CHAPTER 6
"You got away with it. I don't know why I didn't shop you," said James to Mandy the next day.
They were in The Hideout - James had been forbidden to go out and so had Rodney.
"Good thing Mum didn't think of checking up on Rowena," said Mandy.
"There wasn't much point in having you cooped up as well," said James, "I might need you, or I would have told on you."
"You haven't tackled her on Derek, have you?" said Mandy. "I'm amazed. I was sure you would!"
"She was so mad, it wasn't possible to get a word in. Anyway, he's back tomorrow. I am going to tackle him in front of her. That should do the trick."
"Oh, do you think so? He may well have an answer. I still think you're wrong about him."
"But would you say you saw him? Because you did."
"I suppose so. Let's wait and see."
Since they could think of was nothing else to do, they got out the books again.
"There is an article in the paper today about how they are trying to make a a long-life lamp," said Mandy. "So your idea about lights that never go out is quite an up to date one. And there was a bit on scientists transmuting nuclear waste by bombarding it with something or other. So perhaps you could turn lead into gold. But how did they do it before they had all these atomic machines?"
"This book of yours says Solomon, the King of Israel, lit his house with shining pearls - light bulbs? In the early 1400's somebody or other opened the Tomb of Pallas (whoever that was) and found a lantern that had burned for 2000 years. It doesn't say what became of that. It says Jewish legend says Noah lit the Ark with a shining crystal. There's loads more stuff like that. They must have had some form of electricity we don't know about. And here, it says Isaac Newton said there was a secret about the element Mercury, which he hoped no-one would find out."
"Why don't you ask at school tomorrow. Maybe there is something in all this."
"I am sure there is. That Abbot knew more than he should have, I reckon."
"The Abbey was pretty rich, according to the Vicar's book. They carted away loads of gold to Henry VIII's treasury; how about that! And they didn't have a shrine like some of the big places to get the tourists in."
Next morning, Rodney waited for James for the walk to school.
"Wow, Mum was that mad!" he said. "It is hard to get parents to understand about investigations, isn't it?"
James agreed that it was. After they had exchanged sympathy over the harsh treatment they had both received, James told Rodney about his researches during his forced imprisonment.
"We'll have to find a way of getting old Bates to explain this transmutation stuff without upsetting him with folklore!" he said.
Rodney agreed. "Pity we can't ask Mr Wilson. He was helpful when we asked him before."
"Yes, but Willsie isn't going to know much about modern science is he? He's a history man."
The science lesson was that afternoon. By one of those strange coincidences that life throws up, the subject was atoms. Mr Bates showed them the "Table of the Elements".
Part of this table had them nudging each other when Old Bates's back was turned.
"The Atomic Number of an element is the number of electrons that orbit round the nucleus of the atom," said Mr Bates. "So, Hydrogen has a number of 1, and Helium of 2 and so on."
What excited James and Rodney was much further up the sequence. Here, the numbers went:
79 - Gold, 80 - Mercury, 81 - Thallium, 82 - Lead.
James thought hard. So, if you could knock three electrons off lead, you would get gold! And mercury was the next thing on the way to gold.
He put his hand up.
"Yes?"
"I read in the paper yesterday about scientists being able to change nuclear waste into something else by bombarding it with radiation. Could this be done with anything, Mr Bates?"
"Oh yes. It would take a very large nuclear machine to do it, but it has been done."
"Could they turn say, lead into gold?"
"Yes, it can be done. But it is too expensive to be worth it. You would burn more energy doing that than the small amount of gold would be worth. So no-one does it."
"Can't it be done any other way?" asked James innocently.
"No, it can't!" snapped Mr Bates. "Let's not get diverted from the lesson, please. Pay attention, all of you!"
And that was the end of the discussion. James felt he had at least got an answer. It was possible to do what the alchemists had always wanted to do, but not without all the power of modern nuclear physics at your disposal. Even so, he felt sure that Abbot William had found another way......
"Well done, James!" said Rodney admiringly as they went home. "You braved Old Bates and got a straight answer. You have got nerve, I'll give you that!"
"I'll need it now," growled James through gritted teeth. "It's confront Derek time, and I want to win!"
He left Rodney and reached his own house. At the back door, he took a deep breath, and then opened it and walked in, trying to walk tall, the man of the house.
Anita and Derek presented him with a solid front, both standing to face him as he came in. Mandy was busy with the kettle and teapot on the far side of the kitchen.
Derek was furious. His pale eyes blazed, pinning James to the spot. In fact, James had never seen him so angry before.
"What's this I hear about you?" he demanded. "Lying to your mother - out in the dark, just as you were told not to do!"
James collected himself together, and put on his most defiant expression.
"How about you?" he shouted. "You were supposed to be away. What were you doing in the fields pretending to be a ghost?"
Anita gasped and went pale. Mandy froze, fascinated, teapot in hand. Even Derek was silenced for a moment, glaring with hostility at James.
"What are you talking about, James?" asked his mother, the first to recover.
"A good question," growled Derek.
"We saw you dressed in a hood, carrying a light across Woodside Field Saturday night. Didn't we Mandy?" James turned to his sister.
Mandy, unable to speak up, nodded.
"You did not see me pretending to be a ghost!" said Derek sharply. "What you were doing in the field - both of you - I would like to know! You were told of the dangers - yet you still disobey!"
"I can't get any sense out of them," sighed Anita. "None of them are behaving normally. Really, I despair of all of them."
"We are trying to solve the mystery," James told her. "Someone is playing tricks round here, and I think the person is in this room - after the Abbot's treasure, I'd say!"
"Absolute rubbish!" snapped Derek. "But, if you were right, don't you think it might be risky for you to try to solve it yourself? That's what the Police are for."
"Huh, they wouldn't believe us. Anyway, they would catch you, wouldn't they?"
"No they wouldn't!"
Mandy decided to try to defuse the situation.
"Why don't we all have a cup of tea?" she asked. "I've made it and it's a pity to waste it."
Anita woke up to the fact that Mandy was there.
"You're as bad as your brother! Trying to give us cups of tea - hiding the fact that apparently you lied to me as well! I don't think I'll ever be able to trust either of you again. As if life wasn't hard enought already!"
She was getting hysterical. Derek noticed this at once, and put his arm round her. The fire went out of his eyes.
"Sit down, Nita," he said gently. "Don't get too upset over adventurous kids. They all do it at some time or other. I'll deal with them."
He turned to James and Mandy.
"You can see how you have upset your mother. You're all she's got, of course she's anxious about you. It's a dangerous world, and adventures could end up with both of you dead in a ditch. Then where would she be? There's been enough trouble, but I will say don't try that again - we may have to get the Police to deal with you if we lose you again!"
If that was meant to be a severe threat, it had no effect on James. He was thinking, "We may soon get the Police to deal with you," but he didn't say it.
Mandy got the cups and poured out the tea she had made. They drank it in stony silence.
Anita cooked bacon and eggs for all of them, and they all sat down to eat it. Derek and Anita talked between themselves, avoiding controversial subjects, but James and Mandy just ate, their only comments being about the homework they had to do.
After supper, in The Hideout, Mandy looked at James. "Well," she said. "He denied it, didn't he? Perhaps it wasn't him."
"He denied playing ghosts - but if you think about it, he didn't deny being in the field."
"No." Mandy thought about it. "Maybe he had his reasons. Perhaps he's right - you read about these murders. I don't want to be one."
"Neither do I. But why should he make us give up. If he's not what he seems to be, and I'm sure he's not, we've got to rescue Mum from his clutches."
"I suppose so." Mandy sounded unsure. "In spite of everything, I still like him, you know."
James was too disgusted with her to answer, so he went on with his homework.
