature

of a hangar, no building that could possibly shelter even an ordinary

four or five seater biplane, to say nothing of an air cruiser.

I was not disappointed, because I had hardly expected to meet with

anything of the kind. The pirate ship, you will remember, was--like all

the big long-distance airships--a cross between what used to be known in

the old days as the "seaplane" and the "flying-boat." True, some of our

war aeroplanes of quite large size were fitted with floats that could be

raised, and wheels for land work in addition.

This might be the case with the pirate. But it was not to be thought of

for a moment that a man of Helzephron's intelligence would dare to house

his extraordinary ship where any one of my police could have

investigated simply by showing his badge of office. The land policeman

and the coastguards of the whole English coastline had already reported

on every hangar and aerodrome in the kingdom. If Helzephron was the man

I believed him, I was well aware that we were only at the beginning of

the duel.

I mounted up past the wire fences and the mine. I did not dare to use my

glasses in passing, for I saw in the distance one or two figures of men

strolling about by the engine-house and derrick. But when I was at last

among the heather at the top, I lay down, and took a long survey of the

buildings, drawing a careful map in my pocket-book, which might prove

of great use later on.

I waited half an hour at the little station of St. Erth, and then caught

a train to Penzance, arriving at the hotel about tea-time. As I came

into the lounge, after a wash and brush up, I saw Danjuro sitting in one

corner. He had a pile of newspapers round him, and I saw that the London

journals had arrived.

He handed me one of them as I sat down. A paragraph among the police

news was marked in pencil.

Major Helzephron had been taken to Vine Street Police Station, and

locked up for the night, charged with an aggravated assault on Mr. Wag

Ashton at the Mille Colonnes Restaurant, on the evidence of M. Nicholas

and the head-waiter.

A medical man had attended the Court on behalf of the prosecutor, to say

that Mr. Ashton was too unwell to appear until the morrow. Upon his

promising to attend the Court the next day, Major Helzephron was

admitted to bail.

"That gives us nearly two clear days," said Danjuro. "When Ashton does

appear, he will not press the case, and will own that he gave

provocation; Helzephron will be fined, perhaps let off. I see that

Honourable Ashton battered him a good deal! And now, your news, Sir

John, if you please."