'Yes,' said Clagger with obvious pride. 'I've got a signed first edition of his London Labour and the London Poor somewhere around here. I was one of the people he interviewed in his research. Let's see – Lord, that was back in '49 or '50, I believe. How my heart broke when he died a few years back, for he'd become a true friend to me, and done me all the good in the world.' He sniffed in sad remembrance of the great chronicler of London society.
My eye darted to an object I had seen when we had first entered the room, and had caused me a little wonder. Suspended on hooks over the fireplace was a pole some eight or nine feet in length with a curved hook on one end. His mention of Mayhew's book, which, like most educated Londoners, I knew to some degree, sparked my recognition of the singular object's function. 'Why, you're a tosher!' I said. 'A river-man, a sewer-hunter.'
'Retired,' he corrected. 'Though I miss me old trade like anything on a clear morning, when the sun's just tinting the river's water by the outlet grates, and that stew of smells comes wafting out of the sewers at low tide isn't that fine, though.' He pointed to the long object over the fireplace. 'You see I've kept me old probing pole – many's the time it's served to save me very life, I tell you! – and I've got me old lanterns and leather aprons tucked about somewhere as well. Ah, what a grand life has a sewer-hunter, there's no doubt about that.'
'I had no idea the calling enabled one to live as well as this,' I said, gesturing about at his cozy residence.
'Ah, well, there's the kindness Mr. Mayhew did me. The calling does pay well, for all manner of valuable objects is lost into the sewers for the finding by those that know the ways. But most toshers spend their earnings on drinks and suchlike sprees as fast as they can get it. Mr. Mayhew, bless his memory, was the one who pointed out to me the folly of such rude practices, and how fast a little put by from one's findings would soon amount to a tidy sum. I followed his advice, though Lord! I got thirsty at times, and now the people in this district hereabouts call me 'Rich Tom,' though I'm prouder yet of the learning I've done meself in these years since I left the toshing trade. For it's that what prompted our mutual friend Dr. Ambrose to seek me out and enlist me in his projects.'
My eyebrows raised in unbidden scepticism. 'What exactly is it Ambrose consults you about?'
Our host lifted his chin with a measure of disdain. 'Dr. Ambrose is a man of great knowledge, as you might expect, knowing who he really is, and he knows more about the London sewers than many of the toshers mucking about down there. But he doesn't know as much as I do.'
'How much is there to know?' said I. 'About sewers?'
'Sir, you reveal your ignorance. There's marvels beneath the street that would fair scatter the wits of the average fellow walking about on the pavement all unaware of what's below his feet. Places and ways deeper and older than you can imagine, my dear Mr. Hocker. And things, too – certain valuable things, if you catch me drift.'
I did indeed. 'So you know then what it is we are seeking?'
'I believe I do,' said Clagger. 'Though I can tell you the fetching of it will be no easy matter.'
'The harder the task,' said Arthur sternly, 'the greater the glory.' Tafe, seated away from him, rolled her eyes heavenward at his statement but said nothing.
I looked at the old king dubiously, then turned back to Clagger. 'There's little time.' I said. 'How soon can we start down there?'
'Me old pals have loaned me from their gear some of the stuff we'll need for our little expedition – lanterns and aprons, mostly. And I've got me old pole to help me test the way ahead of us. So I believe we can start at most any time you please.'
'You'll guide us?'
'Of course,' said Clagger. 'Who else? And I can't bloody well give you a map, you know.'
'I suppose not. Well, that's most kind of you then.'
'I'll go fetch the gear.' He got up and disappeared into the rear of his lodgings, coming back a few moments later with the traditional leather aprons used by sewer-hunters draped over his arm. From one hand dangled some battered tin lanterns with leather straps affixed. These, as I knew from my reading of Mayhew, were worn on the toshers' chests to light their way in the dark passageways under the London streets. Clagger deferentially handed one of the aprons to Arthur, but before his hand could grasp it the old king doubled over in a fit of coughing. As the choking and hacking died inside him, he straightened up, pressing his handkerchief to his lips. Before he could put the cloth away I was up from my chair and had grabbed his thin wrist. He was able to put up only the most feeble resistance as I turned his hand over and revealed the spots of blood upon the handkerchief.
We looked in grim silence at the blood, then Clagger spoke. 'You'll have to stay here, my lord,' he said. 'You mustn't come down into the sewers with us.'
'Nonsense,' said Arthur angrily. 'I'm more than capable.' He jerked his hand free from my grasp. 'No,' said Clagger, shaking his head. 'The cold and the damp and the noxious gasses make it no fit place for weak lungs. It'd kill you for sure, and then where would we all be?'
'He's right,' said I. 'Come, you're an old soldier. Would you endanger the success of a mission by sending along a man in your condition?'
His red-flecked eyes glared fiercely at me for a moment, then clouded with moisture as he sank back into the chair. 'Go on, then,' he said, gesturing weakly at us. He looked very old and shrunken now. 'I'll… I'll keep watch on the situation from up here. Yes, that's what I'll do. Stand guard.'
We completed our preparations in silence, then left the old king there in the parlour, staring before him into his memories of ancient glories.
As we crossed the courtyard I drew Clagger toward me. 'You see the urgency of our task,' I whispered. 'Not only his strength but his very life depends upon our finding the swords.' He nodded and led us quickly on toward the river, his pole carried in his hand like some odd weapon of battle.
'Down here,' said Clagger when we had reached a section of sagging wharves along the bank of the Thames. 'There's a bit of a rope here you can lower yourself down on. I'm afraid those fancy boots of yours will be most ruined.' He went before us to show the way down to the muck at the river's edge. The moon and stars glittered upon the oily, garbagespecked waters.
Tafe and I dropped down behind him. I reached over my shoulder and felt the bundled Excalibur where I had securely strapped it so that it would not impede my movements. We had decided to take it with us for whatever aid it might furnish us in locating its fraudulent brothers.
Splashing through the shin-deep, odorous mud, we made our way to one of the large iron gates of the sewer outlets. These were hinged so that they only opened outwards, to allow sewage to exit into the river yet prevent the water from backing up into the drains when the river was swelled by high tide.
Clagger got his hands under the edge, of the gate and lifted it far enough for Tafe and me to scramble into the circular opening beyond. He ducked himself under the gate, then let it fall behind him. With a resounding clang that echoed down the passageway, we were thus enclosed in the darkness of the London sewers.
A match sputtered into flame, then a shaft of light coursed in front of us from the lantern strapped to Clagger's chest. He helped us light our own lanterns. By their combined glow we could see quite well the drain's slime-encrusted walls leading on into blackness, and the torpid stream of filthy water that washed about our ankles. For several moments my breath, laden with the sewer's stagnant odours, caught gagging in my throat.
'It's a roughish smell at first,' said Clagger. 'But you'll get used to it. Just step along right behind me as we go and you'll be all right!'
His words proved true. After a few yards, both Tafe and I found our breaths coming easier to our lungs. The human body, prompted by the human will, is a marvel of accommodation to all manner of wretched conditions.
A scurry of tiny clawed feet sounded from somewhere beyond the reach of our lamps. Rats eyes, red in the lantern light, glared at our passage, then disappeared back into the crevices that served as their nests.
'Don't mind the little beasties,' said Clagger. 'They're not dangerous but when they're cornered. And then, Lord! How they'll fly at you! Some toshers think it's grand sport to hunt em, and probably think for all the world that they're just like the landed gentry on a fox hunt, but I've no mind for such foolishness.'
Our little band was like an island of light moving through the dark world of the sewers. Our boots splashed in the shallow rivulets while our lanterns danced their beams over the walls covered with layer upon layer of ancient filth. More than once we had to squeeze past a throng of wet stalactites compounded from slow decades of flowing sewage. The damp air curled in our lungs.
My voice echoed from the curved walls as I broke the silence. 'Clagger,' I said, 'where exactly are we
