“It was handed down through my family, but I was the only one of my generation with enough interest to ask questions and get the full story,” Ben said quietly. “My father tried to brush it off as rumours but my grandfather insisted it was true. He knew about the tunnel but didn’t know just where it was.”
Everyone looked at him. “Your ancestor was a smuggler?” Bingo asked. “Why have I never heard that before?”
“It’s not exactly something to be proud of,” Ben replied.
“He wasn’t really a smuggler,” Harry said. “Weren’t they forced into it to pay off debts?”
“Yes, gambling debts, still not something to brag about,” Ben said.
“The most important thing,” Harry said, “is whether you know the whole story.”
Ben nodded. “Matthew Williams was my great-great grandfather. My name is actually Benjamin Matthew and I always wanted to learn everything I could about him.”
“He came from England, right,” Silas said.
“There were three, all from Wiltshire County, agricultural labourers – generally known as ‘Ag Labs.’ They worked hard for low pay. Around the mid-1800s, machines were being brought in to do the work faster, making it harder for labourers to get work. There were protests and riots. It was tough times for them, hard to put enough food on the table. The wealthy owned all the land and if you got caught with wild game, you were jailed for poaching.
“Instead of taking part in the riots, those men went to London to look for work on the docks, loading and unloading cargo ships, but that wasn’t very stable either – too many workers and too few jobs. Unfortunately, they got into gambling, probably lured by the idea of doubling their money. But, of course, that never happened.”
“They got into debt instead,” Harry said. “I can imagine how appealing the thought of increasing their money so easily must have seemed. Are you sure they didn’t use the tunnel up the hill?”
Ben shook his head. “I don’t think so because they said the exit was close to a bridge. I understood that it was pretty much level all the way.”
“Which bridge?” Joe asked, but Ben just shook his head and shrugged.
“It would have been replaced long ago,” Silas said.
Harry looked at him, then at Ben. “Did you hear anything about the location of the tunnel entrance? It had to be in the cave, but we haven’t found anything.”
“They blocked it,” Ben said, grinning. “They feared that others from the gang might return, find it, and follow them. So they went back and blocked it with the largest rocks they could find and roll into place. They they pulled some sods and cinched into the gaps.”
“This gang,.. they came here frequently?” Harry asked.
“Oh yes. Apparently, they had a standing agreement with someone onshore for the same amount of rum every two months, someome they had met while onshore during a fishing voyage years earlier.”
“Was alcohol prohibited at the time?” Harry asked.
