Trapped in 1895

Ugly Dan’s men marched Harry and Cheryl into the farmhouse. The old man and woman were tied to chairs. The old man’s nose was bleeding and Ugly Dan was sitting with a jug of stout in front of him.

“I love the country,” he said. “Everything tastes better. Tie the fellow up.”

As they tied Harry to another chair, Ugly Dan stood up in front of Cheryl.

“Now dearie, listen and listen good. We are going on a trip. I’m not going to tie you up but if you escape again, my friend here will cut his throat. Do you understand?”

Cheryl looked at Harry with the evil man standing behind him with his knife. He drew it across Harry’s throat, leaving a thin red line.

“Ok, ok. I understand.”

“Good. Now move. We need to catch the ship before dawn.”

Two men marched Cheryl to a carriage, then it drove off.

In the farmhouse, the evil man shouted to two others to take the old people out to the barn and finish them off. They were untied and marched out to the barn.

Sergeant Marcus Walsh was striding down the road to his parents’ farm, glad his journey was over. As he approached, he noticed the horses weren’t in the barn. In all his years of living in that farm house his father had always put the horses in the barn. He approached with caution and observed his parents being marched out to the barn and tied up.

“I don’t like this Charlie. I’ve never done in old folk before.”

“No different to young folk, Mickey. Take just as long to die.”

“Are you gonna cut their throat?”

“Nah, too much blood. This always works well.”

He pulled a garrote from his pocket and advanced to the old woman, who started to panic under her mouth gag. Just as he put the garrote around her throat, he stood up and fell forward with a huge knife in his back. The younger man looked in astonishment as Marcus lept in front of him and plunged a smaller knife into his abdomen then jerked it upwards. He slumped to the ground. Marcus untied his parents and his mother hugged him. Very quickly his father told him what had happened.

The old man and Marcus crept over to the house and peered through the window. Smelly Pete was sitting with his back to the door. Marcus silently opened the door and threw his big knife at Smelly Pete’s back, but some instinct made him move to the side, the knife lodging itself harmlessly on the table. Smelly Pete shot up and spun around, his knife in his hand, ready for action. Marcus advanced with his knife ready as well.

With the reaction time of a snake striking at a victim, Smelly Pete’s knife shot forward, slicing into Marcus’s cheek, but Marcus swung his foot in a powerful arc, catching Smelly Pete’s ankle and swept it off the floor. As he lost his balance, Marcus plunged his knife into Pete’s side, but before he could do serious damage, Pete rolled away. He regained balance and aggressively advanced on Marcus. Marcus stepped back and stumbled into Harry. Smelly Pete seized the advantage and moved to plunge his knife into Marcus’s heart, but Marcus brought his foot up and kicked Pete away. As Pete spring to his feet, Marcus’s knife shot ahead, slicing Pete’s neck. Blood poured from the wound and Peter backed away with his free hand clamping his neck. He stepped behind Harry.

“Drop the knife or I’ll slice his throat open.”

A loud bang filled the room, and a hole appeared in Pete’s head. He slumped to the ground.

“I always knew this old gun would be useful someday,” said the old man.

Marcus’s mum raced to Marcus to tend to his wounds while the old man untied Harry.

“I’m sorry son,” he said to Harry, “I didn’t know these bad men were after you.”

“That’s ok. The hay was very comfortable.”

The door swung open, and a man entered.

“What the hell was that noise?”

Quick as lightning, the old man lifted the rifle and said, “You’re a dead man if you move.”

He froze long enough for Harry to knock him out with a punch, then tied him up.

When he regained consciousness, Marcus towered over him.

“Where did they take the girl?”

“Get lost, soldier.”

“Sonny,” said Marcus,” I’ve done terrible things to men. Sliced off ears and noses, all before breakfast. Yours would be no trouble.”

He sliced a bit of his ear lobe off.

“Ok, ok. He took her to the Flying Fox in London. But you’re too late. They would have sailed by now.”

“We have got to try,” said Harry. “We need a horse.”

“There are horses out back.”

“Wait four hours,” Marcus said to his father, “then release him.”

“Sure thing, son. Good luck.”

They lept on the horses and raced off.

“What if we’re too late?” said Harry.

“There’s lots of small boats that sail faster than a sailing ship. We’ll hire one.”

Cheryl sat near frantic in the carriage with an ugly Dan, who stared at her then said, “If only you had cooperated. You could sit in a cosy apartment in the best part of London, rolling in money and going to all the society do’s.”

“I told you. I know nothing about history. At school, I failed miserably.

“No matter. The person I’m selling you too can make a person remember things they never knew, they knew.”

Cheryl didn’t like the sound of that.

“Who are you, um... Selling me to?”

“He’s like your professor, only not so nice. Funny enough, he believes in this time travel nonsense and is very eager to talk to you.”

They arrived at the ship and the big man half dragged Cheryl on to it.

“Where is the captain?”

“He isn’t here, mister.”

“Put that woman in the Brig.”

A sailor took Cheryl and instructed her to go down a ladder in the hatch. She reached the bottom of the hold. The air was damp and musty. The sailor prodded her in the back and she moved forward into the depths of the hold to a little door. He opened it and pushed her in. It was dark and smelled badly of stale urine. A tray with dishes and mouldy food lay in the corner beside an empty but unwashed slop bucket. The bed was filthy looking boards and no mattress. She spotted a port hole and thankfully it opened. She stuck her head out and breathed deeply.

After a few minutes, she became aware of a heated argument. Ugly Dan was arguing with a sailor.

“Damn you, when are we sailing?”

“The ship don’t go nowhere without its Captain, sir.”

“Well, go find him.”

“That’s not advisable, sir. It’s best not to disturb the captain when he’s on shore leave.”

“Damn and blast you all,” yelled ugly Dan, then all was quiet.

With nothing else to do she decided to get some sleep. She had a feeling she was going to need all her strength tomorrow. She lay down on the filthy boards and almost instantly fell asleep.

She was awoken by a beam of sunshine coming through the porthole. It only enhanced how dirty this place was. She went to the porthole to get some fresh air when she has heard Ugly Dan’s voice again.

“Damn you Captain. I demand we leave at once ”

“I’m afraid we can’t, sir, or we risk getting stuck on the sandbank.”

“I demand you set off or I’ll do it myself.”

Big Billie moved up behind ugly Dan.

“That’s mutiny sir and if we were out at sea, I would hang you from the yard arm. however I will just have to beat you to a pulp.”

Six mean looking sailors with cudgels lined up behind the captain. Then the captain’s demeanor changed.

“Let’s do what I always do when I’m stuck in port. Join me in a few tots of rum,” he declared and slapped Ugly Dan on the back. One reason ugly Dan was so successful is he knew what fights to fight and this wasn’t one of them. He went off with the captain.

Harry and Marcus arrived and hitched their horses some distance from the pier and advanced on foot.

“Thank God, it’s still here,′ said Harry.

Marcus examined the boat with his keen eyes.

“They’ve got armed guards,” said Marcus.

“Why?”

“Thieves. These places are crawling with thieves. Given a chance, they’ll pinch anything not tied down. It also stops officials sneaking up on them.”

“What will we do?”

“Follow my lead,” said Marcus.

Marcus and Harry marched up to the gangplank.

“Ahoy, there.”

“What do you want, soldier?”

“I want to speak to the captain.”

The sailor disappeared and knocked on the cabin door.

“Sorry sir. A soldier out here wants to talk to you.”

The captain came out to the top of the gangplank.

“What do you want, soldier?”

“I hear you’re sailing to France.”

“We are.”

“I want to buy a passage for me and my friend. We need to get to our regiment.”

“Sure. Come aboard. Give the money to the boson.”

As they boarded, the captain said to Marcus, ”Come join us for a rum.” ignoring Harry. Marcus turned to Harry and said, “I’ll keep the captain occupied while you search for your girl.”

The captain led Marcus down to his cabin and introduced him to Ugly Dan.

“I didn’t know we were at war with France.”

“My regimen isn’t in France, it’s in Gibraltar. I’m just going to sample some French cuisine.”

The captain roared with laughter.

“There’s nothing like a bit of French meat.”

“What happened to your face?” asked Ugly Dan.

“Bar brawl. Slashed me with glass.”

The captain slammed a mug in front of Marcus.

“Taste this, matey.”

Harry was drinking ale with the sailors, and one asked him where his uniform was.

“Lost it in a poker game. Had to walk out in my long John.”

The sailors all burst out laughing at this.

“Know any good women. It’s been months since I’ve had a good shag.” Asked Harry.

“There’s a beauty down in the Brig. I can’t wait till I’m on deck at night duty, then I’m going to sneak down and have a good time.”

It took Harry all his discipline not to hit him.

“Reckon I could have a peek. See what I’m missing.”

“Yeah, no harm in that,” said the sailor. He took Harry down to the hold and over to the door. He opened the inspection hatch. The noise alerted Cheryl, who looked up and was amazed to see Harry’s face. Before she could react, the sailor closed the door.

“A beauty, isn’t she?′ said the sailor.

Harry didn’t hesitate. He took the cosh from his pocket and hit the sailor who fell to the ground. Harry removed the bar from the door and opened it to Cheryl’s amazement. She rushed into his arms.

“Come, quick,” he said.

They had just emerged from the hold when a sailor called out.

“Stranger on board.”

Sailors spang from everywhere.

“Run Cheryl. Jump overboard.”

Cheryl ran for the railing and was about to leap when a sailor grabbed her hair and pulled her back.

The Captain raced out to find what the commotion was followed by ugly Dan and Marcus.

“What’s going on here?” yelled the captain.

Ugly Dan recognised Harry and said, “Kill that man. Kill him I say. A thousand pounds to the man that kills him.”

Several sailors headed toward Harry with evil looks in their eyes.

“Stand down,” yelled Marcus in his best sergeant’s voice. Everybody froze. He strode up to the Captain.

“Are you aware that you are transporting a kidnap victim?”

“No sir. I am not aware of that,” said the captain.

“As a member of her majesty’s armed forces, I am required to report this. You could lose your master’s licence.”

“Rubbish,” said ugly Dan. “You knew that when I paid you the money.”

Then he said to the sailors.

“Throw these three into the Brig.”

“That would not be wise. The army doesn’t appreciate its soldiers being imprisoned.”

“Look,” said ugly Dan. “I’ll double your money.”

The captain stroked his beard. He didn’t want to upset the army. He dealt with them quite a lot in colonies all over the world. Pointing at Ugly Dan he said,” Throw this man in the Brig for kidnapping, and him,” pointing at the big man,” overboard.”

A dozen sailors jumped on the big man and threw Ugly Dan down the hatch.

“What do you want me to do with him?” asked the Captain.

“Where are you sailing to?”

“New York.”

“Perfect. Take him there and dump him.”

They went back to the horses and Marcus asked Cheryl if she could ride.

“I’m afraid I can’t.”

Marcus picked her up and sat her behind Harry. In a few hours, they were back with Mrs Cole.