“Rupert Burton was the first bar owner, a scoundrel and former pirate. He was forced to retire after losing his right eye and lower left leg in a vicious three-day fight. Took months for him to recover, but no pirate captain would take him on board again.
“He was known as a reckless fighter. He got around pretty good on his wooden leg but they didn’t trust his mental stability. He seemed more nervous, too eager to fight, and they were afraid to trust him
“Piracy was the only thing he knew and he also knew there was cheap rum to be got in Jamaica. He had enough to build a bar but would rather use someone else’s money. So he found a sailor willing to be his partner. The sailor would smuggle the rum from Jamaica, Rupert would sell it in the bar, and they would split the profit – AFTER Rupert recovered the cost of the building.
“The problem was – Rupert never seemed to recover the cost of the building. Finally, the partner realized that he was not getting his fair share. It was widely thought that he started the fire which burned the bar – but there was no proof.”
“And no one to investigate the cause back then,” Harry said. “What about the other buildings that burned after that?”
“Same thing, suspicions but no proof,” Ben said.
“So how does the tunnel fit into this?” Silas asked.
“Pure chance,” Artie said. “Burton wanted a cellar below the building, for storing the rum, and he hired some men to dig one. In the process, they broke through the bottom into an offshoot of an existing tunnel. Burton was pleased and had them check it out.
“As you now know, it started at Black’s Farm and exited near a bridge. They also found a number of other short, dead-end offshoots, like the one they’d broken into. However, there was one on the opposite side that caught their attention, for there seemed to be light at the other end.
They had to crawl through on hands and knees but that seems to be when the connection was discovered. And it was said they had to clear some debris to make it useable.”
“I guess Burton realized that bringing the rum into the cave, through the tunnel and down to the cellar, would provide total secrecy,” Harry said.
“And he had a door installed between the cellar and the tunnel,” Bingo said.
“Still there…”Joe said, “… part of it.”
Something nagged at the back of Harry’s mind. “Where did Rupert get the workers? He wouldn’t have trusted locals to keep quiet about it.”
“He probably threatened their lives if they said anything,” Bingo added.
“Rumours said they came from somewhere in the West Indies. Probably didn’t want the locals to know exactly what he was doing. Who knows? I heard one of them was retained to help out around the bar,” Artie said.
