Prison Ship (16 page)

We rowed again in silence. After twenty minutes we both began to tire. ‘Nearly there,' I said.

Then a fin drifted past the starboard side of the boat.

‘Oh Jesus,' said Richard. ‘He's back.'

An idea flashed into my head. I passed my oar over to Richard. ‘You row.'

I moved carefully to the stern and scanned the surface. The shark was there ten yards off, biding its time. I picked up a snapper from the catch of fish in our bucket and heaved it over. The cruel mouth cut through the water and devoured the fish in an instant.

‘Keep going.'

Whenever he drew dangerously near I threw in another fish.

We both found the whole thing almost funny. ‘Not so much as a thank you,' said Richard. ‘What an ill-mannered shark.'

By the time we reached the quay there were only three fish left. I threw them all out, to give us enough time to clamber out of the boat.

We sat down on dry land and both began to laugh hysterically. The good fortune we felt at our escape was marred only by Henry Coates who insisted on charging us for his broken boat hook.

‘That'll be a pound,' he said.

‘Come off it, Henry,' said Richard. ‘You can buy them for ten shillings in the store down town.'

‘Mine was a pound,' he said.

We paid up. He knew, and we knew, that we would not be going fishing again.

As we sat sipping beer with James and Orlagh in the Sailor's Arms one Sunday afternoon, our thoughts turned to Lewis Tuck. ‘He's working in the prison, I've heard,' Richard told me. ‘One week in three he works overnight. I think we ought to pay his house a visit. See if we can play a little prank on him.'

‘You know where he lives?' I asked.

‘Just on the edge of town. He's bought himself a nice little cottage near the timber yard.'

We told our friends about what a bullying thug he'd been. Orlagh, in particular, was greatly amused by the
idea of us carrying out some sort of revenge on the man. ‘I like to see a bully get a dose of his own medicine.'

We had another tankard of ale then all four of us walked over to the western side of Sydney to take a look. From a safe distance behind a high hedge we could see a pretty cottage surrounded by tall gum trees. Tuck had chosen his spot well. There was little else around the house other than lush meadows and a freshwater stream.

‘Are you sure it's his?' I said.

‘Yeah. I think so anyway. Rylett at the Navy office told me,' replied Richard.

A wicked plan came to me in a flash of diabolical inspiration. ‘If we find out when he's working the night watch we could sneak out here and see if we can cut one of those trees to fall right down on the roof!' I thought it would impress Orlagh, and sure enough, in our drunken state, the idea seemed so wonderful we all laughed until our stomachs ached.

Just as we began to walk back home, Tuck came out of his front door and started to bustle around his small garden. We lay still by the hedge careful not to be seen. It was his house for sure. Seeing him strutting around, Orlagh said, ‘He
does
look like he needs bringing down a peg.'

Even when we had slept off our lunchtime drinking it still seemed like a good idea. ‘Not a word to Doctor Daniel, though,' I said to Richard. ‘I doubt he'd approve.'

Our friend Rylett in the Navy office had a drinking partner who was one of the guards at the prison. We found out he worked the same watch as Tuck. When we saw him in the Sailor's Arms, we always asked him how things were with the prison. One evening, when the moon was waning, he let slip he would not be in the pub all the next week because he was working the night watch. Our chance had come.

The night of Tuesday 16th May was pleasantly cool with a warm east wind blowing in across the town. Autumn had arrived in Sydney, but here it was like a lovely spring day back home in Norfolk. It rained a bit more, but it was still mild and rarely cold. We had thought our plan through carefully. Richard and me set off with Orlagh, who had begged us to take her along. We left at nine o'clock in the evening. If we were out too late, we might raise suspicions with the soldiers who patrolled the streets. We carried a heavy saw wrapped in a canvas bag, newly purchased from Simeon Lord's Commission Warehouse. As we headed over to Tuck's we double-checked our story.

‘We've been having a drink in the Sailor's Arms with Harry Stokes. He's a carpenter by trade and he's just left his saw behind, so we're returning it to him. Got that?' said Richard.

‘Where does Harry live again?' I asked.

‘Close by the windmill and government bakery. That's right on the western end of the town. Once we're past there, all we need to do is keep off the roads and head for Tuck's.'

Sure enough, we were stopped a couple of times by the patrols. They were not unfriendly and merely asked us what we were doing. Our explanation seemed quite reasonable. This all seemed like a great adventure.

We reached Tuck's around half past nine, and peered through the darkness at his cottage. Not a single light could be seen. ‘He's out, let's go!'

We selected a tall tree behind the house. It was a splendid choice. Thin trunk, but wide, spreading boughs and high enough to fall with some force by the time it hit Tuck's roof.

Richard and I sawed together, slightly alarmed that the noise our blade made gnawing into the wood would travel through the night air. Orlagh kept watch for us but we still stopped at regular intervals to listen, trying to pick up any sound other than the frequent gusts of wind. She whispered for us to stop only once, when two people passed close by with a noisy dog.

Two minutes later we were sawing again, and within ten minutes the trunk was almost sawed through. Richard had a bright idea. ‘Let's leave it like this. Next time there's a really fierce wind, it'll blow right over. And we'll be gone with a bit of luck.'

‘Yes, but will it blow the right way?' I said.

‘But we've cut it so it can only fall forward!' He was beginning to sound impatient.

My conscience was bothering me. Now we were so near to completing our prank, I had begun to feel guilty about going through with it. But I didn't want to look spineless in front of Orlagh.

She could see we were faltering. ‘Do it now,' she said. ‘No one's in. If it falls later, it might kill him, and anyone else who might be in the house. Then you'd be up for murder, if they caught you.'

It was practical advice, I suppose. Then I thought of Tuck beating me in front of the crew of the
Miranda
because I had accidentally spilt tar on the deck.

Richard and I both nodded, stood up and leaned on the trunk. There was barely a half inch left uncut close to the roots and this quickly splintered as the tree began its passage to the ground. It hit the house with a mighty wallop and splintering of roof and walls that must have been heard all over the western side of Sydney.

We all ran like blazes before any of Tuck's neighbours could get over to investigate.

‘What did you do with the saw?' said Richard when we stopped in some bushes to get our breath back.

‘What did
I
do with it?' I said. ‘I thought
you
had it.'

Richard looked angry. Orlagh cut him short. ‘Look, he's hardly going to believe the ants ate the tree trunk is
he? He'll see it's been cut down with a saw, so it doesn't really matter whether he finds the one you left.'

We ran off into the dark. The fun had gone out of our escapade. Whenever we heard or spotted patrols in front of us, we hid till they were gone. I felt fear now, rather than excitement. If we were caught and linked to the destruction of Tuck's house, we would be flogged at the very least, maybe even hanged. By half past eleven we had reached the safety of the Rocks. As ever, the streets were still full of people, and the pub was doing a roaring trade. We slunk quietly back home, trying our best not to wake Doctor Dan.

A few days later I was cooking supper at home for the three of us. Richard and Doctor Dan were sitting outside in the garden, catching the last of the late afternoon sun. I heard Richard say in a low voice, ‘Look out Sam, that bastard Tuck's coming to see us.'

I came out into the garden to see Lewis Tuck marching purposefully up to our house. He had a face like thunder and was clutching the saw in his right hand.

As he came to our garden path Doctor Dan looked up. ‘Can we help you, sir?'

Tuck ignored him. Richard and I were standing by the door and he came right up to us and snarled in our faces. ‘I know it was you. My neighbour Henry Rickards said he saw two boys and a girl running away as soon as the
tree fell. Couldn't see who in the dark, but
I'm
sure the two boys were you. And I've just been to see the warehouse manager. He says he sold you this saw last Thursday.' He waved it in our faces. ‘It's in his ledger.'

‘We had our saw stolen last Saturday,' said Richard, with brazen ingenuity. ‘We were cutting wood for a picket fence around the garden and I foolishly left it out overnight. Vanished in the morning. That looks exactly like the one we had, so if it's not yours perhaps you could let us have it back.'

Tuck was seething with rage. I feared at any moment he would grab one of us by the throat.

Doctor Dan intervened. ‘What is the problem here, sir?'

Tuck always did kowtow to his betters, and even though he knew Daniel was a convict he spoke to him as he would an officer.

‘These boys, sir, on Tuesday evening, have maliciously sawed down a tree on my property so that it fell on my house, almost demolishing it.'

‘I'm very sorry to hear about your misfortune, sir. But I can assure you neither Sam nor Richard could have done something so stupid. Both of them spent the entire Tuesday evening here in the house with me.'

Tuck knew he was going to get no further.

Turning to Richard and me he said in a low, mean voice, ‘I'll see you little buggers swing for this if it's
the last thing I do.'

He stomped off down the street.

Richard and I had a fit of sniggering as soon as he disappeared from view. Doctor Dan said nothing. When he spoke he was really angry. ‘You bloody idiots. What the hell did you think you were doing?'

His voice was shaking and we had never seen him in such a fury. We were both shocked into silence.

Doctor Dan carried on in a voice that was cold with disgust. ‘And who was it with you? One of your ne'er-do-well friends from the pub, I'll bet. Was she impressed with your prank? You have both been extraordinarily stupid. If he can prove it was you, you'll be hanged if you're lucky, and sent to one of the country iron gangs if you're not. How does that strike you? Seven years chained together, with six other thugs. That'll wipe the smiles off your stupid faces. And if he does get a court to convict you, I'll be flogged too, for lying to protect you. How do you feel about that?'

Our mirth had dissolved. My chest felt tight and it was all I could do not to cry.

Daniel went on, ‘And if he can't get a court to convict you, he'll just murder you in your beds, or on the way back from the pub, or when you're taking a Sunday stroll around the bay. How d'you like the sound of that?'

His anger spent, he started to sound more concerned.
‘You didn't think this through, did you?'

‘It'll blow over,' said Richard, but his bravado was not convincing.

We barely spoke for the rest of the evening and I went to bed with a heavy heart.

Walking back from work alone, on a chilly Thursday afternoon, I was wrapped up in my troubles. We had seen Tuck around town several times since his visit. He greeted us both with an icy politeness, and his eyes brimmed with malice. I kept thinking of Doctor Dan's warning: ‘He'll just murder you in your beds.'

It was now a week since the incident. No soldiers or marines had come to drag us from our home. Whatever clues we left were clearly not enough to convince the authorities. All the more reason for Tuck to take matters into his own hands.

Richard had said, ‘He's up to something, all right. From now on, I'm sleeping with a knife under my pillow. You too, Sam, if you've any sense.'

But I didn't think Tuck would come for us in our own hut. He'd have to kill Dan too, and then, if he were caught, he'd be hanged. On the
Miranda
he was known to be a first-class shot with a musket, and I thought he might try to shoot us both from a distance, when there were few people around – perhaps when we took a walk around the town on a Sunday or on our way home from
work. I had become tense and nervous, and jumped at any sudden sound. My sleep had become fitful and in my dreams Tuck would loom out of the darkness, like the shark had loomed up from the deep, his teeth sharp and gleaming, a cold, dead look in his eyes.

I could not believe my own stupidity. What was it James Lyons had said about not making enemies? Richard and I had only talked a little about what we had done since. Although we had yet to start blaming the other for the idea, we were sullen and distant with each other, which hurt me. Orlagh, too, had not been back to the pub since we had seen her that night. Perhaps she felt guilty about encouraging us to do something so stupid? In truth, I was glad not to see her. I was afraid she'd start drunkenly boasting about our escapade, and soon the whole town would know what we'd done.