“If they don’t get us some more grease in the stores I reckon I’ll be usin’ old marge from the canteen on them locks,” Lou said as he stepped inside the small brick cottage that sat a few hundred yards from the canal bridge.

“And a very good afternoon to you,” his wife replied with a wry smile. “I’ve had a nice warming stew on most of the day so it’s not all bad. I knows you do what you can even if it’s a losing battle.”

“I’d not be saying all’s lost, not after this afternoon,” Lou replied as he hung his old wide brimmed hat by the front door.

“When you’ve been with the company and then the board for so long Lou, you know what they’re like. You was sayin’ you weren’t retirin’ because they’d not replace you when you do,” his wife frowned. “So something’s raised your spirits… You want to tell me what it is?”

“Tell you what Ruby,” Lou smiled. “That stew of yours has fair got to me. I’ll set the table and we can talk over tea.”

The cottage was small but Ruby was sufficiently house proud to keep it beautiful enough to be homely but not so well kept that her husband of several decades was frightened of making it look untidy as he set about spreading a linen cloth, mats and the relevant cutlery out whilst she filled two brown glazed bowls with a meal that was a firm favourite of both of them.

“Just the job,” Lou smiled as he sampled a spoonful. “The weather’s pickin’ up but it still chills as I make my way back.”

“So what’s this thing that’s made you so happy this afternoon?” Ruby asked.

“I’d heard as them enthusiasts were planning something to make the board think twice before they go shuttin’ canals down like bloomin’ Beeching’s done with the railways,” Lou replied.

“Rail did enough damage to our folk,” Ruby frowned. “And them enthusiasts are always full of talk, with them sayin’ they’re going to do trade and all. How do you get a loaded pair down a pound that ain’t got no water in it, that’s what I’d like to know.”

“Right under their noses that’s how,” Lou almost chuckled. “Right under their noses… Shallow draught boat, see.”

“And how do they carry coal or steel on that un?” Ruby frowned again at the teasing.

“I’d just finished greasing the last lock before I came over here,” Lou replied. “Met up wi’ this pair that were acting a bit furtive like. Turns out they weren’t just joyridin’,”

“You can’t be sayin’ this were the cargo boat the board’s doing its best to stop carrying anything along the canal,” Ruby said.

“I am that and all,” Lou laughed. “Easy enough to lower the pound a few inch. Just enough to scupper the chances of a loaded pair making any headway. You can’t hide a pair of seventy footers but you can do with a little boat. I mean specially if they don’t even know it’s there.”

“So, tell me about these two,” Ruby replied. “What makes you so interested.”

“Them’s the next generation alright,” Lou continued, finishing the last spoonful of his stew. “Little boat, not much more than a rowing boat with a cabin, around fifteen or so feet I’d say. Lad and a lass… No funny business mind. They’re too busy learning the ropes and working their cargo to where it has to go.”

“How old?” Ruby asked. “You have to know what you’re at to carry a load. What’s they carrying anyway?”

“Watches made by them communists,” Lou smiled. “Like handmade but the guys making them need to sell a few so they can make more. All organised by the enthusiasts. So it ain’t a big box but it’s worth about as much as fifty tons of coal.”

“Sounds a bit dodgy,” Ruby said as she poured a mug of tea for her husband. “Not smugglin’ is it?”

“All legal and above board but the board as runs the canals have no idea this is the workboat the enthusiasts are backing,” Lou replied. “They was picked by the guy that was going to do the job because he did his hip a mischief.”

“Sounds like they’re playing at it all the same, like a free holiday,” Ruby frowned.

“I was thinking that but they have other reasons to lay low. I thought they were a pair of runaways from school at first, and they were pretty guarded when I spoke to them,” Lou continued. “That’s their business and they’d be on the right side of any battles they have, I’d bet my hat on it.”

“That young,” Ruby said slowly.

“That young indeed and they’re as honest as they are fresh face,” Lou replied. “If I weren’t looking at a pair of proper young boaters there I’d eat my boots. The lad fixed the boat up with his own hands, and the lass… Well she may speak posh but she’s seen any fortune the family had turn to dust. There’s a keenness to that pair that makes me feel that they’ll be doing more than the board can imagine to make the canals live again.”

“So we’re going on their side against the board if we have to?” Ruby asked.

“I will if you will,” Lou replied slowly. “We put the word out to keep what they’re doin’ under wraps and folk’ll help where they can.”

“You old rebel,” Ruby laughed as the couple settled themselves in a pair of old armchairs set in front of the fireplace. “You always was and always will be.”

“I think the little lady needs this old thing,” Lou smiled, picking up an old windlass that had sat for too long as a fireside ornament. “If she be usin’ the ones the board sells, the lass’ll tear her young hands to bits and that’d never do for a young boater now would it.”