CHAPTER 4
James's mother was not too pleased about the state of his jeans when he got home. He decided not to tell her about the light, nor did he tell Mandy when they were doing their homework in The Hideout later. He did tell her about the chapel visit and showed her his sketches.
"Any idea what it all means?" she enquired.
"Not really, but I am beginning to think Abbot William made lead into gold and then hid the result. I did wonder if the cottage with the well is the House of Gold, but where would we start to look? I mean, you can't knock on the door and ask to search the house, can you?"
"Not really. Anyway, what about that ghost. We don't want to upset him!"
Mandy looked at the archaeology book. "There was not much left of the Abbey was there?" she said. "This book says they dug up some of the foundations when they were building the Industrial Estate, and that the rest is built into Manor Farm."
"Manor Farm?" That's where the light had appeared! Perhaps there was a ghost...
"I think we should get the Ordnance Survey map of this area," said Mandy. "The large scale ones show old ruins. If we're going to look for things to do with the old Abbey, that may be what we need to get. We did map-reading in geography yesterday," she explained.
"Brill idea! Girls aren't quite as daft as I thought! But what's this 'if we're going to look'? I thought you were afraid of the ghost."
"I am, but it is interesting when you read about it, isn't it?"
She looked at the Vicar's book while James was still struggling with his maths.
"It says here that there was supposed to be a secret passage between the Abbey and one of the old houses in the village, but no-one knows which one," she said later. "It also says that nearly every abbey had a similar story, so it is probably not true. But what if it is. Could your Abbot have hidden his lead-turned-to-gold there?"
"Maybe it leads to the cottage with the well!" This was getting really intriguing. "But even if it does, how do we find it?"
"Maybe the map will help, if we can see where everything used to be."
"Not if it's under the factory, we won't."
Saturday came. It was dull and wet but Mandy wanted to go shopping after breakfast, and James went with her to get the map. He got it in the large stationery store in the little town. Mandy went on to do some early Christmas shopping in the 'touristy' shops, enjoying the smell of pot- pourri and the exotic goods for sale. James got bored and returned home.
To his delight, Derek was not there, as he had feared.
"Where's Derek?" he asked his mother.
"He's away. I'm surprised you're interested."
James did not reply. It seemed a pity to waste a good Derek-less day, but he wanted to show his map to Rodney, so he went to call on him.
Rodney's mother was surprised that they wanted to shiver in the tree-house, but that's boys for you!
Once they were safely inside the wooden hide, they spread the map out on the floor. Rodney had brought a magnifying glass, and they studied the details closely.
"Here's Manor Farm!"
"And here's the Abbey (remains of)."
It didn't really tell them as much as they had hoped. The cottage with the well was shown (marked "Well"), and the industrial estate, which apparently had some of the Abbey (remains of) in a park in the middle.
"There's something marked 'Mon' in the middle of this wood next to Manor Farm," said Rodney. "I wonder what a Mon is."
"Monument," said James smugly. "Could be anything."
"Oh, hang on, it's called Coldharbour Castle - see, just here."
"We don't want castles, though do we? We want Abbey ruins. If we go to Manor Farm do you think the farmer will let us look round?"
"Let's ask Mum to make us some sandwiches and go and find out."
Three quarters of an hour later they were both in the driveway, looking at Manor Farm house. It looked very old, and rather forbidding. Built of stone, with small windows, it could have survived from the Abbey days.
James plucked up courage, and knocked at the door. After what seemed a very long time, during which the boys were wondering why they had done this at all, there was a creaking sound, the door opened, and there was a homely middle-aged woman in a floury apron.
"Sorry to keep you," she smiled. "I was making pastry and had to wash the flour off. What can I do for you young men?"
Someone who wasn't hostile to boys! That seemed a good omen.
"We live down Water Lane. We're studying local history, and have found out that the ruins of the Abbey are on your farm," said James. Can we have a look, please?"
"Of course you may! We often have visitors in the summer, and I do cream teas for them sometimes - not today" she added quickly as the boys looked hopeful. "I'll get my son Peter to show you round, the rest of us are busy."
The farmer's wife invited them in to wait for her son, and soon they were sitting in the warm farmhouse kitchen by the Aga cooker, watching her prepare a large apple pie.
"Is this house haunted?" asked Rodney. "It's very old."
"It was built out of stones from the old Abbey, certainly," replied the farmer's wife. "But, d'you know, we have never heard of it being haunted. It's Elchester Lane that's haunted, they say. My son swears he has seen something odd at night in our field bordering on that lane. Lights, he says, and once a ghostly figure. He could be making it up, though."
"No I didn't, mother!" said a voice from the doorway.
They turned round and saw a tall gangling lad of about sixteen standing looking at them.
"Tell us what you saw!" James and Rodney both demanded at once.
Peter sat down at the table.
"It was in the Woodside Field some time after midnight, two or three times. I was looking out of my bedroom window, which looks that way, one night when I couldn't sleep, and I saw this light which flitted between the trees. That was all I saw, but a few nights later I looked out again and there it was. Then one night I was walking through the next field, and I saw a white figure in that field.."
"Then what?"
"Whoever it was vanished."
"We saw lights in that field last night, quite early in the evening," said James.
"This worries me," broke in the farmer's wife. "It could be burglars."
"But if it was," Peter pointed out, "surely they would have burgled us by now, not hung about pretending to be ghosts. No, it's more than that. Even so, I don't think I really believe in ghosts."
"Can you show the boys the Abbey ruins, Peter?" asked his mother.
Peter was only too pleased to. "You can see Woodside Field as well," he said. "Perhaps you can solve the mystery!"
There was not much left above ground of the Abbey. Mostly it consisted of bits of broken wall about two or three feet high at the most. One beautiful pointed arch alone remained of the church. This had been used as a garden arch - better than the usual plastic one, as Rodney remarked.
"Is there a secret passage?" asked James, when they had wandered around the garden, which was really all the Abbey was now.
"Well, if there is," said Peter, "no-one has found it. There's not much wall left anywhere to have a secret door, is there? So it could be under this garden, but I've never heard of a gardener falling into it!"
"Pity. How about the farmhouse?"
"No, that was only built out of Abbey stones, so there wouldn't be a passage there from Abbey times. Do you think that's what my burglar or whatever was looking for, then?"
James decided it would not be a good idea to let on that they were treasure seeking, so he just shrugged.
"Who knows? Anyway, let's see your field."
However, the field was just that, as far as they could see, a field with trees round it. There were a few carved stones scattered around the edge, old Abbey stones, Peter said. They had a good look at them, but could make nothing out of them. So they went back to the Abbey ruins and sat on a low wall, sharing their sandwiches with Peter.
When they got back to James' house, Mandy was in The Hideout, having finished her shopping.
"I'm glad you're here, James," she said. "Look what I've got at the bookshop. You will like this, I'm sure!"
"This" was a paperback book with a cover picture which could be meant to be a flying saucer. It was called "The Secrets of the Ancients."
James was dismissive. "We aren't looking for flying saucers, are we?"
Rodney took the book from Mandy.
"Hang on, James," he said. "This is interesting, you know. There are chapters on alc.. turning lead into gold and other things. Mandy isn't daft!"
James climbed down. He took the book from his sister and soon was absorbed in it, while Rodney told Mandy of their morning's adventure.
Suddenly, James interrupted them. "How about 'staking out' the lane tonight, and seeing if we can see the weird lights again?"
"I don't want to meet the ghost and die," shivered Mandy.
"I think someone's playing ghosts - they're probably after the treasure. Bet it's Derek!"
"Of course not!" cried Mandy.
"If you don't think so, come with us tonight and let's prove it!"
"All right, I will!"
