farther away from the fluctuating water’s edge, when a cry went up from the cliff top and was carried back down the line of weighed down pillagers toiling up the narrow cliff path with their booty. Coast guard officers had been seen hurrying towards the scene of the wrecked vessel.
There was an immediate flurry of activity on the beach. Those who had already gathered goods from the wrecked ship were eager to carry it to the cliff top and escape before the coast guards arrived upon the scene.
There had been a time when such officials were sympathetic towards Cornish coastal dwellers, most of whose lives were spent in abject poverty, but this had changed in the last decade, since the Admiralty in London had won the right to appoint Royal Naval officers and some ratings to the coast guard service.
In most cases the officers were men from outside Cornwall and, in the wake of rumours, not always exaggerated, of shipwrecked seafarers being murdered for their possessions, they showed little sympathy for those who felt they had a time-honoured right to anything that came ashore as a result of shipwreck.
A number of bitter battles had been fought along the Cornish coastline in recent years, resulting in casualties and fatalities on both sides. As a result the coast guards were hated by those whohad once profited by smuggling and the pilfering of wrecks – but they had earned a healthy respect for themselves and their Service.
There was a mad scramble to evade the coast guards now, but a number of less agile scavengers had not made it to the top of the cliff by the time the uniformed men appeared at the top of the path.
Those still toiling to the cliff-top hastily jettisoned their booty, causing consternation and occasional injury to those still on the sand of the cove.
Most of this activity was lost upon Alice who, with Percy, was struggling to lift the rescued girl clear of the rocks and away from the incoming tide. They reached a spot that Alice considered safe, at the base of the cliffs and close to where the path met the beach, just as the first of the coast guards arrived there.
Those few hopeful looters who remained on the beach were mostly older men and women, standing close to the water’s edge, hoping to create the impression that they were concerned only with what was happening to the stricken ship, and had no interest whatsoever in the items being washed ashore around them.
Because Alice and Percy appeared to be the only two on the now near-deserted beach who were doing anything, they attracted the immediate attention of the uniformed arrivals.
One of two officers who hurried to them addressed Alice’s companion, saying, ‘Hello, Percy, I would have taken a wager that I would find you here, but I never expected there to be a young woman helping you, and by the look of that body you’ve carried here you’re not likely to get much of value from it.’
Alice realised that, soaking wet as she was, with lank hair hanging out of a waterproof hat belonging to her brother hiding much of her face, she must have looked no different to the dozens of other women the man had passed hurrying away from the scene … but she was not prepared to waste time explaining herself to him.
‘If you’ve come here to be helpful you and your friends can get the girl up the cliff and take her to the rectory at Trethevy as quickly as you can. She’s still alive but appears to be seriously hurt. While you’re doing that some of your companions might want to check those laid out further along the beach. It is quite possible some of those are still alive too.’
The coast guard who had addressed Percy was startled. He had previously merely glanced at Alice. Plastered with sand and wet and bedraggled, he had dismissed her as a local village girl, but her manner of speech was not that of a village girl and now he looked closer he could see her clothes were not home-made.
Addressing his companion, he said, ‘Stay here with them,
There was an immediate flurry of activity on the beach. Those who had already gathered goods from the wrecked ship were eager to carry it to the cliff top and escape before the coast guards arrived upon the scene.
There had been a time when such officials were sympathetic towards Cornish coastal dwellers, most of whose lives were spent in abject poverty, but this had changed in the last decade, since the Admiralty in London had won the right to appoint Royal Naval officers and some ratings to the coast guard service.
In most cases the officers were men from outside Cornwall and, in the wake of rumours, not always exaggerated, of shipwrecked seafarers being murdered for their possessions, they showed little sympathy for those who felt they had a time-honoured right to anything that came ashore as a result of shipwreck.
A number of bitter battles had been fought along the Cornish coastline in recent years, resulting in casualties and fatalities on both sides. As a result the coast guards were hated by those whohad once profited by smuggling and the pilfering of wrecks – but they had earned a healthy respect for themselves and their Service.
There was a mad scramble to evade the coast guards now, but a number of less agile scavengers had not made it to the top of the cliff by the time the uniformed men appeared at the top of the path.
Those still toiling to the cliff-top hastily jettisoned their booty, causing consternation and occasional injury to those still on the sand of the cove.
Most of this activity was lost upon Alice who, with Percy, was struggling to lift the rescued girl clear of the rocks and away from the incoming tide. They reached a spot that Alice considered safe, at the base of the cliffs and close to where the path met the beach, just as the first of the coast guards arrived there.
Those few hopeful looters who remained on the beach were mostly older men and women, standing close to the water’s edge, hoping to create the impression that they were concerned only with what was happening to the stricken ship, and had no interest whatsoever in the items being washed ashore around them.
Because Alice and Percy appeared to be the only two on the now near-deserted beach who were doing anything, they attracted the immediate attention of the uniformed arrivals.
One of two officers who hurried to them addressed Alice’s companion, saying, ‘Hello, Percy, I would have taken a wager that I would find you here, but I never expected there to be a young woman helping you, and by the look of that body you’ve carried here you’re not likely to get much of value from it.’
Alice realised that, soaking wet as she was, with lank hair hanging out of a waterproof hat belonging to her brother hiding much of her face, she must have looked no different to the dozens of other women the man had passed hurrying away from the scene … but she was not prepared to waste time explaining herself to him.
‘If you’ve come here to be helpful you and your friends can get the girl up the cliff and take her to the rectory at Trethevy as quickly as you can. She’s still alive but appears to be seriously hurt. While you’re doing that some of your companions might want to check those laid out further along the beach. It is quite possible some of those are still alive too.’
The coast guard who had addressed Percy was startled. He had previously merely glanced at Alice. Plastered with sand and wet and bedraggled, he had dismissed her as a local village girl, but her manner of speech was not that of a village girl and now he looked closer he could see her clothes were not home-made.
Addressing his companion, he said, ‘Stay here with them,
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