The Hardy Bros: Secrets of the Lighthouse by Ann ♪ ~ Chapter 17

Secrets of the Lighthouse

Chapter 17

   “Hey, look at this.” Frank lifted down an iron box that had been carefully concealed in a narrow recess along the cavern wall. Joe came over and watched as his brother tried to open the locked box. Frank had taken out his lock-picking kit and was deftly working on the stubborn padlock. His long fingers held the slender pick as he worked.

   “Better never let Mom see you do this,” Joe commented, his sapphire blue eyes steadily watching.

   “Why? I don’t think she would disapprove,” Frank said, continuing to work on it.

   “No, I wasn’t thinking of disapproval, I was thinking that she might try to talk you into becoming a surgeon.”

   Frank smiled, “Thankfully she feels it is more important for us to be happy. After all, a mother wants her children happy.” Right then Frank gave a sound of success as the lock snapped open.

   Joe gave a quiet “Alright!” as his brother slid the lock off and opened the lid. Inside was a large bound book which, as the brothers found out, was actually the lighthouse keeper’s journal. As they started looking through it, they found this was not the official log, but actually the very unofficial, more accurate log of the keeper, Bradford Wilson. It was a record of his actual activities when he was supposed to be tending the lighthouse and helping guide ships in.

   Frank sat down on one of the smooth rocks and flipped through the pages. The book was probably in almost as good condition as when it had been put in there and left.

   “Can you believe this?” Frank asked his brother as their eyes scanned the entries filled with callous, yet detailed words. Bradford Wilson had failed his job as a lighthouse keeper, by his own choosing. Instead of adhering to his duty to successfully guide ships to safety, he guided them to their destruction, purposely causing them to wreck. According to his own words, he had done this a few times, and had deals with some ship captains, but not all, as several were victims of his wicked plans fueled by avarice. People just thought the waters around there were excessively treacherous, which they were dangerous, but it was possible to safely navigate the area.

   “They probably used this cavern to salvage and store the stolen cargo,” Frank said.

   Joe agreed, “Wonder why this crate is still here.”

   “Maybe it will say in here or give us some idea about it.”

   “Look! There’s Alexander Powers’ name!” Joe pointed, jumping ahead to the next page. Frank nodded as they read that Wilson had found out the real reason Alexander Powers had arrived there in the town. He actually had been sent by his employers, Lloyds of London, who insured many valuable items on their voyages on the ocean, to investigate Wilson. Suspicion had been incurred when a ship had been sunk right near the cliff with a  load of expensive cargo insured by Lloyds of London.

   Powers was posing as a fisherman in hopes of getting more answers that way. Wilson did like Sarah Reeves, but she only had eyes for Powers, which made the thieving keeper angry. A friend of Wilson’s intercepted a message that Powers had been relaying to his employers in London, in which he had explained that he’d discovered who was behind the wrecks.

   “So Alexander Powers succeeded in finding the culprit, but what happened to him and Sarah?” Joe wondered as they read. They continued reading until Joe found the answer to his question.

   “Here it says that Wilson and the gang that he worked with went after Alexander and Sarah, but they had disappeared,” Joe indicated with his finger where he was reading on the page. He surmised what probably transpired. “They must have gone into hiding. The Lloyd’s of London man sent in his report, but had no idea it was intercepted. His next mission was to keep Sarah safe, and since the cutthroats apparently never caught up with them, he succeeded in his goal.”

   Frank glanced up at his brother. “According to these dates, Alexander and Sarah were definitely alive past October 31, 1900. I don’t think that Wilson was lying about any of this. This is quite an incriminating log.”

   Joe nodded, “Let’s check out past this cavern and then finish reading the journal later.”

   Frank agreed and put the leather bound journal back into the iron box, which had been its only contents.

   The brothers followed the passageway leading away from the cavern, until they had to stop as the water was beginning to seep in. They could see that up ahead the rock they were currently walking on gave way to the ocean, although they were yet a distance away from the cave opening. The entrance was barely visible from where they were, especially with the turbulent conditions outside. The cavern itself had been deep enough in the cliff that the farthest section, where the crate had been, would remain dry, even in high tide. They could hear the crashing waves on the rocks. Using their lights, they could see the water hurtling against the cave walls up ahead.

   “This is as far as we should go. This isn’t a great place to be with the storm here,” Frank commented, making sure his brother was in front as they turned and headed back to the cavern. They had been walking along quickly and sure-footed, then Joe turned his head to shout something to Frank above the noise created by the stormy surf. Joe’s eyes widened as his stomach twisted at what he saw above his brother’s head.

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