

### About the Book

It's the October mid-term holiday, and cousins James and Jessica, known as the Two Jays, get an excited phone call from their friend Maddie. The builder has found the original plans for her house, and Maddie discovers it was built in 1857 on land once belonging to Rootsdyer Farm. Some later words added to the plans set the three on a hunt for an underground room somewhere in the garden. What is hidden behind the brick wall that sounds hollow?

Who was Charlotte? According to a handwritten note on the plans, Charlotte once rested in the garden. Where? And did the Maggart Gang led by Josiah Devauden have a hideout on the farm in the early 1800s? Maddie needs to find out more for her school project, but the three soon discover that being trapped under the ground is no fun. Another exciting story in the Two Jays adventure series. They can be read in any order, although each one goes forward slightly in time.

### THE HIDDEN ROOM ADVENTURE

### The Eighth Two Jays Story

Chris Wright

© Chris Wright 2019

This eBook ISBN: 978-1-912529-39-1

Also available in paperback

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-912529-40-7

Published by

White Tree Publishing

Bristol

UNITED KINGDOM

Website: www.whitetreepublishing.com

Email: wtpbristol@gmail.com

The Black Lake Adventure is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this abridged edition.

The Bible verses in this story are taken from "The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers."

(See also www.youversion.com for free downloads of over a thousand Bible translations, with over a thousand languages supported, on your phone, tablet, and computer.)

### Author's Note

My readers are from all around the world, but the story takes place in Britain, so the spelling is UK English. I have tried to keep mention of measurements to a minimum, although where they are used it should be obvious roughly what the measurements are. You can contact me if you like through the publisher's email address, but please get your parents' permission first.

Chris Wright

### Table of Contents

Cover

About the book

Author's Note

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

About White Tree Publishing

More books by Chris Wright

### Chapter 1

Saturday

"Come round as soon as you can." Maddie sounded excited. "The builder who's doing our central heating has found something under the floorboards. I want you to see it."

Jessica pulled the phone away from her ear and turned to James. "Maddie's builder has found something under the floorboards."

"A rat?" James asked.

Jessica, James's cousin, shuddered. "I hope not. Tell us what it is, Maddie," she said, putting her phone to her ear again. "James thinks it's a rat."

" _Much_ better than a rat," Maddie said, still sounding excited. "I'm not going to tell you over the phone. Come now if you can."

Jessica Green and her parents had arrived on Friday evening to stay with her cousin James Cooper and his parents in the autumn mid-term holiday. It was now not long after breakfast on Saturday, and James's and Jessica's parents were already out house-hunting. Jessica's father had managed to get a job in a local office, and the Green family were hoping to find a house that was handy for work and school.

James's father and Jessica's mum were brother and sister, and for the past twelve hours the six had been crammed into the Coopers' house, and there didn't seem to be much room.

"We'll come straight round now," Jessica said. "We could do with a bit of breathing space. Is your papa there at the moment?"

"In and out," Maddie said, vaguely. "He's out at the moment."

Maddie Quedgley had been looking after herself in a creepy old Victorian house when Jessica and James, sometimes called the Two Jays, had first met her in the early summer when James had saved her life. [See _The Old House Adventure_.] Maddie's father, called Papa by Maddie, was often away, but following a break-in last year, the police and the social services made sure that Maddie never stayed there again on her own. If her father was away at night, Maddie had to stay with the local pastor and his wife and daughter.

James was already in the hall putting on his jacket and trainers. "Come on, snail," he said to Jessica, his hand on the door latch. "Let's see what can possibly be _much_ more exciting under the floorboards than a rat."

It took less then fifteen minutes to hurry to Maddie Quedgley's house. James was always fascinated by the large brass door knocker in the shape of a hand. Before he could raise it and smash it down loudly, to his disappointment Maddie opened the heavy front door.

"I saw you coming," she said, her eyes sparkling with pleasure at seeing them again.

James looked at her. Maddie was wearing her usual colourful non-school outfit. She had a bright orange top, short mid-blue skirt, red leggings and blue trainers. Somehow, no matter what combination of bright colours Maddie wore, the resulting mess suited her, although probably only this girl with an English father and a French mother could get away with it. Sadly, Maddie's mother, her Maman, had died several years ago. James could remember Maddie's mother visiting his house, while Maddie and he were playing in his garden when they were both really young.

"Come on," James said impatiently, "let the dog see the rabbit."

Maddie frowned. "Who said anything about a rabbit? Don't you mean rat?"

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Take no notice of him," she said. "It's probably just some weird expression he's heard. So, what has your builder found?"

James made his way into the large hallway, and he noticed how cold it felt. "Let me guess. A hoard of gold sovereigns?"

Maddie shook her head, scattering her curly almost black hair that always looked untidy, no matter what shape she brushed it into. "The timing is perfect. We're doing a project at school on local history. I've already found the official census records on the internet. The census is taken every ten years. The first time this house appears is in the 1861 census, so I knew it was built sometime between the 1851 census and the 1861. The first occupant was called Wilfred Harris. He was forty-five in 1861, and his occupation was a tailor. The census says he lived here with his wife Mildred. They had two children called Alfred and Agnes, and a maid called Doris, also living here. Doris was seventeen. I expect she had my bedroom in the turret."

"And the builder has found Doris under your bedroom floorboards," James said, sounding serious when Maddie paused at last for a deep breath. "To think all the years you've been sleeping up there, and you didn't know there was a body just inches away."

Jessica gave him a playful punch on the arm. "Just try and be sensible for once." She turned to Maddie. "James is wrong, isn't he? _Please_ say he is!"

Maddie shook her head. "He's only too right. There was Doris, mostly bones, but still dressed in her maid's outfit. She looked ever so sad."

Jessica bit her lower lip in alarm. "That's terrible. I mean...." She noticed Maddie and James looking at each other and laughing. "You're as daft as James," she said, trying to sound cross, but seeing the funny side of it. "Well, who or what did your builder find?"

Maddie closed the large front door with a heavy thud, and dropped the security latches. "Come into the dining room and I'll show you. I'm sorry it's so cold in the house. It's going to be like this for the next few days, until the new heating is on. We've got fan heaters and convector heaters around the place, but they don't seem to be doing much good."

James remembered the first time they had met Maddie. The large dining table had been covered with small archaeological finds that her father had been examining. Professor Quedgley was an expert in identifying fakes and forgeries of antiquities, and had recently become well known through a series of television programmes, and through being interviewed occasionally on the news about archaeological finds and the book he had written. It was aimed at the popular market rather than the academic, and was selling well.

"Here we are," Maddie said, pointing to the large table that was now clear of everything except some documents and a long roll of paper that looked like plans. "My school project," she said proudly. "The history of my house. And now the icing on the cake. The original architectural drawings for this house dated 1857 found by Tony, our builder, under my floorboards." She began to unroll the plans.

James leaned over to examine them, accidentally knocking his head against Jessica's. "Oops, sorry. I nearly damaged my amazing brain."

Jessica ignored him and looked at the drawings. There were several sheets of discoloured paper with drawings of the house. They seemed to be original, and surely there wouldn't have been photocopying devices back in the 1850s.

Maddie removed the top sheet and pointed to the one underneath. "There's my bedroom in the turret. This is a plan view, and there's the elevation of the front of the house. It doesn't seem to have changed at all. Papa has had double glazed windows fitted, but he made sure they were made of wood and matched the ones already here."

James stood back while the girls studied the drawings. He wasn't going to say anything, but he felt disappointed. From the excitement Maddie had shown on the phone, he was expecting something better than some old rolled-up sheets of paper. Anyway, Maddie was excited, and it would surely help her school project.

Maddie fascinated him. Not only did she go in for complicated school projects, she was capable of looking after herself, the owner of a bank card, and housekeeper to her father − but not the cleaner. Maddie was spared that chore. A cleaner came in for the whole morning every two weeks.

James nodded to himself, deep in thought. Maddie was smaller than Jessica, but looked older. It was probably the result of caring for her father who was somewhat scatterbrained. A bit like Maddie, really!

He made his way to the large window that looked out over the back garden. He stared in surprise. Something was different. "What's happened out there?" he called, turning to Maddie.

Maddie and Jessica joined him at the window, leaving the architectural drawings to roll up again by themselves. "What? Where?" Jessica said. "Oh yes, got it."

"Are you wondering what's happened to the crummy old summerhouse?" Maddie asked.

"That's what it is!" James said. "Or what it _isn't_. I knew something was different. Just couldn't work out what it was. Did it fall down by itself one night?"

Maddie shook her head. "Papa said it was time we had a new one. It must have been at least fifty years old, and it wasn't even on proper foundations. You can see where it was. It was resting on that large patch of gravel, and the wood rotted away underneath. Papa took me to the garden centre and we chose a new one together. Tony says the new one needs to have a proper concrete base. And that's why I've asked you to come round."

James shook his head. "I'm not digging out the foundations. Let Tony do it. He's your builder."

Jessica laughed. "I don't think Maddie and her papa would trust you to build a summerhouse," she said to James. "You'd probably build it upside down, anyway!"

Maddie caught hold of their arms and pulled them back to the table. "Don't take any notice of your cousin, James. I'm sure you'd do it perfectly. Anyway, Tony and his team are doing everything. And now," she said dramatically, "the real reason for getting you here." She unrolled the set of drawings again and removed one from further down in the set. She laid it on the table with her arms and hands spread so she could hold it flat. "Drum roll please. Da da!"

James frowned, not wanting to rain on Maddie's parade. "It's your back garden," he said, trying to sound enthusiastic.

Maddie nodded. "But look here," she said, putting her finger on the drawings and using an elbow to prevent everything rolling up again. "Right here, exactly where our old summerhouse was, somebody has written 'Charlotte's Resting Place.' See?"

James looked closely. "Okay, got it. And it says 'Shelter,' and 'Ladder.' So you think there was a summerhouse here when the house was built?"

"Look again," Maddie said. "You disappoint me, James. I thought you had a detective running around inside your brain."

James took a closer look, and then shrugged. "So there was a shelter here when the house was built, presumably some sort of summerhouse, and Charlotte used to go out there on sunny days and rest. And there was a sort of ladder up into it, so it must have been off the ground quite a bit."

"I hope she wasn't seriously ill," Jessica said quietly, nervously pulling her long fair hair back into a ponytail. "I mean, in Victorian times it seems there was always someone seriously ill in every family. I can't get this picture out of my mind now, of Charlotte being carried out there in the summer, her face white, and put down gently on a bed in the summerhouse to pass her final days away. I wish you hadn't shown it to us, Maddie."

"Look again," Maddie said impatiently. "You're _both_ disappointing me. Look at the writing. The words 'Charlotte's Resting Place' are in old-fashioned copperplate writing. It's the way all Victorians wrote, even little kids. You got your knuckles rapped at school until you could do it perfectly."

"Got it," James said. "The detective inside my brain has suddenly decided to wake up. The words 'Ladder' and 'Shelter' are badly written in pencil by a child who never had his knuckles rapped."

"Brilliant," Maddie said, sounding as though perhaps she meant it. "And look at the initials. HP."

"And?" James said, still struggling to understand Maddie's excitement.

"And I'm sure I know who HP is."

"You know someone who's over a hundred and fifty years old?" James said. "Can we meet?"

"What makes you think he's that old?" Maddie asked, laughing.

"Look at the date on the plans," James said. "1857 wasn't last week."

"But look at the style of the handwriting." Maddie stabbed the words with her finger. "The words in _pencil_ were written by a child, long after the house was built. I think HP is Harold Prentice, and he's still alive. Well, he was a few days ago."

"And you think he was married to Charlotte who used to rest in the shelter in the garden?" Jessica asked. "I'm still worried about Charlotte being out there all on her own, seriously ill. I hope she wasn't lonely."

Maddie shook her head vigorously, and her mass of dark, wild hair became even more of a mess than usual. "Judging by the copperplate handwriting, Charlotte was one of the early owners of the house, or part of their family. I can't find her on any of the census records. I don't think I'm going to find anyone who knows anything about her, but I'm going to do my best."

"Well," James said, "you're certainly going into this project in a big way. Wouldn't it have been easier to do some research about the town?"

Maddie pointed to the small pile of A4 notepaper. "My work, so far. _Anyone_ can write about the town, and probably will, but I'm the only one who can write about this house. I've been looking at the old deeds, and a Mr and Mrs Arnold Prentice were living here in the early 1940s."

"So you think one of them wrote on these plans in pencil and then hid them under the floorboards? Why would they do that?"

"I don't think _they_ wrote it. The handwriting is too childish. They had a son called Harold. Don't take your coats off, we're going out." She quickly rolled up the architects' drawings. "Come on, don't hang around. We need to find Harold Prentice, and see if he can solve the mystery of Charlotte."

### Chapter 2

"I don't understand it," James said, pausing on the top of the wide stone steps that led down from Maddie's dark red front door. "Anyone who lived here during the war is going to be dead by now."

Maddie passed the roll of drawings to James and pulled the door shut with a bang, then set the two high security locks. "The war ended in 1945. I've never met Harold, but I know he used to go to my church. His son Ronald still does. I think Ronald's about sixty. When he knew I was writing about the house for my school project, he said he was sure his father would be able to give me some good information on what happened here in the war. He's in a care home somewhere in town."

James felt doubtful. "He's going to be ... how old?" He thought for a moment. "I can't work it out, but ancient, anyway. And if he's in a care home, you're wasting your time."

Jessica looked surprised. "Don't make any assumptions, boy," she said. "Not everyone in a care home has lost their marbles. He's probably a lot brighter than you are." She thought for a moment. "A _lot_ brighter. Where's the care home, Maddie?"

With the roll of drawings tucked safely under her arm, Maddie turned to the right as they went out of the front gate. "No idea," she said brightly. "But I know a man who can tell us. Pastor Peter Griffiths will have all the addresses. If Papa doesn't come back today, I'm going to have to stay at the Manse tonight. I'm guessing your house, James, is a little bit full to take one more."

"Full? You can say that again. My parents have their own room, of course, and Jessica's parents are in the spare room. And don't ask about _me_. Jessica, naturally, has to have _my_ room, and that leaves me on the sofa struggling to keep a blanket over me as I twist around all night trying to get comfortable."

"He managed very well," Jessica said. "We had to wake him up this morning so we could come down and have breakfast."

James pulled a face. "Only because I'd been awake most of the night and was exhausted. The sacrifices one has to make for a cousin."

The Manse was only a few minutes away, in the same grounds as the small, lively church Maddie went to. It was where James sometimes went with Maddie to the evening service, although he normally went to his local church with his parents, which he had been attending since he was very young. He hoped that now Jessica was moving to the neighbourhood, the three of them would be able to make Maddie's church their home.

Pastor Peter Griffiths received them cordially and invited them into the rather cold Manse. It was now late October, and Jessica thought he must have the heating set on low. She didn't like to say anything, as clearly the church was by no means a wealthy one, and provided many outreach projects to support the needy people in the local area. She wondered how Maddie managed to keep warm here in bed at night when her papa was away.

"Sorry about the heating," Pastor Griffiths said. "Or rather the lack of it. A small problem with the boiler, and I can't get it fixed until Monday. So perhaps you'd better leave your coats on."

Maddie turned to James and Jessica. "Home from home," she said, laughing.

The pastor invited them into the living room, and Maddie spread out the architect's drawings on the floor. She explained about the pencilled initials on the plans that showed the back garden, and her theory that HP could be Harold Prentice, because she knew Harold's parents lived there during World War 2.

"So, Peter, please can you tell us where Harold Prentice is at the moment. His son Ronald told me his father used to come to church, and he's now in a care home somewhere in town. Of course, it's a long shot. I suppose HP could be anyone."

Pastor Griffiths nodded. "I admire your ingenuity, Maddie, but I'm afraid I can't help you. I'd like to, but any addresses the church has are held in confidence."

"That's all right," Maddie said brightly, "Ronald will tell us. Can you let me have Ronald's address, please? I know he comes to church."

The pastor laughed. "Sorry, Maddie, the same rules apply."

Jessica noticed how disappointed Maddie looked. "Cheer up, Maddie," she said. "We'll see if we can find something online when we get back to your place. We know the surname and the town, and there are websites where you can look addresses up. As long as there aren't too many hits, we can narrow it right down."

"Now just a moment," Pastor Peter Griffiths said, laughing. "All I said was, I can't let you have Ronald Prentice's _address_. But I can do better than that. The church hall is open at the moment, and if you go in there you'll find Ronald arranging the tables and chairs. He's sorting things out for our seniors' club this afternoon."

"Oh wow," Maddie said, suddenly looking excited, "that's brilliant." She hurriedly rolled up the drawings. "Thanks, Peter. My project is going to be the best one ever to cross the school threshold!"

They found Ronald Prentice arranging rows of chairs, but he left them alone and listened with interest as Maddie explained about the drawings the builder had found. James guessed Maddie was probably right when she said Ronald Prentice was about sixty, but he found it hard to judge the age of people once they were much over twenty.

Ronald sounded quite posh, which, James realised, probably shouldn't have come as a surprise. Maddie's house back then had probably been quite upmarket, although Professor Quedgley had either bought it in a rundown condition, or perhaps he had let it become rundown while being too absorbed in his work. He didn't like to ask Maddie about it.

Anyway, now that Maddie's father had done the short series of television programmes on fakes and forgeries, he'd wisely used the money from that and his book to sort the place out with new windows, decorating throughout, ordering new central heating, and obtaining further advanced security for his research laboratory down in the basement. Perhaps the biggest improvement was the removal of what James called the creepy creeper that had gone feral, and covered most of the outside of the house.

Ronald Prentice tapped the centre of the drawing of the garden with a pen. James was relieved to see that the cap was still on. He somehow felt protective of Maddie's drawings, because they obviously meant so much to her.

"That pencil could certainly be my father's writing, but definitely not the copperplate writing in ink," he said, smiling. "My father was never famous in the family for his handwriting. Not that it bothered him. He said if people didn't want to read what he wrote, it was their problem."

"Sounds like you, James," Jessica said with a grin, giving him a nudge. "You told me once that the teacher said it looked as though a spider with inky legs had crawled over the paper."

"That was ages ago," James said, hoping he wasn't turning red. He laughed. "Anyway, so what? You've got a thing about spiders, that's all. Mr Prentice, your father sounds like a man after my own heart. As long as I can read what I've written, that's all that matters." He thought for a moment. "And I _can_ ... usually."

"Mr Prentice," Maddie said, joining in the laughter, "please ignore James and Jessica. They're cousins," she explained, as though that was all that needed saying. Then she added, "They're always winding each other up, but really they're the best of friends."

"Of course we are," James said, and Jessica shrugged, then smiled and nodded in agreement.

Maddie pointed to the drawings. "Mr Prentice, do you think your father would be able to help me? If this _is_ his writing, he must have known about some sort of shelter and short ladder that was where the old summerhouse is. Or rather, where our old summer house _was_. Papa has had it taken down now, but I think it must have been added after your grandparents and your father left, so your father won't know anything about it."

"My grandmother," Ronald Prentice said quietly. "After my grandmother and my father left." He brightened up. "Yes, of course you can see my father. His memory is really sharp, especially about the distant past." He looked at his watch. "I'll phone him on his mobile and let him know you're coming. He's always glad to get visitors."

"He has a phone of his own?" James asked in surprise, and immediately regretted asking the question.

Ronald Prentice looked amused. "You'd be amazed how some elderly people have managed to embrace technology. Yes, he has a phone, and an iPad. He's probably like you are at home, James. They have to prise the iPad out of his hands at meal times!"

"I'm sorry," James said, feeling really bad. "Please don't say anything to him about it."

"Don't worry, James. My father would probably take it as a compliment. The home is just round the corner, but they'll all be having lunch soon. And then he'll want his usual bit of shut-eye. Can you come back here about two-thirty? I'll show you the way. I'm sure my father will be delighted to see you, even if it turns out that isn't his handwriting on the plans. But somehow I think it is."

Maddie rolled up the drawings. "I think so, too. And I think there's an exciting puzzle here. What was the shelter like? And was Charlotte very ill?"

"I really hope not," Jessica said.

Maddie turned to Jessica and James. "I hope not, too. But I'm really glad the three of us are together again. I have a feeling we're heading for an adventure."

"Again," James added.

### Chapter 3

The care home where Harold Prentice was living was much brighter inside than Jessica was expecting. She'd visited a rather gloomy place with her mother to see an elderly aunt, and it hadn't smelt nice at all. Her mother had apologised about it, and explained it wasn't her decision for Aunt Lillian to go there.

A carer led them to a bedroom where Ronald's father was sitting in an armchair. He got to his feet a little unsteadily and gave them a warm welcome. He was smartly dressed, shaved, and looked well cared for.

He had obviously been briefed by his son on the reason for the visit. "I hear you've got something from my past to show me." He pointed to Maddie who was carrying the rolled up drawings. "That bundle looks familiar," he said with a smile. "I hope it's what I think it is. And if I may say so, you look simply charming in all those bright clothes. No one could help being cheered up when they see you. You'll have to visit here regularly!"

Maddie had made sure that the architects' plan showing the garden was on top, but she looked unsure about where to unroll everything. There was a small table in the room, but it had a jug of water, a glass, and a small vase of fresh flowers on it.

Harold Prentice pointed to the bed. "A perfect place," he said. "Now, you must call me Harold. You've already met my son Ronald. And you are...?" He pointed to Maddie.

The three quickly introduced themselves, and Maddie explained the reason for the visit. Harold made his way a little unsteadily towards the bed, Jessica taking his arm. James thought that if he ever ended up in a home like this, he hoped he'd be like Harold. A working brain was much better than a fully working body.

Harold leaned over the bed and looked where Maddie was pointing. "Ah, the old air raid shelter. That takes me back a bit."

"Air raid shelter?" Maddie said in surprise. "I thought it was a summerhouse."

Harold gave a long sigh. "That takes me back a bit," he repeated. "Plenty of memories. Not many of them good. My parents bought the house in 1937, soon after they were married. It was two years before the war started. They were well off in those days. I was born in 1939."

"And is that your writing?" Maddie asked, pointing to the two words in pencil.

"Indeed yes." Harold touched the words almost reluctantly, as though they were bringing back unwelcome memories. "My father was called up into the army almost as soon as the war started. But his camp was not far away, and I remember him coming home at weekends. There were already air raids in parts of England, and he said this town would soon be a target, because of the ammunition factory."

"I didn't know there was an ammunition factory," Maddie said. "Did it get bombed? I had the option to write about the town, but I chose to write about the house I live in with my Papa. It's the only house I've ever known, and I love it. You must remember the turret. That's my bedroom now, and I wouldn't exchange it for a palace."

Harold nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, the ammunition factory got bombed. I'm afraid your house is a house with mostly sad memories for me. I expect you know about the underground room in the garden." He tapped a finger on the drawing. "That's what we used as our air raid shelter. Some people called them bomb shelters."

"Underground room?" Maddie said in surprise. "What sort of underground room?"

Harold Prentice didn't seem to hear. "My father was convinced the town would be bombed very soon, although the neighbours laughed at him. I wasn't allowed to play on my own in the underground room. I can remember that the wooden cover down to it was very substantial, but my father had a brick shelter built over it like a large dog kennel, to stop any debris from bomb damage trapping us down there."

"Do you remember the air raids?" Maddie asked.

Harold closed his eyes in deep thought. "I can see the German bombers coming over the town. It's dark. The air raid siren has sounded the alarm, and my mother is grabbing me in a panic and carrying me out of the house into the garden. I can hear the wailing sound of the sirens, rising and falling, rising and falling. The stars are bright in the sky. I can see seven, perhaps eight German bombers coming towards the town, lit by searchlights. And I can hear the constant thump of the anti-aircraft guns."

"Were you scared?" Maddie asked.

"No, not scared. I knew it was dangerous, but I was excited and wanted to stay out to watch them, but my mother rushed me to the shelter. There was an iron ladder going down into it."

"Shelter and ladder," Jessica said. "That's what's on the plans. And we thought it was a summerhouse!"

Harold was looking into the distance. "We couldn't get down fast enough as the bombs started dropping. They made a whistling sound. Some nights I still wake up hearing that sound."

Jessica gave Maddie a nudge. "Perhaps you _should_ be writing about the town. I'm sure no one else at your school will have anything like this to put in their project."

Harold kept his eyes closed. James wondered if his hearing was poor, because he took no notice of the interruptions. "We were what people would call a well-off family. We had a live-in maid to do the housework."

"Was she called Charlotte?" James asked, making Harold Prentice jump.

He opened his eyes as though coming back into the present. "Charlotte? No, no, she was Martha. Always bright and cheerful. I told her I was going to marry her when I was old enough, and she very solemnly told me she would wait. _And_ I believed her!" He gave a deep laugh. "So perhaps not all my memories are bad."

"Then who was Charlotte?" Maddie asked. "Someone has written her name on the plans."

"No idea," Harold said. "I can remember seeing it when I was young, but it must have been written long before my time, judging by the style of writing. But that's my childish pencil writing on the plans. I hid them under a loose floorboard when my father didn't...." He paused for a moment. "Sorry, as I think I just told you, it was a difficult time."

"We don't want to upset you," Maddie said. "We thought you'd like to be reminded of your childhood days. I'm sorry, but I've got a feeling we've brought back things you've tried to forget. We shouldn't have come."

Harold Prentice smiled. "Don't take any notice of me. I'm just a silly old man with a lot of memories. You see, my father was eventually posted abroad. My mother was what people called a lady, and in those days ladies didn't work. But she wasn't going to stand for that sort of nonsense when there was a need. She got a job at the ammunition factory."

"I saw a documentary about women working together in factories in the war," Maddie said. "The whole world changed. What did your mother do?"

"She was in the factory with lots of other wives whose husbands were away fighting. She wasn't in the office. She was using machinery to help make bombs."

Harold paused, deep in thought. He closed his eyes as though seeing something from long ago. "Some fuzzy memory has come back to me now. One night my mother brought a bomb home to show me, because I kept pleading with her to let me see what she was doing every day. It was dark green with a red nose." He frowned. "No, I can't think she really brought a bomb home. It's probably some childish memory playing tricks. Perhaps she showed me a picture of a bomb in a book and said she was making things like that. Yes, that will be it, I'm sure."

"What did you do all day?" Maddie asked. "I guess your mother couldn't take you to work with her."

Harold shook his head. "I think it was an elderly neighbour, or maybe an elderly aunt who looked after me when my mother was at work. It was all a very long time ago. A different lifetime. But I think the factory was bombed on the night my mother showed me the bomb." He smiled. "After she showed me the _picture_ of the bomb. You can imagine the devastation. And the noise. Explosion after explosion shaking the house. Of course, we didn't know what was happening until the next day, but we knew it was something serious. Maybe even the invasion everyone was afraid would happen."

"Where is the factory?" James asked. He turned to Maddie and Jessica. "We can go and look at the remains of it."

Harold Prentice shook his head. "There's nothing to see, James. They cleared the site after the war, and then it was left alone until twenty years ago. It's where they built that horrible out-of-town shopping centre."

"Maddie, you _definitely_ should be writing about the town," Jessica said. "Mr Prentice has some amazing memories."

"Harold," the elderly man said. "Please call me Harold. Unfortunately, they're not good memories. My father never returned from the war. He was killed in Italy in 1944. The war ended in May 1945, and my mother had the brick shelter removed from over the underground room, and the entrance down to it sealed with a metal cover. I remember she had gravel put over the whole area to hide it. I think she was trying to forget everything that had happened."

"Is that gravel where the summerhouse was?" James asked.

But again Harold Prentice didn't seem to be listening. "In a way, the war was exciting to a small boy. German bombers going overhead, bombs whistling on their way down, and the ground shaking as the bombs hit nearby. And the next day going out and finding bits of metal from the anti-aircraft shells lying in the road. Of course, as I got older I could see that for my mother it was a terrible time. In September 1945 we moved out into the countryside, but I don't think my mother ever got over the shock of losing my father. I certainly _still_ haven't."

James looked closely at the elderly man's face. His eyes were wet, but maybe they were always like that. He didn't know what to say, so he kept quiet.

"I can't really remember my father. Just a vague image. Although I've got several photographs, somehow I can't match my memory of him to the pictures." Harold pointed to a small cardboard shoebox that was on his bedside cabinet. "Could one of you bring that across, please?"

James thought the outside of the box looked well fingered. Probably Harold looked in it often. He fetched it for him.

"Now there's something that will interest all of you, much more than me going on about the war," Harold said, producing a small coin from the box. "Can any of you tell me what this is?" He passed it first to James.

James examined it closely. It looked like silver, although rather dull with a speckled finish. The date on the back said 1817, and the king was Geor III, who was presumably George III, although he looked a bit like a Roman emperor. He wondered what he was supposed to say about the coin, since the information was clearly on there.

"That's a shilling," Harold said. "What do you think you would have been able to buy with that coin in 1817?"

Maddie took it from James and also examined it. "A shilling was twelve pennies," she said. "I know a penny was worth a lot of money in those days, so I expect it would ... buy a lot."

Harold Prentice reached out and took the coin back from Maddie. "If you're Maddie Quedgley, I'm wondering if Professor Quedgley is your father. Is he?"

Maddie nodded. "He's an expert in antiquities, but 1817 is much too recent for him. So I don't expect he'd know what you could buy with it back then."

The elderly man chuckled. "I think your father would take one look at this coin and say that the answer was exactly _nothing_."

"Why would he say that?" Maddie asked, frowning. "It's a shilling. It's got to buy _something_."

"Because, young lady, your father is an expert on fakes and forgeries, isn't he? You think this coin is silver. It's not. It's made from an alloy of a soft metal called pewter. It looks like silver when you polish it, although this one hasn't been polished for a very long time. But there's something else that gives it away."

Maddie shrugged. "Everything else looks fine to me, although I have to admit I don't know what a _genuine_ silver shilling from 1817 looks like."

"Martha our maid found that coin amongst all the dirt in the air raid shelter when she was sweeping it out before we used it. She took one look at it and said it was no use to man or beast because it was too old to spend in any shop, and she told me to put it in my piggybank towards the wedding!"

At that moment there was a gentle tap on the door and a carer in a maroon outfit came in carrying a small tray with a cup of tea and two biscuits on it. "The nurse is coming to see Harold in a few minutes," she said. "Injections, you know, and then he needs to sit quietly. Why don't you all come back tomorrow? Visits do Harold good, but they also tire him out."

Harold tried to protest, but in vain.

"We'll be back," Maddie promised. "I need to discover the other giveaway that shows the shilling is counterfeit. Unless you'd like to tell us now, Harold."

Harold Prentice shook his head, smiling. "If I tell you now," he said, winking at Maddie, "I might never see you again. Please come back." His eyes brightened up. "I'll tell you what, Maddie. Take the coin and show it to your father. See if he can work it out. Then you'll _have_ to come back, to return the coin!"

Maddie laughed. "Don't worry, Harold, we'll be back anyway, coin or no coin."

Harold reached into the box again, and removed all the photographs. He pulled out two more coins that looked exactly like the first shilling. "This one is counterfeit too," he explained, showing them the first one. "I bought it in the town market when I was young, because I became interested in the history of counterfeiting. I think this one is much easier to detect as a forgery. The date on it is 1819."

"I don't think it's made of silver," Maddie said, passing it to Jessica. "It looks more like brass to me than silver."

"It's brass in places," Jessica said, as she passed it to James.

"Definitely brass, or a metal that looks like brass," James said. "But I don't see why bits of it look like silver."

Harold nodded. "You're right, it _is_ brass, and it has a thin silver plating that's mostly come off. Two things give it away. First, you can see the brass showing through the silver in places."

"And the other giveaway?" Maddie asked.

Harold Prentice chuckled. "Show it to your father, Maddie. Test him out and see how well he can spot counterfeit coins. And show him this coin as well," he said, holding out the other coin he had removed from the box. "It's dated 1820, and it's the only genuine one of the three. There's a box of tissues over there. Wrap them up carefully and bring them back next time you come. I'd be interested to know what your father has to say about them, Maddie. Just ask him, if he was living in 1820, which of these three coins he would accept in his change. You've got the dull pewter dated 1817, silver-plated brass dated 1819, and shiny silver dated 1820. If he's as sharp as I think he is, he won't be fooled by any of them."

"Just one thing before we go, Harold," James said, while Maddie wrapped up the coins individually. "Did your mother have the underground air raid shelter filled in before she had gravel put on top?"

The elderly man picked up his cup and saucer, his hands shaking slightly, making the cup rattle in the saucer. "Not as far as I remember. No, I'm sure she didn't do that. It would have needed too much work."

"So the room is still there," James said. "It must be." He caught hold of Maddie's and Jessica's arms. "What are we waiting for? Let's go find it. See you again soon, Harold!"

By the time they got back to Maddie's house, Tony's truck had gone, and so had his two men, but the Professor's old black Ford Mondeo was now in the drive.

"We won't see Tony again now until Monday," Maddie said. "More cold nights and days to look forward to. I suppose it's something to be thankful for that he worked here today. Not many builders work on Saturday. Oh well, let's go indoors. The light's on in the kitchen. I hope Papa is in there, and not locked away down in his laboratory."

"Ammadine," Professor Quedgley said as they entered the kitchen, "I have news for you. I hope it doesn't come as too much of a surprise, but I'll be going with you to the evening service at church tomorrow. Pastor Griffiths has given me a special invitation."

"That's great, Papa." Maddie turned to James and Jessica. "And you will be coming too, won't you?"

They both nodded. "I'm going to try and get my parents to come as well," Jessica said. "Now we're definitely moving here, we'll be looking for a new church. And if I have my way, it will be yours, Maddie."

"You haven't asked me yet what the special invitation is, Ammadine," Professor Quedgley said, smiling.

"Special invitation?" Maddie said. "You've never needed a special invitation before to come with me, Papa. You know you're always welcome there."

"Pastor Griffiths wants me to take something interesting from my collection of antiquities," he said. "No, no, Ammadine, you're going to have to wait. It's to be a surprise for everyone."

"Let me guess," Maddie said. "He wants you to compile a PowerPoint presentation of some of your work?"

Her father smiled and shook his head. "I don't think you're ever going to guess, so you'll just have to be patient." And he laughed. "Oh, and one other thing. Pastor Griffiths knows you have a really bright LED hand lamp. He wants you to take it to church and he'll explain what it's all about when you get there."

"I wonder why." Maddie turned to James. "It's one million candle power, whatever that means."

"Sounds bright," James said. "Your hand lamp and something from your father's collection of antiquities, and it's connected to the church. Go on, Maddie, have a guess. There's an obvious clue there."

Maddie looked at him. "And the clue is?"

James shrugged. "Haven't got the slightest idea."

"Enough guessing," Jessica said. "It's getting dark outside. We ought to be going back to yours, James. Our parents will be wondering where we are, and I'm sure you don't want to miss your tea."

### Chapter 4

Sunday

"I've had enough of sleeping on that sofa," James said at breakfast the next morning. "The blanket is much too wide, and it keeps dragging itself off onto the floor when I turn over. And if I fold it up, it's too hot. So I vote Jessica and I go round to Maddie's to sleep. Her house is so big we can rattle around in there, even though it is a bit chilly at the moment."

To his surprise his mother said she'd think about it, but she said the important thing to decide right now was what they were going to do about church.

"We're all going to Maddie's church this evening," Jessica said. "And that means _all_ of us. Mum, Dad, we're going to need a church when we move, and our friend Maddie really enjoys it there. Even her father goes sometimes, and he never used to go to church until he tried it."

"I suggest we all go to our own church this morning," James's mother said. She turned to Jessica's parents. "I've never been to Maddie's church, but from what I gather it's what people call dynamic. Something like your church at home."

Jessica's father smiled. "That's decided then. We go to your church this morning, Amy, and then to Maddie's ... dynamic ... church this evening."

"And Maddie's father is doing something in the service this evening," James explained, "but we've no idea what. I just hope it's not going to be a boring lecture on the life and times of the Perizzites or Amorites or Gurgasites or something."

"And no one needs to wear dark clothes," Jessica added. "Nobody can compete with Maddie Quedgley when it comes to bright outfits, but _please_ try and fit in."

That evening they arrived at Maddie's church rather early, it had been dark for some time though. Maddie and her father were already there, keeping the whole row free. James could see Maddie had a yellow and black hand lamp tucked under her seat. Earlier she had insisted that they must be early if they all wanted to sit together, because it got very busy.

Jessica noticed that Maddie had pulled her hair back and managed to roll it up into two tight bunches, although they were not an even size, and not quite level with each other. And her hair was still wild on top. But that was Maddie. And of course she had her multi-coloured clothing on.

She knew that James came here with Maddie every three or four weeks, and she hoped she would soon be able to come regularly. And if her parents made it their own church, she'd definitely be able to come every Sunday, and she could sit with Maddie, and maybe James if his parents let him come regularly.

Pastor Peter Griffiths called Maddie to have a quiet word with him at the front, and bring her hand lamp. She left it on the stage and came back smiling self-consciously, but refused to tell James what it was all about.

"If you behave yourself and don't get thrown out," she said, giving him a wide grin, "you'll find out when the time comes, and not before."

As the small band consisting of a singer, two guitarists, a drummer and a keyboard player assembled on the stage, James ignored Maddie's teasing and wondered what his parents were going to make of it. His home church had a formal choir and an organ, although they did sing the occasional modern worship song.

Professor Quedgley sat on the first seat on the right of the centre aisle, then Maddie, Jessica, and James. His parents and Jessica's were on his right. He glanced at Maddie as they sat down after the first worship song and she seemed quieter than usual, so she definitely was involved in something.

When the time came for the talk, Pastor Griffiths stood up on the platform, and said, "I have a surprise for you all this evening. Professor Quedgley, the father of our friend Maddie of the bright colours, has kindly offered to bring us something important that I hope you will remember for many years to come. But first, Billy Barrett, will you come up to the front now please?"

"Billy Barrett?" Maddie whispered to Jessica, loudly enough for James to hear as well. "I didn't know he was involved. He's the class clown. I thought it was just me and Papa."

Billy made his way to the platform, where he waved to a group of his friends. Pastor Griffiths told him to stand still as he slipped a blindfold mask over his eyes, held at the back of his head with elastic.

"Now, Billy," Peter Griffiths said, "hold out your hand and take this open Bible. Have you got it? Hold it carefully, because I want you to go down the steps and make your way to the back of church. Don't worry, because the Bible will show you the way. Do you understand?"

Billy gave the thumbs up with his free hand.

"One more thing, Billy. You're going to need this." The pastor handed him Maddie's LED hand lamp which was already switched on. The pastor put a finger to his lips and shook his head, obviously signalling to everyone that they were not to call anything out.

Billy snapped the Bible shut and switched off the hand lamp, and made his way quickly to the top of the three steps that led down from the platform. Having got there, he put one foot down, wobbled wildly, and as everyone gasped he managed to regain his balance, although James guessed he was fooling around.

He leaned across Jessica to Maddie. "I hope _you're_ not going to have to do that?" he said quietly.

Back on the stage, Billy had already reached the next step, and then got to the floor where he fell, rolled over and dropped the Bible. He groped around for it, picked it up and made his way towards the back of the church, no longer holding the hand lamp, going left and right and bumping into chairs along the way. Halfway to the back he sat down, and said loudly, "I give up. This is much too hard!"

"Thank you, Billy, you can take the blindfold off now," Pastor Griffiths said. "Come back here and tell us how useful you found the Bible and the hand lamp as a guide."

Billy took the handheld microphone. "Not a lot of use," he said, and bowed as he received a round of applause from his friends.

"Just in case anyone is worried," the pastor said, "that was a trick blindfold. Billy could see perfectly well, but I told him what to do. You'll see why in a couple of minutes. Maddie, it's your turn now," he said, holding up Maddie's hand lamp.

Maddie made her way to the front and turned to face everyone in the church. James wondered if he could do such a thing, and then he remembered how he and Jessica had sung in English to the people in the Welsh chapel, and it hadn't been that much of an ordeal. Well, maybe not for him and Jessica, but perhaps it had been for the congregation! [See _The Cliff Edge Adventure_.]

Pastor Griffiths looked at Maddie. "With your bright clothes, you might not need a light at all to find your way around in the dark!" Everyone smiled, and it seemed that Maddie was held in much affection by those who knew her.

"Now, Maddie," the pastor continued, "I want you to take this Bible and your hand lamp, and see if _you_ can make your way safely to the back of the church without giving up. But before you go, I want everyone to imagine we have turned out every single light in the church, and it's _absolutely_ pitch black. Unfortunately, for safety, we're not allowed to do that. But I'm sure you can all use your imaginations."

James noticed that Maddie looked surprised. Although she'd been asked to bring her hand lamp, it seemed she had not been let in on the secret.

Maddie frowned, as though suspecting a trick. "With my eyes _open_?" she asked in surprise.

"Of course, Maddie. How else could you find your way?" the pastor said. "Right, off you go. As fast as you can."

Maddie did as she was told, although she still looked puzzled. Holding the open Bible and her hand lamp, she reached the back of the church in record time, and turned round to rather half-hearted applause.

"I'm surprised any of you clapped at all," Pastor Griffiths said. "Maddie had her Bible and she had a bright light so she could see the end of the journey before she started out. No, Maddie, don't go back to your seat yet. Come to the reading desk and tell us what Psalm 119, verse one hundred and five says. It's already open at the right page."

Maddie went to the desk. James watched her put a finger on the verse, and say confidently, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

"Thank you, Maddie, you can sit down now."

As Maddie returned to her seat, looking rather embarrassed, she received a generous round of applause.

"Thank you, both of you," the pastor said. "Now, how many of you thought Billy was doing the right thing with the hand lamp and the closed Bible?"

Several people looked at each other, as though wondering if it was the right answer, but nobody's hand went up.

"And how many of you thought Maddie had got it right?"

Nearly everyone's hands went up, although one or two people looked unsure, perhaps feeling there was more to this than met the eye.

"What did Maddie read to us just now? Anyone?"

"Your word is a light to my feet and a lamp to my path," an elderly man called out loudly. He also got a round of applause.

"Who thinks the writer of the Psalm had a bright flashlight like Maddie's?" Pastor Griffiths asked. "And if anyone needs a clue, this was in the Late Bronze Age, three thousand years ago."

A few hands had been going up, but they quickly went down again when they realised how long ago the Psalm was written.

"Now, Professor Quedgley, I know you have something very special to show us."

Maddie's father made his way to the front, and from the back of the stage retrieved an object about the size of a saucer. It seemed to be made of dark brown pottery.

"Now, Professor, would you be so kind as to tell us what you have there."

As far as James knew, Professor Quedgley had never taken part in a church service before, but he seemed happy enough to be doing it now. Of course, being up there in front of everyone might start to make him feel more at home in the church, which was something he knew Maddie very much wanted.

"This is a Bronze Age oil lamp. It was found in Jericho, and dates to around 1000 BC," Maddie's father said, as Pastor Griffiths held the microphone for him. "It looks very primitive to us today, but it's the only type of lamp the writer of this Psalm would have known."

"I don't know what you were all expecting to see," Pastor Griffiths said, "but I can't think many of you thought it was going to be something as basic as this. Look at it. It's nothing like the later closed lamps of the Romans and Egyptians. It's just a circle of clay turned up round the sides to hold the oil, and narrowed to a point for the wick. Now, I want you to use your imaginations again. I'd love to light this lamp, but clearly it's a valuable item and it would be wrong to put oil in it. Originally they used olive oil as the fuel. And even if I did put olive oil in it, the church safety officer would never let me light it."

A small ripple of laughter went round the church.

"But supposing I _could_ light it, and supposing, just supposing, we were allowed to turn all the lights out and plunge the church into complete darkness." He held the lamp out in front of him. "Would I be able to see the back of the church from here?"

A few people shook their heads, but the answer was so obvious that not many seemed to think it worthwhile answering the question.

"So what does the lamp to my feet mean?" The pastor went forward cautiously, holding the lamp out in front. "I can just see the first step," he said, making his way off the platform cautiously. "And the next step. Now I can see the floor, but I can't see very far ahead. _Look out!_ " he shouted, making James and nearly everyone else jump. "I can see a trap waiting for me. But no, the lamp is showing me the way round it."

He returned to the stage. "A few verses later, the writer of the Psalm says, 'The wicked have laid a snare for me.' But it's all right, because I saw it with my lamp before I stepped on it. And that, brothers and sisters, is often how God guides us. He lets us take one step at a time in safety, even though we have no idea what lies way ahead."

Peter Griffiths paused for a moment to make sure everyone was paying attention. "We all want to know the future, of course we do, but whatever you do, don't get involved in fortune-telling, what your stars say, horoscopes, or any other sort of astrology. Whatever message you get that way, you can be sure it isn't _God_ speaking to you. And that's why it's very, very dangerous for Christians. If God showed you a dark valley you had to pass through in the future, or something wonderful waiting for you in years to come, it would affect how you live your life now, perhaps in an unhelpful way."

Jessica wondered what lay ahead for her. A new home, new school, new friends. She looked at Maddie, and she seemed deep in thought.

Pastor Griffiths held up the oil lamp again. "Jesus says He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He speaks through the Bible, not the stars, to help you stay on the right path. He walks with you every step you take, as long as you walk along His path, even through the dark valleys. So don't keep your Bible shut like Billy did, and go through life hoping for the best. Read part of it every day, and discover what Jesus has to say to you when you read it."

Maddie turned and whispered to Jessica, "That was me, when Maman died. A very long, dark valley. One step at a time. It was great when you and James came along and helped me."

Jessica took hold of Maddie's hand and squeezed it tightly. "I'm glad James and I turned up when we did. I haven't told anyone, but _I've_ been worried about changing schools. Will you pray with me later?"

As Maddie nodded, her father returned to his seat, winking at her as he sat down. Pastor Griffiths went on to say that of course it was right to make plans for the future − where to go to college, where to live, what job to find. But always to do it with prayer, and not to be disappointed if God chose another direction when the time came.

At the end of the service, after a final lively worship song, Jessica's parents said to Maddie, "Thank you so much for inviting us. We must have a word with your pastor when he's free. It looks like we've found our new church."

### Chapter 5

Monday

"I want to take some pictures inside the air raid shelter for Harold Prentice with my phone − if we manage to find it," Jessica told Maddie, when she and James arrived at Maddie's house immediately after breakfast on Monday morning. "It's obviously going to be dark down there, so we'll need flash, but the flash on my phone is really bright."

James shook his head. "I'm worried about bringing too many memories back for Harold. He's only told us a bit of what happened, but it's really sad, and I'm not sure _I'd_ want to remember it hundreds of years later."

"It's not exactly _hundreds_ of years," Maddie said. "It was 1945 when the war ended. Okay, I see what you mean. We'll ask his son Ronald what he thinks."

"Did you show your papa the three shillings?" James asked. "Did he solve it straight away?"

Maddie shook her head. "I've not seen him since we got back from church yesterday evening. Nothing strange about that." She laughed. "I'm fine with it, but the shillings will have to wait."

James caught hold of the left sleeve of Maddie's bright green jacket. "Of course the old shillings will have to wait. They're over two hundred years old. We've come here to find something that's _much_ more recent. Something like the metal cover down to Harold's air raid shelter. To be more accurate, _the_ cover down to Harold's air raid shelter."

"I agree," Jessica said, catching hold of Maddie's right arm. "The old shillings will _definitely_ keep."

Almost reluctantly, Maddie let herself be dragged round to the back garden. She pointed to a house that backed onto her garden from the next road. "I couldn't find any mention of those houses either in the 1851 census, but that road is shown in 1861," she said, pointing to the house. "Mr and Mrs Spooner live there. They're quite old. I don't really know them. I think he repairs old clocks for a hobby, but he keeps himself to himself. I don't remember ever seeing him out with Mrs Spooner."

"The house isn't the same design as yours," James said, "but the bricks look about the same age."

"You're right," Jessica said. " _Everything_ here must have been built between 1851 and 1861. I found a really old map, and it shows the name Rootsdyer Farm, but there's no scale or reference point, so the farm could have been anywhere in the neighbourhood. This must have been right out in the countryside. Someone told me there used to be an Elizabethan manor here, but it wasn't on the map. I suppose the farm could have belonged to the estate."

"When was the first census?" Jessica asked.

"1841," Maddie said. "I know what you're thinking, but there's no mention of Rootsdyer Farm in 1841, so it must already have gone. I imagine a developer bought the derelict buildings and the land, and hey presto, suddenly all these houses appear. Rather sad in a way, to think these houses swallowed up a farm, but this research on my house is really exciting to do. It's amazing how much stuff you can find on the internet and in the town records."

"So who built the air raid shelter?" James asked, frowning. "Harold said it was already there when his parents moved in. Even with my brilliant brain, I know there weren't air raids back in the 1850s. There weren't even airships."

"Of course not," Jessica said. "I guess it was a cellar or something that was part of Rootsdyer Farm, or maybe part of the Elizabethan manor. Do you think you'll ever know, Maddie?"

"A cold storage room," Maddie said. "That's what I'm thinking. Long before the days of fridges, people used to store food deep under the ground, because it was cool down there in the summer."

"I've heard about that," Jessica said. "Traders would come round with carts loaded with ice shipped in from the Arctic and sell it cut up into blocks. It's difficult to believe nowadays."

"I know life was hard back then," Maddie said. "I don't suppose anyone knows exactly where the actual farmhouse was, because it would have been knocked down to build these houses. If this was your house, Jessica, I'm sure you'd want to know everything you could about it."

"The house we're interested in buying was built in the 1930s, so I don't suppose it has such an exciting history as yours. But I'll see what I can find out − if we buy it."

James went on ahead to the large patch of dark grey gravel where the summerhouse had recently been. He scuffed at it with his trainers. "There's a lot of gravel to move. Maddie, do you have a metal detector?"

"Good thinking," Maddie said. "Papa will have one down in his laboratory. It can't fail to find the metal cover Harold Prentice said his mother had fitted when the war ended. Hang on here."

James had no intention of going anywhere. Somewhere under their feet was a hidden room that had probably belonged to the farm, and much later had been used as an air raid shelter. He wondered what the farmer would have thought of the idea of planes flying overhead dropping bombs, when probably all he had ever seen in the air were birds. And clouds, of course.

A couple of minutes later Maddie was back, her hands empty. "Papa is down in the laboratory," she explained. "The lights are on down there, but the door in the hallway is locked, and his phone is in the kitchen. And that means _absolutely no one_ is to disturb him, unless the house is on fire. And I think even then he wouldn't want to be told!"

James kicked at the gravel again, scattering some of it around. "There's more here than I thought, but, come on, how difficult is it going to be to shift some of it?"

Maddie nodded. "There's a spade in the garden shed in the corner. Stay here, and I'll fetch it."

James wondered why Maddie kept telling them to stay there, as if they would wander off at this stage!

James went to take the spade from Maddie, but she held it tightly. "My spade, my garden, my underground room. Stand back, everyone." She sounded determined, until she said faintly, "But I don't know where to start." And she laughed.

"Start in the middle," Jessica suggested. "Then you can go a bit to the left, and then to the right, and then to the left again, and to the right again, until you come to something. Good idea?"

Maddie slid the spade into the gravel, and looked around. "I'm not sure where to dump it. I might be piling it up on top of the metal cover, and then we'd _never_ find it."

"I don't want to worry you," James said, "but if the cover is old, and it must be as old as 1945 when Harold's mother replaced the wooden one, it might collapse when you walk on it. After all, it gets soaking wet every time it rains."

With a small scream Maddie dropped the spade and jumped back onto the grass. "Good thinking, James. The summerhouse would have stopped it falling in."

Jessica picked the spade up and handed it to James. "Here you are, you have a go. You're expendable."

"It's not my fault if I keep coming up with brilliant ideas," James explained, refusing to take the spade. "It's the way my brain works."

"James, please don't take any notice of your cousin," Maddie said. "Your brilliant ideas come from having a grasshopper's brain."

Jessica gave Maddie a nudge. "Grasshopper's brain? You've got the size right!"

"Hey," James said, joining in the laughter, "I heard that! It's thanks to my grasshopper's brain that I keep coming up with genius ideas."

Jessica laughed. "Well, make the most of the brain while you've got it, James. What are you going to do if the grasshopper asks for it back?"

James took the spade from his cousin and walked onto the large area of grey gravel. "Then one of you two will have to take over the role of genius. Let's hope it doesn't come to that, or we could be heading for disaster."

He liked the way he and Jessica could joke with each other. It was something that came from being good friends since way back before he could remember. What might be misunderstood by a stranger as being somewhat unkind, was just a joke with someone you trusted.

"I'm not going to dig," he explained. "I'm going to push the spade along under the gravel like a plough. If I find the cover, I'll see it in front of me and I don't need to walk on it. Come on, stand back, and you can watch a master at work."

### Chapter 6

James quickly discovered that his amazing plan was useless. The gravel was so thick and heavy that the spade was too difficult to slide as it kept digging into the soil underneath. He stopped for a rethink, but unfortunately his grasshopper's brain seemed to be taking a rest, or had possibly gone back to its original owner.

Jessica and Maddie turned round at the noise of an engine. It sounded a bit like a motorbike. After some shouting from the front of the house, a small digger lurched its way on caterpillar tracks round the side of the house to the back garden, with one of Tony's small team of builders in the cab.

"It's Matt," Maddie said.

"Perfect timing," James said. "Exactly what we need."

The driver who was wearing a white hardhat jumped from the small cab. "You three need to stand back if you're going to hang around and watch. I've got to clear the gravel and dig away the soil under it, ready for the foundations for the new summerhouse."

"Don't start yet, Matt," Maddie said, pointing to the gravel. "There's an underground room somewhere under there, with a metal cover. And we think the metal might have rusted through."

The builder looked sceptical. "And how do you know that, Maddie?"

"We've just met a man who lived here in the war. He was telling us all about it."

Matt shrugged. "Well, no one told _me_ about it." He thought for a moment. "Tell you what, it pays to be careful. The arm with the bucket is long enough to reach halfway across the gravel if I keep the digger on the grass. Keep clear. Let's see if someone's been telling you porkies."

"I think he believes you, Maddie," Jessica said quietly as Matt drove the digger to the edge of the large patch of gravel really slowly.

"Matt's been working in the house," Maddie explained. "I think it's his job now to sort out the back garden."

With a squeak and a rattle, the arm of the small digger extended, sank down into the ground and scooped up a bucket full of gravel and earth. With the bucket now up high, Matt reversed the machine and disappeared round to the front of the house.

There was a loud crashing sound, and a few minutes later he was back. "This is going to take time," he explained to no one in particular. "The boss went and ordered one of the big skips, and they can't get it round here. So I've got to take every load round to the front."

Matt excavated another load of gravel and earth. He turned round and grinned before driving off. "No secret passage yet," he said, rather sarcastically James thought.

They could hear another crashing sound from round the front of the house where Matt must be dropping his load into the skip. Then he returned for another go.

"I think the metal cover is to the right," Jessica called out as Matt positioned his digger to the left. He either didn't hear, or he had no intention of taking up the suggestion.

On the fourth scoop of gravel and earth, the edge of a large flat stone appeared. It had been a good twelve inches under the ground. The driver didn't seem as excited as his three spectators.

"Wow," James said, "it's not a _metal_ cover after all. Makes sense. They must have put it there in case the metal rusted away and someone fell through."

The three watched impatiently until the whole stone slab had been uncovered. Matt drove his machine round to the other side so he could push it away with the edge of the bucket.

As the slab moved, James could see some bones sticking up above the earth, inside an oval container. Matt jumped from his cab, leaving the engine running, and went forward to see what he'd uncovered.

"Great," he said, staring at the body. "The boss isn't going to be pleased about this. The police will have to be involved, and who knows how many more bodies are buried in this garden!"

James turned to Jessica who was screwing up her face in disgust. "Remember when we first saw this house? We thought it looked creepy, and I joked that it was probably built on top of a mediaeval burial ground. Well, it was. Let's have a closer look."

Cautiously they approached what had been under the stone slab. "Ribs," Maddie said. "Everyone knows what ribs look like. The head and legs must be under the soil. Oh, that's so sad. I think it's a small child, judging by the size. I'm going to fetch Papa, even if he _doesn't_ want to leave the laboratory."

As she disappeared, Jessica pointed to a small rectangle of grey slate lying on the body, on which some words had been deeply scratched in a copperplate hand.

She turned to James. "We were stupid not to realise what 'Charlotte's Resting Place' meant. It's what they say about someone's grave. You know, they refer to it as their final resting place. There's Charlotte's name. At least it's not the first owner's maid, Doris, but I don't know which is worse."

"Another Jessica." James shook his head as he bent down for a closer look. The container could be an old zinc bath. It contained earth that didn't fully cover the body. "Charlotte must be a child, and she must have been really ill. Look at the shape of her chest. You're right, Jessica, it _is_ so sad. Poor kid. I wonder if Jessica was Charlotte's sister."

"I'm going to get the boss," the digger driver said. "What a mess."

"Mess?" Jessica said, annoyed by Matt's attitude. "This is Charlotte. And she wasn't even buried in a churchyard." She bit her bottom lip.

"I expect she was murdered," James said. "They didn't want the police to be involved."

"Trust you to say something like that," Jessica told him. "Well, the police are going to be involved now. They have to investigate when someone finds a body, even though it might be a natural death."

"Well, they're not going to catch whoever did it," James told her. "That old-fashioned copperplate handwriting is a giveaway. Strange to also write it on the plans for anyone to find."

They could hear Professor Quedgley's voice, and he didn't sound pleased as Maddie almost had to drag him round to the back garden. "Papa, it's important," Maddie said, pointing to the grave.

Her father gave a humph as he bent down to examine the bones. Then he looked up, almost angrily. "Ammadine," he said, using Maddie's proper name, "you disturbed me just to look at the bones of a _large dog_ in a zinc bath? Whatever were you thinking of!"

"Dog?" said the digger driver, laughing. He jumped back into the cab. "Well, I can soon have _that_ out of the way."

"No, no," Jessica shouted out above the noise of the engine. "It's a dog, but it's still Charlotte. Someone called Jessica obviously loved her, and that makes me love her too. She needs to be buried somewhere else. Just don't scoop her out with the bucket and dump her in the skip."

The driver turned to Professor Quedgley. "Your call, Professor. Bury her somewhere in the garden, or just get rid of her?"

Maddie's father thought for a moment, then he looked up. "Your friend Jessica is right, Ammadine. Let's respect the dead, even if it is a pet dog. You find a suitable place, Ammadine." He pointed to the grave and then to Matt. "Do as my daughter says, and take care with the body."

James turned to Maddie. "How are we going to move it? Won't it be a bit stinky?"

Maddie's papa joined him, and bent down by the side of the grave. "It's definitely over a hundred years old," he said, almost to himself. "I recognise the type of container. It's a zinc laundry basin. The handles will be low down on each end, which is why it could be covered with that stone slab." He turned to Matt. "If you get a trowel or a small spade you'll be able to uncover the handles, and then you can lift it out. It will be tapered, so it should come out easily."

"That's all very well," Matt said, "but it's old. What if the bottom falls out?"

"I really don't have the time for all this?" Professor Quedgley said, staying where he was. "I've got work to do. It's important to my daughter and her friends, so the dog needs to be reburied somewhere out of harm's way."

"That's what I think, too," James said, "Let's try and lift it up by the handles."

"And look," Matt said, sounding a little more enthusiastic now, "if we do that, we can slide it into the bucket of the digger. I can then drive it to its new grave."

"It's not an it," Maddie protested. "The dog's name is Charlotte. Someone has even put her name on the house plans."

Her father looked surprised. "What plans, Ammadine?"

Maddie explained about the architects' drawings that the builder had found under the floorboards.

Her father looked surprised. "Ammadine, I didn't know there are architectural drawings for this house. You must show them to me sometime."

Maddie nodded. "I'm going to use them as part of my school project. Anyway, it's not only Charlotte under the gravel. We've met someone who lived here in the war, and he says there's an underground air raid shelter in the garden. That's what we were looking for when we found the grave."

Her papa seem to be losing interest. "Well, Ammadine, let me see the drawings sometime. At the moment, I've got an important job for one of the big museums. What they sent me is almost certainly genuine third century BC Mesopotamian, but I need to do a couple more tests. Time is short, because they need to know whether or not to announce their special exhibition."

Fifteen minutes later, Matt had excavated a suitable new grave for Charlotte and her makeshift coffin, in front of some large overgrown rose bushes near the wall that was next to the Spooners' garden. Back at the gravel, he carefully exposed the handles on the laundry basin with a spade, and they seemed to be in good condition and still firmly attached.

Matt grabbed a pair of heavy-duty builder's gloves from the cab of the digger and tossed them to James. "I'm going to need a hand. Here, put these on. The handle might be sharp and rusty after all this time in the ground."

Matt gripped the handle on one side and James took the other, making sure the gloves were well on. Matt seemed to know what to do, and he shook the basin as he lifted to free it from the ground. James tried not to look, as what remained of Charlotte's body moved in her homemade coffin as though coming back to life.

As the laundry basin came clear of the ground, James expected the bottom to give way at any moment, scattering bones and other body parts back into the hole. Much to his relief his fears were unfounded. He hadn't fancied gathering up a load of bits, and trying to reassemble them like some disgusting jigsaw puzzle.

It didn't take long to slide the zinc coffin into the bucket of the digger, and for Matt to safely transport Charlotte to her new burial place. With Charlotte safely reburied, without any prayer that Jessica had wondered if they ought to say, they returned to the patch of gravel to examine the hole, just in case there was another body below.

"Nothing," James said, when he had dug into it a short way with the spade. "Not even the maid."

Maddie shook her head and gave a long sigh to show her disapproval. "You're just gruesome," she said.

"It's a boys' thing," Jessica explained. "I've been with James long enough to know that by now."

Maddie nodded. "You're right. Slugs and snails and puppy dogs' tails come to mind," she said. "Now, let's find that air raid shelter."

### Chapter 7

Matt said it was time for a cup of tea, but he left the engine of the digger running. He explained it had to be left on, or it wouldn't start again while it was hot. He certainly looked pale, although clearly he wasn't going to admit that he'd been upset by the discovery of Charlotte's body.

James picked up the spade and returned to the patch of gravel.

"Be careful you don't fall through," Jessica said. "Let's wait for Matt to come back."

"I'll tread daintily," James said, laughing. "It's not as though I'm heavy. The metal cover would have fallen in long ago under the weight of gravel if it was _completely_ rusted through."

"No!" Jessica said, sounding decisive. "Get back onto the grass and wait for Matt."

James rolled his eyes and did as he was told. "Okay, bossy."

"And keep away from the digger," Jessica added. "You've no idea how to operate it, and we'd all be in serious trouble if you wrecked it."

"Papa was really cross about being disturbed," Maddie said, while they waited for Matt to return. "I wish I'd realised it was a dog. And there's me, the daughter of an archaeologist, making a beginner's mistake like that!"

"Supposing it _had_ been a child," Jessica said. "It would have been terrible if she'd just been dumped in the skip. Charlotte must have been the much loved family pet of someone called Jessica, to give her a special place in the garden. She looked like a big dog. Something like a Great Dane, I suppose."

Maddie smiled. "If Jessica was the daughter of the family who lived here at the time, I can probably find her on one of the census records and find out her age. I've not gone through all of them yet. This gets more and more interesting, although of course it means more and more work. But even if I don't put everything in the school project, it will still be interesting to learn the history of this house."

Ten minutes later the driver returned, whistling cheerfully. James suspected he was doing this to cover up his earlier embarrassment.

"Stand back," Matt said, as he climbed into his cab. "Let's see what other grisly discoveries we can make."

"Don't go too deep," Maddie called out. "The metal cover is only just under the gravel, so don't go down into the earth."

It only took three shallow excavations into the gravel, going to the right this time as Jessica had already suggested, to uncover what looked like the edge of a large, rusty drain cover.

"That's it!" James said. "Quick, uncover the rest of it!"

The driver didn't seem to be as impatient as James felt. "Look," he said wearily, "I can only make one scoop at a time, and then I have to empty it in the skip round the front. Not my fault."

"Now you've upset him," Jessica said. "And come _back_ , James! Just stay here on the grass."

Again, James did as he was told by his cousin. "It doesn't look _badly_ rusted," he complained. "You're behaving like an older bossy sister." He turned to Maddie, grinning. "It's a good thing Jessica doesn't have a younger brother. The poor kid would be a wreck by now."

"He would be if he was anything like you," Jessica said, winking at Maddie. "I'd make sure of it!"

"I don't know what's got into you," James said. "You've got to stop bossing me around."

Jessica pulled a face. "I'm sorry, I really am, but it's only because I'm worried about you. See?"

James could see his cousin meant it, but before he could think of a suitable reply the digger and driver were back. The three watched patiently while Matt slowly revealed the whole cover.

Matt jumped from his cab and inspected the large slab of rusty steel. It looked like a huge drain cover with recessed handles. He shook his head. "Galvanised steel. It's old, that's for sure. I'm not messing with that, thank you very much. That will be the main sewers for the house."

James turned to Jessica. "We hadn't thought of that. Fancy the house sewers running next to the underground air raid shelter. Talk about living dangerously down there in the war."

" _Please_ lift it and see," Maddie said.

The driver shook his head. "I'll fetch Tony. See what he thinks. And you three keep your itchy little fingers away from it while I'm gone. Understand?"

They nodded, although James had to fight off the urge to try to lift it just a little bit.

"Tony's the foreman," Maddie explained. "I think he's a part owner of the business. Anyway, he knows what he's doing."

Tony came and stared at the cover. Then he frowned. "I don't get it. The drains run under the front garden, straight out to the road. What do you guys think it is?" he asked, turning to Maddie and the Two Jays.

"We think it's the cover to an underground room that was used as an air raid shelter in the war," Maddie said. "I don't want to disturb Papa again, but I'm sure he'll want to know what's under there."

"Please," James said. "Just lift it enough so we can see what's underneath. If it's the drains, you can drop it down again."

"Quickly," Jessica added, holding her nose.

"Well," Tony said thoughtfully, "we ought to know if it's drains or not, just in case there's a problem. Keep away. I don't want you getting splashed or anything. You can see it hasn't been moved for ages. I'm going to fetch a couple of lifting handles from my truck. And don't try touching it while I'm gone."

The three didn't need to be told to keep well clear as they watched Tony and Matt catch hold of the recessed handles with the hooked tools, and pull the cover slowly open.

Nothing splashed out from the darkness, so James decided it was safe to go closer. A smell of damp rose from the darkness below. "It's the air raid shelter," he said in excitement.

Tony shook his head. "It still could be the main sewer. Maddie, do you know when your house was built?"

"1857," Maddie said confidently. "It was on those architects drawings you found under the floorboards."

"Then that's it," Tony said. "There wouldn't have been mains drains running under the roads in those days. So this is probably the old cesspit."

"What's a cesspit?" Jessica asked, and even as she asked the question, she realised what it was, and wished she'd kept quiet.

"It's where everything went from the toilets before they had main drains," Tony explained. "What was here before?"

"A farm," Maddie said. "I've been doing research about my house for my school project. I suppose it could be a cesspit for the farm, but I don't know where the house was."

Tony took a step closer. "You could be right."

"What happened when it was full up?" Jessica asked, screwing up her nose.

Tony shrugged. "I think the farmer came and shovelled it all into a cart and dumped it somewhere out of the way. Anyway, please keep well back. Has anyone got a light?"

Jessica turned on the flashlight on her phone and handed it to Tony. He crouched down and shone it into the darkness. "All clear. I think we've found your bomb shelter. There's an iron ladder going down. That's how they used to access it."

"Don't anyone go down yet," Maddie called out as she ran back towards the house. "I'm getting my hand lamp Peter Griffiths used yesterday. I've put it back on charge."

James, who disliked being underground at the best of times, especially having been trapped when exploring a disused railway tunnel, didn't need to be told not to go down. [See _The Dark Tunnel Adventure_.]

"I hope it's not full of spiders," Jessica said, peering cautiously over the edge.

"Skeletons, I expect," James said. "And crocodiles. How could there be spiders down there? I mean, spiders need to eat flies, and how are flies going to get in?" He thought for a moment, well aware of Jessica's spider phobia. "Of course, if they _are_ still down there, they're going to be ever so hungry. Probably bite a chunk out of your leg as soon as you put your foot over the edge."

He looked at Jessica and she seemed to be ignoring him. He made a note to try harder when the next opportunity came to wind her up about spiders.

Soon Maddie returned, holding her powerful hand lamp. "This is it, folks. One million candle power. Let's look down into the bottomless pit."

Tony joined them as they knelt by the side of the gaping hole. The way down seemed to be a shaft by the side of a room far below built of bricks, or it could be part of a tunnel.

"It's what we're looking for, all right," James said, making sure his knees were well away from the edge. "And all thanks to Harold Prentice."

The powerful beam from Maddie's hand lamp revealed a couple of rusty bed frames, which must have been used in the war when the family was sheltering down there. Or, James realised, when Harold and his mother were sheltering down there, because his father was away in the war, and perhaps dead by that time.

Tony suddenly caught hold of Maddie's hand that was holding the hand lamp. "Over there!" he said unexpectedly. "Shine it over there in the corner. I hope it's not what I think it is, or we're in serious trouble. Pass me the hand lamp."

Maddie did as she was told, obviously frightened by the tone of Tony's voice, and his near panic.

By the far wall they could see a small wooden table. And perched on it, right on the edge....

"No, no, no," Tony said, jumping to his feet. "Get away from here quickly!"

Jessica, Maddie and James had only seen it briefly, but it was enough to make them do as they were told.

"I've never seen a real bomb before," James said, as they hurried round to the front of the house. "What happens now?"

### Chapter 8

"We need to go round to the front, and we have to get your father out of the house fast," Tony said quietly. "And then we phone the police, and they can get the bomb squad round. They'll have to get everyone else out of their houses close by. There's no knowing what we've done running that digger overhead, and all the vibration from it shaking the ground. It could have started a fuse timer. This is _really_ urgent!"

"Papa isn't going to like it," Maddie said. "He told me he doesn't want to be disturbed again today, under any circumstances."

"Never mind about what he doesn't want, Maddie," the builder said. "He'll be even more disturbed in his work if the bomb goes off. Probably take most of your house with it."

While Maddie hurried to break the news to her father, Tony got his phone from the side pocket of his coveralls and made a long call. "That was head office. I've told them they can deal with it." He turned to the others. "In the meantime, I'm shutting this site down. I suggest everyone gets well away." He looked around. "And where's the girl and her father?"

His question was answered as "the girl and her father" came out of the front door, with Professor Quedgley protesting that he still had urgent work to do. It was only when the foreman explained about the bomb and the vibration that he seemed to believe the situation was serious.

"Ammadine, if it blows up," he said to Maddie in alarm, "it could destroy all my work, as well as my laboratory. I'm going back to get my papers."

No one tried to stop him, but he certainly didn't take long reappearing with an armful of folders. "What happens now?" he asked no one in particular.

"The police are on their way," Tony explained. "This has happened to me once before. They'll check that there really is a bomb, and they will already have informed the bomb squad. The police will then knock on all the doors and tell people to move well away while they make it safe. It's routine, but trust this to happen to us. We're already behind on your job."

Even as the foreman spoke, they could hear sirens approaching.

"It didn't take them long to get a car here," Tony said.

James thought it sounded like two police cars, and perhaps a fire engine as well. As the vehicles came to a rapid halt in the road outside, their blue lights flashing and their sirens still sounding, he nodded to himself. Two police cars and a fire engine. But he wasn't going to say anything to the others. They'd only think he was boasting!

A woman police officer jumped out of the first car.

"It's your friend, Constable Laura Evans," Jessica said to Maddie, remembering Maddie's run-in with the police when they discovered she'd been living here sometimes on her own.

"It's Sergeant Evans now," Maddie said. She went forward and they greeted each other like the friends they'd evidently become. "Right, are you _sure_ it's a bomb?" Sergeant Evans asked.

Tony, Maddie, Jessica and James assured Sergeant Evans that there _definitely_ was a bomb in the underground room. They'd seen it, and it was balanced right on the edge of an old wooden table. Two police constables joined them and listened to what the builder had to say.

They seemed reluctant to go and investigate for themselves, and the three firemen who were standing listening, also declined to go. They all agreed it was better to wait for the bomb squad, who were apparently already on their way.

Half an hour later a large white van with a yellow stripe belonging to the bomb disposal unit joined the emergency vehicles in the road outside, and two men got out to be briefed on the discovery and the need for urgency. One of the men donned some heavy protective gear and went round to the back, telling everyone else to stay put.

It wasn't long before he reappeared, lifted his facemask and gave the news. "It's definitely a bomb. A British MkII twenty-pounder, from the look of it. There's an iron ladder leading down to the bottom." He turned to the police officers. "Right, because of the recent heavy vibrations, and it being so close to the edge of the table, we'll need to defuse it immediately. I want you to run round the houses to each side, _and_ at the back, and warn everyone to get out. If it goes up, it won't only be me that gets blown into tiny little pieces."

James thought he detected a chuckle from the man. Probably some sort of black humour that went with the job. He shook his head. Who'd want to be a bomb disposal expert? It certainly wasn't on his list of careers to take up when he left school. But if Jessica continued to be bossy, he might suggest it to her!

Several reporters had arrived by the time a warning siren sounded its rising and dropping tone thirty minutes later. Jessica and Maddie stood with their fingers in their ears, three streets away, while James decided to look cool as he glanced at his phone, checking for messages.

"It must have been like this in the war," James said. "Just imagine being in school and hearing the air raid warning sounding. Weeeeeee ... ooooooh ... weeeeeee ... ooooooh ... weeeeeee ... ooooooh! Everyone rushing to the school shelter for safety. And what happened if you were out in the street walking home? Even in an air raid shelter, you could still get hit. _Bang!_ " And he clapped his hands.

### Chapter 9

Half an hour later they heard another loud wail of the siren. A steady tone this time.

"I hope that siren is what I think it is," Jessica said. "Let's go back and see. It sounded like the all clear."

The answer came as they walked round the final corner to Maddie's house. One of the bomb disposal men was holding a dark green bomb with a red nose and a thin light green band painted around it. It was about half the length of his arm. He went towards James. "Here, catch." And he threw it.

In a panic James held out his arms and managed to catch it safely. It felt surprisingly light as he braced himself for something heavy, and he almost fell backwards in surprise.

He noticed Jessica and Maddie cowering away, as though they would be safe from an exploding bomb a few feet away − as long as they turned their backs on it! "It's made of wood," he said, going to toss it to Jessica, but she kept her hands behind her back.

"It's a clever replica," the bomb disposal man said. "There used to be an ammunition factory near here in the war. It probably came from there, as a demonstration piece."

"Harold Prentice!" Maddie said, taking the wooden bomb from James, but holding it carefully.

Everyone looked at her.

"He lived in this house during the war. He told us he had a vague memory of his mother bringing a dark green bomb back, the day before the ammunitions factory was destroyed. But he thought it might be a false memory of something he'd seen in a picture. Well, it wasn't. It was this."

She turned to the two bomb disposal men and the police who were still staring. "Harold was only a small boy at the time. His mother wanted to show him the sort of work she did at the ammunition factory to help the war effort. Why are you all looking at me like that? She was hardly going to bring a _real_ bomb home, was she?"

"So why was it down in the air raid shelter?" James asked. "She could have left it in the house. The next owners could have been really interested in it. _I am_ , anyway. Give it back."

Maddie held onto it tightly. "Harold said his mother was really upset by the whole war," she explained. "Perhaps no one in the factory knew she'd borrowed it, and she intended to take it back the next morning. But she couldn't, because the factory was bombed that night. So she left it down in the air raid shelter so no one would see it."

"Apart from Harold," James said. "Can Maddie keep it?" he asked the bomb disposal men. "Only, if she doesn't want it, I do."

"I _definitely_ want it for my project," Maddie said firmly. "Just as long as it really _is_ a dummy, of course."

The bomb disposal man who had gone down into the shelter was stripping off his protective gear. "Definitely a dummy. Wooden bombs weren't very popular with the bomb crews."

"But very popular with the people on the receiving end," Maddie's father said, with a rare sense of humour. "Now, if it's all the same to you, I'm getting back to work. And I do _not_ want to be disturbed again for the rest of the day, even if there are a hundred lions running around in the garden. Do you understand?"

Maddie looked as though she certainly understood, and promised only to disturb her father again if it was _absolutely_ essential. And she agreed that lions didn't count as essential.

While the police officers went to inform the householders they could return to their homes, Maddie told James and Jessica they were welcome to have lunch with her, rather than bothering to go home, because James's parents would be at work, and Jessica's parents were sure to be out house-hunting.

They followed Maddie as she carried the dummy bomb indoors to put with her school project on the large dining room table. "How soon do you all want to eat?"

James said he'd felt hungry earlier, but now he suddenly felt too keyed up to eat just yet, and Jessica agreed. It had been an exciting morning, what with the discovery of Charlotte's grave, the underground air raid shelter, and the area being closed for what turned out to be a wooden bomb.

The press hadn't stayed around once the event had turned out to be what one reporter referred to as a "damp squib."

Another reporter asked if that was going to be their main headline, and it caused a bit of laughter. James thought it was quite clever, although not entirely accurate.

He had really taken to Harold Prentice, a man who had lived through what were really terrifying times, with so many memories. Harold had lost his father while he was still a boy, and Maddie had lost her maman several years ago. Pastor Griffiths was right. God gave us a lamp in His Word that could show us the next step, if we only bothered to read it, and often _only_ the next step. Perhaps it _was_ better like that. And Jesus promised to be there, every step of the way.

"Get your hand lamp again," James said, "and we'll explore the shelter. Good idea or not? Let's find Tony. He ought to be told what we're doing, but it's bound to be safe down there if the bomb disposal man survived."

Tony didn't seem quite so sure. "Let me check the iron ladder first," he said. "I don't want you breaking your necks. But the air down there should be good. The guy from the bomb disposal didn't say anything about it. Come on, I'm as keen as you all are." He turned to Matt. "You'd better hold off for a bit. We don't want to find your digger falling in on us."

"I'll tell you what," James said. "Tony, you go down first and make sure it's safe down there. Then Maddie and my cousin can go down, and then me. It's just that ... I've been trapped in caves before."

"James, you can stay up on top and make sure we don't get trapped," Jessica said, with what sounded like genuine understanding. "That's fine with us. Isn't it, Maddie?"

"No," James said, having second thoughts and not wanting to look chicken, "I'm fine. Count me in. Or to be more accurate, count me down."

"Don't do anything until I'm back," Maddie said. "I need to put on some old jeans and stuff. I'm not going down there in these clothes."

While waiting for Maddie, Tony lay flat on the ground and looked over the edge of the hole for a long time, with Maddie's hand lamp firmly in his right hand. Then he rolled over onto his back and sat up. "Standard galvanised steel manhole cover with an iron frame. Imperial size. Probably from the forties or fifties."

"There used to be a wooden hatch here, according to the man who lived in this house in the war," Maddie explained. She had returned looking very different from her usual exotic parrot manifestation. "He was only a small boy. He remembers his mother arranging to have it sealed up, but obviously not sealed for ever. I expect she thought it would be too expensive to fill in the whole underground room, and this steel cover was the best option. And the gravel hid it."

"Gets a clean bill of health from me," Tony said, getting to his feet. "Everything looks secure. I'll go first and you three stay here. Don't start to come down until I give you the say-so. And keep away from the edge. I don't want gravel falling on my head. I should have brought my hardhat, but I don't have spares for you three, so I'll be very brave and risk it." And he laughed.

They stood back while Tony lowered his feet over the edge, and quickly disappeared out of sight. A couple of minutes later his head reappeared. "Okay, one at a time, and don't try to rush it."

After a brief discussion, James and Jessica told Maddie to go first, as it was her garden. She seemed happy enough as she lowered her feet over the edge, holding on tightly to the top rung of the iron ladder that was almost level with the ground.

She didn't reappear, but her echoey voice came up from the depths telling Jessica to come. She, too, was soon out of sight. When Maddie called out again, James took a deep breath, a big swallow, and made his way cautiously to the edge.

He counted fourteen rungs of the ladder before his feet touched the ground. He felt ashamed of himself for even wondering if he would make it. After all, Harold, who was only a small boy, had often come down here. But then with the air raid warning sounding, and perhaps the sound of bombers overhead, there would definitely be a big incentive to hurry!

Tony was still holding the hand lamp. The whole room, or chamber, was unexpectedly deep under the ground. The walls and the arched roof were made of bricks, and looked old.

"Much older than the house," the foreman said.

"Did miners tunnel this out through solid rock?" James asked. "And if they did, why did they need to line it with bricks?"

Tony continued to shine the beam around. "I'm not an expert on this, but the owners of big estates in early times made what they called follies to entertain their visitors. To make a tunnel like this they would have dug out a really deep trench, built the sides out of bricks with the arched roof, and filled it back in again to make it into a tunnel. Well, it's just a theory. I don't think there's solid rock on the other side of the walls."

"Can you date the bricks from their size?" James asked. "They look quite big and old."

Tony shook his head. "They're all handmade. I don't think there was any special size until bricks were made by machines. These might be hundreds of years old, for all I know. Now, come here and take a look at _this_!"

The room was quite a bit longer than it was wide, closed at each end with a brick wall. Tony was running his hand over the wall at the end away from Maddie's house. "Now _this_ wall is _really_ interesting."

Maddie went to him and also rubbed a hand over the bricks. Jessica and then James did the same. They waited for Tony to enlighten them about what was interesting about this particular wall built of bricks, in an underground shelter built entirely of bricks.

Tony shone the beam from Maddie's hand lamp over the side walls and the arched roof. "Different builder," he said. "Just look how shoddy this wall is. Seems like they had cowboy builders even in those days." And he laughed. "The bricks are a slightly different colour, too. Something's definitely strange here."

Even though he had no experience of building with bricks, James could see straight away just how badly the wall had been built.

"If I had to give any opinion on it," Tony said, "I'd say this wall was built in a big hurry, perhaps to hide something on the other side. I think this is just part of a passage, but it's _much_ older than your house, Maddie."

From his tool belt Tony produced a large hammer. "Stand back," he said, and he tapped it against one of the side walls. Then he did the same on the other side. "Now the roof. And no way am I going to stand on the old wooden table where the bomb was."

He clambered cautiously onto one of the rusty bed frames in order to reach the arched roof, and the three moved well clear as he tapped the bricks above his head. Fortunately the bricks all stayed in place, although dust and small bits of mortar dropped to the floor.

They watched Tony go to the wall facing Maddie's house. That also sounded solid. He then tapped the rough wall facing the end of the garden.

"It's hollow," Tony said. "This is part of a passage, and if I'm right, it's been sealed up in a bit of a hurry."

"But a long time ago," Jessica said. "What do you think, Maddie?"

Without giving Maddie a chance to answer, James said, "Let's knock the wall down. We _have_ to see what's on the other side!"

### Chapter 10

Tony pointed above his head. "Don't get too excited. This wall could have been built in a hurry to support the roof. I'm not going to knock it down and bring the roof in on our heads."

A wail of frustration came from the three.

"Hold your horses," Tony said, laughing. "You're going to have to wait till tomorrow. I've got just the kit we need back at the yard. Do you know what an endoscope is?"

Maddie and Jessica shook their heads.

"I think it's medical," James said. "They stick it down your throat and things at the hospital to see what's happening inside you. My mum's mentioned them. She works at the clinic. You're not a doctor, are you, Tony, as well as a builder?" And he laughed, making everyone understand he was only joking.

"Plumbers and electricians use them to look under floorboards and into hidden places like that," Tony said. "We can inspect pipes with them. No end of uses, and none of them medical, I assure you, James. So my plan is to drill a small hole through this wall and push the endoscope through. It has a light on the far end, and a small television screen on this end."

"Can't you come back with it this afternoon?" James asked impatiently.

Tony shook his head. "This wall looks like it's been here for a few hundred years. It's still going to be here in the morning. Now, let's all get out of here, guys. I've got work to do in this young lady's house."

Maddie left the underground room first, and as soon as the ladder was clear, Jessica made her way quickly up to the top. She stood and knocked the rusty flakes from the rungs of the iron ladder from her hands, but they stayed stained a brown colour. No wonder Maddie had had the foresight to change into something old.

"It's later than I thought," Maddie said, glancing at the time on her phone as soon as everyone was safely up, and the rusty cover put back in place. "I'd better start getting lunch ready for us and Papa."

"I thought he was stuck in his laboratory for good," Jessica said. "How are you going to get him out?"

Maddie grinned. "He'll come out as soon as he smells food," she said confidently. "He didn't have any breakfast. Unless he sneaked up when we were out, but I don't think so."

Jessica recalled being down in the basement laboratory in the early summer, and seeing all the expensive equipment Maddie's father used to sort out fakes and forgeries of antiquities from the genuine article. She also remembered seeing a small fridge down there with food in it, which Maddie had said was for times when her father simply couldn't tear himself away from work.

"I've made sure his fridge is empty," Maddie said, as though reading Jessica's mind. "It's the only way I've been able to see him. Anyway, it won't be long now, and he'll realise just how hungry he is."

As predicted, Professor Quedgley surfaced from his laboratory while Maddie was cooking chicken pieces and oven chips. The large dining table had been cleared, and Professor Quedgley wanted to know why they weren't eating in the kitchen as usual.

"Because my friends Jessica and James are eating with us, Papa," she explained. "Go and sit down, all of you, and I'll serve the food."

Jessica wasn't surprised to see the way Maddie handled the catering. She had her own debit card, and bought all the food. When her mother died a few years ago, Maddie said she'd been presented with two options. One, go to the Auvergne in France where her mother came from, and live with two fussy French aunts who thought she ought to wear black for at least a year, was completely out of control, and needed strict discipline − or stay and look after her papa who encouraged her to start wearing bright colours in memory of her mother. The decision, Maddie said, was easy to make!

As soon as they were eating their chicken, chips and fresh salad, Maddie showed her father the three George III shillings Harold Prentice had lent her. "Papa, if you lived in 1820, would you accept any of these coins as change in a shop?"

Maddie handed him the counterfeit pewter alloy shilling that Harold Prentice's maid, Martha, had discovered while sweeping out the air raid shelter.

Her father turned it over and looked at both sides quickly, and then he ran his fingernail round the edge. "You can have this one back, Ammadine. It's not made of silver. It's pewter alloy, and it was cast in a mould."

Her father looked at the second one. "Brass, silver plated. Also cast in a mould," he said, handing it back to Maddie. "That's another no."

"And this one, Papa?"

Her father did the same quick examination. "Genuine," he said within a few seconds. "Where did these coins come from?"

Maddie explained about their visit to the care home, and about the Prentice family who had lived in the house during the war.

Jessica knew that Maddie's papa was an expert on fakes and forgeries, but she was surprised he had been able to detect the counterfeit coins so quickly, especially as his expertise was to do with things that were several thousand years old, not a couple of hundred.

She stopped eating and rested her knife and fork on the plate. "That's amazing," she said. "We know the first coin is made from pewter, but Harold Prentice said there's another clue on the two duff coins."

Professor Quedgley looked surprised. "Of course there is, of course there is. The same clue is on both of them. That's how I knew they were cast in a mould. Didn't any of you spot it?"

All three shook their heads.

"I suppose you know who Sir Isaac Newton was," he said, also stopping eating. "And please don't say he discovered gravity." He gave a slight laugh. "Or that he discovered falling apples, as a boy at my school once said."

James, who had almost made a joke about apples falling on Isaac Newton's head, was glad he'd kept quiet.

"Sir Isaac Newton," the Professor continued, probably deciding not to put his young visitors to the test, "was a mathematical genius. He saw mathematics and the whole universe as a puzzle to be solved. But do you know that in later life he was appointed Warden of the Mint in the Tower of London? It was in 1696. That would be the equivalent of being in charge of the whole Royal Mint today. The country was in a mess financially, because there were so many counterfeit and cropped coins in circulation."

"What did he do?" James asked. This sounded fascinating.

"Sir Isaac Newton made it his business to hunt down the coiners and get them hanged, and he recalled all the old hammered coins. Some of them only weighed forty percent of their original weight by this time because people had been cutting pieces off them, but the Mint still had to pay the holders of the old coins their face value. He learned a lesson from this. He decided to print paper money for the large denominations, to show that the value was in the Bank of England, and not in someone's pocket. Of course, lots of people were suspicious of paper money, but they were convinced when they found they could use it to buy things and pay their bills, and of course get gold coins in exchange for them at the Bank of England. However, clever engravers managed to make identical printing plates. The criminals were often one step ahead of the Mint."

James, who was not only glad he'd not said anything about apples, decided it would be very unwise to make a joke about mints. He waited for Professor Quedgley to continue, because he didn't seem to be expecting an answer anyway.

"Ammadine," her father said, "you must have picked up a few snippets of information about coins. Do you know the difference between a short cross and a long cross penny?"

Maddie nodded. "They were silver coins in mediaeval times, hammered out of thin strips of silver. People used to clip very small bits of silver from round the edges, being careful to make sure they still looked round."

Professor Quedgley nodded. "But what was the significance between the two types of cross?"

James had a feeling he knew the answer, but he certainly wasn't going to risk being shown up.

Professor Quedgley had been looking at him. "Don't say anything, Ammadine. I think James has something to say. Come on, James. Short cross, long cross. Short cross came first, and the cross was only in the middle of the coin. There, I've given it away." And he laughed, an unexpectedly friendly laugh that put James at ease immediately.

James nodded, feeling completely confident now. "If the short cross was only in the middle of the coin, it would be difficult to tell if bits had been cut off round the edges. But if the arms of the cross went right to the edge, with knobbles on, you couldn't cut bits off without destroying part of the cross, and it would be a dead giveaway."

"Very good, James, but people still did it. So how would you put a stop to people cutting even tiny pieces from the edge of a coin? Anyone?"

"You tell us, Papa," Maddie said, starting to eat again.

The Professor picked up the genuine George III shilling from where Maddie had put it on the table. "What would happen if you tried to clip bits from around the edge of _this_ coin?"

"That's easy," Jessica said, feeling herself go a little red at suddenly being the centre of attention. But she knew she was right. "They're like modern coins. They've got a raised rim round them. You couldn't cut anything off without _everyone_ knowing."

James started to clap, caught sight of Jessica's eyes, and stopped immediately.

"I've been thinking about something else in the design," Jessica said. "All those little lines round the edge must be an extra safeguard."

"It's called milling," Professor Quedgley explained, his meal completely forgotten. "Instead of hammering coins out of sheets of gold and silver under an engraved die, it's better to have perfectly circular blanks of metal."

"A die?" Jessica asked, hesitantly. "I'm not sure...."

"They had the pattern of the coin engraved into them," Maddie said, coming to her rescue. "Then you can press the rim, the king's head, and all the details on each side, using extreme pressure. It's how coins are made today. The biggest change from hammered to milled coins came in the early 1600s."

"Clever," Jessica said, examining the first shilling again. "But apart from being made of pewter, I still don't see how you could tell this isn't genuine."

Professor Quedgley had started eating again, but his mind was clearly far away from his food. "The machinery needed to make milled coins was so large and powerful that it needed lots of men to operate it. It was thought no one would be able to build machinery big enough to make forgeries. And of course they couldn't."

James was running his fingers round the milling on the edge, and something struck him as wrong. But he didn't want to spoil the Professor's explanation, although he wanted to be the first to say what he'd discovered when the opportunity came.

"For one thing," Maddie's father explained, "dies often disappeared from the Mint. What the Mint didn't realise at first was that people didn't need big machinery to make counterfeit coins at home. Silver and gold were too hard to make into a coin by hand with a hammer and a die, but pewter is a metal that looks much like silver. If you mix it with a small amount of genuine silver, you can make a very convincing coin. Like the first shilling you showed me. People used to bite their coins, or try to mark them with a knife to check them, because pewter is slightly soft. However, your two counterfeit coins weren't made in a press."

"If you could tell, why couldn't other people?" James asked, anxious not to give his theory away too easily, although he now felt much more confident that he was right.

"Good question, James. They didn't have to be perfect to pass them off, especially in places like dark public houses and busy markets."

"If it was that easy," Jessica said, "everybody must have been at it."

"Until they got caught," Professor Quedgley said. "Anybody caught coining, that's making counterfeit coins, was immediately hanged. For most people, that was a big deterrent."

Jessica pulled a face. "Yuck."

The Professor nodded. "Life was harsh in those days, Jessica." He picked up the two counterfeit shillings. "These two weren't struck, which is the technical description for coins pressed in a machine. Coiners also made moulds and poured molten metal into them. The moulds had the milling marks already there. You didn't need big machines. Just a small furnace, clamps to hold the moulds, and a ready supply of pewter, brass, and a bit of silver."

James held his hand up, as though he was still at school. "I know the other way you can tell this is a counterfeit," he said.

He noticed Jessica frowning at him, as though to warn him not to make a fool of himself in front of Maddie and her father. But he wasn't to be deterred.

James grinned. "The mould for the coin would have to be made from two flat pieces of steel or iron, with the heads of the coin cut into one side, and the tails cut into the other."

Professor Quedgley smiled. "Technically, heads and tails are called the obverse and reverse. But you're on the right track. Carry on, James."

James winked at Jessica. "The two halves of the moulds were then clamped together and stood on end," he said. "They would have to be in two pieces, or you wouldn't be able to get the coin out." He looked at Professor Quedgley for confirmation that he was on the right lines. A shake of the head, and he'd shut up immediately.

To his relief, Maddie's father nodded with a smile.

"You'd need a hole in one edge to pour the molten metal in through," James continued, "and that meant the milling couldn't go _all_ the way round." He handed the coin to Jessica. "Look at the milling and you'll see the problem."

He watched his cousin run her fingernail around the edge of the coin and suddenly stop. "Okay, don't let it go to your head, but you do show the occasional flash of genius." And she gave a brief smile.

Jessica passed the coin to Maddie, so she could see the flat spot where the rim of the coin had been broken off from the metal that remained in the hole, after it had cooled down enough to open the mould and release the coin. It had then been filed flat to try to disguise it.

Maddie put the coin on the table. "Brilliant. Now, who wants ice cream?"

While Maddie cleared the table, with help from Jessica and James, Professor Quedgley disappeared down into his basement laboratory.

James caught Jessica's eye, and she just shrugged. Maddie's father was clearly scatterbrained, but he was surprised he'd gone off without saying a word.

While Maddie served the ice cream, her father unexpectedly returned and put another silver coloured coin on the table. It was much larger than Harold Prentice's shilling.

"Vanilla ice cream, please, Ammadine. Oh, and some of that pink as well."

"It's strawberry, Papa." Maddie said, giving her father a scoop of each.

James picked up the new coin. The milling went all the way round, and it seemed to be genuine silver, because it was quite worn from use, and surely the brass would have shown through long ago if it was only silver plated. The date was the same as Harold Prentice's brass forgery. 1819.

"If it was 1819, I'd take this in my change," he said, nodding towards the vanilla and the strawberry containers. "Both please, Maddie. Well, Professor, would I be right?"

"You would indeed, James. You would indeed. That is a perfectly genuine George III crown, which was worth five shillings. But there were a lot of counterfeit coins around at that time, in spite of making coins with milled edges. Just think how long it would take you to run a fingernail around the full 360 degrees of the milling when you're given the coin in change, or examine every coin for a tiny bit of brass or copper showing through. You can see why coiners were so successful."

For five minutes nobody spoke. James was thinking that although the idea of making counterfeit coins had the potential to make a lot of money, the thought of being hanged at the end of it made it a non-starter for him. Apart from the fact it was dishonest.

Eventually Professor Quedgley stood up and collected everyone's bowls. "Now," he said, "you'd better tell me what you've been doing in the old air raid shelter you discovered today."

### Chapter 11

Tuesday

The next morning, the Cooper and Green family sat in the kitchen finishing breakfast. James and Jessica had to use stools at one of the worktops, as there weren't enough chairs to go round, nor was the table large enough for everyone.

James was talking about the underground air raid shelter they had discovered, or more accurately, rediscovered, since Harold Prentice knew all about it.

"I don't like the idea of you going down there," his father said, standing up from the table to get ready to leave for work. "It might have been better than nothing in the war, but that was back in the 1940s."

"But, Dad, the foreman of the builders went down first, and he says it's perfectly safe. Anyway, it's a lot older than the war. From the type of bricks, he reckons it could be over two hundred years old. So if it stood all that time...."

"It's about ready to collapse," his mother said.

"Oh, Mum, we _have_ to go down again. The sides and the end are lined with bricks. The bricks at the end by Maddie's house look the same as the sides and arched roof. So that probably really _is_ the end."

Mr Cooper had stayed by the table to listen. His eyes lit up. "But you think the other end...."

"Not _us_ , Uncle Clive," Jessica said. "The _foreman_ says the wall at the other end is built really badly. And he's probably an expert on bricklaying. So that wall wasn't built by the same person, and it looks as though it was built in a hurry. And that means it could be hiding another entrance, or another room."

James's father also looked excited until his mum shook her head. "If you're thinking of knocking it down, my lad, think again."

"We're _not_ knocking it down, Mum," James protested. "The foreman is going to drill a small hole. He's got an endoscope, and he's bringing it this morning. And we really ought to be off to Maddie's, in case the foreman finds something else to do."

He noticed his mother was frowning. "Are you sure that's what he said? We have endoscopes at the clinic. The doctor uses them to examine.... Well, various places."

James shrugged. "With builder's hands like his, I can't think he's a doctor!"

A quarter of an hour later everyone dispersed. Jessica's parents said they were having another look at a couple of houses, and wondered if Jessica would like to go with them.

She sort of did, and she sort of didn't. In the end she agreed to look, since she'd be living in whatever house they chose. That meant that James and Maddie also got invited, and Jessica's father assured them all that the builder would be there all day at Maddie's house, and they'd definitely be free later in the morning.

It was nearly lunchtime when the house viewing had finished, and Jessica's parents were struggling to make up their minds which of two houses they wanted. They already had a buyer for their own, so they would be able to make the move early in the New Year when they found the right house.

"I wish mum and dad hadn't asked _me_ to help choose," Jessica complained, as they hurried off with Maddie to her house. "I hope I'll be able to go to your school, Maddie. Which house do you think is the right one?"

Maddie spread her hands in a noncommittal way. "James and I didn't look in every room like you and your parents did, but I think each house has advantages and disadvantages," she said.

"I know _that_ ," Jessica said, catching her foot on a raised paving slab and nearly falling. "It's all right for you, Maddie, you've never lived in any other house. Oh well, I'm sure everything will work out all right. I've been praying about it."

"And me," Maddie said, as they approached her house. "Anyway, you can't do anything about it this morning. Look, there's Tony's truck. I hope he's free to drill the hole through the wall." She laughed. "You never know, there might be loads of underground rooms on the other side, and you and your parents could move in there. Problem solved. I'm sure Papa wouldn't charge much rent!"

The foreman slapped his head when he saw them. "Sorry, guys, I forgot all about it. The endoscope is still in the office. I'm not going back to the yard again today, but I can drill the hole. That will have to do for now."

"How big will the hole be?" James asked, trying to hide his disappointment, and not doing a very good job of it. He felt really let down. "Will it be big enough to climb through?"

Tony laughed and held out his rough hands. "Like my little finger. You won't even be able to look through it with a light."

"But we could, if you drilled _two_ holes," James said. "One for the eye, and one for the flashlight. That's what my brilliant brain says, anyway."

Tony gave a noncommittal nod. "Might work, I suppose. You're assuming there's something on the other side, and it's not there just to hold back a load of earth and rubble."

"And I've got a brilliant idea too," Jessica said, determined not to be outdone by her cousin. "I saw some long bamboo canes leaning against the wall where we buried Charlotte. We could poke one through and see how far it goes." She noticed James and Maddie nodding in approval. "Genius, or not?"

"There has to be a first for everything," James said dryly, jumping clear of Jessica.

Tony looked at a scratched watch on his wrist, held in place by a dirty green nylon strap. "Two o'clock?"

The three of them nodded, although James thought that _now_ would have been better.

"We need to eat, anyway," Maddie said. She took the high security keys from the pocket of her bright red jacket as they went up the stone steps to her front door. James wanted to bang the brass hand, just for the fun of it, but Maddie quickly pulled his arm down. "Let's not disturb Papa," she said.

To their surprise, Professor Quedgley was already in the kitchen, sitting down to a couple of chunky sandwiches. James stared. He'd imagined Maddie's papa would be completely clueless when it came to food, and unless Maddie was there to feed him he would starve to death.

Maddie cut some large chunks of bread to share round, rummaged up some cheese, ham and salad from the fridge, and joined her papa at the table.

"I didn't want to raise your hopes yesterday," the Professor said, hastily swallowing a mouthful of food, "but I thought I had some old hammered coins knocking around in a box somewhere."

He reached in the pocket of the old sports jacket he was wearing. With his long silver hair and baggy clothes, he looked like a university professor from the distant past.

"Take a look at these," he said, opening a little cardboard box and putting two tiny pieces of silver coins and two whole coins on the table. "Behold, a short cross and a long cross penny. The short cross dates from before 1247, which is when the long cross design was introduced. Both have been clipped, but the short cross penny has been clipped more, making the cross look over to one side."

Jessica examined both, and tried to imagine what they would have been like when they were first made. She was amazed that anybody would consider trying to spend them in this condition, so much silver had been cut off, and not very neatly either.

"If you didn't have change and wanted to spend a half penny, or a quarter of a penny called a farthing, or fourthing, you cut the coin on the lines of the cross. Coins in those days were worth the money of the metal they were made from. Gold, silver, or brass. And that meant that their scrap value was their face value. But one day the Mint made a major mistake. Look at this."

From his other pocket Professor Quedgley produced an enormous dark copper coin, and put it next to one of the shillings on the table, with a loud clunk. "A copper two penny coin," he said. "Twopence coins were always called a tuppence, until decimalisation of coins in 1971. It was known at the time as a cartwheel, because of its large size. Pick it up, Jessica. Can you tell me the mistake the Mint made?"

As soon as Jessica picked the coin up and held it in her hand, she realised just how thick and heavy it was. She knew the answer straightaway. Or at least, she thought she did, but she always felt slightly intimidated by Maddie's father, although she had no reason to be. He always seemed smiley, apart from the times when he was working so hard that he got annoyed at the slightest interruption. The answer seemed to freeze in her throat as she began to speak.

"It's ... well ... it's to do with the value of copper, I think. When we were down in Cornwall at Easter [see _The Midnight Farm Adventure_ ] we were told there was a shortage of copper when this coin was made, so more tin and copper mines were opened in the early nineteenth century to try to meet the demand. So I think ... I think copper coins soon became worth more as scrap than they were as spending money."

Professor Quedgley looked at her, smiled and nodded. "Excellent, Jessica. Excellent. The Mint learned a lesson from this, and after 1816 only gold coins were worth the weight of the metal they were made from."

Maddie had been bobbing up and down, looking anxious to say something. At last she said, "Papa, we think the underground room is bigger than it looks. I want you to come and see what you think."

Her father nodded. "That doesn't surprise me a bit, Ammadine. You've already discovered there was a farm and perhaps an Elizabethan manor here before these houses were built. It was probably a large cold storage room."

"That's what I thought at first, Papa," Maddie said. "But——"

"And maybe it was bricked up to make it smaller for the air raid shelter in the war," Professor Quedgley suggested.

Maddie shook her head. "No, Papa, the bricks are really old. Tony the foreman says they're all handmade. But the wall has been built in a hurry, and the bricks are different."

Her father looked interested. He dabbed his mouth with a paper towel and stood up. "Come on, finish eating, all of you. Let's go and see."

"Now?" Maddie asked, gulping down the rest of her ice cream. She turned to Jessica and James. "Come on, finish eating. Let's go and see," she said, copying her father.

Although it was only 1:30, Tony said he was free to drill the hole. Professor Quedgley said that was fine, much to the relief of the three. He told them he wanted to confirm the safety of the arched roof and the walls before Ammadine went down there again.

James smiled to himself. Maddie's mother, whom he could only vaguely remember, was French, and Maddie was always called Ammadine in the family. It seemed that when he was very small, and his mum and Maddie's mum used to see each other sometimes as friends, he could only say her name as Maddie. Fortunately, as far as he was concerned, he'd done Maddie a favour! Maddie still referred to her mother as maman, the French equivalent of mum.

Tony kicked at the gravel that was still remaining. "I must get Matt back here to remove the rest of this, and level the ground ready for the foundations," he said. "I don't know why he hasn't done it already. I'll have to sort it when we're done here."

Using the two lifting handles, he removed the metal cover to the shaft that led down to the underground room, and laid it to one side. Then he quickly disappeared out of sight down the iron ladder. Professor Quedgley went next. James leaned over as far as he dared, and could see Tony and Professor Quedgley discussing the state of the walls and roof.

James looked back at the house. The shelter was certainly a long way down, but probably not deeper under the ground than the basement the Professor used as his high-tech laboratory. So it was unlikely the tunnel went that way. No, the wall they needed to investigate was the one badly built, facing the Spooner's house at the end of Maddie's garden. And because it was built in a hurry, it was sure to be hiding something stunning.

### Chapter 12

As soon as they got the all clear, Maddie in her old clothes, then Jessica and finally James made their way down the ladder. Jessica began sniffing the air. "I'd forgotten how damp and smelly it is down here" she said. She turned to James. "A bit like your socks on a hot day."

James rolled his eyes. Fortunately Jessica had said it quietly, and the others were involved in an intense discussion about the bricks. "Similar," he whispered, "but not identical."

"I think this entrance, or exit, is original," Professor Quedgley was saying, pointing to the iron ladder. "The bricks lining the shaft seem to be the same as the rest of the room to me, although I have to say that my area of expertise isn't in seventeenth and eighteenth century bricks. However, I'm puzzled by what looks like soot on the entrance shaft, but perhaps the family sheltering in the war had a fire burning down here to keep warm."

James took an immediate interest. "I don't understand why you'd need to make a separate shaft for this iron ladder. Why not come straight down through the roof?"

"That's easy," Tony said. "The arched bricks in the roof are holding everything up. Arches are very strong if you don't damage them. If you put a big hole through an arch, the whole lot collapses. No, some care and time went into this. I still think it belongs to the farm that used to be here, and was a cold store. Obvious really."

"It's not obvious to me," James said quietly.

Jessica heard him. "And it's not obvious to me either. Why build that wall in a hurry?"

"I think the way we've just come down is an emergency exit," James said, nodding as the idea made some sort of sense to the detective running around inside his brain. Or was it the grasshopper back in action? "A way of escape," he added.

"Escape from what?" Jessica asked.

James shrugged. "Deadly man-eating spiders?"

Jessica wasn't going to get wound up. "I think you're right, James. Not about the spiders, but about this not being the main entrance. I can't wait to see what's hidden behind that wall."

Tony opened the large black plastic case he had carried down the ladder, revealing a battery powered drill and several masonry bits. "That's what we're about to find out," he said. "Everyone stand back."

He put the largest drill bit in the chuck, a 10mm drill bit, and by the light of the hand lamp that Maddie was holding, he put it against the mortar between two of the bricks and pulled the trigger.

The drill bit went through the mortar almost instantly, catching Tony by surprise. "Piece of cake," he said. "Pass me the bamboo cane."

Maddie caught tight hold of Jessica's arm as the foreman began to thread the cane into the hole. And then he kept pushing. And pushing. And pushing until the whole cane, which was at least as tall as Professor Quedgley, went in without meeting any resistance.

"It looks as though your family could be moving in here after all," Maddie whispered to Jessica. "It might even go as far as the Spooners' house opposite. Room after room after room. Fancy that."

Tony picked up his drill again and placed the bit against the mortar in a joint three brick courses below. Within two minutes, after waiting for the dust to settle, Maddie, who had been holding the hand lamp while Tony drilled, went forward and put the centre of the lens against the lower hole.

She peered through the top hole, taking ages while everyone waited patiently, or impatiently in James's case, for her announcement.

"Rubbish," she said, turning away. "It's rubbish."

"You mean there's a lot of rubbish piled up in there?" James asked.

Maddie shook her head. "I mean the _idea_ is rubbish. The hole is much too small to see through properly." She turned to Tony. "Do you have a larger drill bit?"

"Back at the yard," he said.

"You could go back to the yard now," Maddie said, "and fetch the endoscope at the same time. Please."

Before the foreman could answer, Professor Quedgley said, "Now, Ammadine, Tony is here to work on the house. I want to get the new central heating installed before the weather gets much colder. Tomorrow will be quite soon enough."

Maddie nodded. It seemed that she knew that once her father, her papa, had made up his mind, it was no good arguing. "Tomorrow it is then," she said, taking one last look round with her powerful hand lamp. "So what are we going to do now?"

"Let's go and see Harold Prentice again," Jessica said. "There must be lots of things he didn't tell us. It's unlikely, but it's _just_ possible he knows what's behind those bricks."

Harold Prentice was sitting on an upright green armchair in the main television lounge when they got to the care home. With his glasses perched on the end of his nose, he was tapping confidently on a large iPad. He looked up when he saw them, and smiled.

He pointed to the TV, and then to the iPad. "Just some boring daytime show. The one I've been watching has only just finished, and now I'm checking my bank account. My pension should have gone in today." He looked at the screen of the iPad. "And it has. Perfect," he said, more to himself than to the others. He looked up, grinning and showing a lot of teeth. "Well, I hope you've come with a good progress report."

Jessica noticed that Harold's teeth were perfect, although they were probably not all his own. She had warmed to the elderly man the first time they'd met, and she took to him even more now. He'd make a fantastic grandfather for someone. Well, she thought, perhaps he was one. They knew nothing about his son, Ronald.

None of the other residents seemed to be listening while they explained about the foreman and his drill, and their attempt to look through the badly built wall − and how the builder was bringing an endoscope in the morning, as long as he remembered.

Harold nodded. "I know what an endoscope is. Excellent."

"We'll tell you all about it," James promised. "One moment I think it's just going to be just an empty space behind the wall, and then I suddenly find myself wondering if it's a hidden room containing something absolutely amazing. Or scary. Or something memorable, anyway."

Harold was nodding, almost to himself. "Oh, to be young again," he said, giving a deep sigh. "Believe me, if I had legs that worked properly, I'd be down there with you tomorrow at the drop of a hat. If I'd been a few years older when we left, I'd have knocked a big hole through it. But my imagination hadn't developed far enough at the time to think of doing it. And of course my father was away in the war, and he never came back, or he might have done it."

"We'll take some photographs for you," Jessica said, producing her phone that had been her father's, and had caught two criminals while they were staying at Midnight Farm.

Harold reached out for the phone and examined it closely when Jessica handed it to him. "Mine is the previous version. Yes, the camera on this is one I'd dearly love to have, although I don't suppose I'd have much use for it now. I don't go out much." He looked around the room and chuckled. "You look surprised. Not all oldies are afraid of technology. You youngsters seem to think that no one over thirty can use smartphones and computers. Well, I've got news for you. Some of us can, and without difficulty." He pointed vaguely around the room, and shrugged. "Of course, some don't even bother to try."

Jessica tried not to show her surprise, but certainly they'd just seen the proof of Harold's ability to use technology. She was amazed that someone of Harold's age, who'd been alive in the early nineteen forties, knew a keyboard from a blackboard, and even blackboards were a thing of the past in schools. How the world had changed!

Again they were interrupted by one of the carers wheeling in a trolley, laid out with cups of tea and biscuits. She gently suggested that Mr Prentice, as she called him, and the other residents in the lounge needed to have a bit of time in their own company. She said that if they wanted to visit again, perhaps just one of them could come at a time.

"Janice," Harold said almost angrily, "you're talking nonsense. I know what's good for me. These young people are like a breath of fresh air in this place." He pointed around the room at other residents who were either sleeping or watching the daytime chat show on the large television. "Just look at them," he said. "This isn't what I call _company_. I must insist that they stay!"

### Chapter 13

Wednesday

The kitchen was slightly less crowded the next morning at the Coopers' house. James's father had already left to catch a train to London, and James and Jessica had got up early so they could get to Maddie's before she persuaded Tony to give her a look with the endoscope before they got there.

"Now," Mrs Cooper said, "I hope the two of you will _not_ get into any trouble today. I have a training morning at the hospital, and everyone has to switch their phones off."

"And we're seeing the bank and a building society about a mortgage," Jessica's father said. "And maybe more estate agents. Perhaps several property surveyors. As we discussed last night, we've almost certainly decided on the house by the common, but it's going to need a lot doing to it."

"I'll say it does," Jessica said. She turned to James. "You didn't get to look round, but some really old couple are living there at the moment. The bathroom is positively prehistoric." She shuddered. "The tiles are all stained orange and black, and there's no way I'll be getting in that nasty old bath. It's rusty, and the enamel is peeling off in places. And the downstairs cloakroom and toilet...." She shuddered again. "Well, enough said."

"Quite enough said," her mother added. "But it's in a lovely situation, in a quiet road lined with trees. We just _have_ to buy it, but it will take on a lot of work and money. Anyway, we're sure it will be worth it in the end. So the same goes for us. Please don't disturb us when we're discussing mortgages."

Jessica shook her head. "Why is everyone thinking we're going to get into trouble?"

"Yes, why?" James added. "All we're doing is going to Maddie's house for the day. She'll give us lunch, so we'll be keeping well out of the way. Tony, he's the foreman for the builders working on Maddie's house, he's going to bring the endoscope − if he remembers it. There's probably a treasure chest hidden behind those bricks."

His mother laughed. "Treasure chests only belong in stories, my lad. Just make sure you keep safe."

"Mum," James said, "I know it's not _really_ going to be treasure, and we'll be perfectly safe down there. Tony says it's fine, although he's not so sure about taking the wall down in case it's helping to support the roof. And if it's just empty space behind the wall, I can't think Maddie's father is going to want the builder to spend time knocking it down." He paused, out of breath.

"And I don't want _you_ trying to knock it down either, James," his mother said. "Now, I suggest you both buzz off, because the grown-ups need to discuss mortgages and bank loans, and things like repayment options."

James nodded. "I wish you well. It sounds like our day will be much more fun. Come on, Jessica, let's hope Tony's memory was working when he left the builder's yard this morning. He'll probably be at the Quedgleys' house by now. Builders always start work early."

Jessica didn't need prompting. She hurried up to James's bedroom, which was temporarily her room now her parents had taken over the large spare room where she usually stayed.

She glanced at the Bible reading notes by the side of the bed that she'd been reading when she first woke up and had her short time of prayer.

Because of Pastor Griffiths' talk on Sunday evening about Maddie's hand lamp and the old oil lamp, she could easily recall the verse for the day in her notes this morning, which she sometimes didn't manage to remember. "Your word is a lamp to my feet." Was that coincidence, or was God showing her something about the move, and going to a new school? She smiled to herself. "One step at a time with You, Jesus. Thank you."

Yes, she thought to herself, but it wasn't always a bright light. She needed something like an endoscope that would look through the dark tunnels in life to see clearly what lay ahead. Maybe it would happen when she got older, or maybe there was something wrong with her life. Or maybe it was a problem for everyone who loved Jesus. It seemed that way, from what Pastor Griffiths had said.

"Have you gone back to bed?" James asked, tapping on the door.

Jessica opened it immediately. "Ready when you are. I've just been thinking that I could do with a brighter light."

James looked up at the light shade on the ceiling. "I know where the bulbs are. Let's not change it now. We need to get to Maddie's before Tony gets too busy to spare us a few minutes with the endoscope."

Jessica nodded. She'd explain later what she really meant. James would understand, because he also made time in the morning for prayer and a short Bible reading.

They'd intended to walk to Maddie's house, but they found themselves jogging along impatiently. Tony and the two builders were getting out of the pickup truck when they arrived. It looked as though they'd only just got there.

When he saw them, Tony broke into a broad grin. "The old brain worked this morning," he joked. "See what I've got here for you."

From the cab he pulled out a small black case with red catches.

"Is it going to be long enough?" James asked, disappointed by the size of the case. He'd expected an endoscope to be nearly as long as a broom pole.

Tony rested the case on the stone steps that led up to the front door, and flicked it open. Curled up inside they could see a long black tube, and a control unit with a small video screen on it.

Tony removed everything from the case, and straightened out the tube. "Fibre optics," he said. "The whole kit is flexible so it can go round bends. On the far end there's a small lens and lighting. The picture comes up the fibre optics and is focused onto the screen here."

James bent over and looked at the end. "How does the lighting work?" he asked. "There doesn't seem to be room for any sort of light bulb."

"The light source is in the control box," Tony explained. "Don't ask me too many questions, I'm not an expert. All I know is it works. The light travels down its own fibres that are separate from the fibres that carry the picture. Let's get into the shade of the trees and I'll give you a quick demo."

James thought the foreman sounded really pleased to be showing off one of his toys. Tony switched it on and immediately a vague blue shape appeared on the screen.

"Now watch," Tony said, taking the end of the endoscope close to the bark of the tree. "You can't adjust the focus, but you can turn the lighting up or down so the picture looks right." He handed it to James. "Your turn."

Jessica went close to Maddie, and whispered, "Boys' toys. Trust James to get it first."

After a couple of minutes James passed the control unit to Jessica. "I heard what you said. This is a toy that's a must for _everyone_. I never knew such things existed."

Jessica inspected the screen closely, moving the end with the lens close to and then away from the bark of the tree. "It's like magic. Come here, James, and let me put it in one of your ears. I'll probably see daylight the other side!"

Tony, who was instructing the two men on what to do, overheard. "Don't mess around with it," he warned, sounding surprisingly firm.

Maddie also wanted to experiment with the equipment, leaving Tony to go back to talk to the two men.

"Matt," Tony said to the driver of the digger, "I want you to finish clearing the gravel and level the ground. They're coming this afternoon to take the skip, and I don't want the expense of hiring another one. So that's number one priority for the day."

Matt nodded. "Will do," he said climbing into the cab. "I just hope the engine starts okay. Temperamental animal this is. Switch it off when it's hot, and it never wants to start again."

The other man, who was known as Nick, had been listening. "I've nearly finished in the house," he said. "Just a few loose floorboards to nail down, and then I'm done. So what's next, Tony?"

A shout and a crash made everyone jump. James turned to see Matt sprawled on the ground by the side of the digger, clutching his wrist and groaning loudly.

"Now what have you done?" Tony said. "I told you to be careful."

"Great sympathy, boss," Matt said. "I was reaching round to the engine and I slipped. I think I've broken my wrist." And he started groaning again in obvious pain.

Tony bent down to where Matt was lying. "I'm not sure it's broken, but it's certainly badly sprained. It wouldn't be swelling up so quickly otherwise. Right, on your feet, and I'll take you to the hospital emergency department. The sooner you get it fixed, the sooner you can be back here working."

Matt gave a grin that almost masked the pain on his face. "Such kindness has never been known before," he said to the three who were standing watching silently.

Tony turned to Nick. "You can get on with the urgent things while we're gone. Okay?"

The man nodded. "You said it, boss. Don't forget to buy Matt some flowers on the way to the hospital." And he shook his head.

Tony looked embarrassed. "Okay, okay, sorry, Matt. I'm bothered that we're running behind on this job. That's all I need, one man off. Hey, you're a hard worker. So let's get you fixed up and back on the job."

Matt was still sitting against the side of the digger, nursing his wrist. Tony helped him to his feet and led him round to the passenger side of the pickup. Two minutes later they were driving through the entrance and were quickly out of sight.

Nick shrugged, and went up the steps to the house. "Time for a cuppa, I think," he said. "It's okay, Maddie, I know where everything is. Just unlock the door for me. I can help myself, as we usually do."

"Just make sure you don't disturb Papa," Maddie said, as she unlocked the large dark red front door. "He's already down in the laboratory. And if he's left his phone in the kitchen, it means absolutely no one, and that means no one, is to interrupt his work this morning."

James was now holding the endoscope, and a smile broke out on his face. "Let's not wait for Tony to get back," he said. "We know how to work this thing. Come on, grab your hand lamp, Maddie. Let's find out what's on the other side of those bricks!"

### Chapter 14

The metal cover was back in place, and the area around it was not yet completely clear of gravel. Using the handles that Tony had left on the grass, James and Maddie lifted the cover off with difficulty, and the permanent damp smell wafted up from below.

"I know it was my idea," James said, "but are we okay to use Tony's endoscope without him here?"

Maddie smiled. "I think Papa is as keen to know what's behind this wall as we are. I mean, an endoscope like that can't be massively expensive. Papa will buy a new one if necessary. I know how to get round him."

"You two go first," James said, peering into the darkness. "You can be the ones to see the glint of gold and diamonds. Or perhaps a pile of old bricks. I'm sure it's safe down there, but.... Well, I've still got this feeling about underground places."

"That's okay, James," Jessica said brightly. "Of course, we'll have first claim on the treasure. You stay up here and keep guard. Maddie and I will use the endoscope."

That was enough to persuade James that perhaps it wasn't that bad under the ground. "Wild horses wouldn't keep me away," he said. "Just as long as the battery in your hand lamp is okay Maddie."

Maddie said it was fully charged and would last for hours, and possibly days on a low setting. She swung her feet over the hole and disappeared down the iron ladder. Jessica quickly followed, and James, carrying the endoscope in its case, and swallowing hard, clambered down as soon as it was clear at the bottom.

As Maddie swung the hand lamp around, James said, "Just imagine being down here and listening to the bombs falling on the town. Harold said he thought it was fun seeing the German bombers coming overhead lit by searchlights, but I don't understand that."

"He didn't say it was _fun_ ," Jessica corrected him. "He said it was _exciting_ , and that's very different."

"I don't understand how it could be exciting. Not one little bit," Maddie said, fixing the light beam on one of the iron bed frames. "There's always a war somewhere in the world, and bombs and missiles dropping. I've seen pictures on television of children terrified and crying, and covered in blood, so it _can't_ be exciting."

"But I don't suppose Harold ever saw bodies in the street and serious injuries," Jessica said. "That's the difference. War only becomes real when you see the casualties."

"That's enough about bodies," Maddie said. "Let's see what's behind here," and she tapped the bricks. "Pass me the endoscope, James."

"I'll look first," James said. "I'm the one who carried it down the ladder, risking my life."

"But it's my house, and my underground room," Maddie said firmly. "So please pass me the endoscope."

James did as he was told. He might have argued with Jessica. She was his cousin, and he was entitled to argue with her. With Maddie somehow it was different.

Maddie switched on the control unit, and the screen lit up with a picture of the brick wall wobbling around, as the unsupported end of the fibre optic tube swung this way and that.

"Now the moment we've all been waiting for" Maddie said, as she inserted the end into the top of the two holes Tony had drilled earlier.

They stared at the shape of the hole on the screen as Maddie threaded the end through, but it was much too white. She adjusted the brightness and James was amazed at the detail of the sides of the hole, and the dust on the bottom of the hole.

Maddie pushed the end further through, into blackness. "Here goes," she said, turning the brightness to full.

Almost as soon as a picture appeared on the screen, Maddie pulled the endoscope out. "Did you see what I saw?"

Jessica and James nodded slowly.

"We've broken through into the cellar of the Spooner's house," Maddie said. "Now we'll be in trouble."

"He must be fast asleep," James said. "I mean, if I was sitting in the cellar fiddling around with old clocks, and suddenly a bright light appeared in the wall, I'd jump up to investigate."

"And he can't have been there yesterday. I'd certainly investigate if somebody started drilling through the wall," Jessica said. "Think of the noise Tony's drill made. Dare we risk another look?"

Maddie had switched the control unit off. "Let's think about this logically," she said. "How far away do you think the man is?"

"We only had a fraction of a second to see, when you turned the light up full," James said. "Two, three metres? Anyway, I don't think he saw us, or he'd be shouting through the hole by now."

"We'd better get your father," Jessica said. "Or wait until Tony's back from the hospital."

"I've got an idea," James said. "The light on the end of the endoscope isn't all that bright. It's meant for looking inside holes and small places. Turn the light up all the way, Maddie, and see how bright the wall on the other end looks from here. I'll go and stand there and you can see how big I look. Walk backwards and forwards, and you might be able to get a good idea of how far away the man is."

"Go on, Maddie, it's worth a try," Jessica said, without commenting on James's brilliance.

Maddie switched on the unit again, and the end wall was just a dark blur on the screen. She went closer until they judged that the brightness and the size of James on the screen were about the same as the man they'd seen sitting at the table.

James paced it out with three long strides. "Three metres. I told you so. That proves it."

"Proves what?" Jessica said. "I think you're running out of brilliant ideas."

"Just listen to genius boy," James said. "How far is it from here to the boundary at the end of your garden, Maddie?"

"I don't know exactly," Maddie said.

"But it's a lot more than three metres, that's for sure," James said.

Maddie nodded. "Probably ten. I think I can see what you're getting at. Even if we've broken through to the cellar of the Spooners' house, that man is still under our property, and he shouldn't be there."

"So we won't be in trouble if we have another look," James said. "Come on, push the endoscope through the hole in the bricks again."

Rather reluctantly Maddie did as James suggested. "It's a bit of a cheek if Mr Spooner _is_ under our land," she said. "Probably against the law. Right, here goes."

The picture was at a bit of an angle, but there was a control to straighten it. Maddie turned the light up as high as it would go, and sure enough, the screen showed someone, probably a man, sitting on a chair, slumped over a high table.

"What a nerve," Maddie said. "Here, Jessica, you hold the control unit and I'm going to shout through the lower hole. There's no way we can be in trouble for looking at someone sitting in a room under our own garden." She hesitated. "Is there?"

James was all for Maddie shouting, and said he'd do it if she didn't.

Maddie wiped the brickwork round the second hole Tony had drilled. She made a sort of wooooo noise, but it didn't seem to be very loud. She pulled her head away and looked at the screen. "Well, that hasn't woken him up. Let me have another go. You keep watching and see if he moves at all."

Another woooooo sound, and Maddie looked up again.

"You've done your best," Jessica said, turning the brightness down to see if that made the image any clearer. It didn't. "I'm not sure it _is_ a real person. They'd be bound to have woken up by now."

"You're right," Maddie said, laughing. "We must be daft. Remember, I told you the first owner of my house was someone called Wilfred Harris, and he was a tailor. We've found his workshop and one of his dummies. And there was me trying to wake up a dummy with silly noises."

James shook his head. "Then why is it lying with its head on the table? Did you ever see a dummy dressed up in a store with its head resting on a table?"

"All right," Jessica said, "if it's not somebody asleep, and it's not a tailor's dummy, what else could it be?"

"It's obvious," James said.

Before he could say anything more, there was a rumbling sound overhead.

"Matt must have been fixed up quickly at the hospital," Maddie said, "otherwise he wouldn't be able to drive the digger. We'd better let him know we're down here."

As she spoke, the daylight disappeared as the metal cover was dropped back into place. The sound of the digger engine became louder as James climbed the ladder to push the cover away. It seemed as though the digger was directly overhead.

"Hurry up!" Jessica and Maddie called in unison.

"I can't shift it," James called down. "I think Matt has parked the digger on top."

The vibration from the digger engine was making the whole room vibrate. Dust, and then small pieces of mortar began to drop from the roof.

### Chapter 15

Maddie looked up at the brick arch of the roof. "Let's not panic," she said. "James, you stay up there, and push the cover away as soon as Matt moves the digger."

Ten minutes later there was no sign of the digger being moved. And all the time the vibration of the engine was making small pieces of mortar drop from the arched roof.

"He's not going to switch the engine off, even if he's doing something else," James called down from the top of the iron ladder. "Remember, Matt said he always had trouble starting the engine when it's hot? You'd better both come to the bottom of the ladder. If any bricks in the roof start to drop, you'll be safer there. Well, fairly safe anyway, unless the whole lot comes down!"

"Thanks for that cheery thought," Jessica said. "But the boy keeps getting good ideas. Let's climb up to the top and we can all shout for help."

No matter how loudly they shouted, and how hard they banged on the underside of the metal cover, the digger stayed exactly where it was.

"It's going to run out of fuel in the end," Jessica said. "They'd hear us shouting then."

"In a few hours," James said. "But the digger is still going to be there, even if it does run out of fuel. Time to get our phones out. Who are we going to phone first?"

"Phone your papa," Jessica said. "He's the nearest."

"His phone's in the kitchen," Maddie reminded them. "Anyway, he's forbidden anyone to contact him this morning."

"Please try, Maddie," Jessica said. "Surely he'll see this is an emergency. He might be up in the kitchen now, making himself a coffee or a cup of tea."

"He always does that in the laboratory," Maddie said, clinging tightly onto the ladder. "He's got tea and coffee down there, and a shower and a loo. There's no way he'll be coming up before lunch, and perhaps not even then."

"Have you got the builder's number?" Jessica asked, shouting above the noise of the digger engine.

Maddie shook her head. "James, phone your mum. She's helped us out of emergencies before."

It was James's turn to shake his head. "She's on a training morning at the hospital, and said everyone has to switch their phones off. She also warned us not to get into any sort of trouble. I think that was a joke, but she was serious about the phone."

"Your dad?" Maddie said.

Again James shook his head. "He's gone to the head office in London. We need someone close to help us. How about your parents, Jessica?"

"I suppose I could give them a try," she said, "but they don't know their way around the town yet, and I really don't want to worry them unless we have to. They're probably at the bank at this very moment, and knowing my dad, he and my mum will have put their phones to silent."

Maddie had been using her phone. She flicked it off. "Well, Papa isn't in the kitchen. There's only one thing left to do. The police. And let's hope it's my friend, Sergeant Laura Evans."

"Good one, Maddie. Anyway, the police are going to be involved now we've discovered a body down here. It could be murder."

"I wish you hadn't said the word body," Jessica said. "It's bad enough finding one the other side of the wall, but I don't want to be trapped down here with it. Hurry up, Maddie, and phone the police."

It took nearly thirty agonising minutes before they heard voices shouting above the noise of the digger.

"I hope it's the police," James said. "We've been down here more than long enough."

"Of course it's the police," Jessica said. "Who else would it be?"

Maddie shrugged. "It might be Sir Isaac Newton, for all I know, hunting for coiners to hang."

Jessica laughed. "Well if it is, let's hope he doesn't start dropping apples on our heads."

"Good one, Jessica," Maddie said, laughing.

"It's not funny," James said, managing to laugh as well. "I don't want to be trapped down here for the rest of my life with that body, and you two making dim-witted jokes all the time."

The engine of the digger speeded up, there was a crunching noise above as the caterpillar tracks moved, and the engine quickly faded in the distance. Before anyone could lift the cover from the outside, James pushed it clear, blinking in the October sunshine as three faces stared down at him.

They scrambled out of the hole, to be confronted by a young male police constable, Sergeant Laura Evans, and Nick the builder.

Nick looked embarrassed. "It's not my fault," he said quickly. "I thought I was doing Tony a favour, knowing how keen he was to get this job finished. Stupid digger. Tony needs to get that engine sorted. I left it running and went round to the front of the house to fetch something, and then I got distracted when the company came for the skip too early."

Sergeant Evans sounded friendly enough as she said, "We're going to have to make a report, but I can't see you'll be in trouble in the circumstances. Maddie, is your father around?"

"He's in his laboratory," Maddie said, "but I don't want you risking your life disturbing him. One dead body is enough round here." And she pointed back down the hole.

Sergeant Evans frowned, and went to the edge rather cautiously. "I thought you were all safe. Are you saying someone else is still down there?"

James nodded. "There is, and he's been down there a long time. He's definitely dead."

"If it's not a tailor's dummy," Maddie said.

"I hope you aren't making fun of us," the young constable said, speaking for the first time. "We've got other work to do."

"Then you'd better come down and see what we've discovered," Maddie said. "It's perfectly safe down there."

"Now the digger's been moved," James added.

Maddie beckoned to the constable to follow her down the ladder, which he did, although somewhat reluctantly, as though expecting a trap or a practical joke.

The endoscope control box was still switched on where Maddie had left it in a panic when they'd heard the metal cover being closed. She explained about the two holes the builder had drilled in the wall, and quickly threaded the viewing end of the endoscope through the top one.

James and Jessica crowded round for another look, making it hard for the police officers to see. The man, the body, was still at the table, either asleep or dead. Almost certainly dead.

"And when did you first discover this body?" Sergeant Evans asked. "It's an offence to conceal a crime."

"It's nothing to do with _us_ ," Maddie protested. "And we only discovered the body half an hour ago, just before we got trapped down here."

The young constable took another look at the control unit. "So exactly why were you drilling holes, if you didn't know the body was there?" He sounded suspicious, although James thought it was probably his job to do that.

"It's a long story," Maddie said. "Tony the builder drilled the holes for us. We wanted to see what was behind the wall."

Between them, often interrupting each other, Maddie, helped by Jessica and James, told the story of Harold Prentice, her research for her school project on the house, and their search for the air raid shelter.

"So we had no idea _what_ was behind the wall," Maddie ended. "It could have been anything, but we weren't expecting to find _that_."

"Right," Sergeant Evans said, "everybody out. This has now become a crime scene. Is there any other way into the room that's behind the wall?"

"There could be," Maddie said. "Tony the builder is going to have to take the wall down to find out."

"That's going to be interesting," James said, taking a deep, welcome breath and enjoying the sunshine on his face. "Can we watch?"

### Chapter 16

At that moment, Tony came round the corner, and looked relieved to find everyone still standing. "I saw the police car and thought something dreadful had happened. What's the matter?"

"Just a dead body down the hole," James said.

Tony looked aghast. "You've got to be kidding. A dead body?"

"We have reason to believe there is one down there, sir," Sergeant Laura Evans explained, "so we're making this a crime scene. Forensics will be here soon to seal it off."

Tony tried to go near the hole to look down, but the young constable pulled him back. "This is a crime scene, sir," he said rather officiously. "We need everyone out of the garden. Now."

Tony turned to Maddie. "Tell me what's happened," he said quietly. "Is it one of your friends?"

"It might not even _be_ a body," Maddie said. "We used your endoscope. I hope you don't mind. And it looks like there's someone slumped over a table in a room on the other side of the wall."

The foreman looked worried. "Is it anyone you know? Did anyone in your family go missing?"

Maddie shook her head. "Maman is dead, but I don't know of anyone else. Certainly not while we've been living here. If that wall is as old as you think it is, he's probably been dead two hundred years. Or she. But from the clothes it looks like a man."

Tony frowned and turned to Sergeant Evans. "Then you're wasting your time if you're looking for someone in connection with the crime. Anyway, he might have died down there of natural causes."

Sergeant Laura Evans shook her head. "It's standard procedure, sir. There will have to be an inquest. There always is if we find a body that's not buried in a graveyard, or in a marked grave. If the body is two hundred years old we're obviously not going to be looking for a suspect, even if there _was_ a crime committed. But look at it this way. If he died of natural causes, why did someone wall him in down there, and why did they leave him slumped over the table?"

"This I've got to see," Tony said, trying again to get to the shaft that led to the underground room. Nick was standing well back, also taking an interest in what was going on.

Once more the young constable blocked Tony's way. "Sorry, sir, I've already told you. No one is allowed down there."

"Then how are you going to get access?" Tony asked, smiling. "Have you got anyone in the police force who can squeeze through a 10mm hole? Because if not, you're going to need a builder to dismantle the wall safely. And I'm the man to do it. I'm working for Professor Quedgley, and it's my endoscope. If you want to have another look, before asking me to take the wall down, you'll need me to operate it."

"Don't worry about that, sir," the young constable said coldly. "Forensics will have all the kit that's needed. Now, sir, I suggest you go back to work in the house, and take your man with you. We need everyone out of the way."

The constable called to Maddie and the Two Jays as they began to walk dejectedly round to the front of the house. "You three stay. Forensics will probably want to know exactly what they're looking for. And this had better not be some sort of joke."

The forensics team, consisting of two women, arrived an hour later. At Sergeant Evans's insistence, Maddie's father had to be informed of what was happening. Professor Quedgley was indeed angry at being disturbed, but when he heard there was a body, or a possible body on his property, he began to look interested. James wondered if he was expecting it to be a Roman or Bronze Age warrior that he could examine.

"But, Papa," Maddie said, clinging to his arm, "The police are bound to want you to look at it. They know you're a famous archaeologist."

The Professor gave a sort of humph, which didn't seem to indicate to James whether he was looking forward to being involved, or just wanted everyone out of the way as soon as possible so he could get back to his research − or whatever it was that was so urgent in his high-tech laboratory.

"It just so happens," Professor Quedgley said, "that I've finished what I set out to do, and everything has come to a very satisfactory conclusion. I've already sent an email to the museum assuring them that every single item I've examined is genuine, without the slightest doubt. They don't want the formal report until next week, but they're satisfied now that they can go ahead and organise the exhibition. Now, let's see what all this to-do is about."

As James suspected, not even someone of Professor Quedgley's standing cut any ice with the forensics team who were now emerging from the hole dressed in white coveralls.

Being told he wasn't wanted, the Professor gave another humph, and turned to go back to the house. "I might as well finalise the report now," he said, sounding rather glum. "I was really looking forward to seeing what is on _my_ property." He turned to his daughter. "Ammadine, I want you to promise that you and your two friends will keep out of their way. Understood?"

Maddie nodded. "Understood, Papa."

James knew she meant it. "But we can still watch," he said. "They can't stop us watching from your dining room window, Maddie. That's got the best view."

Maddie led the way up the stone steps and through the large front door. James felt too dejected to even pretend to get his hand trapped by the brass hand. They were the ones who'd made the discovery. Surely they were entitled to be down there, or at least to be in touch with the two forensics women who had rather proudly said they had a far better endoscope than anything a builder would possess.

For half an hour they watched the forensics team coming and going from the underground room, and then to their surprise one of them came to the front door and called upstairs for Tony, where he was checking one of the last radiators.

They couldn't catch what was being said, but Maddie agreed with Jessica and James that they were telling him they needed him to come and help. And they were right. Tony went down the iron ladder ahead of the two team members and stayed out of sight for some time. Eventually he emerged, wiped his hands on his old blue overalls and came back to the house.

"What's happening, Tony?" Maddie asked, as she ran out into the hall to meet him.

"Seems I might be needed after all," he said. "I can't afford equipment like theirs, but it's a body, clear as day on _their_ endoscope." He gave a half-hearted laughed. "Well, it's either a body, or someone sleeping _very_ soundly."

"Why do they need you?" Maddie asked.

"They want me to take the wall down. They don't have their own builders. It's a crime scene, so of course I'd have to do it under their supervision. But I told them I've got work to do here for your father, Maddie."

"Not _really_?" Maddie said. "Come on, Tony, we're all bursting to know what's behind that wall. I can twist Papa around my little finger when I have to."

"I have to admit you can, Ammadine," Professor Quedgley said, as he came quietly into the room. "But this time you don't have to do any twisting. Tony, you have my full permission to delay the heating. I'm as excited to know what's there as you three are," he said pointing to Maddie and the Two Jays. "Probably more so. And I'm hoping they'll value my expertise and let me take a close look."

While Tony went back to the garden to see the forensics team again, Jessica shook her head vigorously. "As long as they don't make _me_ look."

"Don't be such a softy, Jessica," James said. "Remember the skeleton of the Roman woman we saw being unearthed at Daleton Farm when Maddie disappeared?" [See _The Old House Adventure_.]

"But that was just a skeleton," Jessica protested. "It didn't have any flesh on it, or clothes or anything. It was just bones nearly 2000 years old. This is different."

"This is probably just bones too," James said. He thought for a moment. "Bones with clothes on. It's not going to be anyone we know."

"You're horrid, James," Jessica said, sitting on the wide window seat. "It's still a person."

James nodded. "I'm going down for a look if they let me. I wonder how soon they'll ask Tony to start demolishing the wall."

### Chapter 17

By the time they got to the front door, Tony was running back up the stone steps looking pleased with life. "It's good news and bad news," he said, as he came into the hallway.

"I hate it when people say that," James said. "Now we've got to decide if we want the good news or the bad news first. Right, give us the good news, Tony."

"The good news is that they want to employ my building firm to dismantle the wall."

"So far so good," James said cautiously. "And the bad news?"

"And the bad news is that it's not going to happen until tomorrow."

"Can't you knock the wall down this afternoon?" James asked. "Surely they want to get to the other side as soon as possible."

Tony shook his head. "It's like I said to you guys, that wall might be more than a partition. It could be supporting the roof, and perhaps that's why it was built quickly. I need to organise some props and planks to steady the roof before I start cutting away all the bricks."

"Cutting?" James asked. "What's wrong with a big sledgehammer? That's what I'd use."

"James," Maddie said, "don't ever think of taking up archaeology. At Daleton Farm, you wanted to use a pickaxe on the midden."

"Midden?" James said.

"The midden. The ancient dump for poo and rubbish." [See _The Black Lake Adventure_.]

James shrugged. "I remember the midden, but I'm a ball of fire. I like getting things done. All this messing around with fancy bits and pieces. Anyway, Tony, how long will it take to bash through the wall?"

Tony shook his head. "The word is cut, not bash. I'll bring the large angle grinder in the morning, but it could take a few hours to remove the whole wall in stages."

James groaned. "A few _hours_?"

Tony smiled. "We've agreed that I'll use my small angle grinder this afternoon to cut a few bricks away so they can stick their heads in. Even that's going to take quite a long time to do safely."

"I'll tell you what. Lend me a sledgehammer and I'll do it tonight when everyone's gone home. _And_ I'll drag the body out. Free of charge."

Maddie turned to Jessica. "He's joking, isn't he?"

Jessica nodded. " _This_ time I think he is." And they both laughed.

James pretended to look annoyed. "Give me the sledgehammer, and you'll soon see if I'm joking or not." He joined in the laughter. "Well, that's put an end to our exploration down there. Even when Tony cuts the hole, they're not going to let us go down and have a look. Not now it's a crime scene. What d'you both suggest we do next?"

Jessica sighed "You'd think they'd make us the centre of attention, instead of telling us to get out of the way. That's not much incentive for making amazing discoveries. I wonder what else is hidden behind the wall."

"Wonderful things," James said thoughtfully.

Jessica looked at him in surprise.

"Wonderful things," James repeated. "That's what he saw."

"He? There wasn't anyone else with us," Jessica told him. "You've really lost it this time."

"They asked him if he could see anything," James said. "He was so amazed he could only say three words. 'Yes, wonderful things.'"

Jessica turned to Maddie. "Do you have any idea at all what the boy is talking about?"

Maddie was laughing. "He's quoting Howard Carter, when he broke into the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1907."

"Listen, will you," James said. "Think back carefully to what we saw on the screen, apart from the body slumped over the table."

Jessica shook her head and shivered. "I don't want to try and remember _that_."

"Go on, James," Maddie said. "What do you think _you_ saw?"

"Jessica," James said, "you should have taken a photograph of the endoscope screen with your amazing phone. Then we might know for sure. There wasn't only a table and chair, was there?" He nodded to himself, but wished Maddie or Jessica would confirm his memory.

"Bits and pieces," Maddie said, frowning. "It would have been better if Tony had spent more money on his endoscope."

"I'm sure it's good enough for what he needs it for," Jessica said. "Don't blame him. He didn't buy it to find bodies in disused air raid shelters." She thought for a moment. "Yes, I remember some bits and pieces. Metal? A large block of something?" She shook her head. "Does that help?"

James said it didn't help at all.

"Fine," Maddie said. "That's it then, if you're not going to share your thoughts. So what do we do now?"

"The town museum," James said, still deep in thought. "They might have something about it."

"Don't be so annoying, James," Jessica said. "You're doing it purposely. Something about _what_?"

James felt the images fading from his mind. It had been good while they'd lasted. Some piece of equipment, possibly. Well, there would need to be for what he had in mind. "What did Harold Prentice find on the floor when he swept the room out for an air raid shelter?"

"He didn't sweep it. His maid did. He said Martha found a counterfeit shilling," Maddie said. "Is that it?"

"So how did it get there? That's what we need to know."

"No idea, James," Jessica said. "Look, if you want to go to the museum, let's do it. But don't keep winding us up with crazy hints."

"Haven't you caught on yet?" James said. "It's obvious. Well, fairly obvious perhaps. I think that brick wall hides a counterfeiter's workshop. The place is going to be _full_ of counterfeit coins!"

### Chapter 18

"Even if you're right, and there _are_ lots of counterfeit coins there," Jessica said as they walked briskly into the centre of town to the museum, "they aren't going to be valuable."

"That's not what Tony said," James told her. "And you should have seen Nick's eyes light up. He kept muttering about buried treasure."

"He's wrong if he's expecting treasure," Jessica said. "If coins in the olden days were worth the value of the metal they were made from, there's no point in melting a genuine silver shilling to make a counterfeit shilling the same size."

"Especially if you're going to be hanged if you're caught," Maddie added. "So they used pewter or brass. Papa said they plated brass and copper with silver to make it look like the real thing, but I don't know how they did it. I think we're going to the wrong place. Harold seemed to know quite a bit about counterfeiting."

"He only had that pewter shilling that was found in the air raid shelter, as far as we know," James said. "He said he'd bought the silver-plated one in the town later. We'll try the museum first. We'll ask if they've got a display of counterfeit coins. Even a display of _genuine_ coins would be worth looking at. And if they've got a display of counterfeit coins that appeared in the area in the early nineteenth century, that would be fantastic."

"Let's cross by the subway," Jessica said, as they approached the dual carriageway where Maddie had nearly been hit by a speeding truck in the early summer. Without that incident, she and James might never have met Maddie, and might never have gone to her noisy church. She smiled. Maddie called it a lively church, not a noisy one. As far as she could see, it was a bit of both.

They emerged from the subway, and James paused by the small café where they had taken Maddie to recover after the scare. "Do you realise we haven't had lunch yet?" He pointed towards the steamed-up window. "I've got money with me. Let's grab something to eat before we collapse. I'll pay. All that excitement has made me unusually hungry today."

"Good thinking," Jessica said, and she noticed Maddie was looking interested as well. "Thanks, for the offer, James. That's really kind of you, but I think it's only fair if we pay for our own food."

"What are we waiting for?" Maddie said, pushing her way into the crowded interior. "Look, there's an empty table over there, just waiting for us. And you two don't need to pay. I've got my card."

"Aren't you only meant to use it to buy food and clothes and things for you and your father?" Jessica said, trying not to eye the card with what almost amounted to envy. To think that Professor Quedgley kept it topped up with a generous balance. Then she felt ashamed of herself. Maddie didn't have a mother. She had to take care of all the household expenses, while her papa concentrated on his work.

"Papa won't mind," Maddie said. "Every month he goes through the bank statement with me, so I'll not be hiding it. He doesn't mind me entertaining friends from time to time."

Jessica noticed that James was studying the menu closely. "We mustn't take advantage of Maddie's offer," she told him.

James smiled. "Of course not. Just enough to make sure I stay alive until this evening."

"Less than that," Jessica said, laughing. "I have to admit, as cousins go, you're a pretty good one to have, by any measure."

James grinned. "Thanks, cousin, and you're not too bad yourself − when you're not being bossy!"

Jessica shook her head. "I'm sorry, James, but I haven't meant it. Promise. I don't know, but moving here seemed exciting, but now I'm wondering about school and things. Even if we buy the house on the common, there's no guarantee I can get a place in Maddie's school."

James nodded. "One step at a time. That's what Pastor Griffiths said." He thought for a moment. "Actually, it's what the Bible says!"

Jessica gave an uneasy smile, and nodded. "You're right there, boy."

Service was at the counter. Maddie made a note of their choices, and went to order and pay. She flashed her bank card confidently over the contactless reader, as though she did it every day. Jessica thought that perhaps she did.

When they eventually reached the town museum, memories came back of the man who had been watching them in there, back in May, trying to discover just how much they knew about the criminals that were forging antiquities. [See _The Old House Adventure_.]

Unsure where coins would be housed, Maddie asked the young woman at the reception desk. They seemed to know each other well. Jessica thought Maddie must be a frequent visitor to the museum, and her father's fame obviously helped. Soon they were deep in conversation.

"What are they talking about now?" James asked impatiently. "Surely the answer is: upstairs, downstairs, gallery, or whatever. End of."

"We've come at a good time," Maddie told them, when she at last broke away. "There isn't a specific numismatics section."

"Meaning?" James asked. "I know numismatics means coins, but do they have any coins?"

"Not currently open to the general public," Maddie said. "As a special favour, Heather is arranging with the curator for us to have a private viewing." She nodded towards the reception desk. "That's Heather, in case you're wondering. She'll call us when David is ready. And David is the curator."

James nodded. He had already worked that out. He sat on one of the black leather sofas in the lobby and waited patiently.

Dr David Jenkins, the curator, appeared a few minutes later and told them to follow him. He led the way through a large mahogany door that said Private No Admittance. The three followed him, with James walking as though he did this every day, because he had just spotted an older boy from his school who was watching.

There was a spiral staircase inside what looked like a reading room or library, and the curator beckoned to them to follow as he ran quickly up the metal stairs which rattled under his feet. He looked surprisingly young for someone who seemed to be in charge of the whole museum, although James guessed that it might be only a certain part that was in his care.

The room they entered at the top of the spiral staircase had several chests of dark brown wood, with slim drawers with shiny brass handles.

"What period are you especially interested in?" Dr Jenkins asked. "Heather said something about the early nineteenth century. English, I take it?"

James and Jessica left it to Maddie to explain about the counterfeit shilling that Harold Prentice had found in the underground room in the war.

Dr Jenkins nodded. "That's really interesting, Maddie, but I'm still not sure why you're here."

"Because James here thinks that behind the brick wall there's an old counterfeiters' den," Maddie said.

"Wall? What wall?" the curator asked.

"It's only an idea I had," James said quickly, hoping he wasn't making a complete fool of himself now they'd come here. The image on the endoscope screen had been dark and blurry.

It was left to Maddie to explain about the air raid shelter and the badly built wall. Then she explained about the builder drilling the holes, using the endoscope, and what they thought could be a body.

"And the forensics team have had a look with really good equipment, and they're pretty sure it is a body. So it's a crime scene, even though it's probably a couple of hundred years old."

"It might not be," James said. Something had been nagging at him. "If it really _is_ a body, it might only be a few weeks old."

He felt Jessica and Maddie looking at him.

"Supposing there _is_ a way in from the other side, and supposing it goes through to the cellar of one of the houses at the back of yours, Maddie. It doesn't have to be the one directly behind yours. Not if it's a passage. Someone might use it all the time, and one day they were down there, sitting at the table to do something, and dropped dead."

"James," Jessica said, "just calm down."

James shook his head. "Don't look at me like that. Not every idea I get is brilliant, but it's worth thinking about. Perhaps the police are already knocking on the doors, asking if anyone has gone missing lately. Even if they have, it doesn't mean it's a crime. But of course they won't be able to take the whole wall down until whoever it is has been collected by the family."

"Maddie," Dr Jenkins said, looking amused when James paused for breath, "you live in the town, don't you? And you too, James?"

They both nodded.

"Jessica will be living in the town, too," James added. "Her parents are buying a house here. They might be moving here soon after Christmas, although the house is going to need a lot doing to it, so perhaps they won't be. I hope they are though."

"James," Jessica said, shaking her head and looking embarrassed, "Dr Jenkins doesn't need my whole family history."

James shrugged. "Just saying."

"Maddie and James," Dr Jenkins said, "has anyone mentioned at your schools anything about the infamous Maggart Gang?"

They shook their heads, and Jessica said, "I haven't heard of them either. Are they local?"

"They _were_ local," the curator said. "They're long dead. They operated in the early nineteenth century. They nearly bankrupted many towns in the county, flooding them with counterfeit coins. It's believed there were four men in the Maggart Gang. One of them was caught. He was Josiah Devauden. He was sentenced to be hanged, but he did a plea bargain with the authorities and said he'd turn the rest of the gang in and show them where the workshop was."

"I guess it all went wrong," James said, engrossed in the story.

The curator nodded. "The authorities agreed to follow him to the den, where he assured them the rest of the gang would be working. And that was the last anyone saw of him or the Maggart Gang. The men who had gone to arrest the gang were attacked on the way, presumably by the Maggart Gang, and I imagine they made off, laughing about how easily they'd all escaped a hangman's noose. Or maybe the gang knew they were about to be betrayed, and killed Josiah Devauden."

James put his hand to his mouth. "That's him! That's him in the hidden room behind the wall!"

"James," Jessica said, putting her hand on his shoulder, "let's just hear what Dr Jenkins has to say, without interrupting with crazy suggestions."

"Give your brother a chance," the curator said. "He could be onto something."

"Cousin," Jessica said firmly.

"Sorry, your cousin. He's bright."

"Too bright to be your brother," James whispered to Jessica, with a cheeky grin.

The curator didn't seem to hear. "Yes, James, it's a shame you couldn't get a clear view with the builder's endoscope. But I have to ask myself, what was a counterfeit shilling dated 1817 doing on the floor, and why was that wall bricked up after the underground room was built?"

"Tough for Josiah Devauden, if he's the man still inside," James said.

"A gang like that would be ruthless. However, let's not be hasty. The idea of a nearby house still having access to the old coiners' den from their cellar or basement isn't unreasonable. What about the houses in your road each side of you, Maddie?"

Maddie shrugged. "We could ask, but no one's said anything."

"I suggest you ask around at all your neighbours," the curator said. "A few years ago the town council asked me to do some research on Rootsdyer Farm that was there before your house, Maddie."

Maddie nodded. "I've seen a very old map of the area. It was very isolated back then, long before the town was developed in Victorian times. Rootsdyer Farm. Yes, that was the name on the map."

The curator nodded. "Isolated farms made ideal centres for criminal activities, especially coining, where a furnace and a lot of coming and going would otherwise attract unwelcome attention. And the idea of building the workshop under the ground, possibly under a large barn, would be ideal for the gang's purposes. Some coiners made silver coins that looked silver right through."

"Maddie's father, he's Professor Quedgley, told us they often used a soft pewter alloy, and that's why people bit coins to see if they were genuine."

"You're right," the curator said, "but some coiners, that's what we call counterfeiters, used brass and copper. They plated them with silver, but it would quickly wear off, especially if it was only put on thinly."

Jessica frowned. "We've seen one of those, but how could things be silver plated in those days? I thought you needed electricity."

"Mercury," the curator said.

"Mercury is dangerous," Jessica said. "We had a scare at school in the chemistry laboratory. My school is old, and one day they found a load of it in a gap between two workbenches. It's a liquid metal, isn't it?"

"All metals turn to liquid," the curator explained. "It just depends how hot you make them. But of course mercury becomes liquid at room temperature."

"So didn't they get ill when they rubbed it on the brass coins?" Maddie asked. She turned to the others. "I expect Papa knows how they did this. They had silver plated copper coins in Roman and Greek times."

"If you think rubbing mercury onto a coin with your fingers would be dangerous," Dr Jenkins said, "wait until I tell you how they really did it. Liquid mercury is a strange metal. It dissolves silver and gold, and makes what's called an amalgam. You spread the mixture on a coin and then, horror of horrors, you boil off all the mercury in an oven. If I remember correctly, you heat it to about 360 degrees Celsius. That's nearly 700 degrees Fahrenheit. That leaves the pure silver or gold behind, as a thin but strong coating on the coin."

"Boil it off? You're right, that's worse," Jessica said. "Imagine breathing in the fumes."

"That's probably what the man in the hidden room died from," James suggested.

"The Mad Hatter," Maddie said slowly. "We read _Alice in Wonderland_ at school. We were told that hat makers used mercury in Victorian times, and it gave them the shakes. And then they couldn't speak properly. And then they died. Why didn't anyone work out what was happening? That's what I'd like to know."

"You're right, Maddie. Hat makers used something called mercurous nitrate in treating the felt. It's sad," Dr Jenkins said. "They probably knew it would lead to an early death, but people needed to buy food. Needed somewhere to live. Needed to support their family. Maybe it was the only way they could do that. People complain nowadays about Health and Safety, but they could certainly have done with a bit of it in those days."

Maddie pushed her chair back noisily and leaped to her feet, making everyone jump. "If that really _is_ the Maggart Gang's den under my garden, it's going to be _full_ of mercury. Come on, we've got to go back and warn the forensic team before Tony takes out any bricks so they can poke their heads through."

James also jumped to his feet. "And they might ask Tony to keep going if he thinks the roof is safe. He might make the hole big enough so they can climb through and walk round in there. They only think they're dealing with a dead body!"

### Chapter 19

"Do you know the number for the forensics team?" Jessica asked, as they hurried down the white marble steps from the museum.

Maddie shook her head. "I'll try Papa," she said, already dialling on her phone. She listened to it for a moment and then pulled it away from her ear. "It's switched off," she said. "As usual."

"It will have to be the police," Jessica said. "Go on, Maddie, we've got to tell _someone_. It's going to take ages to walk back from here, and we might be too late by then."

"We'll grab a taxi," Maddie said, looking around. "There's usually one waiting. Yes, there it is. Hurry, before someone else gets it!"

The taxi was one of the official town cabs, and the driver saw them hurrying towards him. Maddie opened the passenger door and showed the driver her debit card.

The man looked at it suspiciously. "And where did you just find that?" he asked rudely. He shook his head. "Nothing doing. Not unless your parents are with you."

"It's _my_ card," Maddie protested. "It will work."

"I'm sure it will work," the man said laughing. "But it's not _your_ card. Whose is it? Your nan's?"

"It's _mine_ ," Maddie insisted. "Look, there's my name on it."

The driver shook his head. "And how do you expect me to know your name? Look, shut the door. It's getting cold in the cab."

Maddie did as she was told, shutting it rather harder than she probably meant. "There's a cash machine over there," she said, pointing to an ATM on the other side of the road. "Come on, I'll get some money out. He's bound to take cash."

Jessica watched as Maddie inserted the card and tapped in the code. A few seconds later the machine whirred and three ten pound notes emerged from the slot. She smiled to herself as she wondered how old she would have to be before she was allowed a card of her own!

The taxi driver had been watching all the time, and locked the doors of the car as they approached. As Maddie showed him the money, he lowered the passenger window very slightly. "That doesn't make it _your_ money," he said. "Not if it's your nan's card."

At that moment a car drove into a nearby parking place and an elderly woman got out. "Maddie," she called, "what's the problem?"

"It's Mrs Spooner," Maddie said to Jessica and James. "This is so embarrassing."

Mrs Spooner came across to them. "Is the driver of the taxi annoying you?" she asked. "I thought he might be, which is why I stopped."

"We have to get home in a hurry, and he won't take a card, or even cash from me," Maddie explained. "Please tell him it's all right. We have to get back to my house. It's an emergency."

Mrs Spooner shook her head. "Well, he's just lost a customer. I'm on my way home now. I love emergencies. Come on, jump in and tell me all about it."

"It's very kind of you," Jessica said, as the three squeezed into the back seat and found the seat belts.

"I know Maddie by sight," Mrs Spooner explained, as she signalled and pulled quickly into the main road. "My husband and I live in the house directly behind, and I can drop you at her front gate. I'm sorry I missed all the excitement on Monday, but I was out visiting a friend. Something about an unexploded bomb in your basement," she said, turning onto the dual carriageway.

Although Jessica wasn't that familiar with the area yet, she knew they were driving away from Maddie's house. Surely Mrs Spooner wasn't kidnapping them! "Are we going...."

"We have to go to the big roundabout at the end," Mrs Spooner explained, as though guessing Jessica's unfinished question. "It's the quickest way to the Professor's house in an emergency. Am I going to miss this emergency, too? I believe there wasn't really a bomb at all, but everyone had to leave their houses. Except for my husband. He was down in our basement as usual, with his clocks. He didn't hear a thing. He probably wouldn't even have heard the bomb if it had exploded!"

"It was a dummy bomb," Maddie explained, as Mrs Spooner waited to enter the roundabout. "It wasn't in our basement. Papa uses that as a laboratory. We found it in an old air raid shelter under our garden." She laughed. "It was made of wood!"

The stream of traffic already on the roundabout seemed endless, and Mrs Spooner was obviously waiting for a large space before she would venture onto it.

"We envy you having a basement that's level with the garden," Mrs Spooner said. "Our house was built at ground level, so our basement, it's really a cellar, is under the ground. Oh dear, is this traffic never going to end? Ah, a gap at last. Hold tight, here we go."

They took off with a screaming engine and a shriek from the tyres. As soon as the roundabout had been safely negotiated and they were on the other side of the dual carriageway, Mrs Spooner said, "Well, the cellar is more than big enough for my husband's hobby."

Jessica felt the blood draining from her face as she caught her breath. "Where is he ... today?" she asked, her voice sounding shaky. "He's not down there now, is he?"

Mrs Spooner turned left, and they were soon on a road Jessica recognised. "Probably. He spends most days down there now he's retired, hunched over bits of pieces of clocks he's restoring. He calls it his man cave. I call it our old cellar. He just loves his clocks, and he's turned the place into a workshop. I never go down there. You sound worried. What's on your mind?"

Jessica could tell that Maddie and James had both caught on to what she was thinking. "I was just wondering," Jessica said slowly, anxious not to share her fears and cause Mrs Spooner to drive into a lamp post or something, "is your cellar very big?"

Mrs Spooner seemed totally unaware of what was behind Jessica's questions. "Enormous. Well, here we are. Oh look, what are those police vehicles doing outside your house, Maddie? Not a _real_ bomb this time, I hope," she said, laughing. "Right, out you all get. I don't want to be a nosy neighbour, but please let me know what it's about later."

As they stood in the driveway and watched Mrs Spooner drive off, Jessica said, "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I didn't want to say anything to alarm Mrs Spooner, but did either of you see a clock on the endoscope screen?"

James and Maddie shook their heads.

"We've got to hurry," Maddie said. "The forensics team are still here. They might have taken the wall down by now, and found Mr Spooner dead."

"Maybe he breathed in all the mercury fumes," James added. "It seemed exciting when we thought the body was two hundred years old. Oh, poor Mrs Spooner."

Jessica turned to Maddie as they hurried round to the back garden. "Maddie, the Spooners must know if their basement runs under your garden," she said. "Wouldn't they have told you? Surely they'd know it was wrong to use it."

They came to a halt as one of the forensics women, still in a white suit, held up her hand. "This area is out of bounds," she said.

"Have you taken the brick wall down yet?" Maddie demanded.

"Sorry," the woman said. "At the moment this is a crime scene, and we can't release any information."

"I live here," Maddie said crossly. "It's my house, so it's my crime scene. All I want to do is to warn you not to take that wall down."

"And why's that?" the woman asked, her voice softening slightly as though she might be taking Maddie seriously.

Jessica and James decided not to get involved. Maddie was the obvious one to break the news about the mercury. And possibly the news about Mr Spooner.

"We think the underground room could have been used by a gang of coiners," Maddie explained, leaning left and right as she tried to see past the forensic scientist, or police officer, or whatever the woman was.

"And?"

"We've just come from the town museum," Maddie said almost breathlessly, "and the coiners used mercury to plate brass counterfeit coins with silver. There may be a lot of mercury still down there."

The woman smiled. "You must be Professor Quedgley's daughter. Don't worry, love, you're talking to experts here. We've told your builder to hold off. He won't be doing anything with the wall until tomorrow. You can be sure we would never enter a sealed space without first carrying out checks for toxic material. And that would certainly include mercury."

"And there's another thing you need to know," Maddie said. "We've just been talking to the lady who lives at the house behind ours. It makes me feel sick to think about it, but it's just possible...."

She stopped as an elderly man popped his head above the back wall. "Everything all right there, Maddie? Anything we need to know? Bombs or anything? You've given us a bit of a scare."

Maddie caught hold of Jessica and gave her a hug. "Oh, Jessica, I'm so, so glad." She ran past the forensics officer and up to the garden wall. "It's all right, Mr Spooner, you gave us a scare too. We'll tell you all about it later. Definitely no more bombs." She took a deep breath. "So you're safe to go back down to your clocks!"

### Chapter 20

"What do we do now?" Maddie asked, as the three got over their shock and their relief at seeing Mr Spooner safe and well.

"That's up to you," the forensics officer said. "You have to keep away from the crime scene. The cover is now sealed with crime scene tape, so don't try breaking in. And if you take my advice, you'll buy a new metal cover if you want to continue accessing the underground room. That one looks a bit too rusty for safety."

"We could measure it and go to the builder's merchant," James suggested. "They'll be open this afternoon."

"Not a good idea," Maddie said. "We should leave that to Tony. He'll know better than we do what to get. They're probably all in metric sizes now, so they mightn't fit."

Jessica agreed. "It was a toss-up earlier whether we went to the museum or saw Harold Prentice again." She pulled her phone from the pocket of her jeans and checked the time. "Perfect timing if we go now. He'll have had his rest after lunch."

Maddie nodded. "Good idea. I'm going into the house to leave a note for Papa, to let him know where we are in case he decides to surface from his laboratory."

Ten minutes later, they set off to meet Harold Prentice.

One of the carers explained that he was in the quiet room.

"What's a quiet room?" James asked. "Well, apart from being quiet."

The carers smiled. "It's the room where people can read, do puzzles, or use their own computers. There's no television or music, so people can sit in there without being disturbed. This way."

The elderly man looked pleased to have visitors as they came into the quiet room. He was sitting at a small desk, working on a red laptop. By his side lay several sheets of paper.

"How lovely to see you all again," he said warmly.

James was surprised to see Harold using a computer, and before he could help himself, he said, "I didn't know you had your own laptop."

"Nor did I," Maddie said.

Harold chuckled. "Tell me, Maddie, who do you think does your church newsletter and prayer requests?"

Maddie grinned. "I'd never thought of it before. Obviously _someone_ does it, but I never realised it was you. That's brilliant!"

"Brilliant because I can use a computer at my great age?" Harold said, laughing loudly now. "I can even email the pages through to your church secretary, already formatted and ready for printing," he added. "I'm sure you find that _truly_ amazing!"

Maddie hurried across to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "Oh dear, I'm ever so sorry. I'm afraid we young people think we've invented the modern world, and are the only ones who can cope with it. I hope you'll forgive us."

Harold nodded. "On one condition, Maddie Quedgley. On condition you all stay here and talk to me, and tell me what you've discovered in the air raid shelter. Deal?"

"Deal," Maddie and Jessica said together.

"Definitely a deal," James added a moment later. "It's what we came for anyway."

Maddie nodded. "If you have any _special_ memories of living in my house, it would be really good if you could put them down on your laptop, and send me a copy. But don't do it if it upsets you."

Harold Prentice smiled. "Perhaps it's done me good to get some hidden memories out into the open, Maddie. Yes, I'll do it. That's a promise."

"It doesn't have to be about the war," Maddie said, putting her hand gently on his. "Write something about Martha, and her promise to marry you!"

An hour later they said goodbye to Harold Prentice, promising to return as soon as they had more news about who and what was behind the brick wall.

"Another night sleeping on the lumpy sofa beckons," James said, pulling a miserable face. "It's all right for you, Jessica. You've got my lovely comfortable bed."

Jessica laughed. "You're right, it is _super_ comfortable. I wonder if my parents are back yet."

"Well, I hope they're buying a larger house than mine, if you're expecting to put up lots of guests." He turned to Maddie. "Your house would make a great guest house," he said. "You could offer your bedroom in the turret as a novelty, and arrange tours in the underground room, with a viewing of whoever it _is_ who's dead down there."

Maddie nodded. "Great idea. If that body is two hundred years old, it won't be smelly any more. And you could put a sheet over your head, James, and run out and give everyone a fright."

"Don't bother with the sheet," Jessica said, winking at Maddie. "Just come out as you are. That will be a big enough shock for them."

"To change the subject completely," Maddie said, shaking her head in amusement, "you could have tea and both spend the night at mine. Papa is here, so it will be okay. All I've got to do is to mention it to him. We can pick up something from the supermarket now, on the way back. How about it?"

Jessica and James looked at each other, nodded, and James said he would phone home to check it was okay.

"Are you sure it's all right?" his mother asked, when she answered on her mobile from the clinic where she worked. "We're all having pizza this evening. Will Maddie feed you properly?"

He didn't like to ask Maddie what she was planning, and pizzas were one of his favourites. But the thought of staying with Maddie, where it was fairly quiet, rather than listening to never-ending talk about the houses that Jessica's parents had looked at, made the choice easy.

"We're nearly back at Maddie's now," he said. "Yes, I'm sure it's all right to stay. Maddie says we've got to pass the supermarket, and we'll pick something up there."

"And Maddie's father is definitely there, too? You know Maddie can't stay in the house overnight."

James groaned. "Mum, she won't be on her own. We'll be there with her."

His mother clearly wasn't buying that. "Maddie can only be in her house at night if there's a responsible adult with her. And you two are neither responsible nor adults. If Maddie's father isn't there, or if he does one of his disappearing tricks before you go to bed, you're to let us know immediately. Dad will come round in the car and collect the three of you. I don't know how we're going to fit you all in, but I'm sure we'll manage somehow."

With a final, "Make sure you behave yourselves," from his mother, James finished the call and passed on the good news.

Maddie said, "There's just one problem. I'm not sure where James can sleep."

"How about down in the old air raid shelter?" Jessica suggested.

Maddie nodded. "Sounds good to me. And you can sleep up in the turret with me, Jessica."

"As long as you don't snore all night long," Jessica said, laughing. "Don't you have any other bedrooms in that huge house?"

"There's only one spare room with a bed in it," Maddie explained. "Anyway, you're the only person who's ever told me I snore. No one else has ever complained."

"Not even the neighbours?" Jessica asked, trying to look serious. "It's okay, let's share your little room. It's going to be fun up there."

"And _I'll_ have the spare bedroom," James said. "The way down to the shelter is sealed. It's a crime scene."

"It's only sealed with tape," Jessica said. "There's nothing to stop you pulling it away. It will be cosy down there. You can pretend there's an air raid on. It will probably sound like one if Maddie starts snoring."

Maddie put an arm around Jessica. "Let's not go into that again. Here's the supermarket. What do you want for tea, best friend?"

"Jessica, ask if they sell earplugs," James suggested. "And, Maddie, definitely pizza for me."

### Chapter 21

Professor Quedgley joined them for the evening meal at 6:30, which Maddie and most of the young people James knew always called tea. He thought it was probably because they were all too hungry to wait for a formal dinner some adults took at 8 o'clock.

While James was wondering what sorts of pizzas his and Jessica's parents were eating, Professor Quedgley was listening as Maddie talked about the way counterfeit coins were plated with silver and gold, even in antiquity.

"It makes it very difficult to tell the coin is counterfeit if the plating is done well," Maddie's papa said. "It's usually not until the coin has passed through several hands that the plating wears through, and then some poor person who gets it might be stuck with it."

"The curator at the museum said a lot of counterfeit coins were passed on in busy markets and gloomy taverns where people didn't have time to study each coin," James said.

Maddie's father nodded. "I expect you've heard the saying that a bad penny is sure to come back to you, or words like it."

The three nodded.

"It's a saying that goes right back, probably to 785 A.D. in the time of King Offa of Mercia, when pennies became part of everyday English currency," the Professor explained. "If you got a bad penny, either one that was counterfeit or one that had been clipped so much that it would be difficult to spend, you tried to pass it on quickly. But one day you'd get it again in your change, by which time it was probably in even worse condition, and even more difficult to pass on."

Jessica frowned. "I thought the saying referred to people you didn't want to see again."

"And so it does, Jessica. It means that just like a bad coin will come back to you, so will people you hope you've seen the last of." He smiled at Jessica and then at James. "It certainly doesn't refer to the two of you," he said laughing. "It's always good to see young people in the house, even though I can be a bit crabby when I've got important work with a tight deadline. You must excuse me when that happens."

James wasn't sure what to say. He could say it wasn't a problem, but then it would sound as though perhaps it was.

"Jessica and James are staying the night, Papa," Maddie said. "It's all right, they've spoken to their parents. You're here all night as well, Papa, aren't you?"

"Of course I am. It's not as though I just disappear into thin air. Whenever did I ever go off somewhere and not tell you?"

Jessica turned to James, and they both did their best not to laugh.

"So where are your friends sleeping in this cold house, Ammadine?" Professor Quedgley said, obviously completely unaware of what he had just said about disappearing.

"Jessica will be with me up in the turret. And James is having the middle bedroom at the back. I'm giving him a fan heater. Don't worry, Papa, it's all sorted."

The Professor nodded. "Maddie, you're a treasure. You'll make a great wife for someone one day, but don't leave your poor old Papa too soon."

Looking embarrassed, Maddie quickly cleared the plates.

Early Thursday morning

James was glad of the thick duvet on the bed that night. The room was so cold, and much too large to heat with the small and rather noisy fan heater Maddie had found for him. He hoped the central heating would be on soon, not for his sake, because he and Jessica were only staying for one night, but for Maddie and her father's sake.

As he pulled the duvet even tighter around him in complete darkness, he shivered. It had been a mistake to borrow a pair of the Professor's pyjamas, which were much too large and too loose round the waist. He should have gone to bed in his clothes. It was only late October, but probably the Arctic was warmer than this bedroom.

He reached out for his phone to check the time. It was dark outside, so it certainly wasn't time to get up, but he knew he'd managed to get to sleep. He'd been having some stupid dream about planes dropping large silver coins all over the ground, but however hard he tried, he'd not been able to pick any up.

Then he heard it. It was the noise that had surely woken him. Someone was in the back garden. Of course, it might be Mr Spooner in his own garden, doing something silly with his clocks. His phone said it was nearly 2:30. The Spooners didn't seem like people who had late night parties.

He yawned. Whatever the noise was, he wasn't going to leave the comfort of his bed to investigate.

Yes he was! There was that noise again. Someone was definitely out there. Shivering, he went to the window and pulled the curtains back slightly. It was a clear night, which explained why it was so chilly, and a bright moon showed the garden in harsh shadows.

What was Professor Quedgley doing out there? He'd already lifted the cover to the air raid shelter and was now going down the iron ladder, carrying a flashlight.

Fascinated, James watched while the Professor reached up and carefully replaced the cover. The cheeky man. He must be doing his own investigation, in spite of the crime scene tape. James shrugged. Well, it was Professor Quedgley's garden, so perhaps he felt he was allowed to go wherever he wanted in it.

Of course, James thought, it might _not_ be Professor Quedgley at all. Maddie's father was quite tall, and the person who had disappeared into the underground room had looked short. Much too short to be Professor Quedgley. James suddenly felt wide awake.

Dressing quickly, he ran up the little staircase that led to Maddie's bedroom in the turret. He stopped at her door. No one was snoring. He couldn't burst in. He tapped on it urgently. A brass hand would be better.

"Who is it?" Maddie called out sleepily.

"Can I come in?" James asked.

"Is it important?" Maddie said, yawning loudly. "It's the middle of the night, James."

"There's someone just gone down into the air raid shelter," James said. "I don't think it's your papa, Maddie. Can you check his room?"

The door opened and both Maddie and Jessica stood there shivering in blue dressing gowns.

"I hope you've not been having bad dreams," Jessica said.

As soon as James explained what he'd seen, Maddie tiptoed down to the main landing level, and was quickly back. "I didn't wake him, but it's definitely not Papa in the garden. He's fast asleep. So what are we going to do, James?"

"Get dressed, of course. And then we go down and investigate. Come downstairs when you're ready, and bring your hand lamp, Maddie."

He was amazed how quickly Maddie and his cousin did as they were told. Soon they were all shivering in the hallway in spite of being fully dressed. James felt the large radiator, but of course it was stone cold.

"Have you both got phones with you?" he asked, taking charge. And why not take charge? He was the one who'd seen the mysterious figure disappearing out of sight down the ladder.

Grabbing their coats in the hope of warming up, they went out through the front door, with Maddie first locking the door behind them. James was relieved to see how security conscious she was.

As they made their way round to the back garden, Jessica said, "This had better not be a wild goose chase, James. I'm freezing."

As she spoke, a deep thump shook the ground.

"There you are," James said. "That came from the underground room. I told you there was someone down there."

"I think we ought to phone the police," Jessica said.

James disagreed. "I think we should lift the cover and see what's happening down there, first."

"James is right," Maddie said. "It might be something falling down by itself, like bits of the roof. The police aren't going to thank us if they come round here if that's all it is. We've only got James's word for it that he saw someone in the garden."

"I can _prove_ I saw someone," James said. "Shine the light on the cover, Maddie."

She did as she was told.

"There you are," James said triumphantly. "The police tape has been pulled away. It couldn't do that by itself. That _proves_ I wasn't dreaming."

Another loud thump from under the ground made them jump.

"Phone the police," Jessica said.

James shook his head. "Lift the cover first."

### Chapter 22

While the two girls stood together indecisively, James grabbed the hand lamp from Maddie and went to the galvanised steel cover.

"We won't be able to lift it without special tools," Jessica said. "So I vote we wait."

"I think we can manage," James said. "Tony only needed them because the cover had been stuck down for years. And don't phone the police yet, Maddie. Let's see what's happening down there. Perhaps it really _is_ Mr Spooner and he's found the other way in, and now he's knocking his way through the brick wall from the other side to investigate."

Jessica pointed to the house at the end of the garden. "There aren't any lights on. Of course it's not Mr Spooner."

James was already kneeling on the ground by the side of the cover. "Maddie, put your fingers round the handle and lift the other end."

As the cover came away, Maddie shone the bright beam from her hand lamp into the darkness below. A man immediately put a hand to his face and disappeared out of sight to the far end.

"Come on, help me put the cover back. _Now_ you can phone the police, Jessica."

"I'll do it," Maddie said.

As she got her phone out, the cover started to rise up. "Oh no you don't," James said, and he jumped heavily onto it. It fell back into place with a sharp snap.

As he stood there, he could feel the cover being pushed up under his feet. "Come on, both of you," he said urgently. "We _all_ need to stand on it. We don't want him escaping."

Maddie dialled 999 and quickly explained that they had trapped an intruder, and the police had to come urgently. She listened for a moment and then turned to the Two Jays.

"They're coming," she said, "and we're not to put ourselves in any danger."

"We're safer standing here than moving away," James said, pointing to their feet. "I just hope the three of us are heavy enough."

"And I just hope they hurry," Jessica said, shivering. "It's freezing out here tonight."

As she spoke, a crash from underneath their feet sent shockwaves up their legs and backs.

"He's got a sledgehammer," James said. "He must have been trying to knock the wall down. And now he's trying to smash his way up through the cover."

Another crash came from the cover.

"Bend your legs a bit to take the shock, and it won't be so bad," Maddie said. "We're going to have to stay here until the police come. He might be dangerous."

"We need something heavy to put on top, instead of us," Jessica said. "Can you drive the digger, Maddie?"

Maddie shook her head. "I don't think the key will be in it anyway. We're just going to have to stay here."

"I think we're okay," James said. "He won't be able to swing his sledgehammer properly from the top of the ladder. Well, I hope not."

Lights came on in the bedroom windows of two houses at the back, but not in the Spooners' house.

"We ought to keep our voices down," Maddie warned. "We don't want to attract attention."

A heavy thump from below shook the ground, but not the steel cover.

"He's having another go at the wall," Maddie said. "Well, that's better than what he was doing under our feet. He may think he can get out at the other end."

A rumbling sound came from below. They listened for a moment but everything was silent.

"Something's fallen down," Maddie said. "He shouldn't be down there, but I didn't want the roof to fall on his head, whoever he is."

"And it might make it too dangerous for anyone to ever go down there again," James said. He noticed their expressions by the light from Maddie's hand lamp which was now on the ground. "What?"

"You sound a bit heartless," Maddie said. "Whoever is down there might be dead or seriously injured."

James shook his head. "You don't understand. Of _course_ I don't want anyone to be dead or injured, but I really _do_ want to see what's the other side of that wall. And if the whole place falls in, we won't get a chance."

They could hear movements from down below.

"There you are," James said. "He's not dead after all."

They looked up to see two men hurrying round the corner. They'd not heard the siren of a police car, but James thought the police probably didn't use a siren at night unless it was essential to get through busy traffic.

The other possibility that occurred to him was that they were friends of whoever was down below, and he'd managed to phone for help.

"Police. Have you just phoned for us?" one of the men said, shining a bright light in their faces.

"Yes, we phoned for you," Maddie said, sounding relieved. "There's an underground room here with a body in it, and it's a crime scene."

The officer nodded. "So we've heard. Go on."

"Well," Maddie explained, "there's someone down there now with a sledgehammer. And he's trying to smash the place up."

The officer nodded to his colleague. "Come on, we'd better see. Give me a hand with the cover. And you three stand back. We don't want anyone getting hurt."

Jessica and Maddie moved well away, but James wanted to stay. However, Jessica ran back and caught hold of his arm and told him to do as he was told.

By this time, the voices and the disturbance in Maddie's garden had brought nearly everyone to their bedroom windows. Maddie shrugged. "It looks like we'll have a bit of explaining to do in the morning. Well, let them look. I'm sure I'd be doing the same if it was someone else's garden."

The two police officers leaned over the entrance to the air raid shelter, and shone their flashlights down.

"All right," one of them called, "come up, and leave that sledgehammer behind."

Whoever was below seemed to be taking their time, but eventually a head appeared above the entrance, caught in the beam from one of the officer's flashlights.

"It's Nick the builder!" Maddie gasped. "Whatever is he doing here?"

"He heard us talking about a coiners' den," Jessica said. "How stupid must he be, coming here in the middle of the night with a sledgehammer and hoping no one will hear!"

While one of the officers held onto Nick, the other said to Maddie, "You three are not staying in the house on your own, are you?"

Maddie shook her head firmly. "Of course not. My papa is in bed. James thought he saw someone out of the window, and we came down to investigate. We didn't want to wake him."

"Well," the officer said, "you're going to have to wake him now."

Rather reluctantly, Maddie went to do the deed.

James expected Professor Quedgley to be furious at being disturbed, but he seemed excited to hear about what had been going on while he was asleep. He seemed almost disappointed at not being told earlier.

"Oh, Maddie," he said, "I wonder if we can pop down when the police have gone. Now the crime scene tape has been removed, perhaps it isn't strictly a crime scene any more."

The police officer who had been listening shook his head. "Sorry, Professor, if anything, it's even _more_ of a crime scene now."

Maddie's father gave a humph of disapproval. "Officer," he said, "while you take your prisoner back to your car, my daughter and I will replace the cover securely."

"Professor," the officer said, grinning, "if you're thinking of doing what I'm thinking...."

Professor Quedgley returned the grin. "Almost certainly I'm doing what you're thinking. Now, please take the prisoner to your car."

The officer hesitated for a moment. "Promise you won't go down, Professor."

"Promise," Professor Quedgley said, sounding much younger than he really was, as though this was a game. "But if while my daughter and I are replacing the cover, we happen to shine the light down there, we might catch sight of how much damage has been done to the brick wall."

"We'll help as well," James said, eagerly. "The cover is _surprisingly_ difficult to fit back."

"And _very_ dented," Maddie said, looking at it. "We're going to need a new one, Papa."

"Indeed we are, Maddie," her father said. "James, I think we ought to examine the frame where it sits as well. Hold my legs, please, and I'm going to lean over. Pass me the hand lamp, Maddie."

The police took their time in returning, probably deliberately, and much to everyone's relief it seemed that nothing had fallen from the roof, but the bricks in the wall had been broken away, leaving a large hole.

"Come on," James said, "let's go down and see."

Professor Quedgley put a hand on his shoulder. "No, James, we promised. Anyway, we don't know if the area is still safe. The forensics team will be here in the morning. I'm sorry to say it, but we must leave it to them."

Reluctantly they replaced the cover, and the two police officers tried to replace the tape that had been pulled to one side, but it had been torn in several places and they didn't make a very good job of it.

"I suggest you all return to your beds now," one of the officers said. "And I'm sure I don't need to remind you that it is an offence to interfere with that tape."

"Papa," Maddie said, "don't forget you're planning to get security cameras fitted. Please get infrared ones soon. I want to keep an eye on the wildlife in the garden at night."

Her father nodded. "The sooner the better," he agreed. "It seems there's not just animal wildlife entering the garden in the dark!"

As they went round the side of the house to the front door, James took a longing look back.

### Chapter 23

James stayed fully dressed for the rest of the night, and even then he felt cold under the duvet. Perhaps it was the after-effects of the excitement. Or maybe they shouldn't have remained so long in the unheated hallway, where for some unknown reason they'd stayed for ages to discuss the adventure.

In spite of being up most of the night, James decided to go down and get some breakfast. To his surprise Jessica and Maddie were already there.

Jessica looked up, grinning. "Surprise, surprise."

"You could have woken me," James said. "I've not missed anything, have I?"

Maddie pointed to the clock. It said nearly 8 o'clock. "Forensics phoned to say they'll be here in half an hour. They woke us with their phone call." She yawned. "Just as well they phoned, or we'd have slept through until they'd finished, and we'd have missed seeing what they get up to down there. Help yourself, James. There's cereal, toast, marmalade and bananas."

"Up to down there?" James said, cutting a thick slice of brown bread for his toast. "I'm not sure that makes sense, but I know what you mean."

To James and Jessica's astonishment, Professor Quedgley appeared, looking shaved and bright-eyed. "Wouldn't miss this for the world," he said, rubbing his hands together. "If there really is a body down there—"

"Definitely a body, Papa," Maddie said.

"I stand corrected, Ammadine. _Because_ there is a body down there, and I'm sure it will be a couple of centuries old, I hope they let me examine it. And of course there is the possibility of us discovering the remains of a coining operation."

"Won't the police clear the whole place out?" James asked, digging some marmalade out of the jar with his knife. He noticed Jessica frowning, and he winked at her and laughed. And why shouldn't he do it in Maddie's house? Professor Quedgley had already dived deep into the jar with _his_ knife.

Professor Quedgley took a big bite of his toast, and waited before answering. "If the body is two hundred years old," he said at last, "even if a crime _has_ been committed, they won't be able to prosecute anyone. They'll take the body away for a formal inquest and burial, and that's all we'll ever see of them again. Everything else down there belongs to me, as it's on my property."

"Apart from any gold coins," Maddie said, laughing. "There will have to be an inquest about them, too."

"If only," her father said, laughing with her. "I could do with a few gold coins to pay the builders." He stopped at the sound of tyres on the front drive. "Come on, eat up. I think they've arrived."

In spite of Professor Quedgley explaining the underground room was on his property, and he had every right to be in his own garden, the police officer who was supervising the forensics team insisted that everyone stayed inside the house.

As they gathered at the large dining room window, James said, "Look over there at the other houses. Everyone's in their upstairs windows watching."

"But we've got the best view," Jessica said. " _And_ we know what's going on."

James let out a loud groan. "Not for much longer. They're getting ready to put up a white tent."

"That's not fair," Maddie said. "Now we won't be able to watch."

Her father nodded. "I guess it's standard procedure."

Maddie said she was going to change into old clothes, because she was convinced she was going to be allowed down there sooner rather than later.

When she came back, the three couldn't tear themselves away from the window, even though there was nothing much happening. Occasionally someone wearing a white forensics zip suit came out from the tent that covered the access to the underground room, perhaps to get a breath of fresh air, and then went back in again.

" _Now_ something's going on down there," James said. "Quick, Maddie, get your father. I think that long black bag is to put a body in. I wonder if it's Josiah Devauden, or someone who died down there much more recently."

Maddie's father joined them at the window and said he was disappointed he wouldn't be needed to inspect the body. Surely they needed his expertise. He shrugged. "Maybe they'll need me soon."

Twenty minutes later they could hear someone shouting, and two white suited women carried the black bag out of the tent.

"It's full," James said. "Full up with someone. I wonder who."

"I'm not sure I want to think about it," Jessica said.

Very quickly the white tent was being dismantled, and someone knocked loudly on the front door.

"That's like you, James," Jessica said. "Can't resist playing with the brass hand."

Professor Quedgley answered the door, but the three made sure they were standing just behind him, listening.

"We're all done, Professor," a police officer said. "There will have to be an inquest, but the body is very old. Male, of undetermined age. The skull shows what looks like the entrance and exit hole of a bullet. Or I should say round shot, because judging by the clothing the remains are probably two hundred years old. He's wearing a gold finger ring with the initials JD on it."

"It's Josiah Devauden," Maddie said.

The police officer smiled patronizingly. "Yes, Miss, we've already determined that. His name is on a piece of paper where he was sitting. It's all been photographed. Anyway, Professor, we're finished here now. It's no longer a crime scene. Even though it looks as if a crime was committed, it happened much too long ago to bring anybody to book. We've carried out a full health scan. Definitely no mercury or other toxic materials. The underground room is all yours."

"Come on," James said eagerly, "what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"Will it _definitely_ be safe?" Jessica asked, pulling a face. "Aren't dead bodies infectious?"

Professor Quedgley shook his head. "That's a common misconception. Even if the poor man died of a serious disease like the plague, there would be no infection remaining after a few days. As there is no mercury, I assure you that even with traces of the body still down there, there is no risk to health. I, for one, cannot wait to explore the hidden room!"

"Are you sure we won't need face masks?" Jessica asked, not totally convinced by the Professor's quick dismissal of danger.

"Maddie," her father said, "nip down to the laboratory and bring some of those white cotton facemasks I use when studying delicate artefacts. And bring some disposable gloves." He smiled as Maddie did as she was told. "I understand your concerns, Jessica, so let's all use them, even though I assure you they won't be necessary."

Wearing facemasks and disposable gloves, and everyone carrying a flashlight, they made their way down the iron ladder, Professor Quedgley going first.

Someone in forensics had already removed the whole wall to give the team good access, and the bricks were stacked in a heap to one side. Nick must have started a big enough hole to prove that the wall wasn't supporting the roof, and for the remaining bricks to be safely pulled away by hand.

Pushing each other for a good view, the four shone their flashlights into the hidden room.

"You go first, Papa," Maddie said, "just in case...."

"Just in case what, Ammadine?"

She laughed nervously. "I don't know, but just in case."

The passage went much further than James had expected. He followed behind the Professor, and Maddie and Jessica followed him. There was the table and the chair where the man had been sitting with some papers, a small piece of machinery, and what was probably a small furnace.

Jessica pointed to the top piece of paper. "Josiah Devauden, Traitor," she read. "The policeman said they've already photographed it."

"I think we can all draw the correct conclusions from those words," Professor Quedgley said. "The gang gave him the punishment they thought he deserved for trying to betray them."

Still wearing her disposable gloves, Jessica lifted the paper to reveal more pages underneath. "These might be interesting records of their activities. It's really yucky here. Just look at the chair, the state it's in. What's all that stuff on it? ... Oh, I think I'm going to be sick." She went to put a gloved hand to her mouth, then thought better of it. "Is it what's left of Josiah Devauden's body?"

"Apart from his bones, and what's trapped inside his clothes," Maddie said. "It makes archaeology real, doesn't it, Papa? When you find ancient bones, you never think what happened soon after the person died."

"Hey, look what I've just found," James called out, holding up what looked like a small musket ball.

"It's a lead ball from an old flintlock pistol," Maddie's father said, examining it closely. "I wonder how that got down here. It's clearly been fired."

"It went right through his head," James said. "That's what the forensic officer said. This must be what killed Josiah Devauden!"

### Chapter 24

Friday

The next day was one of excitement. At Professor Quedgley's request, Dr David Jenkins, the curator of the town museum, came to examine the contents of the hidden room.

The first thing he did was to carefully separate the damp pages that were on the desk, and put them individually in large polythene bags.

"Definitely a coiners' den," David Jenkins said. "The small furnace would be used to melt the metal for the coins. A pewter alloy for sure. This piece of machinery is a clamp to hold the moulds while they poured the metal."

Maddie, wearing her old jeans and a brown top, was on her knees under the furnace. She emerged with a few large coins. "Look at these," she said. "No one would be fooled by them. Is this the best they could do?"

David Jenkins examined them. "They went wrong in the moulds, that's all. The molten metal didn't spread out evenly. Maybe it wasn't hot enough. It wouldn't have been a problem for the gang. They'd just melt them down with the rest of the alloy, and start again. Well done, Maddie, for finding them. You're probably wondering why there aren't any moulds here. Your theory?"

"Do you think the gang took the moulds with them, hoping to come back later, or perhaps set up another centre of operations?" Maddie asked.

David Jenkins said that sounded like a viable theory.

James had been to the far end of the passage, which ended in a pile of bricks and rubble. "I've got a brilliant theory about that," he said.

"Is the grasshopper going to share it?" Jessica asked, quietly enough so no one else could hear.

James shrugged. "It's only a theory." He turned to Dr Jenkins. "I think the Maggart Gang, if this was their den, left by climbing up the shaft, but deliberately knocked that end of the tunnel down to stop anyone else finding the way in. They killed Josiah Devauden, if that's who it was, because they knew he was going to betray them. And if they came back, it would be easy to clear the bricks and rubble."

"A lot of ifs," Jessica said quietly.

Dr David Jenkins looked interested. "You could be onto something, James. I don't think we'll ever know the exact details of what happened here. Because of the sheet of paper calling James Devauden a traitor, and the gold ring with the initials JD on it, I'm convinced this was the den of the Maggart Gang. They took anything small they could manage, apart from those badly formed crowns and half crowns they missed in their hurry to escape."

"And they had their emergency escape route," Jessica said.

David Jenkins shook his head. "I think the entrance shaft was originally part of the chimney for the furnace. If you look at the sides, you can see soot. The furnace was probably placed immediately under it."

"We saw the soot, but didn't realise its importance. But they must have escaped that way," Maddie said.

The museum curator nodded. "I imagine the farmer was in on the plot and received a generous backhander, although he may not have been actively involved in the coining operation."

"So why didn't the farmer take the body away and bury it?" James asked. "Why leave it down here as evidence?"

"I know why," Maddie said. "If someone saw him dragging the body of Josiah Devauden around the farm, he might have been blamed for his murder. But once the gang fled and left the body behind, he built the wall quickly in case the authorities came to investigate, and accused him of the crime. I'm sure there would have been plenty of bricks lying around on the farm left over from other buildings."

"So why would he build a wooden hatch over it?" Jessica asked.

James nodded. "To hide it of course. In his imagination he could probably hear the hooves of the horses belonging to the men coming to arrest him."

"Why waste time building a wooden hatch, in that case?" Jessica asked. "And why put the iron ladder there?"

Professor Quedgley smiled. "I'm sure the farmer used it as a cold store, but not straight away. I'm sure the farmer quickly covered it with something like wooden planks and soil to disguise it. But once he realised the gang members were never coming back, and he was no longer suspected of being involved in the crime, he would have fitted the wooden hatch and the ladder, and used it as a cold store for the family, as though nothing bad was down there."

The curator of the museum nodded. "Sounds good to me. Tell me, Professor Quedgley, what are you intending to do with the equipment and other bits and pieces down there?"

Professor Quedgley put his arms round Maddie's shoulders. "I can guess what you would like to do with it, Ammadine," he said, laughter in his eyes. " _You_ want to take it all to school and show it as part of your project! The only problem will be, dismantling everything first."

Maddie gave a deep sigh. "What am I to do, Papa? I've already got _far_ too much for my school project. Everyone has to talk about their discoveries. And what have I got? A wooden bomb, census records, plans of the house, and whatever Harold has promised to write for me about his wartime memories here. Surely that's more than enough. And now there's all this coiners' stuff. I just don't know _what_ to leave out!"

Saturday, four weeks later

A large poster in the town museum announced a forthcoming permanent exhibition opening in the New Year of the infamous Maggart Gang of coiners, and some of their equipment and counterfeit coins, with several pages of their records.

"It's all thanks to us," Jessica said, when they read the notice. She was back at James's house with her parents for the weekend, where they were arranging to see a builder to get a quote for renovating the house they were buying near the common.

"And thanks to Charlotte," Maddie said. "It was her name on the drawings that got us interested in the garden. I'm glad the museum wanted everything from the den. That saved me dragging it all to school."

James thought for a moment. "They can get a dummy and make it look like Josiah Devauden. Not a body. Just a life-size plastic skeleton in rotting clothes. They could sit it in a chair with Josiah's gold ring on its finger, and punch a small hole right through the skull, to show where he was shot."

Jessica held her stomach. " _James_ , that would be really gross!"

"It's not," James protested. "I said a _plastic_ skeleton, not his _real_ one. Although I suppose they might still have his old chair covered in all that mucky stuff. That would make it more realistic."

Jessica rolled her eyes and turned to Maddie. "I see what you mean about slugs and snails and puppy dogs' tails."

Maddie grinned, and slapped James on the back. "Sounds a great idea to me, James. Ignore your cousin. I'm going to suggest it. But not the chair. Definitely not the chair."

THE END

**More Christian books by Chris Wright from White Tree Publishing** are on the next pages, some of which are available as both eBooks and paperbacks. More Christian books than those shown here are available in non-fiction and fiction, for adults and younger readers. The full list of published and forthcoming books is on our website www.whitetreepublishing.com. Please visit there regularly for updates.

White Tree Publishing publishes mainstream evangelical Christian literature in paperback and eBook formats, for people of all ages. We aim to make our eBooks available free for all eBook devices, but some distributors will only list our books free at their discretion, and may make a small charge for some titles -- but they are still great value!

We rely on our readers to tell their families, friends and churches about our books. Social media is a great way of doing this. Take a look at our range of fiction and non-fiction books and pass the word on. You can even contact your Christian TV or radio station to let them know about these books. Also, please write a positive review if you are able.

**Chris Wright** has three grownup children, and lives in the West Country of England where he is a home group leader with his local church. More books by Chris Wright for young readers are on the next pages.

Return to Table of Contents

Books by Chris Wright for Younger Readers

(and perhaps older readers too!)

eBook and paperback

The Two Jays Adventure

The First Two Jays Story

Chris Wright

James and Jessica, the Two Jays, are on holiday in the West Country in England where they set out to make some exciting discoveries. Have they found the true site of an ancient holy well? Is the water in it dangerous? Why does an angry man with a bicycle tell them to keep away from the deserted stone quarry?

A serious accident on the hillside has unexpected consequences, and an old Latin document may contain a secret that's connected to the two strange stone heads in the village church -- if James and Jessica can solve the puzzle. An adventure awaits!

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9954549-8-9

Available in paperback

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-5203448-8-1

5x8 inches 196 pages

Available from major internet stores

eBook and paperback

The Dark Tunnel Adventure

The Second Two Jays Story

Chris Wright

James and Jessica, the Two Jays, are on holiday in the Derbyshire Peak District in England, staying near Dakedale Manor, which has been completely destroyed in a fire. Did young Sam Stirling burn his family home down? Miss Parkin, the housekeeper, says he did, and she can prove it. Sam says he didn't, and he can't prove it. But Sam has gone missing. James and Jessica believe the truth lies behind one of the old iron doors inside the disused railway tunnel.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9957594-0-4

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-5206386-3-8

5x8 inches

Available from major internet stores

eBook and paperback

The Cliff Edge Adventure

The Third Two Jays Story

Chris Wright

James and Jessica's Aunt Judy lives in a lonely guest house perched on top of a crumbling cliff on the west coast of Wales. She is moving out with her dog for her own safety, because she has been warned that the waves from the next big storm could bring down a large part of the cliff -- and her house with it. Cousins James and Jessica, the Two Jays, are helping her sort through her possessions, and they find an old papyrus page they think could be from an ancient copy of one of the Gospels. Two people are extremely interested in having it, but can either of them be trusted? James and Jessica are alone in the house. It's dark, the electricity is off, and the worst storm in living memory is already battering the coast. Is there someone downstairs?

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9957594-4-2

Paperback ISBN: 9781-5-211370-3-1

5x8 inches

Available from major internet stores

eBook and paperback

The Midnight Farm Adventure

The Fourth Two Jays Story

Chris Wright

What is hidden in the old spoil tip by the disused Midnight Mine? Two men have permission to dig there, but they don't want anyone watching -- especially not Jessica and James, the Two Jays. And where is Granfer Joe's old tin box, full of what he called his treasure? The Easter holiday at Midnight Farm in Cornwall isn't as peaceful as James's parents planned. An early morning bike ride nearly ends in disaster, and with the so-called Hound of the Baskerville running loose, things turn out to be decidedly dangerous. This is the fourth Two Jays adventure story. You can read them in any order, although each one goes forward slightly in time.

eBook ISBN: 978-1-9997899-1-6

Also available in paperback

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-5497148-3-2

Available from major internet stores

eBook and paperback

The Old House Adventure

The Fifth Two Jays Story

Chris Wright

When Jessica comes to stay with her cousin James for the summer half term, they pass a creepy old house on their way to the town museum. James rescues Maddie Quedgley, a girl their age, from being run over by a speeding truck, but when James and Jessica, known as the Two Jays, insist on taking Maddie home, it is to a house where she seems to be living on her own.

From down in the basement they hear footsteps walking around above them. When the door to the basement is suddenly locked, things become dangerous. Someone is very keen to get hold of a valuable item Maddie's father is guarding. So who is the man watching them in the museum, and who is the mysterious Ethan?

This is the fifth Two Jays adventure story. They can be read in any order, although each one moves forward slightly in time.

e-Book ISBN: 978-1-912529-07-0

also available as a paperback

ISBN: 978-1-912529-06-3

Available from major internet stores

eBook and paperback

The Lost Island Adventure

The Sixth Two Jays Story

Chris Wright

When James and Jessica are on a family holiday in the far north-west of the Scottish Highlands, they meet Tarben Macaulay, a boy their age who claims he is a Viking, although he seems friendly enough. Just off the coast where they are staying in Puffin Cottage is Arraig Island. When the family comes back from a shopping trip, the island is no longer there. That mystery is quickly solved, but Arraig Island becomes a dangerous place as Jessica and James, helped by Tarben, make two exciting discoveries. Are the strange couple with the campervan really birdwatchers, or do they have another interest in the island?

This is the sixth Two Jays Adventure. They can be read in any order, although each one goes forward slightly in time.

eBook ISBN: 978-1-912529-17-9

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-912529-18-6

200 pages 5x8 inches

Available from major internet stores

eBook and paperback

The Black Lake Adventure

The Seventh Two Jays Story

Chris Wright

James and Jessica are staying with their friend Maddie at Daleton Farm. On their first day, James finds an old bottle in the nearby lake, with a message inside. It starts with the word HELP. The writer is a young boy who signs himself Michael, and he's begging to be rescued from the small island in the middle of the lake, where he says he's a prisoner. The note is forty years old, and they think it must be part of a game that was being played by the village children. But they quickly discover that the note is part of a very dark story.

When Maddie flies her photographic drone over Daleton Lake, they see something mysterious under the water. Why are the owners of Daleton Hall trying to keep them away from the lake with scary stories, and why do they angrily deny ever having had a son called Michael?

eBook ISBN: 978-1-912529-28-5

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-912529-27-8

203 pages 5x8 inches

Available from major internet stores

eBook and paperback

The Merlin Adventure

Chris Wright

The day Daniel Talbot brought home a stuffed duck in a glass case, everyone thought he'd gone out of his mind. Even he had his doubts at times. "Fancy spending your money on _that_ ," his mother scolded him. "You needn't think it's coming into this house, because it isn't!"

When Daniel, Emma, Charlie and Julia, the Four Merlins, set out to sail their model paddle steamer on the old canal, strange and dangerous things start to happen. Then Daniel and Julia make a discovery they want to share with the others.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9954549-2-7

Paperback ISBN: 9785-203447-7-5

5x8 inches 182 pages

Available from major internet stores

eBook and paperback

The Hijack Adventure

Chris Wright

Anna's mother has opened a transport café, but why do the truck drivers avoid stopping there? An accident in the road outside brings Anna a new friend, Matthew. When they get trapped in a broken down truck with Matthew's dog, Chip, their adventure begins.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9954549-6-5

Available now in paperback

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-5203448-0-5

5x8 inches 140 pages

Available from major internet stores

eBook and paperback

The Seventeen Steps Adventure

Chris Wright

When Ryan's American cousin, Natalie, comes to stay with him in England, a film from their Gran's old camera holds some surprise photographs, and they discover there's more to photography than taking selfies! But where are the Seventeen Steps, and has a robbery been planned to take place there?

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9954549-7-2

Available now in paperback

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-5203448-6-7

5x8 inches 132 pages

Available from major internet stores

eBook and paperback

Coming mid 2019

The Holy Land Adventure

An Adventure Puzzle Book

Chris Wright

Travel back in time to the Holy Land

A clear Christian message and optional puzzles

(Some are easy, some tricky, and some amusing)

Last night you dreamt you were falling down a hole. Down and down. Now you've woken up with a jump, and the room seems strange. Very strange. It's not only bright daylight, but you can hear people shouting and talking outside the window. And it's not even your window. Your window has curtains, not the wooden shutters that are now wide open. You don't know where you are, but you're definitely not in your own house!

Ahead of you are 140 pages of adventure and puzzles. You don't have to do the puzzles. You can just turn the page and carry on with your adventure. However, the puzzles will help you feel part of what's happening, so try and solve them if you can. You are invited to enter the time tunnel and wake up in a land over 2,000 years ago!

Solving puzzles is part of the fun, but the whole story is in here to read and enjoy whether you try the puzzles or not. Just turn the page, and the adventure continues.

eBook ISBN: 978-1-912529-36-0

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-912529-34-6

140 pages of story, illustrations and puzzles

6x9 inches

Available from major internet stores

eBook and paperback

Mary Jones and Her Bible

An Adventure Puzzle Book

Chris Wright

The true story of Mary Jones's and her Bible

with a clear Christian message and optional puzzles

(Some are easy, some tricky, and some amusing)

Mary Jones saved for six years to buy a Bible of her own. In 1800, when she was 15, she thought she had saved enough, so she walked barefoot for 26 miles (more than 40km) over a mountain pass and through deep valleys in Wales to get one. That's when she discovered there were none for sale!

You can travel with Mary Jones today in this book by following clues, or just reading the story. Either way, you will get to Bala where Mary went, and if you're really quick you may be able to discover a Bible just like Mary's in the market!

The true story of Mary Jones has captured the imagination for more than 200 years. For this book, Chris Wright has looked into the old records and discovered even more of the story, which is now in this unforgettable account of Mary Jones and her Bible. Solving puzzles is part of the fun, but the whole story is in here to read and enjoy whether you try the puzzles or not. Just turn the page, and the adventure continues. It's time to get on the trail of Mary Jones!

eBook ISBN: ISBN: 978-0-9933941-5-7

Paperback ISBN 978-0-9525956-2-5

5.5 x 8.5 inches

156 pages of story, photographs, line drawings and puzzles

eBook and paperback

Pilgrim's Progress

An Adventure Puzzle Book

Chris Wright

Travel with young Christian as he sets out on a difficult and perilous journey to find the King. Solve the puzzles and riddles along the way, and help Christian reach the Celestial City. Then travel with his friend Christiana. She has four young brothers who can sometimes be a bit of a problem.

Be warned, you will meet giants and lions -- and even dragons! There are people who don't want Christian and Christiana to reach the city of the King and his Son. But not everyone is an enemy. There are plenty of friendly people. It's just a matter of finding them.

Are you prepared to help? Are you sure? The journey can be very dangerous! As with our book _Mary Jones and Her Bible_ , you can enjoy the story even if you don't want to try the puzzles.

This is a simplified and abridged version of _Pilgrim's Progress -- Special Edition_ , containing illustrations and a mix of puzzles. The suggested reading age is up to perhaps ten. Older readers will find the same story told in much greater detail in _Pilgrim's Progress \-- Special Edition_ on the next page.

eBook ISBN 13: 978-0-9933941-6-4

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9525956-6-3

5.5 x 8.5 inches 174 pages £6.95

Available from major internet stores

eBook and paperback

Pilgrim's Progress

Special Edition

Chris Wright

This book for all ages is a great choice for young readers, as well as for families, Sunday school teachers, and anyone who wants to read John Bunyan's _The Pilgrim's Progress_ in a clear form.

All the old favourites are here: Christian, Christiana, the Wicket Gate, Interpreter, Hill Difficulty with the lions, the four sisters at the House Beautiful, Vanity Fair, Giant Despair, Faithful and Talkative -- and, of course, Greatheart. The list is almost endless.

The first part of the story is told by Christian himself, as he leaves the City of Destruction to reach the Celestial City, and becomes trapped in the Slough of Despond near the Wicket Gate. On his journey he will encounter lions, giants, and a creature called the Destroyer.

Christiana follows along later, and tells her own story in the second part. Not only does Christiana have to cope with her four young brothers, she worries about whether her clothes are good enough for meeting the King. Will she find the dangers in Vanity Fair that Christian found? Will she be caught by Giant Despair and imprisoned in Doubting Castle? What about the dragon with seven heads?

It's a dangerous journey, but Christian and Christiana both know that the King's Son is with them, helping them through the most difficult parts until they reach the Land of Beulah, and see the Celestial City on the other side of the Dark River. This is a story you will remember for ever, and it's about a journey you can make for yourself.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9932760-8-8

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9525956-7-0

5.5 x 8.5 inches 278 pages

Available from major internet stores

eBook and paperback

Zephan and the Vision

Chris Wright

An exciting story about the adventures of two angels who seem to know almost nothing -- until they have a vision!

Two ordinary angels are caring for the distant Planet Eltor, and they are about to get a big shock -- they are due to take a trip to Planet Earth! This is Zephan's story of the vision he is given before being allowed to travel with Talora, his companion angel, to help two young people fight against the enemy.

Arriving on Earth, they discover that everyone lives in a small castle. Some castles are strong and built in good positions, while others appear weak and open to attack. But it seems that the best-looking castles are not always the most secure.

Meet Castle Nadia and Castle Max, the two castles that Zephan and Talora have to defend. And meet the nasty creatures who have built shelters for themselves around the back of these castles. And worst of all, meet the shadow angels who live in a cave on Shadow Hill. This is a story about the forces of good and the forces of evil. Who will win the battle for Castle Nadia?

The events in this story are based very loosely on John Bunyan's allegory _The Holy War_.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9932760-6-4

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9525956-9-4

5.5 x 8.5 inches 216 pages

Available from major internet stores

eBook and paperback

Agathos, The Rocky Island,

And Other Stories

Chris Wright

Once upon a time there were two favourite books for Sunday reading: _Parables from Nature_ and _Agathos and The Rocky Island_.

These books contained short stories, usually with a hidden meaning. In this illustrated book is a selection of the very best of these stories, carefully retold to preserve the feel of the originals, coupled with ease of reading and understanding for today's readers.

Discover the king who sent his servants to trade in a foreign city. The butterfly who thought her eggs would hatch into baby butterflies, and the two boys who decided to explore the forbidden land beyond the castle boundary. The spider that kept being blown in the wind, the soldier who had to fight a dragon, the four children who had to find their way through a dark and dangerous forest. These are just six of the nine stories in this collection. Oh, and there's also one about a rocky island!

This is a book for a young person to read alone, a family or parent to read aloud, Sunday school teachers to read to the class, and even for grownups who want to dip into the fascinating stories of the past all by themselves. Can you discover the hidden meanings? You don't have to wait until Sunday before starting!

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9927642-7-2

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9525956-8-7

5.5 x 8.5 inches 148 pages £5.95

Available from major internet stores

Four short books by Chris Wright, of help in the Christian life:

_So, What Is a Christian?_ An introduction to a personal faith. Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9927642-2-7, eBook ISBN: 978-0-9933941-2-6

_Starting Out_ \-- help for new Christians of all ages. Paperback ISBN 978-1-4839-622-0-7, eBook ISBN: 978-0-9933941-0-2

_Help!_ \-- Explores some problems we can encounter with our faith. Paperback ISBN 978-0-9927642-2-7, eBook ISBN: 978-0-9933941-1-9

_Running Through the Bible_ \-- a simple understanding of what's in the Bible ‒ Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9927642-6-5, eBook ISBN: 978-0-9933941-3-3

Paperback copies available from major internet stores

Don't forget to check our website www.whitetreepublishing.com for the latest books, and updates on availability

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