Churchyard and Hawke by E.V. Thompson Page B

to the protests of his fellow passengers that they were respectable men and women who had come from London merely in order to enjoy a brief holiday in Cornwall. Their credibility was further eroded when a search of their possessions revealed a number of forged tickets to the Laneglos Ball.
    The raid on the Mermaid had been successful in that most of the men on the list of names given to Amos by Dolly had been accounted for. With the arrest of Dolly and Shannon it removed the threat posed to the Cornish gentry at their Laneglos gathering - but among those not accounted for were the known Hoxton ruffians. In their number were many of the Banks family. The majority were convicted burglars and it was logical to presume these were the villains planning to burgle the homes of gentry attending the ball.
    It proved that Dolly had told them the truth . . . but Amos was still deeply concerned. She had been unable to give any details of where the missing men might have gone, or their intended targets. Amos realized his work was far from over.
    The disgruntled passengers and crew on board the Mermaid refused to throw any light on the whereabouts of the missing men, the crew members saying only that some passengers had left the vessel, claiming they knew neither their names, nor how many were involved.
    As Tom was quick to point out to Amos, the crew members came from the London docklands where many workers and seamen were from the same district of the city as the Banks family. They were unlikely to give any information about them to the police, even if they knew.
    ‘That’s true, Tom,’ Amos said, ‘but we both know the Banks family and those who work with them are violent men and most are professional burglars, I’m seriously worried about having them at large in Cornwall. The only advantage we have is that they aren’t yet aware that we know what is being planned by them. They will expect to be able to bring the proceeds of their burglaries back to the Mermaid and set sail for London before we realize what has happened.’
    ‘You don’t think they might come back to the boat before carrying out the burglaries, learn what’s happened and abandon their plans, making their way back to London as best they can?’ Tom asked.
    Amos shook his head, ‘I don’t think so. If any of them do come back here we’ll have men waiting on the quay to arrest them, but I believe they’ll have gone off to check out the places they intend burgling tonight and remain close to those houses until nightfall . . . and we have no idea which houses they are!’
    When Tom could suggest no answer to the problem Amos said, ‘Well, we’ll just have to do the best we can. We’ve taken the names of everyone on board. We’ll take the escaped prisoner back to Bodmin with us and inform London that he’s here. Then I’ll have someone go through the wanted files to see if anyone else on board is mentioned. Meanwhile the Mermaid can be towed out of Looe and anchored a mile offshore with a coastguard boat remaining nearby to keep an eye on it until the ball is over. That should keep those on board out of mischief. I’ll put constables to watch this berth just in case anyone returns looking for the Mermaid and in the meantime give some thought to what we can do about those we haven’t managed to catch.’
    ‘Do you think I might get any ideas if I went back to Laneglos and spoke to the housekeeper there?’ Tom put the question to Amos as they rode back to Bodmin in one of the coaches.
    Despite the seriousness of the present situation, Amos smiled, ‘I think you’ve already formed a number of ideas as a result of your last visit to Miss Wicks. Keep calling in on her and she’ll be the one to get ideas.’ He was only half-joking. Tom had mentioned the Laneglos housekeeper on more than one occasion since his return from his visit to the great house.
    Trying unsuccessfully to hide his embarrassment, Tom said, ‘I’m merely trying to be constructive, Sir.