The landing party formed a skirmish line and moved through the trees along the shore of the cove. Progress came slowly and with great difficulty through the wind and mud. Elliot remained just a few paces behind his skirmish line, weaving his way between trees and watching the cove every few steps. After a couple hours of pushing through the dense forest, the line inexplicably halted. Elliot looked out to the cove; he could still faintly see the dim light he had spotted earlier. A marine approached him, leaning in close to inform him why the formation halted.
“Sir, we’ve come across a path leading uphill away from the cove. What are your orders? Shall we continue our sweep?” he whispered.
“No. Send three to the beach and see if there are longboats. Then I want you to take three men and follow this trail up the hill. Be wary man, don’t be spotted and for God’s sake don’t fire a shot if you don’t absolutely have to.” Elliot ordered. He looked for a dry spot to sit and rest his legs, finally giving up and sitting on a soaked slick fallen log. He no more than took his weight off his feet when the marines returned from the beach,
“We count four longboats on the shore Sir. But there’s something more you should know Admiral.” The marine paused, almost hesitant to continue.
“What? What did you find son?” Elliot encouraged.
“There’s fortification Sir, earthen bunkers flanking both sides of the trail head. They’re plain as day from behind Sir, but a ship out in the cove would never see. They both have twelve-pound guns fixed on the cove.” The marine informed him in a hushed, hurried voice. A chill rocked Elliot, his mind raced but he dared not give even a hint of panic to these men.
“Very well. These cannons, were they bronze breech guns?” he asked.
“Didn’t look Sir, I can surely go back and see.” The marine replied.
“Do that. If they are, unscrew the brass fitting from the touch holes and bring them to me.” Elliot ordered.
“Aye, Sir. Something else you ought to know Admiral. The trail, well Sir, ah. They’ve got men hanging next to the trail.” The marine informed.
“What?”
“Aye Sir, I wasn’t sure of what I saw at first. But there’s two down by the longboats, two more by the bunkers, and two not even twenty feet up the trail from those. All blacks Sir. I thought you should know.”
“You might’ve led with that son. I think I’ve found more than I wanted to find out here. Get me two men, I need runners lad, get me quick goddamn men.” Elliot said. As he finished speaking the sound of a shot cut through the wind followed by two more. Then a rapid succession of gunfire erupted, lasting several seconds. The remaining marines quickly started moving toward the sound of the gunfire up the trail with Admiral Sharpe following close behind. Slipping and stumbling through the mud and rock the marines followed the path up hill. As they progressed, the trail crested the top of the rise and led into a large open area. The formation stopped at the edge of the clearing where they came across the dead bodies of two of their comrades.
“I sent three, where is the third?” said Elliot.
“Sir, we should return to the ship and come back with more men,” one of the marines suggested.
“No lad, we’ll press on. There’s a missing man and I want to know who they exchanged fire with.” Elliot replied.
A chill set into the men as they continued into the clearing, in the dark with the rain and wind without the cover of the forest canopy, it wasn’t long until many of them were shivering. Elliot formed the marines back into a skirmish line and they pressed on through the clearing. As they proceeded the winds finally began to relent and the rain slowed to a steady drizzle. A light came into view ahead of them, as they drew nearer a second appeared. Slowly they moved toward the lights, seeing in greater detail as they approached a camp of sorts. Elliot again halted the formation. He called the senior man from the detachment to him.
“Choose two men to go in and search the camp. The rest we’ll hold on the edge here and cover their retreat if necessary.” Elliot whispered. “I want a good search and anything they find brought back to me at once.”
“Aye Sir,” the marine replied and set off at once. The waiting was an awful business, the men fought against shivers and tried to remain alert. The skies above started to grow lighter as dawn approached and soon there was enough ambient light for the men to clearly see the camp. Elliot’s heart sank as he began to make out the silhouette of the crude construction within the camp. The two-man search party returned and reported to the Admiral.
“No sign of our missing man Sir, the camp seems abandoned and quite in a hurry by the look of it. There’s lanterns still lit.”
“Right. Our detail must have met some of them on the trail, the gunfire raised the alarm and they’ve fled. Cowards.” Elliot replied.
“The camp Sir. It’s like a prison of sorts. There are log cages all through, empty, but they have certainly been occupied before.” Said the other marine.
“Yes. I expected we would encounter a smugglers camp here. Though it seems I was correct just in a manner I didn’t calculate something of this magnitude.
