The Cortés Enigma (8 page)

“That’s right.”

Kernow raised his eyebrows. “That’d be one hell of a mission back in 1905. I’m guessing he must’ve had a good reason?”

“I’m guessing he must’ve had one, too,” Ben tried to speak but stuttered. “Listen, friend.” He used Kernow’s word. “Sometime in the last week you ventured to the place where I want to go. I’d very much like to see it.”

“If it helps you out, I can show you the boat right now.”

“You have it here?”

“Matter of fact, I do.”

6

Ben followed Kernow through a small passageway that intercepted the grey walls of surrounding buildings. After twenty metres they came to a small harbour, constructed specifically for use by the local fishermen. Several boats, ranging from schooners to rowboats, floated alongside wooden jetties, their anchors dropped, and thick ropes attached to nearby poles. The vessels were clearly well maintained, the sunlight bringing out the best in the paintwork.

“These your boats?”

“Mostly.”

Kernow walked along the main jetty past four boats, all of which were pristine and seaworthy. He followed the boardwalk to the right and entered a boathouse, this one much larger than the garage.

Ben stopped at the entrance, taking in the scene. Three large boats were undergoing maintenance, all attached to heavy metal railings, which kept them off the ground.

It was like entering a mechanic’s workshop.

Only for boats.

Kernow gestured to the nearest of the three. “That’s the
Dunster
.”

Ben didn’t feel how he expected to feel. Growing up in the shadow of TF, he had been captivated in childhood by stories of great sea voyages, lost worlds, lost treasures, ancient crafts capable of surviving even the deadliest storm. What he saw was something of an anticlimax. The wooden hull had almost completely caved in at the front, suggesting to Ben that much of the boat had been destroyed.

He walked along the port side, inspecting the damage. Unlike the other two boats, this one was clearly a wreck. Rotting wood, a smashed up stern and a broken mast had left it severely disfigured. Despite significant damage to the forward port side, which indicated possible heavy contact with jagged rocks, the upper part of the boat was in better condition. The same was true of the starboard side.

That was when he saw it. A large wooden sign located near the bow, confirming the name of the ship. It struck him like a thunderbolt, confirmation of what he had once believed to be impossible.

The
Dunster
had indeed been found.

He walked around the ship a second time, taking in every feature. While much of what he saw agreed with what he had seen from the photos, what struck him most was the smell. During his career, he had become accustomed to the stench of silt. It was a natural smell, one difficult to explain without having experienced it. It was a smell he associated with the sea. Familiar, but powerful.

“I’ve never known silt to smell so bad.”

“That’s the lack of oxygen,” Kernow answered. “Hundred years in a dark cocoon, and that’s what happens.”

Ben ran his fingers through his hair as he completed another circumference of the
Dunster
. He decided the vessel was impressive, considering.

“What happened?”

“As a matter of fact, I was hoping you could tell me,” the sailor replied, taking a seat at a wooden table by one of the walls. Like the nearby garage, it had grey concrete walls and smelled, silt aside, like a tool shed. “Takes a brave man to sail down to Hell’s Bay – even in this day and age.”

“What’s Hell’s Bay?”

“Only the worst area for shipwrecks on any of the islands.”

“Where is it?”

Kernow pointed to his left, the nearest wall. Posters and charts covered much of the wall, including a four inches to the mile scale map of the Isles of Scilly. “Here. That’s Hell’s Bay.”

Ben followed Kernow’s finger and examined the area close up. From a bird’s-eye view, the island was basically a horseshoe, its near-perfect shape distorted only by some coastal erosion toward the south-east. He saw the name Old Town located on the opposite side of the island from another former settlement called New Town. He found Hell’s Bay overlooking the coast on the south-east side.

“A prime area for shipwrecks, you say?”

“You know how long I’ve sailed these waters, friend? All my life, that’s how long. You ever considered how dangerous it is – taking the long route round Tresco when a storm’s brewing? Taking in a fresh batch of cod around Land’s End with a rip tide imminent?” He shook his head and laughed, a long low drone. “In his own way your grandfather was lucky. See, as far as we know, he was alone. It’s a different game when you’re playing with the lives of your crew.”

Ignoring him, Ben continued to concentrate on St Lide’s. According to the map, there were other things on the island. At the north-western tip was a former Roman fort overlooking the coast toward the island of St Agnes. On the east side, the island consisted of several acres of greenery, the main feature of which was something named the Giants’ Table: three standing stones that reminded him of the ones at Stonehenge. A winding pathway led south to a ruined castle surrounded by an isolated and rockier area. Hell’s Bay.

“Why’s it called Hell’s Bay?”

The question amused the local. “Tradition of the old islanders tells that when making his hermitage on the island, St Lide was tormented for months and months by some large and unscrupulous creature. Kind of like a leviathan only bigger and more real.”

“Bigger and more real?”

“People on the nearby islands feared the place. Fishermen refused to go anywhere near it.”

Ben remained sceptical, at least of the monster. In theory the shipwreck part of the story made more sense. Judging by the geography, it seemed reasonable to believe Hell’s Bay would be the first area of land a boat would encounter.

“In your opinion, why would someone living a hundred years ago take a boat there?”

The man shrugged. “Your ancestor have an interest in wrecks?”

“Possibly.”

“You say he was an explorer?”

“Yes.” Ben decided against mentioning anything about the Cortés treasure. “Show me where he was found, and there’s £500 in it for you.”

Kernow saw Ben remove his wallet and show him the contents. Though he doubted it amounted to £500, it confirmed he was being serious.

“All right. If we’re going to do this, let’s do it now before the wind picks up.”

7

Chris stayed in the dining room after finishing breakfast. As the early morning rush came to an end, the inn’s various guests vacated their tables, many of them heading out to explore the island’s sights and scenery while the sun was out, leaving their white plates – littered with the remains of full English breakfasts, toast crusts and empty bowls of cereal – to be cleared away by the staff. With the morning rush over, the room took on a different feel. Like many establishments on the island, part of the dining room was also open to non-guests. At 9:30 breakfast was officially over, at which point the café opened, its appealing aroma of fresh tea and coffee, cakes and warm buns attracting couples in off the streets, tourists from England or further afield, enjoying a relaxing morning in the salty air.

Chris moved from his two-seater table by the lobby, through the archway of a partitioning wall that split the dining room in two, and took a seat at a table by the window. He ordered an espresso from Valeria, who smiled warmly at him when she delivered it. He added brown sugar from two sachets as she departed, walking across the cream-coloured carpet in her usual white blouse and black skirt, complementing her long tight stockings. He smiled to himself.

A perfect morning complete.

With the waitress gone, he took the first sip from his coffee, placed it down on a coaster, and turned his thoughts to TF’s diary that was lying open in front of him.

He knew Ben would kill him if he spent another day procrastinating.

He turned to page one.

I was walking through the graveyard when I first caught sight of a splendid stone Romanesque structure, the like of which never before in my sixty-one years had I ever imagined could exist in such a remote area.

A gravedigger was present at the time, tending the graves and repairing damage that had been caused by extreme weather that had plagued these rugged isles since the winter. I addressed him in the most jovial voice I could muster, I must confess during my two days on the nearby island I had lost much of my spirit to the cold, and asked him if he knew about Wilcox.

Chris skimmed through the next two pages. TF had clearly visited a graveyard in hope of finding the grave of an ancestor, apparently named Wilcox, who he found, along with two others, located on the south side of the nearby church. His interest picked up as TF spoke again with the gravedigger, at first about some kind of monument dedicated to lost sailors, and then something different altogether.

It was at this moment that my attention, which for so long had been focused only on the finding of my dear relative, being suddenly relieved of its previous engagement became taken by an area of unkempt graves on a hill bordering the lines of the churchyard. At this moment I found myself intrigued, who were these forgotten blighters, and what names covered their places of rest?

As I found myself battling through the thick vegetation, the like of which was unique to this part of the graveyard on this particular February day, I caught sight of six rugged stones, each one smaller and less defined than any other I had so far seen. On my subsequent visit, a few hours later, I thought it wise to make diagrams, but at this moment I found myself transfixed on the surprisingly rare symbols I had previously seen only across the sea in Spain, and many others only in the land of the Americas. In total I counted six of these headstones: while the first five contained only one symbol, of which I was aware, the last, and loosest, contained not only the familiar shape of a two-headed eagle, but a great many other things.

Chris sipped again from his coffee as he followed the story of TF and the mysterious gravestones. It became clear that TF recognised that the double-headed eagle symbol was potentially ambiguous, but he was particularly intrigued by the markings on the sixth stone. After Chris had read the story of TF’s strange encounter with the parish vicar and then the locals at the tavern that was open on Sunday, the diary contained a report of how he became acquainted with the tale of a Spanish shipwreck, apparently told by a fifteen-year-old boy, the son of the tavern owner.

On our return to the church, the young boy, whose name was Sam, pointed out to me things that in my great haste and apparent sloppiness I had failed to take in properly on my previous visits.

Firstly, the name of the original family who settled on the island, written on the grave markers as Slater, is, in fact, a far more recent creation and had only been adopted in the late 1700s. The original settlers,
whose original name in the minds of the wider community seems forgotten, was apparently engraved into the stonework of old; however, so worn are the faces I could no longer make sense of the lettering. Their very relevance, of which my new and energetic acquaintance attempted to emphasise, still made no sense to me, nor during the rest of the day would I uncover it, but I am sure whatever the facts of the family’s long history it accounted for the strange symbols that brought me to that tavern and the interest of young Sam.

Secondly, and aside from my attempts to discover that name which may, or may not, still be recorded among the annals of the local community, the Lady Chapel off the main altar is a most angelic place, the irony of my choice of words I have no hesitation in suggesting is lost on all who visit unless one knows precisely for what it is one is looking. While one might be easily forgiven for mistaking the identity of the two stone angels that surround the tomb of the man revered as being the island’s founder – and after who the island was named – I was most surprised when young Sam illustrated to me so vividly how much more there was to these stone faces than initially meets the eye. After taking the time to inspect what I had assumed to be two of the archangels, most likely Gabriel and Michael, I saw to my great surprise the face, not only of a man, but also a woman. While the man, to my eye, it cannot be proved or disproved, was of Spanish features, perhaps from the time of the great armada, the woman’s appearance was far more difficult to comprehend. Her long hair, either golden or brown, the stone was unclear, was it seems a woman of Mexican features, which I also thought curious, as the local demographic suggests nothing of the sort should exist. Furthermore, when I asked young Sam of her significance, he intimated, albeit as non-directly as his humour would muster, that her story was intrinsic to finding the answers to this long-forgotten riddle.