CHAPTER 12
"What was the matter, Mandy?" asked James as they busied themselves with undoing the rope and closing the well lid.
"I saw that man in the churchyard, watching us, just like the other night."
"Where is he now?"
"Dunno. He seems to have faded away. Did you find anything down there?"
Rodney was just about to launch forth into a description of what they had done and found, but James got in first. "No, we didn't," he said loudly.
"But.." said Rodney.
"Shh!" hissed James. "Do you want our intruder to hear what we've just done?" he added under his breath.
"Oh," said Rodney.
They coiled up the rope, gathered up their tools and repacked them.
"Where now?" asked Mandy.
"We'd better eat our picnic. How about in the Woodside Field. No ghosts in daylight!"
They left the cottage garden by the back gate, and stashed their holdall and rope under a bush for later collection and set off past the back of the church and down the alley to the road. No strange cries disturbed them today and they made their way quickly to the road and crossed to the Woodside Field.
They sat down on one of the pieces of stone under the trees at the edge of the field and took the food they had brought out of their rucksacks.
"Right," said Mandy through the sandwich she was eating. "What DID you find in the well? I know you found something, so don't try to hide it from me!"
"I only didn't tell you because I was afraid we might be overheard," said James. "We'll all look at it. I don't know what it is myself."
He went on to explain what had happened in the well, helped by Rodney. Then he pulled the metal tube out of his anorak and they all examined it.
"It's sort of black metal," said Rodney. "But it's not rusty. Only rather greasy and slimy from the inside of the well."
"There's a sort of stopper on top," said Mandy. "Let's try to take it off."
She took hold of the cylinder and began to try to prise up the top. The first end she tried did not shift. She turned it upside down, and tried again. This time she felt it give.
"Give it here!" said James impatiently. "I'll get it off. Boys are stronger than girls!"
"Rubbish!" snapped Mandy. But she handed the tube over.
James finally forced the top off. He looked inside, momentarily fearful that something dreadful would jump out. Nothing did, so he turned the tube upside down and shook it. A roll of what looked like yellowish paper fell out.
Rodney dived for it. He opened it carefully, spreading it out over a flat stone. James held the other end, and they all looked at the now flattened piece of parchment, for that was what it was.
"There's a picture on it at the top," said Mandy. "Two women at a round building, and some trees."
"The picture on the wall at the church!" said James. He peered closely at the scroll. It was covered with writing, but he could not understand it.
"It's a sort of code, I think," he said. "But how do we find out what it says?"
"Are you sure it isn't just Latin?" asked Rodney. "They wrote funny in those days, if the pictures in the books we've been looking at have anything to do with it."
"Could be, I suppose. But I don't think Latin ever was quite as unreadable as this. I mean, it has words, doesn't it. But there's no words here."
"Well," interrupted Mandy, being practical again. "I suggest we roll it up again and put it back until we get home. Let's finish eating now and then we can go back and have a proper look."
The winter sun was beginning to go down behind the trees when they had finished their picnic and headed back to Rodney's house. They picked up their gear on the way, and returned through the back gate by which they had left.
Rodney had to put everything back in the shed, which was a rather uncomfortable exercise, with Mandy being lookout again. However, his father did not come out of the garage, and his mother, who came into the garden to gather herbs for her cooking, soon went back in.
"Phew!" said Rodney. "That was close. I was sure this time they would catch us!"
Trying to look innocent, they all trooped into the house by the back door. Rodney's mother took one look at them and exclaimed, "Good heavens, look at you all! What have you been doing? Rolling in the farmyard?"
"We did help clean up," lied Rodney. He hoped his mother would not try to find out any more, but she was too busy with her cooking to go into it further.
"Go and clean up," she said. "And James, I'm not doing YOUR washing. Your own mother can deal with you!"
By the time they were all cleaned up it was time for the evening meal. Rodney's mother was a good cook and had prepared a delicious pizza with baked sweet potatoes, followed by ice cream. James thought this was better than a holiday.
Mandy stayed for the meal, and afterwards was reluctant to go home. Mrs Omatola was rather concerned, "I hope I don't end up with both of you!" she said to her.
"No," said Mandy. "I just want to look at something the boys are going to show me," and she gave James a meaningful look. "Might as well do it now!" she added.
In Rodney's room, they opened the canister once again and extracted the parchment scroll. They spread it out on Rodney's desk, weighted down the ends with some of Rodney's pebble collection, and adjusted the desk lamp so that it shone directly onto it.
The strange lettering was clear enough. But it made no sense at all.
"I know," said James. "If we look carefully to try and see what the letters are, and write them down ourselves, we may get somewhere."
So they all studied it carefully, and Mandy got a pencil and paper and noted each letter as they decided what it was.
The final result was not very encouraging. It said....
MUJCYHNCU.YN.MWCYHNCU.XCWOHN.CH.XIGI.XUPCX.FOGYH.XCPCNCUMKOY.CHPYHCNY
"I thought they wrote in Latin in the old days?" said James. "That doesn't look like Latin to me. Perhaps we've got it wrong. Let's have another go."
So they went through it all again, Rodney calling out each letter and James writing it down this time. But the result was the same.
"It's Russian!" said Rodney.
"Rubbish," said Mandy. "They didn't do Russian in those days."
"Russians must have done. Maybe William was Russian!"
"Course not! The books would have said, wouldn't they?"
"Maybe he was a Russian spy!"
"Idiot! That was long before the Cold War!" interrupted James. "And the Cold War's over, so it doesn't matter now, does it. So it wouldn't've then."
He was certain of his logic, although Mandy felt she could see a flaw in this somewhere, but wasn't sure where. Instead she said,
"Let's do it a third time. This time I'll read out the letters and Rod can write them down."
So they had a third try. But the result was the same:
MUJCYHNCU.YN.MWCYHNCU.XCWOHN.CH.XIGI.XUPCX.FOGYH.XCPCNCUMKOY.CHPYHCNY
"I must admit I'm baffled!" said Mandy.
The boys weren't so willing to admit being baffled, but mumbled that it was a puzzle all right.
"I'm going to church tomorrow!" announced James after a silence.
"What's that got to do with it?" asked Rodney.
"Don't you see, the answer may be in that chapel somewhere. And I think we should keep in with the Vicar."
"Good point," admitted Rodney. "Oh, all right, I'll come with you. I expect I can survive the boredom."
"You might like it," said Mandy. "I've heard older people moaning that their Vicar is too trendy."
"Really? He doesn't look it," said James thoughtfully. He was beginning to realise that you could never tell with grown-ups.
Mrs Omatola's head appeared round the door. "It's getting late," she said. "I think you should go home, Mandy. Your mother will be expecting to see you and I can't put up both you and your brother at short notice!"
This was obviously a way of saying "bed-time" without actually saying it. Mandy collected her coat and thanked Mrs Omatola for having her for the evening.
"Can I come round tomorrow?" she asked.
Before Mrs Omatola could answer, Rodney butted in "We are going to church in the morning, so you'll have to come after that!"
Mrs Omatola was too stunned by this announcement to tell Rodney off for being rude.
"OK," said Mandy. "I'll see you two there!" and she went back home to her mother and Derek.
***********************************
"Mandy," said Anita. "Come and look at this."
She led Mandy under the hall light and held out her left hand under Mandy's nose.
Mandy looked.
Her mother's ring finger now wore only one ring - a pale blue heart-shaped sapphire set with diamonds, sparkling in the light.
"Has Derek...?"
"Yes, we're officially engaged now," flushed Anita.
Derek put his head round the sitting-room door. "We've been busy today!" he said rather inanely, and promptly blushed a rather unbecoming red.
Mandy hugged and kissed her mother, then went over and kissed Derek's still burning cheek. She herself was going rather pink. "Congratulations, Mum and Dad-to-be!" she managed to stammer. "I hope I will be bridesmaid! So when is it to be?"
The happy couple looked at each other.
"As soon as pos," announced Derek. "We'll let you know!"
Mandy felt like an intruder. "It's late, so I'll go and leave you to it," she told them.
She spent a disturbed night, dreaming of James's possible reactions to this latest happening (all of them disastrous) and remembering in her wakeful moments James's suspicion of Derek. What if James was right and she was wrong...? It didn't bear thinking about.
