The next passage of time crawled interminably. Gus and Reuben moved out of her range of hearing, though she could hear snatches of their murmured discussions, none of it was intelligible. They spent some time shifting cases or barrels from one area to another. She could only suppose they were expecting a new shipment of goods at some point.
Mina closed her eyes and tried to relax to ease her throbbing head, but it was hard. Her ribs hurt, though she no longer believed they were broken, and she could not get comfortable on the hard floor. She had just managed to achieve a light doze when she felt her side nudged with a boot.
“Sit up,” said Reuben harshly, though she little knew why he bothered, for the next moment, he was jerking her shoulder forward and cramming a rag into her mouth. Mina turned her head away and began to struggle almost as a reflex.
“Less of that!” He cuffed the side of her head and jerked her upright. “Come and hold her!” bawled at Gus. “I’ll knock you out again,” he warned. “If you keep this up!” He was trying to pass a cord about her wrists now, Mina realized and redoubled her efforts. All was in vain, though and now her head was dizzy as well as aching.
Gus tutted when he joined them. “That’s too tight,” he said feeling her bound wrists. “You’ll leave marks on her flesh and then the cat will be properly out of the bag. Haven’t you got the sense you were born with, lad?”
“You do it then,” Reuben fired up angrily. “For I’ve no patience with her.”
Gus adjusted the cord and then the strip of cloth about her mouth. “Right sorry I am, Minnie my girl,” he muttered. “But we can’t have you crying out when we’re scaling the cliffs. Reuben,” he said as the thought struck him. “Whatever you do, don’t go pitching her over the side until we’ve taken this gag from her mouth, d’ye hear me? Never knew such a hotheaded young fellow.”
“I’m not a total fool!” Reuben griped, then froze. “What was that?” he hissed and turned to look over his shoulder. Mina’s heart lurched as she knelt on the floor of the passageway, for she had heard it too. Something scraping noise above them. “Someone’s in the cellars, moving stuff about!” Reuben said hoarsely.
“Nonsense!” Gus scoffed heartily. “You think Nye would bring anyone here? And give away his knowledge of the operation? He’s not such a fool, I tell you!”
“He’s a fool for her!” Reuben seethed. “And my ears are better’n yours, old man. I tell you, someone’s up there!”
Something seemed to catch Gus’s ear now, for he turned sharply and stared toward the left. His expression turned grim and he darted to fetch something, Mina was dismayed to see was a pistol.
“Let’s get out of here,” Reuben said, also drawing out a pistol. He looked at Mina with open loathing. “I’ve half a mind to put a bullet through her now.”
“Don’t be an idiot,” Gus urged. “We may have need of a hostage yet. Help me get her to her feet.”
Mina braced herself as the two of them grabbed none too gently under her arms and dragged her upright. Mina was sure the scuffle they made had caught someone else’s ears for she heard a muffled voice and cursed the fact she was now securely bound and gagged.
“Let’s go,” Reuben said, viciously yanking her arm.
Mina gave a muffled sound of pain and Gus seized her about the waist. “You’ll have her over, you’re so rough,” he upbraided Reuben who only growled back at him like a cur.
She wasn’t how far along the passage she was forced to stumble and trip, but after a few minutes, the passage took a steep incline and they were climbing upwards and it seemed to have grown very narrow.
Reuben was forced to lift and push her through a tight opening, and she felt the sea air on her face and heard the crash of the waves. She saw nothing though, as her eyes had not yet adjusted from the gloom of the passage. They paused for a moment as they all three of them caught their breath.
“Take her arm, Reuben,” Gus puffed as they paused a moment. “For she’s no balance with her arms tied behind her.”
Reuben swore and seized her arm none too gently as she stumbled over uneven ground. She wished she had a better idea of where Vance House was situated but all she could remember Nye saying was that it was on the outskirts of Jeremy’s estate.
Her eyes were finally accustoming themselves, but little good it did her, for night had indeed fallen. She caught once again of the gleam of a pistol barrel and remembered both men were armed. Her blood ran cold. Try as she might, she could figure out no happy outcome from her predicament. Her feet dragged as she wondered how far she was expected to walk in her bound and weakened state.
As she stumbled again, Gus caught her and whispered to Reuben. “You’ll have to put her over your shoulder, lad.”
“Damned if I’ll carry her,” Reuben argued back.
“She’ll be going off in a swoon if you don’t,” Gus pointed out.
It suddenly struck Mina this was an excellent suggestion. She could not slow them down any more than if she made them carry her dead weight. And why should she aid them when every step drew her ever closer to her demise? Taking her cue from Gus, she swayed and then dropped like a stone onto the rough track they were following.
“I told ye, ye young jackanapes!” Gus said roughly. “Now look what ye’ve done!”
“Me?” Reuben carped back at him. “How’s this my doing, I’d like to know?”
“Because ye bloody near caved her head in this morning, that’s why! Bloody idiot!”
At this a loud, clear voice rang out. “Halt in the name of the law!” and all hell broke loose.
Mina rolled into a ball at the sound of a gunshot and only the fact she was gagged prevented her from screaming. She fancied it was Reuben who had fired, and now another gun made reply from elsewhere.
“Hold hard, you fool. You’ll give them our location!” Gus swore as Mina scrabbled about on the floor, trying to roll to her knees. She would not put it past Reuben to turn his pistol on her, so strong was his dislike and her first instinct was to try and get as far from him as possible. Luckily, he was darting this way and that, peering wildly into the darkness as though to pierce the shadows for their attackers. Very likely, he still thought her unconscious.
Feeling deafened, Mina managed to find her feet and stagger back until she hit a convenient boulder, which she made haste to scramble around her abductors were distracted. She had just taken another step backwards when two arms closed about her and a hand clamped across her mouth.
She rolled her eyes, trying to see who this newcomer was, when she heard him swear to find her already gagged. At the sound of his voice, she sagged with relief, for it was Nye. She could have cried if she hadn’t been so paralyzed with fear. Before she knew it, she was scooped up and borne a few feet away behind some gorse bushes. Even as Nye set her down, she heard Reuben’s bellow of fury at finding she had gone.
“Where is she? I’ll kill her! I’ll kill her!” he roared.
“Untie her—check her wounds,” Nye said in a furious undertone, and Mina perceived he had handed her into the care of Edward Herney.
She made a muffled attempt to warn Nye and would have grabbed at him to stay him if it were not for her bonds. She made a sound of distress in her throat as Herney fumbled to open his penknife to free her.