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Roman Smugglers

by Kenneth James Newbrook

184 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-0249; ISBN 1-55395-886-1; US$19.00, C$21.50, EUR15.50, £11.00

Ken and his dog Spot are on the trail of a ruthless gang, who will stop at nothing to get their hands on Roman gold. The fact that Spot can talk to Ken is something the gang never bargained for. And what help Ken and Spot get to trap you will never guess. It will keep you the reader right on their trail with them.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpts or Table of Contents      catalogue info

About the Book The book is about Ken, a young man and his dog Spot. Spot is a six year old Border Collie. But a Collie with a difference, and that difference is he can talk to Ken. They live in the Northeast of England where the story takes place. A place that is steeped in Roman History. With forts dating back to 100 A.D. A Roman wall built by the emperor Hadrian that runs right across the country from the East Coast to the West Coast, and as famous as the Great Wall of China. Ken and Spot get on the trail of a gang that has cheated and threatened a local farmer out of his farm. After he accidentally found in one of his fields, a burial site for a famous Roman citizen who had come to take over the running of "Arbiea Fort" a Roman Garrison on the Lawe Top. Ken suspectsthe gang is plundering two Roman ships that were wrecked just off the coast, of all their treasure. His suspicions are aroused even further, when Spot discovers a secret cave that the gang is using as a base to dive on the wrecks.

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About the Author I am 60 years of age and have been a widower for 6 years. When I left school I worked for a short while in the coalmines before joining the Marchant Navy for a few years. After the Merchant Navy, I took up Marine Sandblasting and travelled all of the world for almost thirty years doing this work. I am now a Sandblasting and Marine supervisor, but don't travel anymore, not since my wife died. I now work on my local river, the River Tyne in the Northeast of England. I am from a family of seven brothers and three sisters. I have two sons and seven grandchildren. I have always told stories to the children; it was only when my wife died that I bought myself a computer to fill in my spare time at nights. I taught myself how to use it. After I learned how to switch it on, I started to type out stories and found out that I could put stories into print very easily. I gave them out to the granchildren, and before long I was printing copies off for all their friends. Now I enjoy it very much, and it gives me great satisfaction when the children ask "Have you anymore stories Granddad?"

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Sample Excerpts or Table of Contents

Were they not inside Spot?'

'You can't get inside Ken it's a boarded up, It may sound impossible, but they had just vanished, no sign of them anywhere.

I sniffed the ground all around the farmhouse,and carefully checked the doorways,but there was nothing, no scent from them,that is I couldn't find any,not with all the old farm smells from the animals and manure. It's as if they had never existed.'

'One thing is for sure they did exist and another thing for sure is people just don't vanish into thin air.

It's all very funny I'll admit Spot, but there was definitely a boat with two men in,how they anded, and how they showed up on shore a half a mile in front of us,I don't know, but there must be an explanation people don't just disappear and then reappear.'

We made our way home still trying to fathom out what the two boatmen were up to, and how had they just vanished into thin air.

I cleaned the mushrooms and started to prepare a breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausage and the mushrooms of course; when it was cooked we sat in the garden and ate our breakfast in the sunshine. Spot had his usual chicken nuggets with his vitamins mixed in, he was always first to finish eating. I couldn't get those two strange boatmen off my mind; I put the local radio on to see if there were any reports of a boat being in difficulty this morning,

There was nothing.

The next few mornings on our wa ks we kept our eyes peeled ooking out to sea.I always had my binoculars with me ever since that day we saw the two strangers in the boat, but we never saw anything, no boats, no strange boatmen around the old farm, nothing.

I was beginning to think my eyes must have been playing tricks with me that day.

'Spot you know what I think, those men we saw in the boat the other day, they might have been Ghosts,'

'What's ghosts Ken?'

'A ghost Spot, is when you see something and it's not a real iving person, but it is supposed to be the spirit of someone who has died,'

'Your having me on aren't you Ken,'

'It's possible Spot especially around here; it was a well-known haunt for smugglers and robbers around these cliffs and caves.

In days gone by they used to light false beacons on the shore, to fool the ships Captains. The ships thinking they were the beacons showing the harbour entrance, used to turn into the shore and set a course for the beacons, where they would run aground onto the beach,

The robbers would be lying in wait for them; they would then steal the ship cargo, and murder anyone who got in their way. That may explain why you couldn't find them at the farmhouse, and why you couldn't pick up any scent trail,'

'So you're saying these ghosts don't leave trails,'

'We they are not real y here Spot, are they?'

'I cannot believe that Ken, I definitely saw two men that day going towards the farm and they looked just like the two men we saw in the boat.

'

We sat looking out to sea.

'Look Ken don't tel me he is a ghost,'

An old man was coming towards us along the cliff path,

'Good morning,' he said cheerfully,

'Good morning to you sir,'

'That's a nice looking dog, he yours then.'

'Yes, Spot is his name,'

'I used to have one just ike him when I had my farm.'

'You once owned a farm?'

'I did Wheelers farm, Eric Wheeler that's me, that's all that's left of it over there. Everything has gone except what is left there of the old house.'

'You mean you ived in that old abandoned house over there and owned al this land around here.'

'I sure did, my great great grandfather bui t the farm house in early 1700, it had been in our family ever since, that is till I lost it, or rather till it was stolen from me,'

'What do you mean stolen from you?'

'We it's a long story you wouldn't want to hear it.'

'But I would,'

'If your not in any hurry I will tell you all about it,'

'We have got a day Spot and me start from the beginning and take your time;I'm Ken by the way,'

'As I was saying Ken, My family owned and worked this and for generations, then came along Horace Wilkinson,'

'Who is he, this Horace Wilkinson?'

'Well he bought the big house over on yonder hill,

in fact, he bought everything around here, and he owns al this land now,'

'If he bought it, why do you say it was stolen from you?'

'Because it was stolen, I wouldn't sell it, for any price'

'Who wanted to buy it? Don't tell me, Horace Wilkinson I bet?'

'Yes Ken your right, Horace Wilkinson he kept offering me good money for the farm but I wasn't interested in the money, farming was al I knew. It was my life and besides five generations of my family had put their sweat and blood into making this farm from nothing.

When he saw he couldn't persuade me with his money, it was then the threats started,'

'Threats you say Eric?'

'Yes, That's when odd things started to happen,'

'Like what?'

'Like when I found my dog dead in the barn one morning, I went and got the vet from Whitburn Village, to come and have a look at him, he had never been ill. No he never had any kind of illness all the time I had him. One look at him and the vet told me he had been poisoned,'

'Who would do such a thing to a dog?'

'I had my suspicions but couldn't prove it, 'Wilkinson you mean?'

'Yes Ken it doesn't take much working out. Then I found twenty of my sheep on the beach, they had been driven over the cliff to certain death, but no one saw or heard a thing on the night it happened. Then four of my best milking cows disappeared never to be seen again.'

'Everything seems to disappear around here Eric,'

'What do you mean by that Ken?'

'The other day we saw or thought we had seen a small boat approaching the shore with two men in, it came right up to these cliffs just below us here, and disappeared.

The next thing we saw was the two men from the boat right over there on their way to the farm house. Spot ran over towards them, and yes they had disappeared, there was no sign of them I don't know yet how they got passed us.

We went down on the beach to look for them but they definitely didn't and here, the only other place is about a half a mile down the coast from here, so there is no way they could get right over to the farm house in so short a time. We thought they might of been ghosts or something when we couldn't find any trace of them.'

'At last my prayers have been answered Ken,'

'Your prays Eric? What makes you say that?'

'You have, with what you have just said about the strange goings on and those men they weren't ghosts you saw

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Catalogue Information

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