The Midas Box by G.P. Taylor

Author:G.P. Taylor [G. P. Taylor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571269778
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2010-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

[ 18 ]

Moon Sand

THEY sat for several minutes in the shimmering candlelight and listened to the Pagurus. It coughed and chirped in the dark steaming passageway outside the room. The crab tried to force its claw into the warp of the door and prise it open, but soon gave up its search and reluctantly clambered and clumsily clattered its way along the passageway. Stopping momentarily, it squatted in the mist, its one stalk-eye peering from the gloom like a black mushroom.

Mariah peered through a crack in the door, watching the creature’s every move. It slowly crawled out of sight, but he knew it would be waiting – that in the darkness the Pagurus would be ready to pounce and snap them in two with its black-tipped claws, then lusciously feast upon their flesh. Sacha sat quietly, playing with the candle wax as it dribbled down her fingers and into the palm of her hand. From all around them came the hissing of the steam generator that gulped and yawned as it pumped the boiling water to the farthest corners of the Prince Regent.

‘How long can we stay here?’ Sacha asked Mariah as he sat down once more and looked about him.

‘The Pagurus is still there,’ he said, motioning to the passageway outside the room. ‘Doubtless it’ll just wait. There must be another way of getting by.’

Sacha raised the candle above her head, lighting the high ceiling and a far stone wall. ‘Do you think that these are the foundations?’ she asked as she stared at the large thick stones cut neatly into blocks the size of a carriage that made up the wall. ‘They say there used to be a hot spring here and people would come to swim in the water. There’s still a tap in the refectory. A golden tap that the guests can drink from at a shilling a time. I tried it once – tasted like horse pee.’

‘That’s why Isambard Black said he was coming here – to taste the waters. Hope it is horse pee and that it chokes him,’ Mariah said as he got to his feet and ran his hand along the rough blocks. ‘These are old stones,’ he said. ‘Look at the marks – cut by hand. Do you think we’re below the sea?’

‘Far below,’ Sacha replied thoughtfully. ‘The store to the theatre is on a level with the beach. How much further down we are I don’t know.’

‘And the steam generator – who looks after it?’ Mariah asked.

Sacha paused and thought. It was the one thing she had never considered. She had seen the waiters in their fine coats and neat trousers, an army of maids, chefs, cooks and bottle-washers, but she had never seen anyone come from below the ground.

‘Takes care of itself,’ she said after a while. ‘It must do, I don’t know anyone who works down here.’

‘Then it’ll be the first steam engine that runs on its own,’ Mariah exclaimed as he walk further into the shadows, following the contours of the wall as if he were looking for something.

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