The Isle of Devils
Read The Isle of Devils Online
Authors: Craig Janacek
T
HE
I
SLE
OF
DEVILS
A Novel
b
y Craig Janacek
Copyright
© 201
3
by Craig Janacek
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
To Margaret
“A love that life could never tire”
Robert Louis Stevenson,
Songs of Travel
, XXVI
ABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
:
THE BERMUDA MANUSCRIPT
CHAPTER III
:
THE ISLE OF DEVILS
CHAPTER VI
:
THE HEART OF THE ISLAND
CHAPTER VIII
:
THE DARKENING SKY
CHAPTER XI
:
THE EVIDENCE OF THE PROPRIETRESS
CHAPTER XII
:
THE EVIDENCE OF THE AUSTRALIAN RUGBY-PLAYER
CHAPTER XIII
:
THE EVIDENCE OF THE PORTUGUESE WINE-MERCHANT
CHAPTER XIV
:
THE EVIDENCE OF THE BOHEMIAN PHYSICIAN
CHAPTER XV
:
THE EVIDENCE OF THE TURKISH ENGINEER
CHAPTER XVI
:
THE EVIDENCE OF THE GREEK PUGILIST
CHAPTER XVII
:
THE EVIDENCE OF THE ENGLISH NATURALIST
CHAPTER XVIII
:
THE EVIDENCE OF THE ITALIAN PAINTER
CHAPTER XIX
:
THE EVIDENCE OF THE SPANISH MARQUESA
CHAPTER XX
:
THE EVIDENCE OF THE AMERICAN LADY
CHAPTER XXI
:
THE EVIDENCE OF THE FRENCH SOLICITOR
CHAPTER XXII
:
THE LIST OF EVIDENCE
CHAPTER XXIII
:
A POSSIBLE SOLUTION
CHAPTER XXIV
:
AN EXTRAORDINARY TALE
CHAPTER XXV
:
THE CONSTABLE’S DILEMMA
On the 29
th
of July, 2009, the British Overseas Territory known officially as ‘The Bermudas,’ and colloquially as simply ‘Bermuda,’ celebrated the 400
th
anniversary of its founding by opening a World Heritage Centre in a long grey building with dark green shutters and the traditional white stepped roof of the island. Formally an 1860 customs warehouse at
Penno’s
Wharf, the new museum celebrated the recognition of the ‘Historic Town of St. George and [its] Related Fortifications’ by the UNESCO World Heritage committee nine years prior.
Before that time, the proud citizens of Bermuda had long been trying to convince the powers-that-be at UNESCO that the simple fact of the Town of St. George being the oldest continuously inhabited (at least by Europeans) town in the Western Hemisphere should be more than sufficient to merit inclusion in that select list that brought with it renown and (hopefully) tourists. As such, the Bermudians had constructed a temporary World Heritage Display in the old St. Catherine’s Fort, located on the northeastern tip of the isle between Achilles Bay and Gates Bay. Once the World Heritage Centre building at
Penno’s
Wharf had been sufficiently renovated, the honored display moved from its temporary domicile in Fort St. Catherine to its new and permanent home. This, of course, left a bit of a glaring hole in the attractions at the aforementioned fort, and as such, the curators of the fort and its associated museum decided to embark on an ambitious renovation of both the previous space, as well as the other areas of the fort that had been more-or-less closed off since it was decommissioned in the late 1950’s.
This renovation work progressed at a snail’s pace, in no small part due to a chronic lack of funding brought on by an unanticipated lull in tourist revenue following the so-called ‘Global Financial Collapse’ of the late 2000’s. Eventually however the workers stumbled across one small storeroom which was remarkably still crowded with discarded personal effects of the former British Army officers that had been stationed at the fort since the time of its last major reconstruction, which lasted from 1865 to 1878, and which included the creation of the twenty-five foot thick concrete embrasures and casemate which continue to impress visitors unto this day.
The odds-and-ends that were pulled from this room were many and varied. Much of the debris consisted of commonplace items of little interest, such as the remnants of ivory-headed umbrellas, walking sticks, bone and ebony dice, and pipes. There were several rusted flagons and trenchers, and a half-filled bottle of spirits, long-turned into something undrinkable. A deck of mold-riddled whist cards, with the visages of Europe’s great royalty on the face cards, was sent off for a conservation effort, as were a small oak barometer and a brass telescope. Several officers’ valises and ‘mess tines’ were found in various states of decay. A rotting fur busby that likely once belonged to some brave soldier was unfortunately deemed beyond possible restoration and was incinerated. A much-rusted but potentially refurbishable Mark I Martini-Henry Rifle c.1871 incited some excitement, for examples of that renowned gun are now relatively rare, and the wooden gunstock was fortuitously carved with the owner’s name and regiment. This was earmarked to be sent off to Christie’s for auction. Meanwhile, a curious chess-set, the pieces carved to resemble the figures on the two sides of the English War of the Roses, the Yorkists in whi
t
e and the Lancastrians in red, was referred to Sotheby’s. Two busts illustrated the great range of items encountered in that unexpected treasure room. One was a fine marble bust of Athena, apparently of great antiquity and worthy of display in any museum, while the other was a cheap duplicate plaster cast of the famous head of Nelson by the English sculptor Baily, of no real value whatsoever. A few piquant items spoke to the great range of the Empire, which once upon a time the sun never set. This included a remarkably preserved Zulu shield and spear, a lion-skin hearthrug, and a mildewed stuffed tiger-head, clearly trophies of some adventuresome campaigner, while for some time it was thought that a magnificent suit of Japanese armor was the most valuable item in the room.
But it was one of the oldest items, found in the darkest corner of the storeroom, which would ultimately prove to be the most noteworthy. At first glance, it seemed of little import. It was a medium-sized tin box, about nine inches by fourteen inches in dimension, and about four inches thick, of the type once formerly used to contain letters and dispatches. It was very worn and battered, and rusted to the point where the name painted on the lid was almost illegible. The first word ‘Capt.’ was clearly an abbreviation for ‘Captain’ and all agreed that the first name appeared to be ‘Henry.’ Of the last name, literally nothing could be ascertained. Below the name many other letters were missing, but enough remained to hazard a fair guess that Captain Henry had once
served in the 99
th
Infantry Regiment (Duke of Edinburgh). This helped significantly in dating the find, as the 99
th
Regiment was only stationed in Bermuda from 1880 to 1881.