Page 88 of Keeping Kate
Chapter 24
“Watch your step,” Connor said, leading the way into the cave. “It is slippery through here.”
Following, Alec took Kate’s hand, ducking his head as he entered the narrow cleft in the rock face that rose above and to one side of the rushing waterfall. Once Neill and his sons had run back to Duncrieff with news that they had found a cave, Alec wanted to see it for himself, and Kate insisted on going with him. Despite the precarious location, she had done as well as her kinsmen over the tough terrain.
“Here,” Connor said, quiet voice echoing.
Walking up an incline in the cavern floor, Alec followed Connor into a clearing, a high and narrow cathedral-like space, dark but for the lantern light that reflected the slick dark stone of the interior walls. Kate stood beside him, gasping in awe. Just ahead, Rob and Neill stood waiting beside two large wooden chests.
Rob flipped open the lid of one chest as they came toward him. Nearby, Neill raised the lantern high to show the contents.
“Easy as that,” Connor said. “Here, all this time.”
“My God, look at that,” Alec said. Kate slid her hand into his, gripping tightly.
“Guns, aye. I did not expect to see gold,” Kate said into the silence.
Alec nodded. Neill opened the other chest. Inside both containers, golden coins gleamed, the sunny glow illuminating Kate’s face as she knelt to peer closer at the contents. Alec saw thousands of coins scattered among countless weapons, coins spilling like wood shavings around pistols, muskets, bayonets and swords.
He dropped to one knee beside Kate, reaching out to touch the uppermost layer of gold and weaponry. A sweep of his fingers touched cold steel and the wood-and-brass fittings of flintlock pistols, felt the texture of leather sheaths over swords and daggers, rippled over the gold and silver coins that filled the spaces between.
“How many weapons, do you think?” Kate glanced at her brother. “How much is here in coin?”
“It will take time to count it all out. It should not be managed here,” Rob said.
Allan had come in behind them. He knelt beside the other chest, which held the deadly gleam of blades buried in the coins. “Good Toledo steel. And those pistols in the other chest are good Spanish make. I have seen those insigne before,” he said, indicating the engraved maker’s marks on the butts of some of the weapons.
“We should move these out of here before we can safely assess and count and decide what the devil to do with all this,” Connor said.
“Can Spanish coin be used here in Scotland?” Kate picked up a silver piece, then a gold coin to look more closely.
“Aye.” Alec sifted through the coins. “Silver reales and escudos...pieces of eight, that means it is worth eight reales,” he added, choosing a silver piece and dropping it with a gentle chink.“Gold doubloons...this can all be used as currency. Spanish coins are useful everywhere because they are made of pure silver and pure gold. These coins can be traded for their value or melted down to be used for their pure precious metals. But we must be careful to not let it out in large quantities.”
“How do you know?” she asked.
“I am a lawyer and a merchant, both,” he answered. He glanced at the others. “The Spaniards had their reasons for wanting to see the English lose power in Scotland, so the weapons and money were intended to support the uprising of 1719. But someone hid it away quite well after that rebellion failed.”
“A pity. That uprising was the most likely to succeed of any so far,” Connor said.
“How did these chests come to be here?” Kate asked.
“They may have been secretly brought by our father and Connor’s father,” Rob said. “Perhaps that is why they fled rather than reveal it. Though Connor’s father was executed.”
“Aye, before he could reveal the truth, I think,” Connor said.
“Your fathers were in the ‘Nineteen?” Alec asked.
Connor nodded. “They escaped the northern Highlands after the attempt floundered up there, and came back this way with Cameron of Lochiel. I remember my father spoke of it at the time, but he said nothing of this cache. Too terrible a secret to let out to anyone, I suppose. But they never had the chance to decide what to do with it.”
“There may be more than one cache,” Alec said. “Cameron must have hidden away a stash of his own. Some of his men had weapons like these, and Ian gave a few to you lads. Lochiel has been eager to know where to find the rest. He must have suspected that your fathers knew, but he had to wait. The last few years have not seen many rumors or attempts at another uprising, but the rumbles are constant. Weapons and coin are sorely needed.”
“This could be the bulk of the Spanish horde,” Neill said.
“But my father and yours were never able to get this to Locheil,” Connor said. “Yours was exiled, mine executed.” He shook his head. “How did Ian find out?”
“We must ask the lad,” Rob said. “First, we will find a better spot to hide this, and then we are off to Edinburgh fast as we can, before the military has a chance to break Ian for the information.”
“Oh, he would never tell,” Kate said. “He would never say what he knows except to us.”
