CHAPTER 17
"So," said Mandy that night. "The House of David is the tower in the wood!"
"The Mon. Yes, that must be it! That name kept cropping up in the psalm and I wondered why. The more you think about it, the more it makes sense!"
"So now what?" enquired Mandy.
"We explore the Mon. the first chance we get!" said James. "That'll be Saturday. What I think is, we tell Mum we are going to see Peter at the Farm and help with the cows or something. Hopefully she or Rodney's Mum (or both if we're lucky!) will give us a picnic lunch to take with us. Then it's into the wood and get at that tower!"
"You expect ME to come?"
"Of course. Don't you want to?"
"I suppose so. I've just got a funny feeling that we are going to get into trouble, that's all. And I must do my Christmas shopping sometime. There's really only three weeks left."
"Bother Christmas. Anyway, you can do your shopping next week. As for trouble, we'll be OK so long as Derek doesn't find out. You won't tell him, will you?"
The rest of that week dragged by slowly. Derek put in an appearance on Thursday evening, and James found reasons why he should spend that evening at Rodney's house. He and Rodney spent some time studying the map, but apart from getting a good idea of the exact way through the wood to the tower, it told them nothing they did not know already.
In between lessons on Friday morning, Jane came up to James and Rodney. "Didn't I say you were playing with fire?" she asked.
"What do you mean?" asked James.
"At Elchester on Wednesday. Miss Rhodes wanted to know what you were studying in the Library, didn't she? She was not the only one, either."
"Well, it was Abbot William. So what? He can't hurt us!"
"He can't, no. But I overheard Miss Rhodes discussing it all with Mr Bates. You have got the teachers on alert, I'd say. Is that what you want?"
"Batesey hasn't said anything to us," said Rodney. "That's odd. He usualy does if he thinks we're being unscientific."
"'Spect he's given up!" remarked Jane. "Just be careful, that's all. They are probably on the lookout for you doing something you shouldn't. You know what teachers are!"
The afternoon lesson was Science, but Mr Bates made no comment on Abbot William or local legends.
"He's not bothered, is he?" whispered Rodney to James. "We will be OK for tomorrow, then!"
"Be quiet you two!" snapped Mr Bates. "Discuss your weekend activities outside school, not in my lessons!" But that was his only comment, and it was soon forgotten.
"So what are you doing tomorrow?" asked Derek that night.
James and Mandy looked at each other. "We're going to help Peter at Manor Farm," said James with a smile.
Derek looked at them suspiciously. He wasn't used to smiles from James. "You're not hiding anything from your mother and me, are you?" he asked, his pale eyes sharply glancing from James to Mandy and back.
James looked at his mother across the table. "No, of course not!" he replied quickly. "I did tell you what we were doing - didn't I, Mum?"
"He did, actually, Derek love," said Anita. "Why are you suspicious?"
"He's being too nice," snarled Derek, frowning. "Still, if you say so..." He leant back in his chair, fixing James and Mandy with an astute look.
James looked away to his mother. "Will you do us a picnic, Mum?"
"Yes, I will. Anyway, Derek and I are going out Christmas shopping again. Without you two we can stay out to lunch - can't we dear?"
"OK," said Derek somewhat sulkily. "Lunch it is."
James and Mandy left the kitchen. "Yuck!" exclaimed James outside the door. "To hear her call him 'love and dear' makes me sick! Oh well, let's telephone Rodney to come to The Hideout and finish our plans."
Rodney soon appeared and the rest of the evening was spent in careful plotting.
"Hope the weather stays good!" said Mandy when all was decided upon. "It will be difficult if it rains!"
However, Saturday dawned bright and clear, if somewhat chilly. After breakfast, James and Mandy dressed in their warm sweaters as their mother insisted, and watched her prepare the picnic.
"Take your key, dear," she said to Mandy. "Derek and I may not be back until late this afternoon. But do come home before dark, won't you!"
Once the picnic was packed in James's rucksack, James and Mandy put on their anoraks and went to fetch Rodney. Rodney's mother had prepared sandwiches as well.
"Plenty of food, anyway," said James. "It should go well today, I think."
"Hope you're right," muttered Mandy.
"The gear's in the tree house, like you said," Rodney told James. "Dad isn't using his lamp, so I got that. And I got some trowels, a brush and best of all, the crowbar!"
They left by Rodney's back door, and once the tools had been collected from the tree house, they passed out of the gate into the field once more.
The sky above them was a bright turquoise blue, with a few fleecy clouds. The trees at the edges of the field threw their usual shadows far across the grass, and the dew sparkled on the tussocks as they plodded along in their boots. It all felt very healthy and refreshing. Even the path past the church wasn't sinister today.
They crossed Elchester Lane, went through the gate into Woodside Field and through another gate into the wood. The bright atmosphere immediately seemed to dim. Gnats were dancing in clouds beneath the trees, and it felt clammy.
Mandy shivered, brushing away a stray gnat. "I don't like this wood. It gives me the creeps! Did you bring the map?"
"No, I forgot it!" said James. "Never mind, I can remember the way."
A fairly well-defined path led into the middle of the wood, and they followed it. Here and there brambles had grown over the track, and on the verges a few late wild flowers bloomed - Herb Robert and Pink Campion, sheltered from the frost by the winter trees.
Mandy's chilliness soon warmed up as they stomped along the hollow way, and after about fifteen minutes of avoiding trailing weeds and tree roots they came out from among the trees into a clearing. A hillock rose before them, clothed in grass of a surprisingly bright green, and topped by a ruined stone building looking rather like a set of broken teeth.
"Well, James," said Rodney. "So that's your Tower of Gold."
"House of Gold, actually," said James. "Yes, that must be it - and how about this green for the 'Fields of the Wood'? Let's get up there!"
There was certainly not much left of the tower. Battered stone walls surrounded a mossy flagstone floor. Someone, presumably the Council, had set a metal-and-wood seat into an alcove in the north wall, which was the highest part of the building left standing. Even in the bright winter sunlight the place had a musty air.
Mandy shivered again. "I don't like this at all!" she said. "Now what are you going to do?"
James looked at Rodney. "We look for hollow walls or floor. Let's get going!"
He put his rucksack down on the seat and got out a trowel. Rodney put down his pack and got out the crowbar, another trowel, and the brush.
"Why did you want a brush?" he asked James.
"To brush away the moss and soil from the stones, of course," replied James.
Mandy had sat down on the seat, between the packs. "Oh, no, you don't sit down!" cried her brother. "Here's a trowel, you get scratching and tapping as well!"
After an hour of scraping moss and tapping stones, they gave up and sat down on the seat for some food and a drink of Coke.
"Not done so well, have we?" muttered Mandy through a mouthful of sandwich. "Thought it would be a waste of time!"
However, after their meal they all got back to work.
By two o'clock the sun was beginning to decline, and the bright day was growing dim. Grey clouds came up and hid the pale blue sky. The wind grew colder. Still they tapped and scraped on.
At around half past three by James's watch they stopped to eat the remainder of their picnic. The sun had rolled behind the hill and it was growing dusky and chill. Above them the sky was getting dark - golden streaks glowed about the trees where the sun was hiding.
"We're getting nowhere, and it's getting dark!" complained Mandy. "Let's go home!"
"I'm going to have one more look at that big slab in the corner there, just to the left of the seat. I'm sure it's getting loose," said James. "We'll need the lights now, though."
Rodney got a torch and the fluorescent lamp out of the rucksack, and tested them both. They worked.
Once the food and Coke was all gone - which was not long - James and Rodney gave their attention to the slab. Mandy refused to do any more and stayed on the seat.
Suddenly James gave a yell. "We've moved it!"
He had scraped out all the moss and dirt round the big stone slab and he and Rodney put the crowbar under it. It gradually came up with a great deal of effort.
"I expect you'll only find earth!" muttered Mandy sulkily. "Then we can go home."
Between them, James and Rodney lifted up the slab. Beneath it was not earth, but another slab.
"This is no good," grumbled Mandy. "Let's go home. I'm cold."
"No, we must go on. We're nearly there, I'm certain," said James.
He turned on the torch and looked closely at the newly uncovered slab of stone. To being with he could see nothing different about it. Then, in one corner, he saw a slight bump on the surface. He fetched the brush and swept away the dirt. He shone the torch onto the bump, lighting it up from the side, hoping to make any design stand out.
Yes! There were ..... two figures, and maybe a .... star between them! The pattern from the church! 'Wisdon and Knowledge' no doubt!
"Yippee!" he yelled. "Look Rod! We've got there!"
On a sudden impulse, he bent down and pressed the star.
Nothing happened.
"You're barking up the wrong tree," said Rodney.
"No, I'm not!"
He stamped on the star, hard.
Something at the bottom of the ruined wall beside him moved. He stamped on the star again. There was a tearing noise, a rusty sort of grinding, and a narrow gap appeared low in the wall.
"Look," he shouted triumphantly. "A door!"
Mandy gasped, and jumped off the seat. Rodney pushed past James to peer in. A dank smell rushed out at him; only darkness was visible within.
"Let's both push it open further," suggested James.
They both pushed at the stone door. Gradually, it opened wider. The last remaining daylight filtered in, vaguely showing a steep flight of steps, leading down into intense darkness.
"Those steps are narrow and broken up," said Rodney doubtfully, shining the fluorescent lamp down. "Yuck, they're wet and slimy, too. All earth and mould on them."
Mandy, who had backed away, suddenly looked around her.
"I heard a noise. Someone's in the wood! Let's get out of here!"
"Not now I've found my passage," said James. "I'm going down it. You probably only heard an old fox, anyway. How about you, Rod?"
"I'll go down if you do!"
"Tell you what," said Mandy. "You two go down, and I'll keep watch from those bushes over there. Then, if anything goes wrong, I can get help, can't I?"
James looked hard at his sister. "I think you've chickened out. Still, I can see the sense in keeping watch. OK, you do that. We'll do the men's work!"
