The Lighthouse Keeper's Mystery🔊

For over five decades, the tiny, remote island of Roke was home to Thomas, the lighthouse keeper. The sadly stoic figure had inherited the work from his father who received it from his own father. Thomas' life was filled with tedious routine which he carried out with meticulous discipline. This included maintaining the vital beacon that guided ships away from danger.

One stormy night, the ordinarily stalwart beam flickered and sputtered. Ships navigating the treacherous straits around Roke found themselves stranded, tilting horribly as they lurched onto controlling rocks. The lighthouse had failed for the first time in generations, and an investigation was warranted.

When the storm subsided, investigator Harold Norwood arrived. Norwood was a smart, personable man, driven by a relentless appetite for truth. He interviewed Thomas, asking about the night of the incident. Thomas was befuddled - he had done everything as per routine, yet the light failed. Hundreds of lives were put at risk, causing guilt and dismay to clasp onto him like an icy shroud.

Norwood thoroughly investigated the lighthouse. It was only in the ancient, rarely-used basement that he found a clue. There, hidden behind a fraying moth-eaten curtain, was an unusual contraption. It was an archaic electrical switchboard of sorts - the forgotten relic of a bygone era.

Surprisingly, Thomas had forgotten its existence and function. It was the key to the lighthouse’s original systems, left untouched when the lighthouse mechanisms were modernised. This board was designed to divert power in cases of overload to prevent damage.

A thorough inspection revealed sabotage. Someone had manipulated the system causing the lighthouse beam to fail that night. The island's only inhabitants were Thomas and Luna, his faithful labrador. Who could possibly gain anything from this disaster?

Norwood's investigative prowess led him to the island’s only other structure: a fisherman’s shack, where, decades ago, a solitary man named Angus had lived until his untimely death in a storm. Reviving the memory of the island's lost inhabitant raised a mist of speculation around the events.

As Norwood dug deeper, he discovered a secret from Angus' life. Underneath the dilapidated floor of the shack, disastrously rotten and water-damaged, was a sizable cellar, the lair of a bootlegged grow-operation. Angus, it seemed, was more than an angler; he was an illicit brewer.

Part of his production involved the use of a homemade electrical system. Angus had wired it into the switchboard in the lighthouse basement to enable his stealthy operation. He had hoped to divert excess power when the brewing process required it without causing the light to fail.

But, when Angus died, his system still lived. Over time, it had decayed and started malfunctioning. In the storm, it caused a sudden erratic power surge leading to the lighthouse’s light failure. Thomas was not responsible for this unfortunate incident. With a sigh of relief, he returned to his duty, his spirit somewhat lightened.

Mystery solved, Norwood returned to the mainland, leaving the island and its keeper to their solitude. The story of Thomas, Angus, and the strange night of the failing light was blended into the island's folklore, serving as a testament to the strange, relentless ways of life on Roke island.