

About the Book

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.

### The Midnight Farm Adventure

### The Fourth Two Jays Story

by

Chris Wright

© Chris Wright 2018

This eBook ISBN: 978-1-9997899-1-6

Also available in paperback

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-5497148-3-2

Published by

White Tree Publishing

Bristol

UNITED KINGDOM

Website: www.whitetreepublishing.com

More books by Chris Wright on

www.rocky-island.com

Email: wtpbristol@gmail.com

_The Midnight Farm Adventure_ is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents concerning the Two Jays are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. However, Billy Bray and William Haslam were real people, as are the events told about their lives. The areas and buildings in Cornwall connected to these two men are well worth a visit.

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 story.

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.)

### Table of Contents

Cover

About the book

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

More books by Chris Wright

About White Tree Publishing
Chapter 1

Thursday

The journey in the car to Midnight Farm in Cornwall was taking ages. The roads on the Thursday before Easter seemed to have nothing but minor accidents and hold-ups on them.

James Cooper knew not to ask his father the old question, "Are we nearly there yet?" Their destination, in the south part of Cornwall called the Lizard, was still many miles away. But this remote part of Devon they were passing through fascinated him. He just hoped Cornwall would be as interesting.

"What are those things that look like volcanoes?" he asked, pointing out of the car window to some peaked hills on the left.

His cousin, Jessica Green, answered before his father had a chance. "They're called tors," she said. "Haven't you heard of the Hound of the Baskervilles? It's a Sherlock Holmes story about a wild dog that scares people to death on Dartmoor. This is where it used to live."

"As long as it's not here now," James said, making sure his window was firmly closed.

His father, Clive Cooper, who was driving, turned his head slightly. "It lives in Cornwall now," he said. "Behind Midnight Farm."

Jessica looked at James and laughed. "Then you'd better buy some dog biscuits. But watch your fingers when you feed it."

"Quiet, everyone, please," Mrs Cooper said. She was Aunty Amy to Jessica. "Jessica, I've been looking forward to seeing Midnight Farm where your mother and James's dad used to go when they were children. He's told me so much about it, and now everyone's spoiling it for me by talking about some wild dog."

"I was joking about it being at Midnight Farm, Amy," Clive Cooper said. "Mind you, it was a bit scary there. There's an old tin mine on the farm called Midnight Mine. Jessica, I used to tell your mum that skeletons came out of it at night and danced on a large spoil tip from the mine, so she had to keep her bedroom window and curtains tightly shut."

"My mum is older than you, Uncle Clive, so I can't think _she_ believed you."

Mr Cooper laughed. "Not in the daylight, but when it's dark at Midnight Farm you can almost believe _anything_. Your mother and I believed all the crazy stories Granfer Joe told us."

"Granfer Joe?" James and Jessica said together. They were often referred to as the Two Jays. James had thick dark hair that covered his ears, and Jessica had long fair hair that hung free, parted in the middle.

Mr Cooper waited in the busy traffic waiting to enter a large roundabout. "There was this old character at Midnight Farm called Granfer Joe."

"What sort of a name is Granfer?" Jessica asked. "I've never heard of it."

Her Uncle Clive said it was a Cornish word.

"What," James asked in alarm, "does everyone in Cornwall speak another language? This is going to be like Aunt Judy's village of Abergair where everyone speaks Welsh!" [See _The Cliff Edge Adventure._ ]

The large roundabout was safely negotiated. "They don't speak it now, James," his father said. "Welsh and Cornish languages are similar, because they're based on the old Celtic language. A lot of the place names are the same or similar. The Cornish language died out for a time, but people are revising it, and you can get Cornish English dictionaries. But you won't find people speaking it in the shops."

"Or in the chapel, I hope," James added, thinking of their time in the Welsh chapel in Abergair -- Capel Betel.

"Very unlikely I'm sure," his father said, "but granfer is Cornish for grandfather."

"So is Granfer Joe related to us?" James asked. "You've never mentioned him before."

His father laughed. "He's the grandfather of Mrs Treloggan who keeps Midnight Farm. He was old when we stayed there when I was young, so I can't think he'll be around anymore. He was a marvellous old character. He'd been in the merchant navy in the war and had brought back lots of souvenirs. Old coins and little carvings and pottery. All of them interesting rather than valuable. Jessica, your mum and I would listen to his stories for hours. He liked to pretend he'd been a pirate. Talked about the Spanish Armada such a lot that I almost believed I'd been there with him."

"The Spanish Armada was in 1595," Jessica said. "Surely you and Granfer Joe couldn't have been _that_ old, Uncle Clive."

"Of course not." Mr Cooper thought for a moment. "Hey, how old do you think I am, Jessica? No, don't answer that!"

"So what's all this about the Spanish Armada?" Jessica asked. "Granfer Joe was joking, right?"

"Jessica, your mum is two years older than me, so I think _she_ knew Granfer Joe was joking, but she didn't let on to me. At the time, I believed him. You could say he was obsessed with the Spanish Armada. Pretended he'd served with the famous sea captain Sir Francis Drake, but said the Cornish sailors were braver than Drake who came from Devon."

"Were they?" James asked.

Mr Cooper stayed silent for a moment as he eventually got to the front of the queue for the next roundabout. He checked his sat-nav which had taken them onto a diversion to avoid a major holdup.

"Second exit," he repeated to himself as he found a gap in the traffic. "A lot of Cornish people don't consider themselves to be English. So anyone from Devon, even though the counties of Devon and Cornwall are joined, they think of as foreigners. So of course Cornish sailors have to be braver than the Devonshire ones. I'm going to miss old Granfer Joe if he's not still around, but I can't believe he will be. He was one of the main reasons I loved coming to stay at Midnight Farm with the Treloggan family, just to listen to all his stories of the sea."

"Even though he made a lot of them up?" James said.

His father laughed. "Yes, even though he made a lot of them up. He had a way of making them _seem_ real, so it was easy to believe him, and even be a bit scared at times."

"Tell us about the Treloggans," Jessica said.

Mr Cooper tucked in patiently behind a line of slow moving traffic. "Mr and Mrs Treloggan will be getting on a bit now. When your mum and I used to stay at Midnight Farm, they had two children, Conan and Jenna. Conan was about my age, and his sister Jenna was a bit younger. We got on well together."

"Will they be there now, Uncle Clive?" Jessica asked.

"I shouldn't think so," Mr Cooper called back over his shoulder, not taking his eyes off the road for a moment in the busy traffic, as dozens of red brake lights came on ahead. "They'll probably have families of their own, but I'd like to see them again."

"What sort of things did you do, Dad?" James asked.

His mother laughed. "Got up to some sort of mischief, I expect."

"We were impeccably behaved," his father said. "You can ask Mr and Mrs Treloggan if you like. The thing I remember most is the tree house that Granfer Joe built for Conan and Jenna in the large sycamore tree. He made a rope ladder to get up there, and it seemed ever so high off the ground. We used to pretend it was a pirate ship, sailing to the lands that Granfer Joe had told us about." He laughed at the memory. "Those were the days."

"Do you think the tree house will still be there?" Jessica asked.

"Quite possibly, but don't go climbing up into it without Mr or Mrs Treloggan saying it's safe. After all, it was a long time ago."

"The time of the Spanish Armada," James said.

His father would probably have come back with some clever retort, but he had to brake quickly to miss the oncoming car of an impatient driver who was overtaking a line of slow traffic.

Whatever it was his father said under his breath, James didn't catch it. "What did you say, Dad?"

"If you must know, James, I was thanking God that he'd saved us from a nasty accident, and praying that the driver of that car will have a safe journey and learn more patience on the road."

"Really, Dad?"

"Leave your father alone, James," his mother said quickly. "And give thanks yourself that we've been kept safe." She looked at the sat-nav. "I can't believe we're only just entering Cornwall. We stopped too long at the service area. It will be dark by the time we get there."

"Just in time for Jessica to see the skeletons dancing," James said. "Anyway, what's happened to the old tin mine? Did it blow up?"

"Yes, in a way it did," Mr Cooper said. "Midnight Mine is about three hundred years old. All that's left is a spoil tip of stuff the miners dug out back then. About fifty years ago people thought they could start mining in Cornwall again, and some miners tried to blast their way back in. But everything collapsed, and all you can see are some rocks by the spoil tip that mark the entrance. And no, before you say anything, James, no one was killed."

"There you are, James," Jessica said. "No dancing skeletons."

James took a deep breath and shook his head sadly. "That's what you think now, Jessica. Look out of your bedroom window tonight at midnight, and see if you still believe that." He smiled. "At least we won't be tempted to explore an old mine. You know how I hate being under the ground in tight tunnels." [See _The Dark Tunnel Adventure_.]

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Jessica said, laughing. "You might be walking along in one of the fields at Midnight Farm, and suddenly fall down a mineshaft that's hidden in the long grass."

Mrs Cooper sounded worried. "Clive, there aren't really any mine shafts in the fields, are there?"

"Definitely not, Amy. The old mine went down at a steep angle following a vein of minerals. But it's completely collapsed and closed now. The only thing anyone could fall down is an old well hidden in a clump of trees. It has a low wall around it and nobody could fall down it by accident."

"Except James," Jessica said quietly.

Mrs Cooper gave a deep sigh. "That's enough now from you two," she said, turning in her seat. "I know you enjoy joking with each other, but, Jessica, let Uncle Clive concentrate on the driving. We all want to get to Midnight Farm in one piece."

"And you can watch the skeletons dancing when we arrive," James said quietly to Jessica.

"And you can get eaten by the Hound of the Baskervilles," Jessica added with a giggle, before turning quickly to look out of the window at the wild moors.

Mrs Cooper was right, and it was nearly dark by the time they arrived at Midnight Farm. James had no idea where they were, except that they seemed to be in the back of beyond.

"Come in, you weary travellers," Mrs Treloggan said in a deep Cornish accent. She seemed a lot older than James was expecting. "We've been hearing on the news about the traffic. It seems everyone wants to be in Cornwall for Easter."

Mr Cooper said it certainly looked that way.

They introduced themselves to Mrs Treloggan, and she explained that Mr Treloggan would be back soon from Helston where he was at a farmers' meeting.

"It's good to be here again after all these years," Mr Cooper said, looking around the large farmhouse kitchen.

"Oh, I remember you well enough, my dear," Mrs Treloggan said to him. "A right scamp you was. You had a sister, if I remember correctly. She seemed a lot more sensible than you."

"She's my mum," Jessica said, giving James a nudge. "Sounds like you and me, James."

"I protest," Mr Cooper said, laughing. "I'm sure I behaved perfectly."

James rolled his eyes and then laughed. "Well done, Dad. You're an example to all of us."

Mrs Treloggan joined in the laughter. "Now, my dears, would you like me to fix you some food?"

Mrs Cooper smiled. "That's kind of you, Mrs Treloggan, but we stopped for something at a service area on the way down. I'm afraid that's one of the reasons we're late. It's very kind of you, but we didn't want to put you to any trouble. James and Jessica are looking rather tired. Perhaps you could show us to our rooms."

James gave a groan. "Not yet, mum. Jessica and I want to go outside and look around a bit and explore the area."

"You need to wait until it's daylight," his father said. "Midnight Farm is very isolated, and there are lots of little lanes around here that you could get lost in."

"You don't need to worry about that, Uncle Clive." Jessica sounded quite excited. "Our new car has sat-nav built in, and Dad's given me the phone he used in the car. It's got a really good sat-nav app on there. As long as we've got my phone with me we'll be sure to find our way back here."

Mrs Treloggan nodded. "There's some bicycles in the barn that will suit you two young ones perfectly. Mr Treloggan has already got the tyres blown up on two of them, ready for you. You can adjust the saddles in the morning. And there are some helmets there. We keep them for our guests, so you're welcome to use them."

"Great," James said, nodding to his father. "Is that okay, Dad?"

His father looked at James's mother and they both nodded. "Just be careful on these narrow lanes," his father said. "There's not a lot of room for bicycles and cars to pass each other safely, and there are some sharp bends. Make sure you ride in single file, and keep an ear open for vehicles."

"In front and behind," his mother added.

"Can we go out for a ride in the morning before breakfast?" Jessica asked.

"Just for a quick ride," Mr Cooper said. "Don't forget, it's Good Friday tomorrow, and we'll be going to the local chapel. I've checked on the internet. The service is at eleven. Then we'll go down into Porthleven, explore the harbour, and have some lunch."

"You enjoy yourselves, my dears," Mrs Treloggan said. "Ah, here's Mr Treloggan now. Let's see if he remembers you, Mr Cooper."

James's father pulled a face. "Perhaps it will be just as well if he doesn't. You've embarrassed me enough as it is, in front of my family." And he laughed.

"I can't think what those two daft men are doing at this time of the evening," Mr Treloggan said as he entered the kitchen. He had taken off his boots at the outside door and dropped his old trilby hat on the table. "They've got lights on their heads, and they're digging away at...." He broke off when he saw the visitors. "Ah, you've come then." He looked at James's father. "It's young Clive, isn't it? I remember you, my lad. A right bundle of mischief you was. And the way you teased your sister.... Welcome to Midnight Farm."

Jessica smiled and turned to James. "It must be something in the Cooper DNA that makes _you_ like that."

James shook his head. "I've no idea what you're talking about. I treat you with the greatest courtesy."

It was Jessica's turn to roll her eyes. Then she turned to Mr Treloggan. "What two men are you talking about? It sounds very mysterious."

Mr Treloggan laughed. "Don't you worry about them, my dear. Two men with metal detectors have rented our old cottage along the lane. Only been here two days. They say they're looking for tin and copper ore, but they both look shifty to me."

"Are they miners?" James asked.

Mr Treloggan shook his head. "There's no mines round here anymore, young man. Not for many a long year. By the cottage there's a spoil tip from the old Midnight Mine." He laughed. "They was poking around here last year, and think they're going to make their fortune out of bits and pieces of ore the old miners missed."

"I remember the old cottage," Mr Cooper said. "We were told to keep well away from it, in case it fell down. Have you done it up as a holiday let?"

Mr Treloggan shook his head. "Same as it ever was, if not worse. That's why I called them daft. They insisted on renting it, even though I wouldn't want to keep a rat in there. And there's probably plenty of rats in there anyway. They've agreed to go halves on the value of all the tin and copper ore they find, which will probably be half of not very much!"

"Where are Conan and Jenna?" Mr Cooper asked, when there was a pause in the conversation. "I'd like to see them again."

Mrs Treloggan shook her head, rather sadly. "Oh, they've got families of their own now. Fine young families. But Conan is living in London at the moment. Don't ask me what he sees in that big city, but that's where he is with his family now."

"And Jenna?" Mr Cooper asked.

"Her husband has a job up in Manchester of all places. Right up in the north somewhere. What those two are doing living in foreign parts, I can't make head nor tail of. They was born and bred here in Cornwall, and that's where they should be living."

James remembered how his father had said that to anyone born in Cornwall, even someone from the next county of Devon, was considered to be a foreigner.

"I expect they come back to see you often, don't they?" Mrs Cooper said. "It's important for families to stay close."

"They comes back when they can," Mrs Treloggan said with a sigh. "But it's not that often I'm afraid. We keep in touch on our farm computer with a thing called Skype, but it's not the same as seeing them face-to-face, my dear. It's been mighty quiet here lately, with Granfer Joe and the family gone."

"Dad says he remembers playing in the tree house," James said, trying to change the subject before everyone became too sad. "Is it still there?"

"Long gone," Mr Treloggan said. "That sycamore tree blew down in the gale twenty odd year back." He thought for a moment. "Mind you, if Conan and Jenna comes back to live in the area, I can reckon I could soon fix one up in another tree for our grandchildren. I've still got the rope ladder up in the loft in the tractor barn."

"I've no doubt you could soon fix them up another tree house, Mr Treloggan," Mrs Treloggan said. "It would be just like old times here. Maybe it will happen soon."

Mr Treloggan nodded. "Happen it will," he said slowly. "Happen it will. One day soon, God willing."

Mrs Cooper was looking at the large round clock on the kitchen wall. "If it's all right with you, Mrs Treloggan, I really think we should be unpacking and getting ready for an early night. Come on, Jessica and James, let's find your rooms."

"Don't forget to look out of your window for the dancing skeletons before you go to sleep," James whispered to Jessica, as Mrs Treloggan led the way up the wide, creaking staircase.

### Chapter 2

Good Friday

James and Jessica were up early the next morning, but not as early as Mr and Mrs Treloggan who had cows to see to on the farm. It was still nearly dark outside, and rather cloudy. But at least it was dry.

The cousins heard a noise from the yard outside, and saw Mr Treloggan herding black and white cows into the cowshed for milking. Mrs Treloggan caught sight of James as he stood there gazing in wonder, never having seen cows this close-up before.

"Early today, then? I expect 'tis the bicycles you're after, I shouldn't wonder. I can't stop now, but you'll see them in the barn over there."

Jessica was already halfway to the barn before James could get his thoughts together. Mrs Treloggan was indeed right when she had said the bicycles were ready for them. The tyres felt fully inflated and two red helmets were there, one hanging on each of the handlebars. There was even a suitable spanner to adjust the saddle heights. Everything seemed perfect for an early morning ride in the rising sun.

Jessica held her phone and examined the map on the screen. "I'm setting Midnight Farm as Home, so we can be sure of getting back. I can see a large lake marked on the map. Have a look." She handed the phone to James.

"Okay, Jessica, let's get going. My parents won't be up for ages, and we'll be back in plenty of time for breakfast."

"And chapel," Jessica added. "Don't forget, it's Good Friday today."

James nodded. "Race you to.... What's it called?"

"Loe Pool. L-o-e, but I don't know how you pronounce it. And no racing. We have to be careful of traffic." She looked again at the sat-nav on her phone. "We go this way." She pointed to the left. "Past the old cottage where the two men are digging with their metal detectors."

They rode towards the rising sun. The old cottage was only a couple of hundred yards along the narrow lane, and it certainly looked old. A battered piece of wood painted white had the name _Midnight Cottage_ badly written on it in black.

The land in the whole area was flat, and the only thing to break the flatness was a large mound by the cottage. James looked at his watch as they stopped at the gate. It was only just after 6:30, and there was no sign of anyone around. Dirty sheets pinned up at two upstairs windows probably meant that the men were still sleeping. Sleeping with the rats, if Mr Treloggan was right.

An old and battered blue Land Rover covered in mud was parked close to the cottage. It looked too old to be used anymore, but the tyres weren't flat, so James thought it was probably roadworthy.

"I wouldn't fancy going out in that," Jessica said. "It looks on its last legs."

"Last wheels you mean. It could certainly do with a good clean. There's more mud on there than there is in the field opposite."

James decided that the large mound, close to the cottage, must be the spoil tip that the men were excavating for tin and copper ore, which the miners had overlooked when digging out Midnight Mine. From the lane, it looked as though part of the top had been dug away, but the rest was covered in bracken and clumps of gorse.

The spoil tip was in a small patch of waste ground. A large pile of rocks, overgrown with bracken and brambles, must mark the sealed entrance to the old Midnight Mine.

James pointed to a group of trees across the adjoining field. "That could be where the well is that my dad told us about."

"You mean the one you're going to fall down?" Jessica said, laughing. She pointed to the spoil tip. "If they're going to dig that lot away, rather them than me." She slid forward from the saddle to put her feet fully on the ground. "We should have brought the spanner. My saddle feels a bit high. Never mind, these mountain bikes will be perfect if we can find a place to ride off the road."

James felt impatient to find Loe Pool. "Can you wait until we get back to fix it?"

Jessica nodded.

"That's good. Come on, let's find that lake. Which way next?"

Jessica didn't need to look at her phone. She had a good memory for finding places, and she pointed ahead. "Next turning, and it looks very narrow. There doesn't seem to be anyone around, but let's be careful and keep well into the side, and be prepared to stop if we hear a car."

As they pulled away, a dog barked fiercely from inside Midnight Cottage. Gravel crunched under their tyres. James pressed his pedals hard to make the back wheel spin.

"Just be careful you don't fall off," Jessica warned. "I don't want to be the only one with a bike for the rest of the holiday."

The lane made its way between high stone and earth banks that were already colourful with wild flowers, mostly blue, purple and yellow -- bluebells, violets and primroses.

"Look over there," Jessica said suddenly, coming to a halt. "I didn't notice it when we arrived. It was too dark. Miles and miles of open sea. We must be ever so close."

"Later," James said. "We need to find this lake now. If we go to the beach, we'll be there for ages and miss breakfast."

Soon, the lane ran downhill and they glimpsed the early morning sunlight shining on the water of Loe Pool beyond a border of trees. They stopped for a moment and looked for a way to cross the rough scrubland to get closer to the water. A narrow track seemed to be the best route, and it was exactly the sort of trail that mountain bikes were designed for.

After a bumpy ride, they stopped in amazement. They must be down at sea level by now. The lake was quite narrow but very long. Their side of the lake had a row of old trees, some of which were dead and hanging in the dark water.

"Wow, if we had a boat we could explore it properly," Jessica said, her hand to her eyes to shield the bright morning sun. "It looks safe."

"Apart from the crocodiles," James said.

"Well, yes, apart from them. I think we ought to be starting back soon. It's uphill for a lot of the way back, and I want to have another look at the spoil tip. I want to see what's under all the bracken and gorse that's covering most of it."

James nodded. "Me too. I'm surprised those men haven't cleared the whole top of the mound first. But I can't really believe the old miners threw good pieces of ore away. It must have been hard work digging the mine, so why not pick through everything carefully?"

"Well, if the two men are there, we can ask them. Come on, let's get going. I want my breakfast."

The men weren't on the tip, but the old sheets had gone from the upstairs windows. "Let's climb up and look for ourselves," Jessica said.

James laid his bike down next to Jessica's by the gate. "I'm not sure. Aren't we trespassing?"

Jessica laughed. "The field and cottage belong to Midnight Farm. We're staying at the farm, so surely we can go anywhere we like. As long as we don't leave gates open or do any damage."

James had to agree. He unlatched the large metal gate to the lane, and it opened with a loud squeak. He glanced back at the cottage as a huge black dog started to bark loudly. It looked like a cross between some sort of Mastiff and an equally large German Shepherd, with thick black hair. To their relief it was chained by the collar to an iron ring in the cottage wall.

"Dad was right. It _is_ the Hound of the Baskervilles," James said. "I hope you've got the dog food ready."

"It's not funny. I liked Aunt Judy's dog, but I don't like large dogs like this, even if they _are_ safely chained up. And that chain doesn't look very safe to me."

They waited a moment, but there was no sign of the men. Anyway, it didn't matter. Surely the men would be happy to talk about what they were doing with the spoil tip.

Jessica was already at the top of the mound. It was about twelve feet high, almost circular, and about fifty feet in diameter. [Four metres by fifteen metres.]

"Come up, James, and see the hole. They must have only just started, because they've not gone down very far yet."

James joined Jessica at the top, going up a well-worn path that the men must be using through the bracken. They could now see that the top had bare patches where nothing would grow. It must have been like this since the last bucket of spoil from the mine had been tipped here three hundred years ago.

The sides of the hole, which was about six feet [two metres] across, held a mix of brown grit and broken pieces of rock. Strangely, the bottom of the hole was earth, unlike the sides. Below the mound was the material the men had dug out.

"I wonder if they've found anything good yet," Jessica said, kneeling down and feeling one of the broken rocks that stuck out from the side of the hole. A scatter of brown grit came loose and fell to the bottom of the hole, taking the rock with it.

"Just what are you two kids doing here?" a man's voice said behind them.

The Two Jays had been so busy examining the hole that they'd not heard anyone approaching. They turned to see a tall man wearing dirty blue jeans and a torn black leather jacket, standing with his arms folded. "This is private property," he said. "You've no right to be here."

Jessica put on her friendly smile. "We're staying at Midnight Farm," she explained. "Mrs Treloggan told us what you're doing and we just came to look. We haven't done anything wrong."

"Have you found anything valuable yet?" James asked, deciding to change the subject.

The man kept his arms folded. "What you mean by that?"

"Well," Jessica said, "Mrs Treloggan said you're looking for copper and tin ore that the olden days' miners missed."

The man unfolded his arms and ran his fingers through his dark, messy hair, and folded his arms again, looking hostile. James glanced round and could see a second man standing in the doorway of the cottage. He had a shaved head, and tattoos up both arms, which were also folded.

"Oh, that. Yes, one or two bits and pieces."

"Are they valuable?" James asked.

The man shook his head, scattering his hair. "Not as such, but we smelt the ore and recover enough copper and tin to sell to a jeweller. We're hoping to find some silver ore, because that's often found in the mines round here, but only in very small pieces."

"Any gold?" Jessica asked.

The man seemed taken aback by the question. Then he quickly shook his head. "Not here. Why d'you want to know?"

"It must be hard work digging out this mound," Jessica said, shocked by the man's reaction. "I thought there might be gold here. So what does the jeweller do with the copper and tin?"

"And the silver," James added. "That is, if you find any."

The man seemed to have calmed down. "He uses it to err ... well ... make pieces of jewellery and ornaments that he sells in St Ives to tourists. People like to take something genuinely Cornish home with them as a souvenir."

"I'd like to take something like that back for my mum," Jessica said excitedly. "Especially silver. I'm sure we'll be going to St Ives. What's the shop called?"

The second man had now made his way over to the mound. "What's going on?" he asked, not sounding at all friendly. Fortunately, he'd left the large black dog chained outside the cottage where it let out the occasional unpleasant howl.

"Just a couple of kids staying at the farm," the first man said. "They're going now."

Jessica was not to be put off. "What's the name of the shop in St Ives that sells the jewellery?"

"St Ives?" the second man said, looking puzzled.

"The shop where the jeweller sells bits and pieces made from local tin and copper," Jessica said. "Where is it in St Ives?"

The second man still looked puzzled, but the first man said quickly, "You know, the jeweller who smelts the ore we find." He turned to Jessica. "Sorry, kid, that's confidential."

"But if he wants to sell it, surely it can't be a secret," she protested.

The second man came closer. "This is private property, so it's time you're going," he muttered.

"But this is all part of Midnight Farm," Jessica said. She had no intention of missing out on taking something back for her parents, especially her mum. Finding something suitable to take back for them had always been a problem for her.

The second man looked angrily at Jessica. "Yes, this _is_ part of Midnight Farm, but we're renting this cottage and this spoil tip, so that makes it private. See? So now it's time you two nosy kids were off, and don't come here again."

"Come on," James said, catching hold of Jessica's arm, "it's time we were going anyway, or we'll miss breakfast. There's nothing interesting to see here." He turned to the first man, who had seemed the slightly more friendly one of the two. "Are you going to dig the whole mound away?"

It was the second man who answered. "We're going to do what we're going to do, kid, and now you're going to clear off. And don't come back. Next time you come, that dog might not be chained up."

As the Two Jays rode away they stopped their bikes for a moment and looked back. The two men were going into the cottage, and seemed to have lost interest in the "two nosy kids".

"It's strange what the man said," said James, rubbing his chin. "First of all he said that _they_ smelt the ore before taking it to the jeweller, and then a few minutes later he said that the _jeweller_ smelts it. I don't know exactly what you need to smelt ore, but it must need a large furnace. There's nothing like that here."

"And why wouldn't they tell me the name of the shop in St Ives?" Jessica said.

"It's early in the morning, Jessica. They were probably half asleep. After all, we've seen the hole they're digging, and I don't think they're going to bury anyone in it. It's not the right shape, and it's too out in the open. Perhaps a cow?"

"You're horrible, you are." Jessica sat on her saddle and began to pedal. "Race you back to Midnight Farm!"

James stayed where he was. "No racing. Remember?"

### Chapter 3

Mrs Treloggan was in the kitchen, bending over the large Aga cooker. She looked up as they entered. "There you are, my dears. Mr and Mrs Cooper are still upstairs. I told them it's their holiday, so they deserve to lie in bed a bit this morning. But there's no keeping you young ones in bed on holiday. There now, did you have a good look round the area?"

"We really did, Mrs Treloggan," Jessica said. "We found a large lake down one of the lanes. Loe Pool." (She said Loe as Low).

"That will be the _Loe_ ," Mrs Treloggan said, pronouncing it Loo.

James glanced at Jessica and they began to laugh. Fortunately, Mrs Treloggan joined in with him. "Yes, you may well laugh, my dears, as many a young family staying here have done. That's the Cornish language for you. Loe means lake or pool. Now, sit yourselves down and you can both start. James, I'm thinking your mother and father won't be down for a while yet."

"We saw the two men at the cottage," Jessica said as she pulled one of the heavy pine dining chairs back from the table and sat down. "They don't seem very nice. They have this really fierce dog, and they told us to go away."

"Perhaps they thought you'd fall into the hole they're digging," Mrs Treloggan said. "Anyway, it _is_ best if you keep away."

"Have they found much yet?" James asked. "They say a jeweller in St Ives makes jewellery and stuff to sell."

"That's what they told us too, my dears. There are some pieces of tin and copper ore on the side over there. No, don't get up, I'll bring them over. I've washed the earth off, so they're clean. They look just like stones to me. The metal has to be got out by crushing and heating, so I've heard tell."

Mrs Treloggan put four pieces of rock on the table, each one about the size of a pack of butter. One was smooth and almost black in colour, and three had a greenish yellow tint all over them.

"They say they found these a couple of days ago. We're supposed to go halves on it, but these pieces of rock are no use to me and Mr Treloggan. I told them we'd wait until they'd finished, and have half the money they get from selling it."

James picked up the black piece. "It's much heavier than I expected."

Jessica picked up one of the green rocks and agreed hers was surprisingly heavy.

"That's because there's metal in there, my dears." Mrs Treloggan went back to the Aga. "Now, forget all about the rocks, and here's a good breakfast. James, your mother told me what you'd both like."

James turned in surprise as a loud crack came from the staircase in the hallway.

"Ah, I hear them coming down now. No one can get down that old staircase without it creaking. So, James, you'd better get stuck into your breakfast before your father takes a fancy to it!"

Jessica wasn't sure how Mrs Treloggan managed it so quickly, but soon everyone had a cooked breakfast in front of them. "Eat up, my dears," she said, going to the outside door. "I've just got to give Mr Treloggan a hand in the yard. Be back in just a moment. There's coffee on the stove, and milk and orange juice in the jugs. Just help yourselves." And she was gone.

"Have you asked about Granfer Joe?" James said as soon as they were alone.

"He died many years ago, soon after we stopped coming here for our holidays," Mr Cooper said. "Thinking about it now, I was silly to even think he might still be here. I've worked out he'd be about 110 now if he was still alive. It's a shame though. You'd have laughed at some of his stories. Ah, here's Mrs Treloggan again."

Mrs Treloggan went over to the large white stoneware sink and washed her hands. "Is there anything more I can do for you, my dears?"

"Uncle Clive was telling us about Granfer Joe," Jessica said. "I'm sorry he's no longer here. Uncle Clive says he was here with my mum when he was our age, and he used to believe the stories that Granfer Joe told about the Spanish Armada."

Mrs Treloggan smiled. "You would have loved him, my dear. Some of them stories almost sounded true, the way he could tell them."

"And I remember all the bits and pieces he'd brought back from his travels," James's father said. "I suppose you've still got them. I'd love to see them again."

Mrs Treloggan gave a deep sigh. "And so would we all, Mr Cooper. So would we all."

"What happened to them?" Jessica asked.

Mrs Treloggan gave another deep sigh. "Well, you see, it's like this. Granfer Joe was getting very muddled in his ways, and he started to believe his own make-believe stories himself. He thought the Spanish were _really_ going to invade and take his treasure from him." She gave a small laugh. "Not that you could call it treasure, but it meant a lot to him. And to us too, of course. He said when the Armada arrived, they weren't going to get their hands on his treasure."

"So what did he do?" Jessica asked.

"I'm coming to that, my dear. Ah, here's Mr Treloggan now. He'll be wanting his breakfast too."

" _Please_ tell us what Granfer Joe did with his treasure," Jessica said impatiently, as Mr Treloggan removed his boots and battered trilby hat at the outside door to the kitchen.

"If only we knew, my dear. There, Mr Treloggan, you go and wash and I'll have your breakfast ready in a moment."

"But what about Granfer Joe's treasure?" Jessica pleaded. "You said you were coming to that."

"Did I, my dear? Well, that's just it, nobody knows. One day he packed it up in a big, black tin box and said he was going to hide it from the Spanish when they invaded. And that's the last we ever saw of it. He said he couldn't remember where he'd hidden it, but he said something about it being well hidden, and then he laughed. We asked him what was funny, but he said he couldn't remember what he was even talking about."

"That's ever so sad," Jessica said.

"Perhaps that's what the two men are digging for," James said excitedly. "Perhaps they got a strong signal from their metal detector on the mound."

"What's this?" Mr Treloggan asked, as he sat down at the large kitchen table. "Those two men have found Granfer's treasure?"

Mrs Treloggan laughed. "No, no, Mr Treloggan, the lad thinks those two men are digging for Granfer's old tin box."

Mr Treloggan roared with laughter. "What, on that old mound? That's rich, that is. Granfer could never have dug a hole there in his old age. It's nothing but bits of rock and grit from the mine. Mighty hard work digging that lot out, even when you're fit!"

"Have you really hunted _everywhere_?" Jessica asked.

"High and low, my dear," Mrs Treloggan said, shaking her head. "Such fine old memories were shut up in that tin box."

"We'll keep a lookout for it," Jessica promised.

"That's very kind of you, my dear. Now, get that good breakfast inside all of you, or you'll not be fit to do anything. You too, Mr Treloggan. Eat up."

Mr Cooper looked up at the large kitchen clock on the wall. "If that clock is right, we've got plenty of time before the chapel service. Family, is there anywhere you'd like to go first?"

"We could go and see the men with the metal detectors," James suggested. "They'd have to be polite if you were there with us."

His mother shook her head. "We haven't come all the way to Cornwall to watch two men digging a hole in the ground," she said. "You know the area better than us, Clive. What do you suggest?"

James's father shrugged. "It's years and years since I was here, and I can hardly remember the area at all, except that it was good. Let's just get in the car and explore for an hour. And then we can be in plenty of time for the chapel."

Mrs Cooper was looking into the marmalade jar. "Ugh, there's butter all over the place in here. James, you've been told before about using your butter knife in the marmalade."

"Not me," James protested. "I haven't even had any marmalade yet." He looked at Jessica. "You?"

While Jessica was shaking her head, Mr Cooper looked rather embarrassed. "I think maybe...."

Everyone laughed, and James said, "Good one, Dad. Join the club. Pass me the jar, please, Mum."

The chapel was a square building with a high ridge roof. The walls had been rendered with cement, and the building blended in well with the rugged countryside. Even though they were a bit early, several people stood outside the entrance porch, talking. They smiled and moved aside as the family entered, giving them a warm welcome as visitors.

James was surprised they had to go upstairs, because he hadn't been expecting to sit in the gallery. Jessica caught hold of his arm at the top of the steep wooden stairs. They seemed to be back on the ground floor. The sloping floors faced a flat floor at their level. So what was underneath?

Mrs Cooper must have seen their surprise, because she said quietly, "A lot of chapels round here have done this. Instead of having two floors half full, they now have meeting rooms and a kitchen area and toilets down below."

"Makes sense," James said quietly. "I like it. Will there be refreshments after?"

"Trust you," Jessica whispered. "Just sit down and remember why we're here."

James let his parents and then Jessica go into an empty row. He wanted to sit on the outside where he could stretch his legs. They were already aching after the cycle ride back up the hill from Loe Pool. He'd found it difficult at times to keep up with Jessica. The only possible reason he could think for feeling like this was because he'd not been using the right gears on the bike. No way was he not as fit as Jessica.

A long black cloth had been draped across the arms of a small wooden cross that stood below the raised platform and pulpit. This was Good Friday, the time when Christians remembered that Jesus had been crucified at midday nearly 2000 years ago. James knew that when they came back on Easter day, everything would be bright to celebrate Jesus rising again from the dead.

The service wasn't what Jessica had been expecting. Instead of lots of hymns and prayers and a long sermon, they were given time to think about what Easter meant. She perked up her ears when she heard the Minister mention someone called Billy Bray. She'd heard about him in her own Bible class at home, but all she could remember was that he was Cornish and had lived a long time ago. Oh yes, and he was also a tin miner.

Outside again, in the cool spring air, Jessica turned to her uncle Clive. "Isn't Billy Bray the man who was became a Christian while preaching his own sermon?" she asked.

Mr Cooper shook his head. "You're thinking of William Haslam. Those two men lived close to each other. When they first met, William Haslam had a very formal religion and was very much against Billy Bray who danced and shouted in chapel because he was so excited to be going to heaven. William Haslam had only become a clergyman because he needed a job, and he didn't understand what it meant to be a Christian. One day he was preaching, and he suddenly stopped, and realised what he was saying was really true. Jesus had died for _him_ , and Jesus wanted him for his own. And that's when he gave his life to Jesus right there in the pulpit. A visiting preacher sitting at the back of the church shouted out, 'Halleluiah, the parson is converted!'"

Jessica smiled and shook her head. "That's amazing."

"How did Billy Bray find out?" James asked. "I thought church and chapel didn't mix in those days."

"Billy Bray was excited to hear about it," his father said. "Of course they didn't see eye to eye on everything, but the two men certainly got to know each other. I'll tell you what: Billy Bray didn't live too far from here. It's a place called Twelveheads. We'll go there on Monday and see the chapel he built at Kerley Downs."

"He built a chapel?" James said in surprise. "I thought he was a tin miner. That's what the minister said."

Mr Cooper nodded. "Billy built three chapels altogether, as well as working full-time down the mines. Now then, I know we had a big breakfast, but this sea air is making me hungry. We'll go down to Porthleven, have a look round the old harbour, and find something to eat. Does that sound like a good plan?"

The others said it certainly did. As they drove away, Jessica said, "I can't stop feeling sad about Granfer Joe's old tin box. I know Mr and Mrs Treloggan would love to get it back."

"And I can't stop wondering what those men are doing on that spoil tip." James said. "I just know they're up to something bad."

Jessica opened her eyes wide. "We know they can't be looking for Granfer Joe's treasure, so we've got _two_ mysteries to investigate. What are those two men really digging for in that spoil tip, and where is Granfer Joe's old tin box?"

### Chapter 4

It started to rain slightly in Porthleven, but it didn't stop them taking an interest in the inner harbour. Mr Cooper explained that this was protected from the waves during storms by large wooden beams lowered in slots between the two stone entrance walls.

Mr Cooper said, "The waves were so big in 2014 that the beams were smashed, and many of the boats in the harbour were wrecked."

Jessica said, "Let's hope it doesn't happen again," as she took a series of photographs, mostly around the famous harbour.

When she enlarged each one on the screen, she could see just how sharp the lens on her father's old phone was. Surely better than many cameras!

She bought a large fridge magnet of Porthleven harbour for herself, to fix onto the radiator in her bedroom at home. It would be a great reminder of this holiday. But she still needed something for her parents. Maybe they could find the shop in St Ives that sold things made of local tin and copper.

Saturday

The next morning, the Two Jays were up early again, but not as early as Mr and Mrs Treloggan who had farm animals to look after. Jessica looked up at the sky now as she and James walked to the barn in the early morning light to get their bikes.

The low sun was just catching the underneath of the high clouds, and the forecast was good for the rest of the day. "Come on, sleepy," she said, as she lowered her saddle slightly. "Pick up your bike."

"I've got a better idea," James said. "Let's go to the trees around the old well. I want to see it anyway."

"And?"

"And we can keep an eye on those men and see what they're doing."

Jessica shook her head. "They won't be up this early. I'm not going climbing on that spoil tip again with the Hound of the Baskervilles barking at us. It might not even be on its chain today. No, I want to go back down to Loe Pool. It was so peaceful there. No one around, just us and the wildlife. There might even be fish jumping in the water."

"Okay, but I still want to keep an eye on those two men. There's something very odd going on there."

Jessica got onto her bike, tested the new height of the saddle, and started to ride off. "Come on," she said. "I'm hungry already, and I want to be back here in plenty of time for Mrs Treloggan's amazing breakfast."

To their surprise, as they passed Midnight Cottage, the old sheets were not pinned up at the two upstairs windows. The man with the thick black hair was hard at work with a pickaxe on top of the spoil tip. The old blue Land Rover was no longer by the cottage, so it looked as though the man with the shaved head had gone out in it, which meant it couldn't be such a wreck after all. Maybe all it needed was a good clean.

The man standing inside the excavation watched as the Two Jays stopped their bikes.

The large black dog, which was still chained to the iron ring in the cottage wall, began to howl, pulling hard against its chain.

"Let's move on," James said quietly. "After breakfast we can go to the trees where the well is, and keep an eye on what's going on here. I know my dad brought his binoculars."

"I'm with you," Jessica said. "Just as long as your parents aren't planning to go anywhere."

James nodded thoughtfully. "They're going into Helston this morning, so Mum said last night. They want to look round the shops there, but we don't have to go with them. They can come back for us later, and we can all go to the beach somewhere this afternoon to poke around."

"There might be a cave in the cliffs to explore," Jessica said, laughing. "That would be fun!"

James looked up at the clouds that were now moving quickly in from the west. "Great idea. If this wind gets up and there's a storm, it will be just like being trapped in the cave in Abergair, with the water rising just as quickly." [See _The Cliff Edge Adventure_.]

As they rode away, James glanced back. The man was watching them. And he didn't seem to be watching them just out of interest. He looked angry.

On their way to the lake, two cars drove up behind them and the Two Jays quickly stopped safely at the verge to let them pass. The lane here was extremely narrow.

They didn't need to hurry. James had told his parents that he and Jessica were probably going out on the bikes before breakfast, and although the wind was getting up, the sun already felt warm.

Today they decided to find the far side of the lake, using the sat-nav on Jessica's phone. But it was a much longer route than they expected, and they decided not to stay there, but to get back for breakfast. Then, while James's parents went to explore Helston, they could keep an eye on the two men.

As they reached the road that led back to Midnight Farm, Jessica was a little way in front. James could hear a noisy vehicle behind and he moved well over to one side to give it plenty of room to pass, and he saw Jessica do the same.

The vehicle didn't slow. The driver sounded the horn, making James jump. It swept past him at speed, brushing against his leg, and kept going.

James lost his balance and fell into the hedge, and then sprawled out into the road. Jessica looked round in alarm as James shouted out. She turned her bike and hurried back to him. "Did it hit you?" she asked in alarm.

James lay where he was. "Only a bit, but it made me lose my balance. I think I've hurt my leg."

"Don't try to get up. Your leg might be broken. Oh no, I can hear something else coming!"

James tried to roll to the side, his leg felt sore but probably not broken.

Understanding the situation, Jessica stood well out in the road and waved her arms as a bright red Royal Mail van came to a rapid halt. The postman jumped out. "Do you need help?"

"It's my cousin," Jessica said, trying to keep her voice steady. "It was a blue Land Rover. It knocked him off his bike. It's only just happened."

James had now got to his feet. He limped cautiously across to Jessica who was standing with the van driver. "He didn't really knock me off, but it was his fault. I moved over when I heard him coming, but he sounded his horn when he was alongside me, and it made me wobble. The side of the Land Rover hit against my leg. Look, you can see the mud on my jeans. I fell into the hedge and then into the road." He went to pick up his bike and rest it against the hedge. "Ow, my leg!"

The Royal Mail postman took a deep breath. "I don't suppose you got the licence plate number?"

"I think I know who it is," Jessica said, calming down a bit now. "There's a muddy blue Land Rover belonging to two men staying in Midnight Cottage a little bit further along the road."

James looked down at his jeans. "It certainly looks like their mud." He pulled his phone from his pocket. "We're staying at Midnight Farm with my parents," he explained. "My dad can be here in a couple of minutes \-- as long as he's up."

The van driver looked concerned. "Are you sure you don't want me to phone for an ambulance?"

James noticed Jessica looking at him anxiously. He patted his leg. "I'm fine. Well ... ouch, it feels sore." He thought for a moment, picked up his bike and cautiously swung his leg over the saddle. "I'm not going to phone my dad. He and mum will only worry. Come on, Jessica, let's get back to the farm. And thanks for stopping."

The postman shook his head. "Well, if you're sure, I'll be on my way. If it _is_ the Land Rover at Midnight Cottage, those two are a nuisance, mark my words. I wouldn't put it past them to have done it deliberately. I've seen them with their detectors around here all week. Whatever they're up to, it's bound to be trouble."

They waved the driver goodbye and James began to pedal. The pain in his leg eased quickly and he was sure he could get back to Midnight Farm without his father coming to help. As they passed Midnight Cottage, the blue Land Rover was parked at the entrance, and there was a clean patch on the passenger door where it must have rubbed against his leg. There was no sign of the two men.

"See?" Jessica said loudly, pointing to the clean patch. "That _proves_ it's the one that knocked you off your bike. Come on, let's go and see your parents. They can call the police."

Back at the farm, his father listened to the account. He took a deep breath, and said, "Are you _sure_ it was the same Land Rover? There must be quite a few of those models around here on the farms."

"It had a clean patch in the mud on the door where it hit James's leg," Jessica said. "Are you going to get the police? You're supposed to stop after an accident, especially if you knock someone off their bike."

James didn't feel quite as angry as Jessica sounded. His mother had checked that his leg wasn't cut. He was now wearing shorts for comfort, and could see a bruise forming below his knee where he had put his leg out to try to save himself from falling.

"He didn't exactly knock me off," he said. "He blasted his horn and that made me wobble. He didn't need to do that. There was plenty of room for him to pass. We both heard him coming, and were keeping well to one side."

Mr Cooper bit his lip. "And this was being driven by one of the men at the old Midnight Cottage?"

Jessica shook her head. "I didn't see who was driving. I stopped and turned round as soon as I heard James shout out."

"And I was too busy falling off the bike to notice," James said. "But here's the evidence on my jeans. It will match the clean rub mark on the Land Rover door." He brushed his hand down the side of his leg, and tried not to yelp. There was certainly going to be a big bruise there.

"Right," Mr Cooper said firmly, "we won't involve the police yet. Let's see what those men have to say about it. You probably need to keep that leg active, James. Do you feel able to walk along with me to Midnight Cottage? And you'd better come too, Jessica."

James tried walking gingerly, and realised his knee and ankle felt fine. Just the side of his leg below the knee was stinging a bit.

"I'm okay, Dad."

As they approached Midnight Cottage, they could hear the sound of a high-pressure water jet bouncing off metal. The man with the shaved head and tattoos was hosing down the Land Rover, scattering muddy water from it in a flood. "You want something?" he said, as Mr Cooper and the Two Jays stopped at the cottage entrance.

"I certainly do," James's father said. "One of you has just knocked my son off his bicycle."

The man carried on hosing the Land Rover, and didn't reply. Mr Cooper went to the tap on the cottage wall and turned it off. "Did you hear what I just said?"

The man shrugged his broad shoulders. "I heard. Tell your son to ride in a straight line. He was all over the road. He's lucky I didn't run him over. He needs to learn to ride a bicycle if he's going on a public road."

"I _was_ going in a straight line, and I kept right over to the side," James protested.

"He _was_ riding properly," Jessica chipped in.

The man went to turn on the tap again so he could carry on cleaning the Land Rover. He turned to Jessica. "Did you see him, girl?"

Jessica shook her head. "No, not this time. I was ahead, but I know he always rides sensibly when I'm behind him."

The man pointed the jet of water at the Land Rover, making it difficult to hear him. "Well, he wasn't riding sensibly _this_ time. He was wobbling all over the road. Wobble, wobble, wobble. He was lucky not to get killed. Stupid kid, riding like that!"

Mr Cooper turned off the tap on the wall again, and everything went quiet. "When you hit someone on the road, you have a legal obligation to stop."

"Well, I didn't know I hit him. It was only when I got back and saw the clean bit on the door, I thought perhaps I'd brushed against him a bit. I was going to come up to Midnight Farm in a couple of minutes and see if he was okay."

"You should have done it immediately," Mr Cooper said. "So why are you cleaning the Land Rover? To wash away the evidence?"

The man laughed, but it wasn't a pleasant laugh. "Of course not. The clean patch made me realise how dirty the Land Rover was, and I thought it was time to give it a good clean. Okay?"

Mr Cooper shook his head. "It certainly isn't okay." He took out his phone and walked round to the back of the Land Rover and took a photograph.

" _Now_ what are you doing?" the man asked.

"Taking a picture of your registration plate. And now I need your name."

Once again the man turned on the tap. He directed the hose at the ground, sending a spray of water across James and Jessica. "My name is private, and it's time you were going back to the farm," he said, returning to his cleaning job. "And you're lucky I'm not reporting your son's dangerous riding to the police. He's a menace on the roads. I could have swerved into the side to avoid him, and been seriously injured." He pointed to James. "The best thing he can do is to go down to the beach and play on the sand all day. Just keep him and that girl away from here."

Mr Cooper used his phone to take a picture of the man, before the man realised what was happening. "We're going back to the farm now, and we'll consider whether _we_ are going to the police about your driving."

As they walked back to Midnight Farm, Jessica said, "Uncle Clive, you've _got_ to report him. He could have killed James."

"I understand how you're feeling, Jessica," Mr Cooper said, "but the man has a point. _You_ didn't see what happened, and it will be James's version against his."

"But----"

"I know, Jessica. And, James, you're a sensible rider, and that's why your mum and I trusted you out on the bike. So don't think I'm blaming you for what happened. That man was most unpleasant. Let's see how you are as the morning goes on. If you have to go to the doctor, I'll definitely consider taking it further."

### Chapter 5

James decided he wasn't seriously injured after all. It was the fright that had upset him. His mother explained that she and his dad were off to Helston, and they were welcome to go with them.

James looked at Jessica. "You can go if you like. I'll be fine here."

Jessica said she'd stay with him. She and James had already decided to find the old well amongst the trees. It sounded rather intriguing and mysterious.

"We'll bring something back for lunch," Mrs Cooper said. "But don't go out on your bikes again this morning. You can do that this afternoon."

"Really?" James said in surprise. "I thought we'd be grounded with the bikes, after what happened this morning."

His mum put an arm around his shoulder. "Of course you can use them again. I know you're both sensible on the road, and what happened this morning doesn't sound like your fault at all. Something like that will only make you more careful in future. Don't worry, it won't happen again, I'm sure. And no underground exploring in the old tin mine!"

"Right," James said as soon as his parents were out of sight, "let's go and find that well."

"Are you sure you're up to it?" Jessica sounded concerned. "I don't want you collapsing, and me having to drag you back. I think you've already put on weight from Mrs Treloggan's breakfasts."

"I'm good," James assured her. He was still wearing shorts, because his jeans rubbed against the lower part of his leg.

"I think you're ever so brave, James," Jessica said, but he detected a certain amount of mockery and lack of sympathy in her voice.

"The local newspaper is going to put a picture of me on the front page," he explained. "James Cooper, local hero. And the people of Porthleven are going to award me a medal before we leave. I tried to talk them out of it, but they said they'd never heard of such bravery." He rubbed his leg gently. "It still hurts a bit, but I'll be fine going to the well."

They slipped out of the farmhouse quietly, because James said he didn't want Mrs Treloggan fussing over him. His father had left his small pair of binoculars behind for them to use, so they took them to keep a really close eye on what the two men were doing on the spoil tip.

They found an overgrown footpath going from the farmyard towards the clump of trees. James could understand why the path was overgrown. With the mains water supply, no one had to lower a bucket down the well whenever they needed water.

"I'm trying to picture my mum and your dad here as children," Jessica said, knocking some nettles aside with a large stick. "They must have been younger than us, if your dad believed all Granfer Joe's stories. I know you're a bit daft, James, but I can't think even _you_ would believe an old man who said he'd been alive in 1585!"

"I think I would be a little bit suspicious," James agreed. "Right, here are the trees, and there's the wall around the well shaft. I didn't expect it to be built of bricks. Not that I was expecting it to be a hollow in a rock, like Saint Cerig's well in Sheppingford. [See _The Two Jays Adventure_.]"

The wall was only five bricks high, and James went forward and peered over it. "I can't see any water," he said.

"Just be careful you don't fall down," Jessica said. "I don't want you breaking your other leg. I couldn't stand it if you were awarded _two_ medals for bravery."

"My leg _isn't_ broken, it's just a bit sore. Come here and have a look down the well shaft. Why do you think there isn't any water in it? I thought that's what wells are for."

Jessica joined him, testing the brick wall for security before putting any weight on it. "Don't lean too hard," she warned. "It would be terrible if the wall gave way." She peered cautiously over the edge. "You're right, there isn't any water. Just some old leaves, and they don't look soggy."

James found a small stone and dropped it down. It made a hollow, slightly ringing sound that echoed back up the shaft. It certainly wasn't a splash. "It's dry," he agreed. "I suppose the Treloggans stopped using it when the mains water was connected."

"That wouldn't make it dry," Jessica said. "It would still have water in it. We'll ask Mrs Treloggan if she knows anything about it. Come away from the edge. You're worrying me leaning over like that."

James stood up and brushed dust and dead leaves off his jacket. It felt strange to have shorts on so early in the year, and his legs felt chilly.

"This is a brilliant place to watch the spoil tip from," Jessica said, also brushing herself down. "There's a gap in the trees and we can watch from here. But don't sit on the wall. It looks strong enough but it might not be. Pass me the binoculars."

The men had enlarged the hole considerably, and the one with the dark hair was now bringing up lumps of earth instead of rocks and grit. James was relieved to see that the large black dog, the Hound of the Baskervilles, was still chained to the wall of the cottage.

While one man dug, the one with the shaved head who had driven into James earlier that morning, had a pickaxe and was clearing the gorse and bracken. It looked as though they were planning to dig a much wider hole.

The man inside the hole called to the one with the pickaxe. The Two Jays were too far away to hear what he said, but the man with the pickaxe ran to the cottage and returned with a metal detector which he passed to the hole digger.

Jessica and James watched with anticipation as the man turned it on and lowered it into the hole. Was he going to emerge with some lumps of tin or copper ore, or perhaps even silver?

He threw the detector up onto the ground, shook his head, and climbed out. Although they couldn't hear it, whatever he said didn't seem to be very polite. He looked all around as though sensing he was being watched.

"Suppose he sees us. What do we do?" James said.

Jessica shrugged. "I can't see it would matter. This bit of land belongs to the Treloggans, and those men are only renting the cottage and the spoil tip. But, yes, let's not make ourselves too obvious. We don't want them to get a flash of light from the front of the binoculars. They might set the Hound of the Baskervilles loose, and I don't suppose the dog knows the difference between the Treloggans' land and the rented bit."

"Just stand completely still," James said. "I've read it's very hard to spot someone amongst trees if they stand still, but easy to see movement."

The two men were now discussing something, and no longer looking around. Obviously they were not suspicious. The man with the long dark hair who had been digging, picked up the detector again and started to swing it backwards and forwards along the top of the mound, but the gorse and bracken meant he was unable to cover much ground.

"This is a bit boring," James said, taking the binoculars back from Jessica and slipping them into his jacket pocket. "We can come back later when they start digging again."

"So what do we do now? We can't go out on our bikes again this morning."

"We're going to look for Granfer Joe's treasure chest. He must have hidden it somewhere on the farm."

Jessica shook her head. "If Mr and Mrs Treloggan have searched for it, we're not likely to find it. But, okay, we'll have a look." She tipped her head back and stared up into the trees.

"It's not going to be up there," James said. "And you're calling _me_ daft."

"That's where you're wrong, James. The Treloggans will have looked in all the _obvious_ places, but if Granfer Joe was confused and _really_ thought the Spanish Armada were coming specially to get his treasure chest, he's most likely to have put it somewhere strange. But you're right, it's not up in any of these trees."

"That's a good point, Jessica. Yes, somewhere strange where no one would be expected to look. Anyway, it's not a treasure chest. It's a black tin box that he said was well hidden."

Jessica walked back to the brick wall and looked over. "Well hidden. Do you think----?"

"No I don't," James said quickly. "How could Granfer Joe have got down there with it at his age? And even if he did, I'm certainly not going down there to look for it. The bottom might give way and I'd tumble into the old tin mine which must be somewhere around here. I've no intention of being trapped underground _this_ holiday!"

"And I'm not going down there either," Jessica agreed. "Let's go and find Mr or Mrs Treloggan, and they can tell us more about the tin box. We need to know how big it is, if we're going to hunt for it."

Mr and Mrs Treloggan were both in the large farmhouse kitchen, drinking tea and eating toast. Mr Treloggan's boots were by the outside door and his old trilby hat was on the small table just inside.

The smell of toast, especially toast made from bread from the local baker, made James feel hungry.

"Come in, my dears, and have some elevenses. And you, James, are you sure you're all right after that nasty accident?"

James groaned inwardly. He felt embarrassed to be the centre of attention. "I'd love some toast," he said.

"No, James," Jessica said quickly, "you've already had a good breakfast."

"Well, I'm hungry again," he said. "You sound just like my mum. Just one piece please, Mrs Treloggan. Nice and thick."

"I suppose I'd better keep you company," Jessica said. "And a thin slice for me too, please, Mrs Treloggan."

Mrs Treloggan laughed. "That's right, my dears. If you can't enjoy yourselves on holiday, what's the point of them? That's what I say."

While they waited for the toaster to pop up, James said, "We'd like to look for Granfer Joe's treasure. You said he put it in a black tin box. How big was it?"

Mr Treloggan said, "Treasure? T'was just the knickknacks he collected on his travels in the merchant navy."

"But of course we'd love to get it back," Mrs Treloggan added, retrieving two slices of toast from the toaster, one thick and one thin. "There now, do you want me to butter it while it's still hot?"

"Hot, please, but James likes to wait until----"

"Hot, please, for mine today. I'm too hungry to wait for it to get cold." The butter from the neighbouring farm was far more tasty than anything he had at home, and the smell of warm butter already coming from Jessica's toast made him realise that this was probably the right way to eat it.

"Now, you're asking about Granfer Joe's old tin box," Mr Treloggan said. Using both hands, he said, "About this long, by this wide, and about this high."

Mrs Treloggan interpreted the dimensions as, "About two foot by eighteen inches by twelve inches, but I think you young folk are learning a different way of measuring."

"It's metric," Jessica said. "About sixty by forty-five centimetres on top, and about thirty high."

"There now, Mr Treloggan," Mrs Treloggan said. "Didn't I tell you that young people are clever today?"

Mr Treloggan nodded. "I knows all about centimetres and metres today, Mrs Treloggan, but I still thinks in good old feet and inches. But I couldn't do my job on the farm and fill in all the forms if I didn't know how long a metre is. _And_ I knows all about kilograms and tonnes."

"So it's a black tin," Jessica said, "and it's quite small and easy to hide."

"Too easy to hide," Mr Treloggan said, laughing.

"Those two men have started digging a bigger hole in the spoil tip," Jessica said. "Are you sure Granfer Joe couldn't have buried it in there?"

"Granfer Joe was too frail to be able to dig a small hole in soft earth to plant a potato," Mr Treloggan said. "There's nowhere on the farm he could have _buried_ it, and he never left the farm. If he gave it to someone, they would have let us know long ago. All we can think is that he's put it down somewhere, and it's somewhere we haven't looked yet."

"And we've looked _everywhere_ ," Mrs Treloggan said. "It's what's called a mystery. But if you two young ones can find it, that would be lovely. Really lovely. Those things meant a lot to Granfer Joe, and they would mean a lot to us, because they were his precious things."

"Where do you _think_ it might be," James asked.

"Ah, we've already looked where we _think_ it might be," Mr Treloggan said, tapping his nose. "You need to look where it might _not_ be."

"And where might it _not_ be? Jessica asked.

Mr Treloggan shook his head. "If we knew that, we'd have already looked there. Perhaps it needs fresh ideas and younger eyes to find it. But myself, I think it's gone for good."

"Come on, Jessica," James said, looking up at the large kitchen clock on the wall, "we've got at least an hour before Mum and Dad get back. They're taking us to a place called Rinsey for a picnic lunch. There's part of an old engine house that was used for working a tin mine there, and we can go down on the beach."

"'Tis too cold yet for swimming in the sea, my dears," Mrs Treloggan said.

"Much too cold," Jessica agreed, pretending to shiver. "Come on, James, let's go and look for Granfer Joe's old tin box."

"And we'll start where it _can't_ be," James added.

"Don't go climbing over any gates," Mr Treloggan said. "Just use the bolts, and make sure you close them as soon as you're through. I don't want the cows getting into the cabbage field that's only just sprouting."

### Chapter 6

As soon as Mr Treloggan had pointed out the boundaries of Midnight Farm, James and Jessica were off.

They started in the far corner, next to the rough patch of land by Midnight Cottage. Their plan was to work their way around the farm boundary, and then to start exploring the hedges and fences that divided the fields.

As they approached Midnight Cottage, the men stopped their digging where they had been clearing a new patch of gorse and bracken.

" _Now_ what are you two kids up to?" the man with the shaved head shouted as they got near. "Come to cause trouble again?"

"We're looking for treasure," Jessica called back mischievously.

The man looked startled. "Treasure? There's no treasure here, so keep moving."

"It's nothing valuable," Jessica explained. "The Treloggans' grandfather hid a black tin box somewhere on the farm, and no one can find it."

"Oh, that old nonsense," shaved-head-man shouted back. "Well it ain't here. Mrs Treloggan mentioned it to us. If we find it, we'll tell _her_ , not you. Now move on, because we don't like working while we're being watched."

"What are you up to then?" James asked. "Treasure hunting yourselves?"

"Yes, if you call pieces of tin and copper ore treasure. It's only worth pennies by itself, but it's more valuable when it's smelted and turned into stupid little souvenirs for the tourists."

The man with the long black hair picked up a shovel. "So now you know, so just move on. And we don't want to see you hanging around here again. What d'you think you're doing? Checking up on us?"

Well, yes they were, James thought, but he wasn't going to say it. "Come on, Jessica, we'll follow the boundary hedge to the end of the field."

The boundary was the usual earth and stone bank, covered in brambles, bracken, and some pink wild flowers.

Using a couple of sticks, which they had found in the corner of the field, they worked their way along slowly, knocking the brambles and bracken to one side as they went. This way, they were convinced they would see the box if it was there, even though it was black.

Just as they got to the top corner, James shouted out in excitement. "Got it!"

Jessica hurried to his side as he reached in and pulled out a rusty old jerry can for petrol. "Brilliant!"

"Okay, but it looked like it, and it made a boing sound when I hit it with my stick."

"That's because it's made of metal," Jessica said dryly. "At least it shows we're going about it the right way. Just don't shout out anything next time until you're _sure_."

The boundary went behind the row of trees by the well, but James wanted to go back towards Midnight Cottage and search the pile of rocks that sealed Midnight Mine. The men seemed to have knocked off for a break, and the mine entrance was in the field anyway, and not on the patch of land they'd rented.

"We'll go round the back boundary when we've looked here." He stared at the rocks which had bracken growing among them.

"Just be careful you don't fall in," Jessica retorted.

"Come and see," James said.

"What is it? Granfer Joe's treasure?"

"'Fraid not. There's no way _anyone_ could get in here by accident."

Jessica went forward to see. "Well, we needn't have been warned about going in _there_. Those rocks are completely blocking the way. They were probably put there to seal the mine after the explosion."

James shook his head. "There's no point in trying to move them. They're old, and apart from all the bracken and brambles, there's moss growing on them. No way could Granfer Joe have moved these and hidden his tin box. Let's keep going, until we've gone right round to the far boundary."

As they walked, James kept whacking the bracken and brambles that grew along the boundary. He took another whack with his stick, and heard a metallic clunk.

Jessica gripped his arm in excitement. "What is it?"

James cleared the bracken and revealed part of a rusty old part from a plough. "Just some old farming junk. Let's look on the bright side. At least we're finding things."

It took just over an hour to search the boundary of Midnight Farm, leaving the field divisions still to be searched. That would probably take another couple of hours, but James saw his parents driving into the farmyard.

"My stick-whacking arm is nearly worn out, and my leg's getting sore again," he said. "It's time for a break. Let's go and see what food they've bought for the picnic."

Rinsey Cove was along a narrow lane running towards the sea. James could see a vast expanse of blue, and a clear horizon. It reminded him of the outlook from Aunt Judy's house in Abergair, on the west coast of Wales, although the next stop out to sea here was probably America, not Ireland.

The small car park at the top of the cliff was packed, but Mrs Cooper spotted a free place at the far end. As James's father manoeuvred the car into the rather narrow space, James noticed a ruined building with a tall chimney just a bit further along the coast.

"It's the old tin mine Dad mentioned," he said excitedly. "A _real_ tin mine. This is a great place to come."

"It's only the engine house," his father said. "The mine has been closed for a long time."

Jessica nudged James. "That's a shame. You were really looking forward to going down."

James said, "There's no harm in looking. That chimney must be ever so tall." He jumped out of the car. "The last one there is a chicken."

"I thought you'd broken your leg," Jessica called after him as he disappeared down the path. But she thought he was too far away to hear, because he didn't slow down and shout any friendly insult back.

James looked up at the large building with huge, gaping windows while he waited for his parents and Jessica to appear. A sign on the wall said _Wheal Prosper, 1860_. Small plants grew out of the cracks between the thick stones. The brick chimney rose high above him out of a stone base.

"Is 'wheal' a Cornish word for 'mine'?" he asked his father when he eventually reached the building.

"I'm not an expert on the Cornish language," his father explained, sounding a bit breathless. "I know it doesn't mean 'mine'. I think it's a place of work, like we would call a factory 'the works'. So this must be the Wheal Prosper _Mine_. Only it didn't prosper, according to the guidebook."

Jessica felt surprisingly drawn to the old stone building. "You said it's called an engine house, Uncle Clive. Was it like a coal mine? Did it drive a lift to get the miners up and down?"

Mr Cooper shook his head. "Not a lift, but in the large mines there were long wooden poles that went backwards and forwards, up and down. You stood on one and went up, then you stepped onto the next one as it moved up again, and kept going until you reached the top."

"Sounds dangerous," James said.

His father nodded. "It was, but it was a very welcome invention. Before that, the miners had to go up and down ladders, which must have been exhausting coming up from a deep mine after a hard shift. In some of the really deep mines it took the miners two hours to get down to the working face, and three hours to get back up at the end of their shift. These mines had a lot of water in them, which stopped the miners following the veins of tin and copper ore down deeply. When steam driven pumps were invented, it gave the mines a new lease of life. There are a lot of old mines along the Cornish coast, and many of them went right under the sea. The miners said they could hear the waves breaking above them when there was a big storm."

"James," Jessica said, "you'd love that. I'll get you a gift card for a tour for your birthday."

James shivered. "Digging under the sea sounds scary enough, but hearing the waves above you.... Wow! Just imagine if you put your pick just a little bit too far into the roof."

"I think it's time we went back to the car and got the food," Mrs Cooper said, who seemed to be sharing James's horror of the possibilities of the sea breaking through the roof. "James, you and Jessica can help carry the food down to the beach. It's quite a long way."

"And a bit tricky in places, if I remember correctly," Mr Cooper added.

"This is a great place to come," James said dryly, "with me and my bad leg."

"It didn't look so bad when you were running across to the engine house," Jessica said.

James ignored her. He looked down at the sandy beach. "The tide is coming in now, and it looks as though it covers the beach when it's high."

"Perhaps it's not perfectly safe," his father said. "The guide book says you can get cut off at high tide."

Memories of the beach at Abergair came back to James. "I don't want to get trapped by the tide," he said quietly. "Let's have our picnic at the top of the cliffs by the old engine house." He rubbed his leg. "I don't want to risk another broken leg."

"What do you mean, _another_ broken leg?" Jessica demanded.

"You told me it was broken, when I was running down to the Wheal Prosper Mine."

Jessica bit her bottom lip. "I didn't think you'd heard me."

"Well, you're wrong. It's my leg that's seriously damaged, not my hearing."

While the Two Jays were arguing, Mrs Cooper had made up her mind that the footpath down to the beach was too steep for safety. So James got his wish after all to sit on the grassy hillside and have the picnic with a wonderful view of the coastline.

Suddenly James pointed out to sea. "I can see land over there. I thought this was the end of England."

His father laughed. He got out his small pair of binoculars and adjusted the focus. "You're thinking of Land's End." He handed the binoculars to James. "Over there in the bay you can see what looks like a town, and it is! That's Penzance. Keep going to the left and that's near Land's End. Land's End itself is just round the headland. That's as far west as you can go on the mainland. Beyond Land's End are the Isles of Scilly, but you won't see them from here. You can sometimes see them from Land's End on a clear day."

"Can we go to Land's End, Uncle Clive?" Jessica asked, taking her turn with the binoculars.

"Cornwall seems to be especially busy this Easter," her uncle explained. "Land's End is one of the most popular places, so we may have to wait for another time. What I've been thinking is this. It's Easter Sunday tomorrow. All the seaside places will be especially busy, and Land's End will probably be at a standstill with nowhere to park. After the chapel service, I thought we'd go back a little way east in the afternoon, and visit the chapel Billy Bray built, instead of doing it on Easter Monday."

"What about food?" James asked. "Won't everything be shut on Easter Day?"

"It doesn't matter if it is," his mother said, laughing. "We bought plenty of food this morning to see us right through Easter."

"What did you buy, Mum?" James asked.

"Dog biscuits for you," Jessica said quickly. "Any you don't eat you can save for the Hound of the Baskervilles. Dog biscuits might stop it barking every time we go near. Just watch your fingers when you feed it."

After their picnic, they spent part of the afternoon driving to various beaches, but the car parks were so busy, and the lanes so chock-a-block with cars trying to pass each other, that in the end they gave up and found a farm selling home-made ice cream. James said it was the best part of the holiday so far.

Back at Midnight Farm, Mrs Treloggan was in a state of excitement. "There's trouble. Mr Treloggan is along there now at Midnight Cottage."

"Those two men again?" Mr Cooper asked.

"They've gone and brought in a mechanical digger, and they're ripping the top off the spoil tip."

James frowned. "Won't they have to do that if they're going to sort through all the rocks and bits and pieces for tin and copper ore?"

"They never mentioned bringing in machinery," Mrs Treloggan said. "But you're right, my dear, I suppose we never thought it through. That old mound has been there for three or four hundred years, minding its own business. And now it's going to be spread all over that piece of our land." She thought for a moment. "But perhaps it's not all that important. We could never do anything with that patch of land. I suppose we could get it all cleared away when they've gone, and put up a barn or something there."

"And perhaps you'll make a fortune from your share of the ore," Jessica said, looking on the bright side.

Mrs Treloggan shook her head. "Mr Treloggan asked them this morning to show him how much they'd found, and it were only a few lumps."

"You never know, there might be _tonnes_ of ore buried in the spoil tip," Jessica said encouragingly.

"Perhaps you're right, my dear," Mrs Treloggan said, "but somehow I doubt it. I'm regretting we ever gave those two men permission to dig, but it's too late now to stop them. Clever they were. They got us to draw up a contract, and Mr Treloggan doesn't think we can get out of it." She put on a forced smile. "You might be right, Jessica, it might all end happily for us."

"I'm going there to watch," James said.

His father shook his head. "I want you to promise you're going to keep well away from Midnight Cottage. You've already made an enemy with those two men, and that dog of theirs looks as though it could be dangerous."

"In that case," Jessica said, glancing at James, "can we borrow your binoculars again, Uncle Clive? We want to carry on looking for Granfer Joe's treasure box." She explained how they had spent time looking along the farm boundary, and now they wanted to search the walls and hedges that divided the fields.

Mr Cooper frowned. "Why do you need binoculars for that?"

"It's like this," Jessica explained. "We don't _only_ want to look for Granfer Joe's box. We want to see what those two men are doing. There's a great place between the trees by the old well. We can watch them from there, without them seeing us."

James thought straight away that this wasn't going to work. Both his mother and father started to object at the same time. His mother won.

"I don't want you falling down that old well," she said.

"There's no water in it," James said. "It's completely dry at the bottom."

"That's even worse," his mother told him. "Better to fall into water than onto hard ground."

"And I don't like to think of you spying on people," his father said.

Mrs Treloggan was nodding her head vigorously. "If you don't mind, Mr Cooper, Mrs Cooper, Mr Treloggan and I would be very pleased if them two could keep an eye on those men and let us know what they're up to."

"Mrs Treloggan is right, Dad. We wouldn't be spying. We'd just be keeping an eye on them from time to time while we search for Granfer Joe's treasure. It would be ... observation."

"Well in that case," Mr Cooper said slowly, "perhaps----"

"Thanks, Dad. Can we have the binoculars, please? The sooner we start looking, the better."

"Looking for the treasure, Uncle Clive," Jessica said quickly. "Well, _and_ looking to see what those men are doing."

"And we'll keep out of trouble," James promised, guessing what his parents would say next. He picked up the binoculars where his father had put them on the table. "We'll be back in an hour."

"Or so," Jessica added.

### Chapter 7

"The first thing we do," James said, taking charge, "is to see what's happening on the spoil tip. We'll go straight across to the well."

"The Midnight Well," Jessica said. "Anyway, there's no need to be so bossy. I was going to go there first anyway."

"Sorry, Jessica, I got a bit carried away. You can have first dibs with the binoculars."

The old pathway, through the bracken and brambles to the well, was already getting beaten down. They walked quietly, not even turning round to see if the men _were_ looking. If the men were looking, they didn't want to raise their suspicions.

As soon as they were safely concealed by the trees, they went to the well, but James refused to sit on the low brick wall that surrounded it. "These bricks must be ever so old, and they're not even properly cemented into place. There's stuff growing in the gaps, like there was between the stones at Wheal Prosper Mine. That can't be doing them any good."

Jessica wasn't listening. She was looking through the binoculars across at the spoil tip. "I can see the digger. It's only a small one. There's no sign of the men."

James shielded his eyes with both hands. The small mechanical digger was on top of the spoil tip, and already some of the gorse and bracken had been removed, and was now lying down at the base of the large mound.

"Perhaps Mr Treloggan told them to stop," James suggested. "Oh no, here they come now."

The two men came out of the cottage laughing and joking together. They climbed to the top of the mound, and the man with the shaved head and tattoos climbed onto the digger and started the noisy engine.

The second man, with the long black hair, pointed to the ground. The driver swung the arm round and dug into the grit and stones on the top of the mound. Then he turned the arm sharply and released the bucket so that the contents emptied down the side.

Within a few minutes he had cleared an area about the size of a small car. The dark-haired man picked up the detector and ran it slowly and deliberately over the ground that had been cleared. Then he did it again and had a word with the driver.

"I'd love to know what they're saying," Jessica said, still looking through the binoculars."

James spotted the Hound of the Baskervilles now sniffing around the grounds. It was no longer on its chain. "Well, we're definitely _not_ going any closer. If that dog catches sight of us, I hate to think what would happen."

A low boundary wall of earth and stones, overgrown with brambles, divided the patch of ground in front of Midnight Cottage from the farm fields, but it looked as though a dog the size of that one could clear it without any trouble.

Jessica handed the binoculars to James. "We're supposed to be looking for Granfer Joe's treasure chest," she reminded him. "We can come back here and check up on the men in half an hour."

James shook his head. "They might be looking for the tin box in there."

Jessica tutted impatiently. "Mr Treloggan said there's _no_ way Granfer Joe could have buried it there. Even those two men need a digger to go down very far."

"He might have got someone else to dig the hole for him, but not said what it was for. Perhaps his box was packed full of gold."

"Have you any idea how heavy gold is, James? Granfer Joe couldn't even have lifted it, let alone filled the hole in after burying it. And it would have been hard to disguise the spot. It would take years to match the surroundings."

James groaned. "I was joking. I don't know where Granfer Joe's tin box is, but we can be sure it's not buried there. But something is."

"Pieces of tin and copper ore that the old miners missed. And possibly some silver ore."

"Yes, Jessica, that's what they _say_."

Jessica nodded. "In that case, we'll come back every quarter of an hour and see what's happening. They're hardly going to haul out anything big in fifteen minutes. See, they're moving on with the metal detector again. I'd _love_ to know what they're really up to."

"You just told me that they're looking for copper and silver ore. What's made you change your mind?"

"A girl has a right to change her mind," Jessica said, laughing. "It's a female privilege."

"Well, change it quietly," James warned. "Now they've switched the digger off, we don't want them to hear us."

Jessica pulled her phone from her pocket. "I can zoom right in with this. The picture quality is amazing. I'm going to take a couple of photos, just for the record."

James watched Jessica expand the picture on the screen with her fingers, until it showed a clear close-up of the men with the digger.

The picture froze as Jessica pressed the button, but the result looked slightly blurred. "I don't understand it. It looked really sharp when I took the picture." She passed the phone to James.

"I think it's camera shake. You've enlarged the picture so much by zooming right in, that you need to rest the phone on something." He passed it back to Jessica. "It's not important anyway. It's a good record. Don't ask me to do it. You know what I'm like with cameras."

Jessica took two more photographs, one of them not zoomed in as close as the first. She shrugged, switched off the phone, and slipped it back into the pocket of her jeans. "It will do," she agreed.

James picked up his whacking stick. "Let's get searching. We'll start in the corner over there, and work our way along the boundary between the two fields. You can do one side and I'll do the other."

Jessica looked to where he was pointing. "Sounds fine to me. You can do the side with the cows."

It took nearly half an hour to search two field boundaries, which was twice as long as the fifteen minutes they'd allowed before returning to what they were now calling Midnight Well. The search had been fruitless.

During their search they had been conscious of the digger engine starting and stopping. James had first turn with the binoculars when they reached the clump of trees, but it was easy enough for Jessica to see details on the mound from the other side of the field with her bare eyes.

In the Two Jays' absence, the men had doubled the size of the area that was cleared, and the digger driver was tipping scoopfuls of grit and rock over the side.

"I don't understand," James said, letting the binoculars hang on the strap round his neck. "My friend at school, Dave, has a metal detector and I've been out a few times with him on the common. You have to be quite close to small bits of metal before you can find them."

"So what's the problem?"

"Well, they're tipping all the stuff they're digging out into a big heap, and they're not bothering to check it first with the detector, or even their eyes. I'd have thought they'd skim a shallow bit off, check the ground underneath for copper or tin ore, and do the same again. How are they going to use their detector to search the pile of rubble they've dumped at the bottom of the mound?"

Jessica carefully lifted the binoculars from James's neck. "Good thinking, boy. And it's all mixed up with gorse and bracken. So what are they really doing?"

"There's probably an old tin miner buried in there, with a gold tooth. That's what the detector has picked up. Gold."

Jessica had to look at him carefully to make sure James was joking, because he kept a straight face. She decided to play along with him. "I don't think the detector would pick up _one_ gold tooth. There are probably half a dozen dead miners down there, all with gold teeth."

"Problem solved. I think people are buried about six feet down, so they won't be there for a bit. Let's go and search another field. We'll do the far boundary of the field with the cows. And it's your turn on the side with the cows this time."

By the time they returned to Midnight Well after yet another fruitless search, the digger driver had cleared nearly the whole top of the mound. Below the mound was a growing pile of rock and grit, mixed up with the greenery from the top surface.

The digger was still there on top, but there was no sign of the two men. The Hound of the Baskervilles was once again chained to the iron ring on the cottage wall.

"What now?" Jessica asked.

"You go across and pat the dog to keep it quiet, while I examine what they've been doing on top."

"And Plan B?"

"We go back to the farm and see if Mr Treloggan has found out anything about what the men are doing."

Jessica nodded. "I like Plan B much better. But let's go back to the farm quietly. We don't want the men to find out that we've been hiding in these trees."

Mrs Treloggan was in the large farmhouse kitchen, but Mr Treloggan was in the milking shed, preparing it for later when he brought the cows in.

"Come in, my dears, I'm guessing you didn't find anything."

Jessica shook her head. "We've still got more boundaries to search, but nothing so far. What did the two men say to Mr Treloggan?"

"Oh, some nonsense about the good ore will be down deeper, so they've decided to take off the top, and then take their time with the metal detector. Doesn't make sense to me."

"They've already dug a quite deep hole by hand," James explained. "They dug down to the earth." He frowned. "No, that doesn't make sense either. They haven't gone down nearly as far as ground level. Why would there be earth in the middle of the spoil tip?"

Mrs Treloggan fetched a large fruitcake from the pantry. "Let's not be worrying your heads about that now, my dears. You need to get some of this cake inside you. You'll be wearing yourselves away to shadows if you're not careful."

Jessica looked across at James who was already sitting at the table in anticipation. "Shadow?" she said. "Fat chance of that happening with you, James."

"Where are my mum and dad, Mrs Treloggan?" James asked, deciding not to get involved with Jessica's comments. Anyway, he was only a little bit heavier than she was.

"Them's upstairs with their feet up," Mrs Treloggan said. A loud creak came from the staircase. "Oh, that will be them now, my dears. Just in time for a cup of tea and a slice of fruitcake."

"What's all this about fruitcake?" Mr Cooper asked as he came into the kitchen.

"Dad," James said, "how could you possibly smell the fruitcake from upstairs?"

"Pure chance, James, pure chance. Mum and I were having forty winks, and then you two came into the house like a couple of elephants, so we thought we might as well come down." He looked at Mrs Treloggan. "Yes please, I'd love a slice of that delicious looking cake."

He turned to James. "What news have our two spies brought back?"

"Observers, not spies," James reminded him. "It's odd. Those men are supposed to be looking for pieces of tin and copper ore, but they're just shovelling everything into a heap at the side, without bothering to sort through it. It's as though they're after something deeper down, but we've no idea what."

His mother had now joined them at the table, and also accepted a slice of the fruitcake. Their holiday arrangement was called bed-and-breakfast, or B&B, but the family had paid extra for an evening meal, which meant they only had to find their own lunch. This was fine, because they could have lunch or a picnic out, without needing to come back to the farm every day. And the cake was a welcome bonus!

"We've been watching them from the trees by the old well," Jessica said. "Why hasn't it got any water in it, if it's a well?"

"Now there's a thing," Mrs Treloggan said. "I remember going up there two or three times a day for a bucket of water when I were a cheel. That's a girl," she explained as everyone frowned. "Of course, I weren't a Treloggan then. I were a Mallon. Granfer was Joe Mallon. Mr Treloggan were a handsome young man living at the farm along the way. We lived here when we married, and Mr Treloggan took on the farm. Anyway, Granfer Joe decided to see if we could open the old tin mine, because lots of people in Cornwall were interested in mining again."

"And that's when it blew up?" James said.

"Well it didn't exactly blow up by itself, my dear," Mrs Treloggan said. "They set explosives a little way in to clear a blockage. Somebody got it wrong, and it brought the whole tunnel down. And that's when the well ran dry. Happened a lot all over Cornwall, so I've heard tell. The good Lord knew what he were doing when he let the water come to the wells, and the miners upset all his water channels with their explosives."

"So what did you do for water?" Jessica asked.

"It weren't too bad, my dear. There were an old well in the field across the road, and it just needed cleaning out a bit. But the water did smell. My mother said we had to boil it before we could drink it. And then the council laid the water mains, so it meant we could have a bath. Five years we had to wait before we could have a bath."

Jessica looked at Mrs Treloggan in amazement. "Five years? For a bath?"

Mrs Treloggan laughed. "Pulling your leg, young miss. We never wanted for fresh water or baths. Not that we had baths very often in those days. A lick and a promise my mother called it. Now, who wants another slice of cake?"

James lifted his plate up, but his mother caught hold of his wrist and lowered it to the table. "Thank you, Mrs Treloggan," she said, "that was delicious, but we won't be having any more."

James detected the firmness in his mother's voice, and kept quiet, while Jessica gave him a friendly nudge.

"So what have you two been up to this afternoon?" his father asked. "Apart from, er ... observing ... what's going on at Midnight Cottage."

"We've been searching along the field boundaries for Granfer Joe's tin box," Jessica explained. "We've still got lots to search, so we're not giving up yet."

"Well, you'd better carry on now," Mr Cooper said. "Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. First it's chapel for the Easter service, and then on to Kerley Downs to look at Billy Bray's chapel and explore the area where he lived with his family."

"That be Twelveheads," Mrs Treloggan said. "Sad it is, now. Mr Treloggan and I were on a chapel outing there last year. There's hardly anything left of poor Billy's house, as I expect you'll be seeing for yourselves tomorrow."

At that moment Mr Treloggan, wearing his old trilby hat, came to the kitchen door. His boots were muddy and he came no further. "I still don't know what those two men are up to, but they reckon they've got the law on their side. They knew what they was doing when they got us to sign the contract. But at least we get half of what they find. But I don't like the way they're digging up that old mound and chucking all the bits here there and everywhere. I was sort of attached to that old mound. It's always looked like that since I were a tacker."

"That's a small boy," Mrs Treloggan translated for them helpfully. "There, there, Mr Treloggan," she said gently, "I'm sure it will all work out well in the end."

James glanced across at Jessica, and he could tell she was thinking the same as he was. He wasn't sure it _would_ all work out well in the end.

The Two Jays searched on and off until dusk, but there was no sign of Granfer Joe's tin box. Another hour and the search of the field boundaries would be complete.

The men had not returned to Midnight Cottage by bedtime, but the small digger was still on top of the mound, and the Hound of the Baskervilles, chained to the cottage wall, let out the occasional loud howl.

Before going to sleep, Jessica took one last look out of her bedroom window. She could see some lights bobbing about in the field that led to Midnight Cottage. They were unlikely to be the dancing skeletons James had warned her about, but she closed the curtains tightly, jumped into bed, and pulled the duvet tightly around her body.

### Chapter 8

Easter Day

The day dawned with a bright sun. Jessica's room faced east, and the rising sun shone brightly against her curtains. She slipped out of bed and cautiously opened them. No skeletons in the field. The blue Land Rover was back now, but there was no sign of the men.

She looked at the time on her phone. It was only just after six o'clock. She jumped back into bed and pulled the duvet around her knees, reached for her Bible on the bedside table, and found the day's reading in her notes. Easter was a very special time.

James opened his own Bible and read the fist few verses of Luke 24. "But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, 'Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.'"

Easter was definitely a very special time. After reading these verses he didn't feel like jumping out of bed and opening his curtains. Instead, he thought back to Easter Day last year, when for the first time he understood what it meant to be a real Christian. His mum and dad had always taken him to church, so he thought all he had to do was be good in order to get to heaven. Unfortunately, he knew he wasn't very good at being good.

He decided he would get out of bed after all, but as he climbed out he realised that his leg felt more bruised than it had yesterday. Cautiously he knelt by the side of the bed and thanked Jesus for accepting him just as he was, faults and all. It had been at the Easter service when he first realised that _no one_ was good enough, and _everyone_ had to come to Jesus for forgiveness and new life. "Hallelujah, thank you!" he said aloud.

An hour later, Mrs Treloggan served the usual excellent breakfast, and Mr Treloggan milked the cows as usual. James realised that the Treloggans being farmers, meant there could be no day off, and no holidays.

Mr Cooper had a folded map of the area on the table. "This is what we'll do," he announced. "The chapel service is at ten, and it's not likely to be much more than an hour. As soon as it finishes we'll drive straight to a place near Billy Bray's territory called Baldhu. It's not even an hour away, although driving through Helston is likely to be a problem. It seems everyone has to go through Helston, no matter where they want to go."

"Dad and I have already prepared the sandwiches and food for the picnic," Mrs Cooper said. "So all we have to do is remember to take them with us when we leave for chapel."

They went to the same chapel they had visited on Good Friday, and many of the people recognised them, shook hands, and asked them if they were enjoying Cornwall. James noticed several families there, which he felt was always a good sign in a church or chapel. This service was likely to be more young-people friendly than some he'd attended while on holiday.

The arms of the wooden cross below the platform were no longer covered in black cloth, but were now completely empty. Vases of wild flowers had been placed around the foot of the cross, along with a large board with the words "Halleluiah, Christ is Risen."

All through the service, James kept thinking back to last Easter. Jessica, who was on a seat next to him, clearly understood how he was feeling. He had shared what had happened to him, and although they were cousins, she had pointed out they were now brother and sister -- in Christ!

Mr Cooper's concerns about hold-ups in Helston were justified. Long queues of traffic met them at each of several roundabouts, but as soon as they were on the main road to Truro things improved, and when it became dual carriageway they made good progress.

The turning to Baldhu led them onto a minor road, and there were very few cars going in their direction.

"Baldhu? I thought Billy Bray's chapel is at Kerley Downs," James said, looking out at the sides of the road which were lined with stone walls in which grew yellow and pink plants. It seemed that these were standard road boundaries in this part of Cornwall.

Mr Cooper nodded. "First, we're going to stop at Baldhu itself. Jessica, do you remember how you thought Billy Bray had been converted while preaching one of his own sermons?"

"You told me that was a clergyman called William Haslam," she said. "Now you're confusing me, Uncle Clive."

"Sorry, I just wanted to remind you. Yes, it _was_ William Haslam. William Haslam built the church, a school and the vicarage all in a year." He glanced at his sat-nav which was plugged into one of the heater vents. "A couple of minutes and there should be a turning on the left."

There was indeed a turning on the left, and Mr Cooper stopped the car outside a school building that was now a day nursery.

"William Haslam built _that_?" James said.

His father laughed. "Not on his own, James. There were a lot of tin miners and agricultural workers unemployed at the time, and they were glad to be paid to work. Now, if we get out of the car, we can see the old church which is now converted into apartments."

The old church was on the other side of the road just a bit further on. On the large gate it said Private. "We can go into the old churchyard as long as we're quiet," Mr Cooper explained. "That large monument in front of us marks Billy Bray's grave." He shook his head. "Billy Bray was a rough and ready tin miner. He was looking forward to a crown in heaven, but I'm sure he would never have wanted something as showy as this on earth!"

James looked up at the large church building. "And William Haslam built _that_ as well. Wow."

"You weren't listening," Jessica said.

"Yes I was," he retorted. "I told you yesterday, my hearing is fine. It's my leg that's bad. A lot of unemployed tin miners built it. But William Haslam was still in charge."

His mother turned with a concerned look on her face. "How bad is your leg, James?"

"Bad, but I'm being brave," James said, suddenly limping.

"Don't worry, Aunty Amy," Jessica said, "it's fine. He's probably even forgotten about it. If it really _was_ bad, we'd have been hearing about it all morning."

"So much sympathy," James said. "Where's the vicarage?"

"It's no longer a vicarage," his father said. "It's beyond the old church, but that really _is_ private. So now we'll go on to the chapel that Billy Bray built."

James was making a bit of a show of rubbing his leg. Now that it had been mentioned, he realised it _was_ still hurting. But only a bit. "Is that private too?"

His father shook his head. "It's open every day, and they have the occasional service there. I'm sure we'll be able to look inside."

"I saw the dancing skeletons last night," Jessica said suddenly, as they all got back to the car.

"In your dreams?" James said, and everyone laughed.

"No, really. Dancing in the fields. I saw their lights."

"What did the skeletons look like?" James demanded. "Were they scary?"

"I didn't actually _see_ them," Jessica admitted, feeling herself turning red. "I wish I'd never said anything, now you're all laughing at me. There were lights dancing in the field that leads to Midnight Cottage."

"More likely pixies," James said. "There are a lot of pixies in Cornwall."

"Don't talk nonsense," his mother said. "And stop teasing Jessica."

James thought for a moment. "Were they flashing lights?"

"Why?" Jessica asked.

"It might have been someone being eaten by the Hound of the Baskervilles. They might have been flashing out SOS in Morse code on their phone, to indicate that they needed help. You know, dot dot dot, dash dash dash, dot dot dot. Or is it dash dash dash, dot dot dot, dash dash dash? I can never remember."

Jessica gave a long sigh. "It doesn't matter, as long as you keep going. If you keep going, you'll end up sending SOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOS."

"Will you two please stop this nonsense," Mrs Cooper said firmly. "Let's all have a peaceful day." She put an arm around Jessica. "I'm sure you saw something," she said. "We'll ask the Treloggans about it when we get back."

Jessica shook her head. "Can we forget I ever said anything? _Please_."

They drove a little way along the main road, before Mr Cooper checked his rear-view mirror and slowed the car as they approached a left-hand bend in the road. "There's a narrow turning on the left any moment now. Yes, there it is."

A sign pointed to Billy Bray's chapel. They'd arrived. "It's huge," James said. "Did Billy Bray really build all this?"

There were two cars already in the large parking area. "Ever since it was built it's been known as Three Eyes Chapel, although it's been enlarged over time. Any ideas how it got its name?" Mr Cooper asked, as they climbed from the car.

"Because it's got three windows in a row," Jessica said. "That was easy."

Mr Cooper laughed. "You're right, and yet you're wrong. What did I say about the size of the chapel when we arrived?"

Jessica bit her bottom lip as she thought. "It used to be smaller. There were only two windows, so it used to be called Two Eyes Chapel?" she suggested.

"Sorry, Jessica," Mr Cooper said. "There were two windows this side and one on the other, so that made three. It's very difficult now to see which parts of the chapel are the original. People who come here think Three Eyes is a friendly name, but it was originally meant as an insult from people who didn't want a chapel here, and didn't want God either. Let's see if the door is open."

The dark red door was in a tiny porch at the far end. The floor was raised at the entrance, sloping down to the foot of the large platform and pulpit at the front. A table had an arrangement of souvenirs.

James was studying some pictures on the left-hand wall. "There are some photographs here of the chapel in the olden days. And that must be Billy Bray in the painting on the front wall. He looks sort of ... well ... friendly. I think I'd have liked to meet him. So he and William Haslam became great friends, I imagine."

Mr Cooper told everyone to sit down in one of the rows. "Billy lived a short distance down the hill from here, in a tiny village called Twelveheads. He was married and gave his wife a hard time. Although he worked long hours in the mine, he led a really bad life, and often came home drunk. One day he was nearly killed when a mine collapsed, and he made up his mind to find God and be a real Christian. He prayed and prayed, and he later wrote that he suddenly felt the peace of God flowing through him, and the whole world looked like new. From then on he became well known for shouting and dancing in the chapels because he was so happy to know Jesus as his Saviour. And he never missed an opportunity to tell people about Jesus."

"So that's when he became friends with William Haslam at Baldhu?" Jessica said. "They must have been a great help to each other."

Mr Cooper gave a deep sigh. "If only. It's different now. When we're on holiday we sometimes go to the local church and sometimes to the chapel. The services are a bit different, but we're all worshipping the same Saviour. But in those days church and chapel people were almost enemies. William Haslam wrote that one day he flogged a boy in school who said he'd been to a Methodist chapel and been converted. He said he flogged the boy until he said he wasn't converted after all, and promised never to go to the Methodist chapel again."

James said, "That's terrible. I hope that was before he was converted while preaching his own sermon."

Mr Cooper nodded. "It most definitely was. William Haslam wrote that he had no idea what conversion was, and he certainly didn't want to hear anything about it in his own church. Billy Bray had been praying for the people in the area for several years, and on the day the church opened and held its first service, he went along in great excitement to see what was happening. He came away in disgust. He said the whole service was a ritual, with no mention of Jesus calling people to come to him for forgiveness."

"So how did William Haslam and Billy Bray meet up?" Jessica asked.

"Three years later, Billy heard that William Haslam was converted. He came all the way from Bodmin on his donkey to see if it was true. When he met William Haslam in the vicarage at Baldhu, and heard it from his own mouth, Billy picked the vicar up and carried him round the room in excitement. And that was something I'm sure Billy Bray thought he'd never be doing after his first visit to Baldhu Church!"

"Mrs Treloggan said that Billy Bray's family house is near here," Jessica said. "Can we go and see it?"

"But Mrs Treloggan said it's in a dreadful state," James added. "In that case, I'm not sure I want to look. And if Billy Bray built three chapels, where are the other two?"

Mr Cooper said, "The first one called Bethel turned out to be much too small, and it's down near Billy's house. A much bigger chapel was needed soon afterwards, and Bethel was turned into a meetinghouse and perhaps a schoolroom. All that's left of it now is a heap of the stones."

"And the third one?" James asked.

"It's a bit further along the main road towards Chasewater, but it's been replaced by a modern house now."

"Well, _I_ want to see Billy Bray's family house. So can you take us there now please, Uncle Clive?"

"Why don't we all sit here quietly," Mrs Cooper said, "and think about all the wonderful things that have happened here in this chapel. Billy Bray said that if it stood for 100 years, and one soul was converted every year, then it was worth all the hard work he put in. On the first night Billy preached here, two women gave their lives to Jesus. And guess what? Billy said the chapel was paid for already!"

Jessica whispered to James, "That happened _here_. Just _here_ , in this chapel where we're sitting today. Wow."

Mrs Cooper nodded. "Billy had to work a full shift in the mine, raise money to buy the building materials for this chapel, come here to build it against serious opposition from some local people -- _and_ look after his wife, Joanna, and at least five children. Billy called her Joey. He and Joey took in two homeless children to add to the mouths they had to feed."

Jessica felt like crying. "That's amazing. What wonderful work he did for God. Three chapels and many souls saved. Must be a record."

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Although there had been two cars parked outside, nobody came in as Mr Cooper gave a brief prayer of thanks for the work of the old tin miner for God. Then Mrs Cooper prayed, followed by Jessica and then James, as they asked that the work Billy Bray started would continue today, not just in Cornwall, but throughout the world where the story of his life was still being told.

### Chapter 9

The family arrived back at Midnight Farm not long before the evening meal. Mrs Cooper apologised, and said that the traffic was bad, and they were glad they'd been able to phone to say they'd be late.

Mrs Treloggan laughed. "No worries at all, my dears. I'm used to folks on holiday getting delayed down here at busy times like this. Food will be served in fifteen minutes, so go to your rooms and make yourselves comfortable. I'll call you when I'm ready."

Jessica came down long before she was called. She wanted to have a quiet word with Mrs Treloggan alone. "I don't want to be in the way, but I have something to ask you," she said, slightly nervously. "Please don't laugh at me, but last night I saw lights moving around in the field outside my bedroom window."

Mrs Treloggan turned round in surprise, nearly dropping a large dish she was taking from the oven. "Did you now? Well, my dear, I think Mr Treloggan will want to have a word with you. You might be able to explain a mystery that's been puzzling him all day."

"I only saw lights," Jessica said. "I didn't see anything else. What's the mystery?"

"Well now.... Ah, here's Mr Treloggan himself. He'll be able to tell you. Take your boots off, Mr Treloggan, and come in here. This girl may be able to help you about them holes in the field."

"I didn't dig them," Jessica said quickly, as Mr Treloggan washed his hands in the large white earthenware sink. "I was telling Mrs Treloggan about the lights I saw in the field when I was going to bed."

"I knew it," Mr Treloggan said angrily.

Jessica waited for him to say what it was he knew.

After a long period of silence, in which Mr Treloggan seemed to be calming down, he said, "It's those metal detector people again. If I catch them on my land, I'll----"

"There, there, Mr Treloggan," his wife said, "don't be forgetting there's a young lady here."

Mr Treloggan gave a hearty laugh. "I'm sure the young lady knows how I feel. She can't think I'll kiss them and thank them for digging holes in the field for my cattle to stumble into."

At that moment there was a loud creak from the stairs and James came down, attracted by the laughter.

"See, James," Jessica said, "it _wasn't_ my imagination. People with metal detectors have been digging in the field outside my window."

"Sorry, Jessica," James said, "I should have believed you." But he didn't sound particularly apologetic.

"Is it the two men who've rented Midnight Cottage?" Jessica asked. "They've got a metal detector. Probably more than one."

Mr Treloggan stroked his chin. "You could be right there, miss," he said. "The agreement we signed only lets them dig on the spoil tip. No mention of them detecting in any of my fields. I'll have a strong word with them."

"Please don't mention _me_ ," Jessica said. "They don't like James and me as it is, and I wouldn't want them getting even more angry with us. Look what they did to James when he was on the bike. Uncle Clive says they were letting us know to keep away, but only trying to frighten James, not hit him."

"Don't you worry, my dear," Mrs Treloggan said. "Mr Treloggan won't mention your name at all. Will you, Mr Treloggan?"

The large Cornish farmer shook his head. "It's like Mrs Treloggan says. I won't mention your name at all. But if it _is_ them, I might be able to get them thrown out of Midnight Cottage for breach of contract." He smiled to himself. "Yes, that might be the answer."

"So what are they _really_ looking for?" James asked. "We know it can't be Granfer Joe's box of treasures. And we're too far inland for pirates or smugglers to have come with heavy chests hundreds of years ago. But there's something buried around here that's made it worth the expense of hiring a small digger."

They heard a loud crack from the staircase as James's parents came down. "I hope we've not missed anything," Mr Cooper said. "I'm hungry, but we didn't hear anyone calling. Just James and Jessica sounding rather excited. What's been going on?"

"Those lights weren't my imagination, Uncle Clive," Jessica said. "Someone's been digging at night in the field, and Mr Treloggan thinks it's people with metal detectors. Probably the two men at Midnight Cottage."

"Well now, sit down, my dears," Mrs Treloggan said. "Let's not be worrying ourselves about what's going on out there. I hope you're ready for a treat. Large pasties all round, made to the real Cornish recipe. As we says here, proper job."

James felt he could hardly move as he rose from the table. The mention of a Cornish pasty, before they started, hadn't seemed like much of a meal. But the steak pasty was enormous, with a generous side salad, followed by a large slice of homemade apple pie served with a large spoonful of Cornish clotted cream.

He noticed that Jessica had not only eaten all her pasty, but had finished her apple pie surprisingly quickly. What an appetite the girl had! He watched her hurry up the old staircase to her room. Perhaps she was going to be sick.

"Are you okay?" he asked, as she returned almost immediately, looking completely well.

"Of course I am," she said, colouring up slightly. "I just wanted to see to something in my room." She turned to Mr Cooper. "Are we doing anything else this evening, Uncle Clive?"

Her aunt answered. "We've had a busy day, Jessica. I think we ought to sit down and read. I've just found a book about Billy Bray on the shelf in the living room. I want to settle down with it."

Jessica wished she'd found it first. "After you, please, Aunty Amy."

In the living room, the rest of the family examined the row of old and modern books on the shelf. James found one about ancient Cornwall, which he took to one of the comfortable armchairs.

The book was divided into various sections. First there was the Neolithic period, with photographs and drawings of standing stones and long burial mounds called barrows. Then came the Bronze Age with circular burial mounds, followed by the Celtic period with tall crosses carved from granite. There were remains of old buildings, including something called St Piran's Oratory at Perranzabuloe, a sixth or seventh century chapel on the north Cornish coast, which was drawn and photographed in various stages of decay and reconstruction.

He let out a sudden, "Hey!"

Everyone looked up from their books. "I hope you're not going to keep doing that," his mother said, putting a finger on the page she was reading in order to keep her place. "We'd all like a bit of peace and quiet now."

James was not to be silenced. "I know what those two men are doing down there," he said. "They've found a Bronze Age burial mound. It's not a spoil tip from the mine at all!"

Jessica was the only one who seemed to be interested in what he was saying. "Go on," she said.

James nodded excitedly. "There are pictures here of all sorts of things that have been found in Bronze Age burial mounds. There's a big thing to go round the neck called a torc, and it's made of solid gold. And there's a gold plate, a gold cup, bronze beakers, swords and all sorts of other things. We've got to stop them!"

His father looked up from his guidebook, and James could see he'd got his attention at last. His mother had returned to her book on Billy Bray.

"There's just one problem, James," his father said. "The mound by the cottage is _definitely_ a spoil tip, and they didn't have spoil tips in the Bronze Age, because they couldn't do that sort of deep mining. Good idea, but it doesn't hold water."

"Like the Midnight Well," Jessica whispered. "Your mum's right, we want some peace and quiet, so no more bright ideas, please."

James nodded. "At least you're calling it a bright idea, so thanks for the compliment. Now, shush, leave me alone. I want to read about the old granite crosses we keep seeing on our travels."

All went quiet for a few minutes, until James shut his book with a sharp snap. "It's definitely treasure," he said. "Okay, so it's _not_ a Bronze Age tumulus, but there's something in it that's more valuable than a few bits of tin and copper ore. If what they're looking for isn't in the spoil tip, it must be in the field. That's why those men were detecting there at night, when they thought they wouldn't be seen."

James thought Jessica possibly looked a bit interested, but his parents sighed. "Bedtime soon," his mother said. "Dad and I want some peace. Perhaps you and Jessica would like to go and read in your rooms. An early night isn't going to do you any harm at all."

James signalled to Jessica to go upstairs with him. "Sounds like a sensible idea," he told his mother. "Good night, Mum, Dad. See you in the morning. We might go out on our bikes again before breakfast, so I want an early night."

"What's up?" Jessica asked as soon as they were upstairs.

"It's dark now," James said. "Let's go and look out of your window, but keep your bedroom light off. We don't want to attract attention."

"You think the skeletons will be dancing again?"

"Skeletons with metal detectors -- that's what I think. Those men know there's something valuable out there, and they've wasted too much time digging at the old spoil tip, and now they're trying the field. But they have to do it at night, because they don't have permission to search there."

"Sounds sensible to me," Jessica said. "Well, sensible for you."

They made their way in the dark to the window in Jessica's bedroom. In a way, Jessica was hoping that there would be no lights. She blamed James for putting the idea into her head that the lights might have some weird explanation, although someone or something with the lights had definitely been digging holes, and that made people the more likely explanation. Of course, it could have been badgers or some other wild animal, but she couldn't imagine badgers having lights on their heads as they dug.

The field outside was dark. They stayed at the window for over ten minutes, and saw nothing. They heard a crack on the stairs, and knew it was one of James's parents on their way up.

"I'd better go to my room," James said. "You keep watch, and come in and tell me if you see anything."

"I'll text you. We've both got good phone signals here, even though we are out in the sticks. Good night."

Jessica pulled the bedroom chair over to the window and sat and watched. The field stayed dark. Suddenly she woke up with a bump. She'd fallen off the chair. One last look out of the window. Nothing. Definitely time for bed.

### Chapter 10

Monday

James lay in bed half-asleep the next morning. It wasn't even properly light. He looked at his phone. No flashing green light, so he'd not missed a text from Jessica while fast asleep. He wondered whether to text her and ask if she'd seen anything.

His phone went ping, making him jump. _Are you awake?_ It was a text from Jessica. _Am now_ he replied. _Why?_

_Let's go see holes in field_.

Fifteen minutes. Just woken up. Read my Bible first.

Good. Knock my door when u ready. No hurry. Awake ages.

Did you see lights?

Asleep all night. Saw nothing.

James picked up his Bible reading notes, and found the verses on his phone. He had an app with all sorts of different Bible versions, which he loved. He also loved this time alone with Jesus. Sometimes he had to remember to stop talking, and listen.

As soon as he was ready, he tapped quietly on Jessica's door. She opened it immediately, wearing her jacket. They crept downstairs, carefully avoiding the stair with the loud creak.

Needless to say, Mrs Treloggan was already in the large kitchen, and from noises in the yard they knew that Mr Treloggan was also up and working. "Cycling again, are you, my dears?" Mrs Treloggan asked.

James shook his head. "We still haven't covered all the hedges on the farm looking for Granfer Joe's metal box. And we'd also like to look at the holes Mr Treloggan found in the field, if that's all right."

"As long as you don't go twisting your ankles in them," Mrs Treloggan said, smiling. "And how is your leg this morning, James?"

James looked down at his jeans, which he was now wearing again instead of shorts. "It's fine thank you, Mrs Treloggan."

"It is, Mrs Treloggan," Jessica said. "He'd let me know if it wasn't!" And she laughed.

"Jessica's my cousin," James said. "It's like having an annoying sister. She's always trying to put me in my place and boss me around!" He joined in the laughter. "She's okay really. We enjoy joking with each other. We're best friends really, and we have some great holidays together."

On their way through the farmyard to the field, they could hear Mr Treloggan moving around in the milking shed, but they decided not to go and see him. They wanted to get to the field quickly, before the men at Midnight Cottage were up. They didn't want to be seen investigating the holes in the field.

The grass in the field was quite long. Clearly the cows hadn't been grazing there yet. Some of the holes were easy to see, and others had been roughly filled in, leaving broken earth on the surface.

"Come on, Sherlock Holmes," Jessica said, "what do you make of it?"

James frowned. "First, I'm wondering where the Hound of the Baskervilles is." He pointed to the cottage doorway. The iron ring hung empty on the wall.

"It's probably inside. No one's up yet. The old sheets are still hanging at the windows. So what are these holes all about?"

James kicked the soil heaped up beside one of them. "When I've been metal detecting with my friend Dave, he uses a trowel. It looks as though these holes have been dug with a spade. So why?"

"What sort of things does your friend find?"

"Old bottle caps, the occasional coin. Bits and pieces like that. He's always hoping to find a gold ring."

"Okay, so let's say the people who dug these holes have a much more powerful detector than your friend. That means it will find things much deeper in the ground. You can't dig a deep hole with a trowel, so that's why they're using a spade."

"Who are _they_?"

Jessica pointed towards Midnight Cottage. "Those two, of course. They've given up digging on the mound, and now they're checking out the field. I don't know how they know, but they've got it into their heads that there's something really valuable hidden around here. And it's _not_ Granfer Joe's tin box of treasures."

James nodded. "I think Mr Treloggan ought to ask them straight out what they're looking for. It's obviously not----" He broke off as a fierce snarling sound came from close behind.

He turned quickly. The large black Hound of the Baskervilles crouched there, its lips drawn back, exposing a row of wicked looking teeth. It seemed ready to spring.

While James stood rigid with fright, Jessica seemed more relaxed. Slowly she reached into the pocket of her jacket and drew something out. James watched in amazement as she tossed part of a Cornish pasty to the dog.

For a moment James thought the dog was going to completely ignore it, but it must have caught the scent of meat and gravy, and its snarl disappeared as it lowered its head to the ground, sniffing.

In a second it snapped up the food, chewing it noisily.

"What do we do now?" James said.

"I'm giving it second helpings." Jessica sounded much more comfortable than James felt. She reached into her pocket again and tossed another chunk of pasty onto the ground. The dog ate it up greedily.

James wondered if it got much food at the cottage. "Do you have any more pasty?"

Jessica shook her head.

"Then we're going to be in trouble when it's finished chewing that lot."

Jessica still looked relaxed. "It hasn't had its afters yet. I've got half of my apple pie from last night in my pocket. That's why I had to run upstairs. It was delicious, but I couldn't eat all of it. I didn't want Mrs Treloggan to think I didn't like it, so I hid it in the pocket of my jacket, and was going to throw it away this morning."

James was looking at the dog. It no longer seemed ready to attack, and perhaps it saw them as friends. "I think it's ready for the apple pie now. Throw it a little way to one side, and we'll creep away."

A shout came from Midnight Cottage. "What are you doing with my dog?" the man with the shaved head shouted. "Just leave it alone."

The dog raced back to the cottage, jumping the boundary fence with ease.

"That dog is dangerous," Jessica shouted back. "We were just walking in the field and we thought it was going to attack us."

"Then keep away from here," the man yelled. "Stupid interfering kids. If you're not wobbling all over the place on your bikes, you're making a nuisance of yourselves with my dog. Now go, and don't come back round here again!"

Jessica caught hold of James's arm. "Let's just leave," she said. "Don't say anything more to him. They're definitely up to something. After breakfast we'll go back to Midnight Well with your dad's binoculars and keep watch."

"And try and bring some more pasty," James said. "That piece in your pocket was a lifesaver." He thought for a moment. "A literal lifesaver!"

As they turned to go, they heard the engine start on the small mechanical digger on top of the mound.

"What are they going to do next?" Jessica asked. "Come here and dig up the whole field?"

They watched the driver, the man with the shaved head, plunge the scoop into the top of the mound and dig deep into the surface, tipping the dirt to one side. He did the same again to the left hand side, and then moved the digger forward slightly to make the excavated patch larger.

The man with the long black hair came to the top of the mound with his metal detector and looked directly at the Two Jays. "Go away!" he shouted. "You want to watch out for our dog."

James and Jessica went away.

Mrs Treloggan was surprised to see them back so quickly. "You look a bit upset about something, my dears," she said, placing a large baking tray of something into the oven of the Aga.

"We were in the field looking at the holes, and the men's dog came and started snarling at us," James explained. "We thought it was going to attack us."

"Nasty brute that," Mrs Treloggan said. "They're supposed to keep it chained up when they're not taking it for a walk. We're worried about our cows. What did you do?"

"It's all right," Jessica said. "I had some ... some, er, leftover food in my pocket. It seemed to be sort of quite friendly after that."

"Well, you were fortunate there, my dear. Not that I can imagine healthy young girls having any leftover food, but you never know with you young ladies today."

"Very fortunate," James agreed, thinking how fortunate it was that Jessica hadn't made the mistake of saying she had half of yesterday evening's pasty and apple pie stuffed into her pocket.

"Well, my dears, Mr Treloggan will be having a word with them about that, I'm sure. In the meantime, maybe it's best if you keep away from that field."

"We will," Jessica assured the farmer's wife. "Keep well away."

Mrs Treloggan began to fill a large saucepan with water. "Breakfast won't be for awhile, my dears. Mr and Mrs Cooper won't be down for a bit. Why don't you go in the living room and turn on the television news, or find a book to read. I'll call you when everything is ready."

"I thought you were going to tell Mrs Treloggan about the pasty and apple pie," James said quietly when they were in the long sitting room.

"Well, I wasn't," Jessica said. "Well, yes, I _nearly_ was, but I stopped myself in time. I didn't want to sound rude about Mrs Treloggan's food."

James fetched the book he'd been reading last night, and sat down with a thump in the comfortable armchair he'd sat in last night. "I'm going to read more about burial mounds."

Jessica found a book of Sudoku puzzles that had plenty of puzzles left, and she set about a three star one.

"Come over here," James said suddenly.

"Busy," Jessica muttered. "You nearly made me put a four in the box, and there's already one there. No wait, what am I doing? That four shouldn't be there anyway. It should be a nine."

"Never mind about that. Come over here and look at this."

"Not a nine. It should be a five," Jessica said. "You're muddling me up."

"Jessica, come _now_!"

Jessica put the Sudoku book down, marking the place with the pen. "You're too bossy, you are. You're like a bossy brother!"

"I've already told you, _you're_ like a bossy sister. But this is interesting."

James showed her the photographs of round barrows in the book. "In Victorian times the miners used to dig them out in their spare time, because they knew there was sometimes treasure in them. More often there was not much more than a bowl of ashes."

"Ashes?"

"Cremation ashes. Bronze Age people often cremated their leaders. And sometimes they buried Bronze Age implements with them, and even gold objects. A big problem was that the miners just dug for what they called treasure, without keeping any records. Archaeologists, of course, excavate very carefully by hand, and take photographs and write everything down as they go. It seems that a lot of damage was done, but they weren't to know any better, I'm sure. It's like old castles and other ancient buildings that fell into disrepair. People just took the stones to build houses for themselves."

Jessica pointed to some huge upright stones with a massive stone top, looking like a giant's table. "Wouldn't the ashes be blown away in the wind?"

# "That's the Lanyon Quoit Dolmen at Penwith. It's been excavated. When it was built, the book says it was covered over with earth and grass, so it must have been a huge burial mound. But they're not all huge like that."

"So they don't all have a sort of cave inside them?"

James shook his head. "Look at these. They come in all sorts of sizes, but they're always round. Well, the Bronze Age ones are. The older Neolithic ones are long. Surprise surprise, they're called long barrows."

Jessica grabbed the book from James and studied the images closely. "This is better than Sudoku. You think your mum and dad will take us to see some?" She pretended to think. "Of course, with your broken leg, you'll probably have to stay in the car."

"I know you're very concerned for me, but my leg is much better today, thanks."

"Glad to hear it." Jessica pointed to the page. "This is interesting. I thought these barrows were always on the tops of high hills, but of course they have to be on flat ground if there aren't any hills."

"Like round here?"

Jessica looked closely at the page. "Yes, I suppose the chief is buried where he and his family live."

"So some barrows _look_ like spoil tips."

Jessica nodded. "Except spoil tips are made from rubble from a nearby mine."

"Like Midnight Mine."

Jessica kept the book open. "Oh well, it was just a stupid thought. There's a picture of something here with a fogou. It's at Sancreed, near Penzance. That's not far away."

James tried to take the book back. "What's a fogou?"

"It says here it's an Iron Age tunnel built of large rocks that goes down in a dip, and there are little rooms that lead off it. It's really dark inside. You'd love it."

James shook his head. "Not if it's Iron Age. That's too recent for me. It's Bronze Age or nothing!"

Jessica now knelt by the side of James's armchair, and they studied the photographs and wording together.

Jessica said, "I can't help thinking that if that spoil tip at Midnight Cottage _was_ built of earth instead of old grit and bits of rock from the mine, it would be a dead ringer for a Bronze Age burial mound. You think perhaps those two men don't know the difference between a burial mound and a spoil tip?"

James thought for a moment. "They _must_ know it's a spoil tip. They've been digging out pieces of copper and tin ore to make those souvenirs. I'm sure you don't find pieces of ore in a Bronze Age barrow. The men have already given some pieces to the Treloggans. I mean, it's elementary. Burial mounds are made with earth, with the burial deep inside covered with large rocks. Sure, there are some stones and bits and pieces mixed in with the earth, but the one at Midnight Cottage is one hundred percent mine-waste."

"But we saw earth at the bottom of the hole," Jessica reminded him.

"It could have fallen in from the top when they were digging. That doesn't prove anything."

At that moment a cracking sound came from the old staircase. "That's your mum and dad," Jessica said quickly. "Shall we tell them?"

"Tell them what?"

"You know, that the spoil tip might be a Bronze Age burial mound."

"They'd only laugh. As I said, it's the stupidest idea ever." Then he said quietly, "Well, perhaps not _the_ stupidest idea ever. Let's go back to the Midnight Well after breakfast with my dad's binoculars."

### Chapter 11

James's plan for the morning didn't work out. His father had other ideas for the day, and they included him and Jessica.

"Mrs Treloggan has kindly arranged a packed pasty lunch for us," Mr Cooper said at breakfast. "I know she doesn't usually give us lunch, but she says today it's a treat for us. We're going to explore the area."

"But, Dad," James protested, "you said the roads will be far too busy today. Bank Holiday Monday is going to be a nightmare. Caravans, camper vans and cars meeting each other head-on on the little roads and not being able to pass. Traffic jams going back for miles."

His father nodded. "You're right. Absolutely right."

"Great way to spend the day, Dad," James said.

"Ah," his father said, "but we're not taking the car. Mr Treloggan has shown us a way to get to the coast on a series of footpaths."

"But the beaches will be packed as well. Total waste of a day."

"We're not going on the beach, James," his father explained patiently. "We're going to a wild headland for a cliff top walk. There are no car parks anywhere near, so everybody we meet will be there like us, to walk and enjoy the scenery. See, James, I've thought of everything."

James glanced at Jessica. He knew she was as keen as he was to keep an eye on the men at Midnight Cottage. "Do we _have_ to come, Dad?"

His father nodded. "This is a family holiday, and we need to spend time together. Why, what's the problem?"

Quickly James explained about the men with the digger, and how they were digging into the top of the spoil tip that they'd now cleared of bracken and gorse.

"If that's all," his father said, "that's not a problem. You won't need to watch them all day, I'm sure. We'll not be ready to leave for another hour at least."

"But keep well away from those men and their dog," Mrs Cooper added.

"It's all right, Mum," James said. "We're going to watch from the Midnight Well."

"The Midnight _what_?" his father asked.

Jessica giggled. "It's what we call the old well in the clump of trees. We've already got Midnight Farm, Midnight Mine and Midnight Cottage, so we thought we might as well have Midnight Well. Can we go there now?"

"When we've all finished our breakfast," Mr Cooper said. "And I'd like to come with you, if I may. I want to see the old well again, and you've got me interested in what's going on at Midnight Cottage."

Mrs Cooper gave a long sigh. "Clive," she said smiling, "you're as bad as those two. I don't think you're ever going to grow up!"

Breakfast was finished and cleared away in record time. Try though she did, Mrs Treloggan was unable to persuade the family to have any more toast. James would have liked to have taken a piece with him, covered in the local butter, and marmalade from the farmers' market in Helston, but he knew that every minute at the well was important. With his father onboard, he felt they might be able to work out exactly what the men were doing.

The three made their way quietly along the footpath, and stood back amongst the trees by the top of the well. The men had dug down over quite a large area in the past hour. The digger was silent, and both men had the engine cover off. It looked as though there was a problem.

James's father turned to examine the old well. He knelt on the ground and peered over the low brick wall. "It was like this when I came here with the family as a boy," he said. "I certainly can't remember any water in the bottom. I used to drop small stones down to listen for a splash. The Treloggans were certainly fortunate when mains water was laid along the road."

The sound of raised voices came across the field from Midnight Cottage. One of the men kicked the side of the digger. It looked like the man with the shaved head, but today he was wearing a black baseball cap. The tattoos on his bulky arms looked familiar, even from as far away as the well.

He pulled out his phone and started shouting angrily into it. He listened for a moment, and shouted again. Then he put the phone back in his pocket.

"I don't think they'll be doing much more digging today," Mr Cooper said, smiling. "I imagine they've hired the digger, and I can't see the hire company sending someone out on Bank Holiday Monday. At any rate, not in a hurry. We can safely go on our walk and not miss anything exciting."

"But, Dad," James protested, "we don't _know_."

"James, what I do know is that we're having a family day out." He looked at his watch. "We've got nearly an hour to finish searching the field boundaries for Granfer Joe's old tin box. I'd like to help, if I may."

Jessica and James quickly agreed. James realised that searching the field boundaries wasn't nearly as much fun as observing the men at Midnight Cottage, so the sooner that job was done, the better. And if they really did find Granfer Joe's tin box, that would be great. Mr and Mrs Treloggan would be so, so pleased.

"You'll need a big stick, Dad. The brambles and nettles are really thick in places. And we haven't finished the field with the cows. You can do that one. Mr Treloggan says the cows are safe, but we're not sure if they know they are."

The footpaths leading to the coast that Mr Treloggan had shown them on the map were a mix of well used and partly overgrown trackways. In places, Jessica and James went ahead with sticks to knock long trailing brambles and tall nettles to one side.

Soon they could hear the sound of waves, and there, ahead of them, was the sea. It had been quite windy in the night, and long white breakers crashed against rocks that were far out from the shore.

As they got near the edge of the cliff, they could look straight down. Below them, all they could see were rocks. There was no beach. A couple of older people, a man and a woman with two small terrier dogs, stopped to wish them a good day, but other than that they seemed to have the place to themselves.

Although there wasn't any obvious way down to the bottom, they could go down a little way to a grassy headland. Beyond the headland was a sheer drop to the angry water.

Helping each other in places, they made their way down to the headland. The grass felt comfortable and springy as they sat down. Mr Cooper gave thanks, everyone said Amen, and James reached for the large packet of food.

"Hands off, James," Mrs Cooper warned, "or you get nothing."

"Yes," Jessica chipped in, "keep away. Your hands are filthy."

James looked at them and clapped them together. "Nothing but good old healthy Cornish soil. Probably a lot of vitamins in there."

" _Please_ don't let him touch the food, Aunty Amy," Jessica said, shuddering.

James watched patiently while his father unwrapped their picnic lunch. "Great, pasties," James said. Then he laughed, and said quietly, "Jessica, don't forget to keep some of yours for the Hound of the Baskervilles."

Jessica shook her head. "The walk in the sea air has made me hungry. Keep some of yours."

"I don't know what the two of you are talking about," Mrs Cooper said, "but let's have less talking and more eating. You won't get many days as glorious as this in your lives. I know going abroad is fun, but just look around and take in the beauty of the Cornish countryside and sea."

When the remaining food was packed away, Mr Cooper said he felt like lying back and having a nap, but James gasped in horror. "Not down here, Dad. You might roll over the edge."

"In that case" his father said, "we'll go back up to the top when we've finished, and find a sheltered spot. We can all rest quietly, and those who want to sleep, can. And those who want to talk, can't!"

When they found a sheltered spot to settle down in, James's mind was too full of what was going on, or not going on, outside Midnight Cottage to feel sleepy. He kept wondering if the mechanical digger was now working again, and if the men had already unearthed whatever it was they were searching for. It would be a disaster to find the place deserted when they got back, and the men gone with their ill-gotten gains -- whatever those ill-gotten gains might be.

But the sea air, the warm sun and the sound of the waves far below had a strange effect on him, and his mind stopped going round in circles. Before he knew it, Jessica was pulling at his shoulder. "Get up, lazy. We're going on."

James gave a loud yawn. "Back to the farm?"

"Further down the coast. Come on, stand up."

James looked around. His parents were already some distance away. The thought of going straight back to Midnight Farm no longer seemed important. This was Cornwall at its very best. "Were my mum and dad going to leave me here?" he said, staggering to his feet.

Jessica nodded. "That's what they were planning, but I took pity on you."

"You're so kind. By the way, did you keep any pasty for the dog?"

"Some. What about you?"

"That's the thing," James said. "I was going to, but when I started eating I forgot."

"I can believe it." Jessica looked along the cliff path. "We'd better get going quickly. Your mum and dad will soon be two little dots in the distance."

The rugged coastline varied moment by moment as they walked. Far to the west they could just make out the peninsula at Land's End in the haze. Seagulls swooped and wheeled overhead. Their cries seemed to echo off the large rocks that made up the coastline, against a constant roar of waves crashing on the rocks below.

When they came to a narrow road, James's father took out his map and studied it. "We don't want to walk back along the roads if we can help it. They'll be busy with people returning to their bases. If we walk back a short distance, there should be a footpath going the right way. I didn't realise how far we'd come. James, are you all right for a long walk home?"

"What happens if I'm not?" James asked.

His father smiled. "Then we leave you here. As easy as that."

James was once again thinking of checking up on the two men at Midnight Cottage. "I'm okay for now. Jessica will carry me on her back if my leg falls off."

Jessica laughed. "I can manage your leg. The rest of you can hop back. And I hope you make it in time for the evening meal!"

As they approached Midnight Farm rather later than expected, they could hear the sound of an engine running. They had been forced to make a long detour on the walk back, due to an overgrown footpath that not even James's skill with a stick could clear.

"It's probably Mr Treloggan's tractor," Mr Cooper said. "Relax."

James was already running ahead. "Quick, Jessica, it's the digger. They must have got it going again. To the well!"

He didn't bother to look back. He knew Jessica would be close behind. As he reached the old footpath to the well, Jessica was already with him.

"Not a word," she said. "I don't want that dog to hear us."

They made their way cautiously round the back of the trees so they could approach the well out of sight from Midnight Cottage. James's suspicions were right. The men had got the digger working again and dug what looked like an enormous hole while the family had been on their walk.

The man with the tattoos was sitting in the digger, with the engine running. Several large stones lay beside it on the ground.

"Where have those rocks come from?" James said. "They weren't here this morning."

"Must be from the hole," Jessica said. "That doesn't make sense."

The man with the dark hair was already in the hole, with only his head showing. He bent down and started shouting excitedly. The Two Jays watched as he held up something dark that looked like a cup.

"Quick," James whispered, "get your phone out." He found a large stone, which he balanced on the far side of the brick wall that surrounded the well. "You can rest it on this so you don't get any shake. Zoom in on the two men as close as you can."

Jessica knelt down and rested her phone on the rock. "I know what to do, thank you, bossy."

As soon as the image appeared, she drew her fingers wider across the screen several times, until the picture showed just the digger and the hole. The man with the dark hair had disappeared.

"I'll take it anyway," Jessica said. "There's loads of space on the memory card."

The man's head unexpectedly emerged from the hole. Jessica pressed the take button several times. The camera on the phone had been set to make an electronic clicking noise each time a photograph was taken. To James, it sounded so loud that he was afraid the men would look up.

Another shout from the man in the hole, and he held up something made of wide, shining metal, with a hole in the centre big enough to go over someone's head.

Click.

Click, click, click.

"It looks like gold," James said in disbelief.

"It _is_ gold. It's a Bronze Age torc," Jessica whispered, not taking her eyes off the screen. "There's a picture of one in that book you were reading. Those men are grave robbers!"

"Keep taking the photographs," James said quietly. "We're going to need all the evidence we can get." He looked down at the wall of the cottage, at the iron ring that was now hanging empty.

Before he could say anything, an angry bark and a fierce snarling noise behind them made them both jump. Jessica gave a little scream and stood up, letting go of the phone. It tipped forward and disappeared out of sight down the well shaft.

Talking about it afterwards, neither James nor Jessica were able to remember the exact order in which things happened. The men down on the spoil tip, which might not be a spoil tip after all, had heard the dog barking. The digger driver must have taken his foot off the clutch, because the digger jerked forward and tipped into the large hole from where the man with the gold torc was now climbing out. It lay at a steep angle, its digging arm bent out of shape.

Meanwhile, the Hound of the Baskervilles seemed to recognise the Two Jays. Its snarl and angry bark disappeared as it wagged its tail and got down on its haunches, whining, as though pleased to see them.

Jessica felt in the pocket of her jeans and brought out the hard pastry end of her lunchtime pasty. There was no meat, but it had gravy on the end, and the dog snapped it up.

"Sorry, boy," she said. She showed her open hands. "That's all I've got." She turned to James and gave a small shrug of apology. "I got hungry on the way back."

The large black dog tipped its head one way and then the other, as though trying to understand what she was saying. Suddenly a loud whistle from one of the men made the dog prick up its ears, and in a flash it was bounding over the wall, which divided the field from the patch of ground where the mound was situated.

"Quick," James said. "Back to Midnight Farm."

Jessica hesitated. "But what about my phone? We can't just leave----"

"Of course we can. We'll come back for it later. If _we_ can't get it, neither can those men. Anyway, they won't know we've got photographs of them with the gold."

The men caught sight of James. "Clear off," the one who had been driving the digger shouted. "We've warned you about watching us. You're in trouble now!"

"They _must_ know we've seen them with the gold torc," James said. "We _have_ to get back to the farm quickly."

Jessica shook her head. "They can't know about the zoom on the phone. For all they know, from this distance we could think it was a bit of the digger come loose."

"Leave the phone where it is. Hey, I know what to do." James collected an armful of dry leaves and dropped them down the well shaft. They didn't all land over the phone, but they covered it enough to disguise it.

The men now seemed too busy trying to recover the digger to notice what was happening by the well.

"Just stay a bit longer," Jessica pleaded. "Even if they start to come across, we can still get back to the farm and safety in time."

Rather reluctantly, James agreed to stay. He just hoped the dog wouldn't be back for another end of pasty crust, and mistake his thumb for a piece.

The men soon gave up recovering the digger. A large patch of ground in front of it had given way, and the digger and the ground had fallen into the hole. The men now glanced towards the small woodland, but Jessica had already pulled James well back and they stood absolutely still. The men didn't seem to notice them, which was a great relief.

The item that had looked like a gold torc on the screen of the phone, was difficult to identify at this range by eye. The men seem to be treating it as something special. Looking around furtively, they wrapped it in one of their old jackets they had picked up from the side of the mound.

Still looking around to check no one was watching, they placed it carefully in the blue Land Rover, jumped in, and started the engine. They backed out into the lane and turned inland.

Both James and Jessica breathed a sigh of relief.

"Where'd you think they're going?" James asked. "Did they take the Hound of the Baskervilles with them? I didn't notice."

"I didn't notice either," Jessica said, looking round warily for the dog. "Those men could be going _anywhere_. When they get to the main road they could go left to Penzance, ahead to Helston, or turn right to go further down the Lizard."

James knelt down and peered over the brick wall into the depths of the well. "I can't see any way to get your phone out, unless we can borrow a long ladder."

Jessica caught hold of his arm and pulled. "We go back to the farm," she said. "We'll tell your parents and Mr and Mrs Treloggan what's happened. They'll know what to do next."

### Chapter 12

James's parents and Mrs Treloggan were in the farmhouse kitchen as Jessica and James rushed in breathlessly, trying to tell them what had happened at Midnight Cottage.

"Woa, woa," Mr Cooper said. "We can't understood a word either of you are saying. Sit down, take deep breaths, and start again."

James felt too excited to sit down. He stood with his hands resting on the large kitchen table. "It's those two men," he said.

"They've dug up a gold torc from the mound," Jessica explained. She'd managed to sit, but was bobbing up and down in the pine chair. "They've wrecked the digger and now they've taken it away in the Land Rover."

"You're talking nonsense, Jessica," Mr Cooper said. "The digger is much too big to fit in the back of the Land Rover."

"Not the digger," James said. "The gold torc."

Mrs Treloggan dusted some flour from her hands onto the large striped apron she was wearing. "I've never heard of gold talking," she said, frowning. "Ah, here's Mr Treloggan. Perhaps he can make sense of it all. Take your boots off at the door, Mr Treloggan, and hear what these two young ones have to say. It's something mighty strange about the two men at Midnight Cottage."

Looking back, Jessica and James realised they could have told the story much more simply. But in the end what they had to say finally made sense.

"You two stay here," Mr Cooper said to the Two Jays. "I'll go with Mr Treloggan and see what's happening."

"No, Uncle Clive," Jessica protested, "that dog might still be there."

"And that's why you have to stay here," Mr Cooper said.

"Mighty fierce that dog is," Mr Treloggan added, as he put his boots back on in the doorway that led to the farmyard.

"It's our friend," Jessica said.

"At least, we think it is," James added. "We gave it some pasty and now it wags its tail at us."

"James," his mother said, "I hope you haven't been helping yourselves to pasties from the kitchen."

Jessica felt herself going red as she shook her head. "I'm sorry, Mrs Treloggan, but I couldn't manage everything at that evening meal. I didn't like to upset you, so I put some pasty and apple pie in my pocket. And then we met the dog and I gave it to it. It loved it."

"Bless you, my dear," Mrs Treloggan said, "I wasn't offended. I saw you slip half your pasty in your pocket, _and_ half the apple pie. I thought it was very polite of you to pretend you'd eaten and enjoyed the whole lot."

"I did enjoy it," Jessica said. "I really did, but there was just too much for me."

Mr Treloggan had pulled his boots back on, and slapped his old trilby hat on his head. Mr Cooper agreed that James and Jessica could go, as long as they took some pasty with them. Mrs Treloggan found a whole one in the pantry and broke it in half, giving one piece to James and the other to Jessica. "Half starved that beast is, I'll be bound."

The blue Land Rover hadn't returned to Midnight Cottage, and there was no sign of the Hound of the Baskervilles. It must have gone with the men.

James couldn't resist nibbling at the corner of his half of the pasty. "They brought the gold torc out of the hole and wrapped it in one of their jackets. And something that looked like a dirty metal cup." He climbed the mound and looked into the hole.

It was clear why the digger had slipped forward. In his excitement at seeing the gold torc, the driver must have let his foot slip off the clutch. The digger was already so close to the edge of the hole that, as it jumped forward, it had forced the surrounding loose material to give way and fall into the hole.

"They won't be getting that machine out of there in a hurry," Mr Treloggan said, lifting his old trilby and scratching his head. "Daft, the two of them."

"Don't stand too close to the edge, James," Mr Cooper said. "We don't want to have to pull you out of there."

James knelt down to look into the deep hole more closely. "There was earth at the bottom of the hole last time we looked," he said, frowning. "Jessica and I think that the spoil tip was on top of a low burial mound. Those men knew it. They must have detected the gold with their detector, but couldn't have been exactly sure where it was."

His father knelt by his side. Cautiously he peered over. Grit and stones rattled their way to the bottom from the edge of the hole. "There's nothing down there now," he said.

At that moment, they all looked as the blue Land Rover turned sharply into the yard in front of Midnight Cottage. The driver, the large man with the shaved head and tattoos, jumped out from the driver's seat. "What are you all doing here?"

Mr Treloggan stood his ground firmly. He looked down from the top of the mound. "I've come to investigate what's going on. Nothing was said about you bringing a digger here."

The big man shrugged. "Nothing was said about _not_ bringing a digger here, either. Anyway, as soon as we've got it out of the hole and finished our search for tin and copper ore, we're off."

"You mean your search for _gold_ ," Jessica said, trying to sound bold, and actually managing it.

The second man, the one with the long dark hair, had taken the Hound of the Baskervilles and chained it to the iron ring. "Gold? Who said anything about gold?"

"We saw you with it," Jessica said. She turned to James. "Didn't we?"

James nodded. "It looked like a large Bronze Age gold torc. You wrapped it in your jacket and put it in the Land Rover."

The tattooed man laughed. "Oh that? Stupid kids. That was part of the control panel for the digger. That's why the machine fell forward into the hole. We told you, stop being nosy and mind your own business."

Mr Treloggan was clearly not convinced. "I need to look in your Land Rover now." It wasn't a request, it was a statement. He made his way down from the mound and opened the driver's door. Then he went round to the passenger side, where he pulled out an old jacket. There was nothing wrapped in it.

"That's the one," Jessica called out, coming down from the mound.

The large man sneered. "So where's the gold, young lady? I told you, it was part of the digger. We took it into Helston to get it welded."

"Which garage?" James asked.

His father put his hand on his shoulder to signal to him not to say anything more.

The man with dark hair turned angrily to Mr Cooper. "Just keep these two brats away from here. That dog of ours could do them a nasty injury. I've already warned them about it. Just look at it. See how wild it is."

He turned as he spoke, to point to the dog chained to the cottage wall. Jessica was feeding it chunks of pasty, and patting it on the head as it wagged its tail.

"I want you all off this land," the man said. "Mr Treloggan, we've rented this cottage and land from you, and we don't want any interference from you or any of your guests. So now I'm telling you all to leave. The law is on my side."

Mr Treloggan looked angry, but he caught sight of Mr Cooper nodding. "All right," Mr Treloggan said grudgingly, "but I'm calling the police. If these two are right and they saw you digging up gold, it means you've dug into an old burial mound. And that's against the law."

The man with the tattoos laughed. "Yeah well, it will be our word against theirs. And I know who the police are going to believe."

"We've got photographs," Jessica said quietly. "They'll believe those."

Both men looked a little startled, but soon recovered. "You were nowhere near here," the man with the tattoo said. "So you couldn't have seen us when we pulled out the ... the... the part from the digger. So stop talking nonsense and go."

"Have you really got photographs of the gold?" Mr Cooper asked as they turned away to walk back to Midnight Farm. "Only you shouldn't be telling lies -- even though they probably did dig up a gold torc, or something very much like one."

"I really have, Uncle Clive. On my phone. I forgot to tell you. There's just one problem."

"It's at the bottom of the old well," James added, "and we don't know how to get it out."

"Keep your voices down," Mr Cooper said. "I think those two men are listening."

James turned round, and the two men had now walked close to them, and probably had heard.

When they were nearer Midnight Farm, Jessica said, "I've been thinking about how to get the phone out of the well. It was my dad's phone, and he used it in the car as a sat-nav. It's got a thin steel plate stuck on the back, so he could fix it to a magnetic holder that went into the CD slot."

"I don't understand," James said, but he felt sure that in the back of Jessica's brain there must be some sort of sensible idea running around. "Go on."

"We can tie a magnet to a long piece of string, and lower it down the well onto the phone. We dropped some leaves down to hide it, but you can still see where it is if you know where to look."

"That's a brilliant idea, Jessica," Mr Cooper said. He turned to Mr Treloggan. "Do you have a magnet we could use?"

"No need," Jessica said. "We can use the fridge magnet I bought in Porthleven. It will be plenty strong enough to lift my phone. All we need is some string."

Mr Treloggan stood in the doorway of the farmhouse, scratching his chin. "I've got twine," he said. He pointed to Jessica. "If you're right, I won't be contacting the police until we've got the evidence on your phone. I don't want to look foolish when they get here and there's no evidence. Those men are mighty smart. I don't know what they've done with the gold, but they've taken it somewhere to hide it safely. Which way did they go when they left the cottage?"

"To the left," James said.

Mr Treloggan thought for a moment and then gave a long sigh. "Don't help much," he observed. "I know for sure they don't live around here, so they weren't giving it to anyone they know in the village."

"We need to recover the phone immediately," Mr Cooper said. "A Bronze Age gold torc will be worth a fortune to illegal dealers in antiquities. Are you sure you had a clear photograph of the torc, Jessica."

"We both saw it on the screen," James said. "Jessica zoomed in really close, and it's a really good camera on her phone. She took several photographs, so one of them is bound to be all right. Whatever it was, it was much bigger than the diameter of a football, and it definitely looked like gold. It can't have been part of the digger. It was exactly like some of the gold torcs in that book at Midnight Farm"

Mr Cooper nodded. "I think Mr Treloggan is right. It's no good contacting the police yet. Let's get Jessica's phone back up from the old well first, so we have something positive to show them."

Jessica ran up to her room and got her fridge magnet of Porthleven harbour, and Mr Treloggan fetched a huge ball of binder twine from one of the sheds in the farmyard.

"String would have done," Jessica said, looking at the heavy twine. "My phone isn't that heavy, but it will do the job."

Mrs Treloggan told them to be back within the hour, because their evening meal would then be ready, and she didn't want it spoiling.

"I'm coming with you," Mr Cooper insisted. "If those two men heard what we're planning, they could make trouble."

Jessica was trying to tie the binder twine to the fridge magnet, but it was much too thick, and it covered the actual magnet part of the moulding. "I'm sorry, Mr Treloggan, but this is no good. Do you have any thin string?"

Mr Treloggan had no idea if they did or not, but Mrs Treloggan found some nylon thread which she assured them would be more than strong enough to pull up a phone.

Mr Treloggan said he had the things on the farm to attend to, and wished them well in their search. "I just hope your phone isn't smashed, young lady," he said before he walked off.

"I hope it's not," Jessica said, "but it won't affect the photographs even if it is. They'll be on the memory card, and that won't be broken. Will it?"

There was no sign of the two men as the three made their way along the narrow footpath to the small woodland. Mr Cooper grinned widely. "I remember this place as if it were yesterday. The trees are probably a bit taller and thicker, but this was our secret hidey-hole when we weren't in the tree house." He turned to Jessica. "Your mum and I would sometimes bring sandwiches here with Conan and Jenna and pretend we were castaways on a desert island, and there were fierce animals all around." He turned to look behind him. "Talking about fierce animals, where's that dog?"

James pointed to the old cottage. The Hound of the Baskervilles was safely chained to the wall. "It's friends with us anyway," he said.

His father shook his head. "Friends with _you_ , maybe, but that doesn't mean it's friends with me. Let's hope they keep it chained up."

While he was still speaking, Jessica had tied the nylon thread around the fridge magnet, keeping it well clear of the black magnet part on the bottom. She held it in the air, and it hung with the magnet downwards. Perfect.

As she approached the low brick wall that surrounded Midnight Well, Mr Cooper said, "Whatever you do, don't lean over. I don't think we'll be able to get _you_ out with a magnet!"

Jessica knew it was a joke, but the warning about not leaning over was real. "We always kneel to look over," she assured her uncle. "It's ever such a long way down."

She knelt by the side of the brick wall, and with James slowly unrolling the nylon line, Jessica let it run through her fingers as the fridge magnet made its way slowly to the bottom of the well.

### Chapter 13

James watched the magnet swing backwards and forwards as it made its way to the bottom of the well. He could just make out the metal body of the phone shining between the leaves he'd thrown down earlier. It looked as though the back of the phone with the thin steel plate was facing upwards. In that case, getting the phone back would be easy.

"Oh no," Jessica said as the fridge magnet reached the bottom. "It keeps moving to the side. That's stupid."

James used a forked stick to hold the line further out from the brick wall, and the thread ran through the fork as Jessica pulled it back up a short distance, and then lowered it again.

"It keeps doing it," Jessica said, as once again the fridge magnet swung to one side. "What on earth is wrong with it?"

"I know what to do," James said. "Pull it up further this time and then let it go down really quickly. It won't have time to swing to one side. That's what my brilliant brain says, anyway."

Jessica did exactly as James said. She brought the magnet up and let it fall under its own weight. With just a short distance to go it moved to one side. "Now it's stuck itself on something under the leaves," she said. She pulled at the line hard. "There, it's free now. I'll try again."

"It's not going to work," James's father said. "No matter how many times you try, it's being attracted to something much bigger than the phone."

"Gold?" James said. "No, that's not right. Gold isn't magnetic. What about tin? Maybe there's a load of tin ore down there. It might be valuable."

His father shook his head. "Tin isn't magnetic either."

Jessica jumped to her feet in excitement. "What's a tin box made from? Is not really made from tin, is it?"

Mr Cooper broke into a broad grin. "What a clever young lady you are, Jessica," he said. "A tin box is made of steel."

James shook his head. "What's so clever about that? And why do they call it a tin box of it's made of steel?"

"Tin boxes are like tin cans. They're made of steel, and coated with tin to stop them rusting," his father explained. "This is really exciting."

"I don't get it," James said.

"James, James," Jessica said, "we've _really_ struck gold. Well, not actual gold, but we've found treasure. Granfer Joe's treasure. _That's his tin box down there!_ "

"Wow," James said, "you could be right. I told you I had a brilliant brain."

Jessica was jumping up and down in excitement. "It was nothing to do with you," she told him. "Granfer Joe was right when he said it was _well_ hidden, after all. So how are we going to get it up, Uncle Clive? No one's going to have a magnet strong enough to pull _that_ up."

Mr Cooper was nodding slowly to himself. Then he said, "I've got a brilliant brain too. Jessica. If the rope ladder Granfer Joe made us for our tree house is still in the barn, it's more than long enough to go all the way to the bottom of the well. Mr Treloggan said he'd kept it."

"Sounds a bit risky to me, Dad," James said. "It must be hundreds of years old if _you_ used it. Well, years and years old. It's probably rotted away long ago, even if it _is_ still there."

"Not that long ago, James," his father said, laughing. "Anyway, I remember Granfer Joe used polypropylene or nylon boating cord for it. It had a very high breaking strain, so it should be strong enough even for me. Let's go and see if it's still there." He sounded really excited.

"That's not fair," James complained, as they made their way back to Midnight Farm. "We're the ones who found Granfer Joe's tin box, so Jessica and I have to go down for it."

"And for my phone," Jessica added, kicking a bramble to one side on the narrow track.

Mr Cooper shook his head. "Sorry, but there's a safety issue here. You can come back to the well with me, of course, and watch. Anyway, we haven't even got the rope ladder yet. Let's see if it's still there at the back of the barn where Mr Treloggan said he left it."

"Hundreds and hundreds of years ago," Jessica added, rather rudely she realised, but she felt upset at the thought of not being allowed to go down to the bottom of the well to recover her phone. "Sorry, Uncle Clive, but I _really_ want to be the one to go down."

James took a deep breath. "I'm happy to stay up on top, and keep a lookout."

"Look out for what?" Jessica asked. "Dancing skeletons?"

James shrugged. "I dunno. I just don't like going into holes in the ground. Anyway, someone has to stay on top. If you need to be rescued, someone has to go for help. And I'm volunteering to be the person who goes for help."

By this time they had reached the farmyard. Mr Cooper hurried to the barn which housed the large red tractor belonging to the Treloggans. A fixed ladder led up to a loft at the back of the barn. Mr Cooper told them to wait at the bottom while he went up the ladder.

After a bit of rummaging around he appeared at the top of the ladder with a coil of blue rope and strips of wood. "Got it!" he said triumphantly. "Stand back." He threw it onto the ground where it landed with a clatter.

He looked at his watch. "We have to hurry. The Treloggans will be so surprised when we turn up for the evening meal carrying Granfer Joe's treasure chest. James, bring that ball of binder twine that Mr Treloggan showed us. We'll need it to haul up Granfer Joe's treasure."

"Oughtn't we to tell them what we are doing?" Jessica said.

Mr Cooper shook his head. "Let's make this a real surprise."

Jessica hesitated. "I'm not so sure it _is_ Granfer Joe's tin box anyway," she said. "I mean, how could he have got it down there? He wouldn't have been able to use this rope ladder."

"He wouldn't have needed a ladder," James said. "He could have wrapped up everything inside in newspaper to stop it being damaged, and then just dropped the box over the edge of the well."

"But the Treloggans would have seen it," Jessica said.

James shook his head. "No they wouldn't. He would have done what I did to hide your phone. Thrown loads and loads of leaves down until it was completely covered. You remember when I dropped the stone down when we first came here? It made a sort of hollow sound. We should have guessed then what was down there."

Mr Cooper was already making his way out of the barn and along the path, the bulky rope ladder over his shoulder. "Hurry up, you two. Less talking and more action. I want to get back to Mr and Mrs Treloggan before the evening meal. At the rate you two are going, we'll be late for breakfast!"

When they reached Midnight Well, Mr Cooper examined the low brick wall. "We can tie the end of the ladder to this tree," he said slowly, "but I'm worried about the safety of this wall. With the weight of the ladder hanging on it, these bricks might give way." He kicked at the part of the wall near the closest tree. "Hmm, it seems firm enough." He kicked it again. "I'm going to risk it."

He walked to the tree and put the two long ends of the ladder around it and tied a double knot. "That should do it."

"Are you sure you know how to tie knots?" James asked anxiously.

His father nodded. "It's a double something or other. I can't remember what it's called, but Granfer Joe taught me all sorts of seaman's knots. Trust me."

"Okay," James said, "you're the one going down." He went to the edge, knelt, and looked over again. It was starting to get dark, and he could hardly make out the bottom of the well. "If you do fall, I don't suppose you'll kill yourself, anyway, Dad. Probably just get a broken leg or two."

His father gave a wry smile. "Thanks for your concern, James. Right, here we go."

He carefully lowered the bottom end of the ladder over the wall and let it fall down the well. He pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight. All three knelt and looked over. The ladder easily reached the bottom.

Cautiously, Mr Cooper swung a leg over the wall, gripping the top rung tightly. "Hold my phone, Jessica, so I can see what I'm doing."

Jessica went a quarter of the way round the well, and let the beam of the flashlight shine on the ladder.

"Thanks, Jessica. Keep it steady, please."

James watched his father lower first one leg and then the other, as Jessica tracked his way down with the beam from his father's phone.

"Made it!" his father called up triumphantly, as the ladder became slack.

Although the bottom of the well was too far down for the light on the phone to illuminate everything, James watched his father clear the leaves away. Then he stood up, holding a black object with square corners high above his head.

"Let down one end of the binder twine," he called up, his voice echoing in the brick well shaft. "And make sure you keep tight hold of the ball."

James held the large ball of binder twine, while Jessica pulled a long length free and lowered it over the bricks.

"This is easy," James said. "I told you I had a brilliant brain."

"It was your dad's idea to use the rope ladder," Jessica reminded him, feeding the twine through her hands.

"Okay," James admitted. "But I'm sure I did something brilliantly. I even-----"

Behind them came a loud snarling noise, followed by frantic barking. It was the Hound of the Baskervilles, and it no longer sounded friendly.

"Quick," James said in a panic, "give it some pasty."

"I don't have any, James. Here, doggy doggy, good dog."

The dog seemed to be anything but good. It showed its teeth as it snarled, looking ready to spring.

"Dad," James shouted down the well shaft, "it's the dog. I think it's going to attack us. What do we do?"

"Whatever you do, don't run," his father's voice echoed back up. "Keep staring at it and make your way slowly to the ladder. Jessica can come down first. I know you might be frightened, but don't let the dog know that."

Jessica had heard the instructions. Keeping her eyes fixed firmly on the dog's eyes as it snarled at her, she felt her way round the wall to the rope ladder. Slowly and deliberately she made her way to the top rung. James moved to her side, still looking at the dog.

The dog gave a loud bark as Jessica disappeared from sight. James now felt his way onto the ladder, making sure he kept his eyes fixed on the dog which was now barking loudly.

The rungs of the ladder were very close to the brick lining of the well, making it hard to him to get his feet properly onto the rungs. But with the Hound of the Baskervilles barking frantically in frustration at losing its prey, he had every incentive to get his head below the brick wall.

His father helped him stand steadily on the mound of leaves as he reached the bottom. "Now what?" James asked. "That dog isn't going away anytime soon. Let's hope it doesn't attract the two men."

His father pulled Jessica's phone from his pocket, where he had already put it. "We phone Mum, and Mr Treloggan can tell those men to chain their dog up, and then we can all climb back up safely."

There was a long silence as he fiddled with the phone. "There's no signal," he said quietly.

"I've got your phone here, Uncle Clive," Jessica said, trying not to sound too anxious.

Mr Cooper took it and again shook his head. "No signal on here, either. Not to worry, they'll come looking for us when we don't turn up for the evening meal."

"I wish we'd told them what we were doing," Jessica said. But she wasn't going to say she'd suggested it, and Uncle Clive had taken no notice. They were probably all to blame, she realised. They'd been carried away with the excitement of finding Granfer Joe's tin box of treasures, and not thought of the possibility of all three of them being stuck down the well shaft. After all, only her uncle was supposed to be the one going down. It was all the fault of that stupid Hound of the Baskervilles.

As she was thinking this, the dog at the top stopped barking. The ladder started to jiggle a bit, and suddenly the whole ladder crashed down, knocking James over.

James rubbed his head. "Ow, that really hurt. I thought you knew how to tie knots, Dad. Some great seaman Granfer Joe must have been! Or weren't you paying attention at the time?"

"Are you all right, James?" his father asked in concern.

James rubbed his head again. "I've had worse. As Jessica would say, it's only my head. I'll survive."

His father was examining the end of the rope by the light from Jessica's phone. "This is serious," he said. "Really serious. This ladder didn't come untied."

"What d'you mean, Dad?" James said, detecting something in his father's voice that said that the situation was indeed serious. More serious than his double thingumy knot coming undone.

His father showed them one end of the rope. "It's been cut. Those men must be up there. That's why the dog's been quiet. They know we're down here, and they must have heard us saying the photographic evidence was in the well. They probably saw out lights and sent the dog on ahead. They're going to dig out the rest of the Bronze Age treasure and disappear before we can do anything to stop them."

Jessica looked up at the fading daylight. "I hope Aunty Amy and the Treloggans come here first when we don't turn up for the evening meal."

James also looked up at the top of the well shaft. It looked ever such a long way up. "I hope the men don't start throwing rocks down on us." Immediately he said it, he wished he'd kept the thought to himself. Then he wished he'd not even had the thought in the first place.

### Chapter 14

To their great relief, there was no sound from the men or the dog. "Mum and the Treloggans won't be coming to look for us for at least half an hour," James said, breaking the silence.

"Probably more like an hour," Jessica said gloomily. "They're not going to rush up here if we don't turn up for the meal exactly on time. "

"You're right, Jessica," James said, sounding equally gloomy. "Try the phones again, Dad."

There wasn't even the hint of a signal on either phone. "I should have brought mine with me," James said.

"You're on the same network as me," his father said. "We might as well sit down on the leaves while we're waiting to be rescued."

Jessica banged her hand on top of the tin box. It made a hollow sound. "Let's open it up and see what's in here while we're waiting."

"Great idea," James said enthusiastically, suddenly feeling much more positive. "Is that all right, Dad?"

His father shook his head. "I've already tried to open it," he explained. "I looked for the catch as soon as I found it, but there's a padlock on the front hasp, and no key."

"Can we force it off?" James asked. "I really _do_ want to see what's inside."

"Me too," Jessica added. "I'm sure Mr and Mrs Treloggan wouldn't mind. After all, we were the ones to find it. If I hadn't dropped my phone down here, it might have stayed hidden forever."

"I'm sure they wouldn't mind, Jessica," her uncle said, "but we don't have any tools down here to force it open. I'm afraid we're going to have to wait."

Jessica said, "I'm sure we've all been praying. Well, I have. Why don't we hold hands and pray out loud?"

They each said a short prayer for help to come soon, and James felt much more comfortable inside. He'd been too worried about being trapped to think about praying. Big mistake, he realised.

His father said, "Do you two have any suggestions on how we pass the time while we're waiting to be rescued?"

Jessica looked at her phone. The phone had switched itself off automatically a short time after being dropped, and there was plenty of charge left in the battery. "Let's see how good the photographs are of the gold torc. Assuming they haven't somehow got deleted in the fall."

Jessica switched off the flashlight on the phone, and found the folder with the photographs in. The last photograph she had taken showed the two men with the digger and the gold torc. As she expanded her fingers across the screen, the image became larger and larger until the gold torc took up most of the screen.

"Amazing," Mr Cooper said. "That's as good as a proper camera. Maybe better."

"It _is_ a proper camera, Uncle Clive," Jessica protested. "It's a proper camera built into a phone. When my dad got it, it was top of the range. It was good of him to give it to me."

She flicked through the other photographs of the men, and they were all perfectly sharp. But when she came to the ones where she had been holding the camera without resting it on anything, they looked disappointingly blurry.

"Just as well I thought of resting it on the stone," James said, wanting to take some credit for the quality of the pictures. "Of course, it wouldn't have been any good without your amazing camera, Jessica."

To pass the time while waiting for a friendly shout from above, Jessica kept working her way through her holiday photographs, while the others watched. At times she enlarged a picture on the screen and centralised any areas of special interest. The waves down on the rocks looked spectacular.

"This is Porthleven," she said, as they came to pictures of the harbour and small boats. "I want to go back there, please, Uncle Clive."

"Of course we will, Jessica," Mr Cooper said.

"If we ever get out of here, that is," James said. "I can see a big dangling spider about to land in your hair, Jessica."

"James, this is no time for your nonsense," his father said, sounding cross as Jessica let out a squeal of horror.

James got to his feet. "No, there really is." He put out his hand and moved it to one side. The spider, on the end of its long web, moved with his hand. He let it go onto the bricks.

Jessica shuddered. "Thanks, James, but I wish you hadn't said anything. You know I don't like spiders. You could have just stood up and moved your hand and let the spider go without telling me. Are there any more?"

James looked around. "Can't see any. What's it doing down here anyway? There can't be many flies down here." Then he thought that there were probably lots of little insects crawling around in the leaves that the spiders could eat. Perhaps some were halfway up Jessica's legs by now, but for the sake of peace and quiet he said nothing. Anyway, Jessica would probably only try to wind him up by saying there were skeletons under the leaves of people who'd fallen down the well and never been rescued. The idea of being trapped down here for ever was certainly scary.

Suddenly Jessica said, "Look here!" She pointed to one of the pictures she'd taken at Porthleven. "Come and see who I see."

She had zoomed in on the image, and pointed to two men standing on the deck of a small motor cruiser in the harbour.

"It's them!" James shouted.

His father leaned closer to the screen. "Who are they?"

"The two men who've rented Midnight Cottage," Jessica explained. "We didn't know they had a boat as well as the old Land Rover. They must have been checking on their boat when we were there."

James was thinking for a moment, and then it became clear. "That's where they've taken the gold torc. They've hidden it on their boat because they think no one will find it. Brilliant."

Jessica jumped to her feet. "Then let's go and find it."

"Just one small problem," James said. "We've got to get out of here first. And even though it must be well past the mealtime, we haven't heard anyone up there calling for us. I wonder why."

James was aware of just how strangely quiet it was, up at the top. No sound from the Hound of the Baskervilles, no voices of the two men, and no shouts from Mrs Treloggan, Mr Treloggan or his mum. Why?

It seemed that two hours had passed, maybe even more, before Jessica said she could hear someone calling. It sounded like Aunty Amy. "Quick," she said, "SOS." She picked up her phone and switched on the LED flashlight.

"What about SOS?" James asked, watching as Jessica held her phone high above her head, the light shining upwards. It glinted off the branches of the trees that surrounded the well.

Jessica started putting her hand over the LED and back off again quickly. "It doesn't matter if we start with three dashes or three dots, as long as I keep going. Aunty Amy heard us talking about it yesterday, so she's sure to see it flashing on the branches and know what's happened."

"That's really clever, Jessica," Mr Cooper said. "While you keep signalling, James and I will pray that she sees the flashing light, and understands what's happening."

James held his father's hand tightly as his father led the prayer. Almost as soon as they started praying, a head looked over the surrounding brick wall and a voice called out, "Is that you down there, Clive?"

"Amy, thank God you found us. We really do thank God. Who else is with you?"

"What on earth are you all doing down the well," Mrs Cooper called down. "No, don't tell me. I'm sure you have a good reason, however crazy it might sound."

"Mum," James shouted up, "we're ever so glad to see you. Are those two men around still?"

"They went a long time ago. They came to the door and told us you'd given them a message for us. They were to tell us that you'd gone for a walk to see someone, and wouldn't be back for a long time. It sounded odd, but we couldn't get any of you on the phone. When you didn't turn up for the evening meal we thought you must have a good reason for going off like that. That's why we haven't been looking for you until now." Her voice echoed as it came down the well shaft. "I guess they weren't telling us the truth."

"Far from it," Mr Cooper shouted back. "You need to fetch Mr Treloggan. I know how to get us out."

"Mr Treloggan is just coming," Mrs Cooper said. "Mr Treloggan, I've found them."

Mr Treloggan looked over the low wall, his face lit by the light from Jessica's phone. "A right pickle you three are in," he said, followed by a deep laugh. "Not that it's funny, mind you. Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh."

"Is the roll of binder twine still up there?" Mr Cooper shouted.

After a moment's pause, Mr Treloggan said it was.

"Then lower the end down here please, Mr Treloggan."

"If you say so, Mr Cooper. But it ain't strong enough to pull you up with."

In spite of the tense situation, Mr Cooper and the Two Jays had to laugh at the thought of being pulled up by binder twine.

"I've got the old rope ladder from the tree house down here," Mr Cooper explained. "Those men cut it away from the tree we'd tied it round. We'll tie the twine round the top rung and you can pull it up. There's plenty of spare rope for you to tie around a tree again."

Ten minutes later the three trapped prisoners were standing safely at the top of the well. Granfer Joe's old tin box had been last up the well shaft, just in case it had broken loose and fallen back down on one of them.

"It's definitely Granfer Joe's box," Mrs Treloggan said, examining it by the light from Jessica's phone. "'Tis marvellous to see it again. Well, well, well."

James wasn't sure if that was meant to be a joke about the well, so he said nothing. He just thanked God that they were out, and safe. "Are those men still down there?" he asked, peering through the darkness towards Midnight Cottage.

"They'm gone, my dear," Mrs Treloggan said. "Not many minutes ago, mind. They managed to tow the digger out of the hole with the winch on the Land Rover, and started to do a bit more digging. But when they saw Mr Treloggan going their way, they got in the Land Rover with that wild dog. They said they'd done enough digging and were packing it in because there wasn't as much there as they'd thought. But they said they'd be back in the morning to sort out our share of what they'd found."

"They won't be back," Mr Cooper said. "They found enough Bronze Age grave goods to make it worth their while digging, but they probably haven't recovered the lot."

"Recovered what?" Mr Treloggan said. "There, Mrs Treloggan, I always said they were up to no good."

"The spoil tip was on top of an old Bronze Age burial mound," James said. "They must have detected gold with their metal detector. They've already found a large gold torc. A huge sort of neck ring. Dad says it will be worth a fortune. And they've taken it to their boat in Porthleven harbour. If we don't hurry, they'll be gone out to sea with it. Perhaps they already have."

"Porthleven harbour, do you say?" Mr Treloggan said, stroking his chin. "They won't be going anywhere tonight. The tide'll be right out now. 'Twill be the early hours of the morning before they can get going."

"I don't think so, Mr Treloggan," Mrs Treloggan said. "I was down in Porthleven this afternoon getting supplies. By my reckoning, there'll be enough water in the harbour for a small boat to sail out to sea within the next hour."

Mr Cooper pulled his phone from his pocket. "I think we have enough evidence to involve the police," he said. "We can let them handle it now. What was the name on the boat, Jessica, in your photograph?"

Jessica shook her head. "It wasn't showing. There was a bit of another boat in the way. But it was definitely those two men, and they were on the boat. A small white cabin cruiser."

James pulled his father's arm. "Come on, Dad, we've got to get to the harbour quickly, before they can sail away."

His father raised a finger to hush James. He was already through to the police on his phone. He explained the situation, and told them the family had photographic evidence, and could also identify the boat. The police said they'd meet the family at Porthleven harbour as soon as they could get there.

### Chapter 15

(Last chapter)

The journey in the car to Porthleven, which had previously only seemed short, now took a long time in the dark, with the Bank Holiday traffic still very busy. Mrs Treloggan had tried to get them to stop for their meal before setting out, and she'd seemed rather surprised and upset when they explained how urgent the situation was.

As they drove down the hill into Porthleven, they could see a police car already parked on the harbour front on the double yellow lines, its blue lights flashing in the darkness.

"Park behind them," James said in excitement. "You're not going to get booked for parking on double yellow lines when we're catching thieves."

"Quiet, James," his father said. "I know exactly what to do." He stopped behind the police car. He turned to his wife and the Two Jays. "I want you all to stay here until I've spoken to the two police officers."

"But, Dad----"

"Sorry, James, but you're so overexcited that they'll only get confused. And you too, Jessica. You're both to stay in the car. Amy, make sure they don't get out until I come back."

They watched him go to the police car and talk to the two officers. He pointed back to his own car, and then along the harbourside to where several boats were bobbing around in the rising tide, lit by the streetlights. He pointed to one of the boats and the police officers hurried with him along the harbour wall.

Jessica was looking in the other direction. She already had the image of the harbour and the two men with the boat on the screen. She pointed to the far side of the harbour. "There's their blue Land Rover, and there they are! They're about to untie their dingy to go out to their boat! Come on, James, we've got to stop them getting to their cabin cruiser. The police and your dad won't get there in time. They've gone the wrong way!"

Mrs Cooper looked uncertain. "We've been told to stay in the car, James."

"If we do, the men will get away," James said. "Will it be all right if you come with us, Mum?"

His mother was already out of the car, running towards the dingy. James shouted loudly to his father to let him know where they were going, and ran after Jessica and his mother. To his surprise, he was unable to catch up with them. The cabin cruiser was tied to a yellow buoy some distance away from the harbour wall. As soon as the men were in their dingy, they would be able to get to the cabin cruiser and sail away on the rising tide.

He saw Jessica run on ahead as his mother had to slow down. The man with the tattoos and shaved head was preparing to untie the dingy from the bollard on the harbour wall to which it was moored. He saw them coming, and so did the Hound of the Baskervilles which was in the dingy. It began to bark fiercely.

As the man reached forward to untie the mooring rope, a small wave caught the dingy and pulled the rope tight, making it impossible to release it. As the next wave carried the boat back towards the harbour wall, Jessica was the first to arrive, just as the man put his hands around the rope to try again to release it from the bollard.

She stamped hard on the man's hands. With a shout of pain he let go.

"Stay exactly where you are," a voice came over a loud speaker. James turned. Rather than run round, the police had decided it was quicker to bring the car.

Jessica kept stamping on the man's hands every time he tried to touch the rope, and only stopped when one of the police officers pulled her back and told the men they were under arrest.

At that moment a coastguard launch appeared at the harbour mouth, cutting off any possibility of the men escaping.

By this time, what seemed like hundreds of holidaymakers were gathering to see what all the excitement was about, and several of them held mobile phones and cameras under the streetlights as they took photographs of the two men being arrested.

Jessica turned to James. "It looks as though you're going to get your picture on the front page of the local newspaper after all," she said. "I hope they don't put mine on there too. My hair must look such a mess after all that running."

James put his arm round her. "That's the price of fame," he said. "I fancy some fish and chips. There's a fish and chip shop over there. Let's go."

James didn't get his wish. The police told them they would be needed at the station, and Jessica had to make sure she brought her phone with all the photographic evidence on it.

James thought that was a bit unnecessary, because one of the police officers had taken the dingy to the cabin cruiser and emerged from the cabin holding the gold torc.

It was well after midnight by the time they arrived back at the farm. Mr Cooper had phoned the Treloggans to explain the situation, and Mrs Treloggan had said she would be keeping some pasties hot for them in the Aga.

By this time, they had been without food for so long that James thought he no longer felt hungry. But as soon as he smelt the pasties, he changed his mind.

"I'm sorry I took the police in the wrong direction," Mr Cooper said, for about the tenth time that evening. "All those boats looked the same to me."

"It's okay, Dad, it really is," James said. "We only got it right because Jessica had the phone with her. That harbour wall looks the same whichever direction you're facing. Hey, this pasty is even more delicious than usual, if that's possible."

Jessica had only been picking at hers half-heartedly. "I'm ever so sorry, Mrs Treloggan, but I really don't feel hungry at all. I thought we were stuck down that old well forever. I keep thinking of those two horrible men, and how they tracked us there. And to think that they tried to steal that archaeological treasure." She pointed to her pasty. "Is it all right if I leave it?"

"Of course it is, my dear," Mrs Treloggan said, her kind face lighting up. "Never eat more than what's good for you. That's what we say, isn't it, Mr Treloggan?"

Mr Treloggan was only just coming into the kitchen. He was removing his boots in the doorway. "What's that, Mrs Treloggan?"

"Oh never mind that, Mr Treloggan," she said. "Have you managed to get Granfer Joe's tin box open yet?"

Mr Treloggan put down the black tin box they had recovered from Midnight Well. "It's all as good as new. Well, as new as it was when Granfer Joe packed it all away. Clear the table, Mrs Treloggan, and we'll spread it out for a good look."

Mrs Cooper looked up at the large kitchen clock which said quarter to one. "It's long after bedtime for you and Jessica," she said, but James thought she didn't sound very convinced about it.

"It's the holidays," he said. "One late night won't matter."

Mrs Treloggan laughed. "Quite right, my dear. After all, you and Jessica was the two who found Granfer Joe's box. Without the two of you, it would probably have stayed there until it rusted through and everything inside got spoilt. Is it all right, Mrs Cooper, if they stayed up for a few more minutes?"

James thought it was more likely to be an hour, but he said nothing, relieved when his mother agreed that staying up really late for once wasn't going to hurt them.

Tuesday

A woman police officer called the next morning, to clear up one or two things in their statements. To his surprise, James had woken up as early as usual, and he and Jessica had already been down to the excavation site to see what damage the two men had done before leaving.

The small digger, with its arm now bent, had been pulled off the mound by the Land Rover. It looked as though the two men had tried to dig out the rubble that had fallen into the hole, but the hole was not nearly as deep as it had been earlier.

It seemed the men had given up and were happy to escape with just the gold torc and the dirty brown cup, which James guessed was probably made of bronze and called a beaker.

The police officer had introduced herself as Constable Hedra Turner, and explained that a team of archaeologists from the University of Exeter were already on their way down. The gold torc was being held securely at the police station, but the archaeologists would obviously have access to it.

"They will want to have a long talk with you," she said to Jessica and James. "I know those men have vandalised the grave to a certain extent, but if all they took out was the gold torc and a bronze beaker, then we have to hope that they didn't do too much damage to what's left."

"What happens to the gold torc?" James asked. "Who has it once the police no longer need it as evidence?"

"A good question," Constable Turner said. "I believe it will be classed as treasure trove. It will be offered to one of the museums." She turned to Mr and Mrs Treloggan who were sitting together at the far end of the large kitchen table. "Of course, you will be given the full value of it. It was found on your land."

"Ah," Mr Treloggan said, "it's not as straightforward as that, my dear. We had a written agreement with the two men that the value of everything they found was to be shared between them and us. Fifty fifty."

Hedra Turner looked at Mr Treloggan. "In the circumstances, I doubt that such an agreement would hold much water."

Mrs Treloggan was laughing.

"What's so funny, Mrs Treloggan?" Mr Treloggan asked. "That there torc could be worth a fortune. We're all right for money, but Conan and Jenna could certainly do with a bit to get on the housing ladder."

Mrs Treloggan got off her chair and fetched a sheet of folded paper from the drawer in the old pine dresser that was covered in blue and white china plates. "Here we are," she said, still laughing. "Here's the exact wording of the agreement. 'We, the undersigned, agree to share in equal parts the full value of every piece of metal ore recovered from the spoil tip outside the building known as Midnight Cottage, whether the metal ore be tin, copper, lead, silver, or any other ore, whether a precious metal or not. This agreement shall be binding upon all parties.'"

"Ah," Mr Treloggan said slowly, smiling as he understood the words of the agreement, "nothing there about finding _items_ made of metal. Just ore. Mrs Treloggan, you were a big genius when you helped draw up that contract."

He got up and walked to his wife and put his arms round her, giving her a bear hug, lifting her off the ground.

Mrs Treloggan was laughing as she tried to push him away, but she didn't try very hard. "Go on, you big soft man. You're showing us up in front of our guests."

Constable Turner coughed and stood up to cover her embarrassment. "I'll be going now," she said. "Will you be around for the rest of the week, Mr Cooper, Mrs Cooper? I don't think we're going to need you again, but you never know."

"When do I get my phone back?" Jessica asked. "I want to take some more photographs this holiday."

The police officer reached into the black bag she'd been carrying. "Sorry, I forgot. We've downloaded the photographs, but we've not deleted them from your phone. Good phone that."

As the police officer left, Mrs Treloggan went to answer the phone that was ringing on the kitchen wall.

"Come here, Mr Treloggan," she called loudly. "It's Conan. He's bringing the family down to stay for a few days. He's got an interview for a job in Truro. Just wait till he hears about that gold torc thing!" She spoke for a few minutes before putting the phone down.

"I expect you'll be wanting to put them up here," Mrs Cooper said. "Don't worry about us. We can find bed-and-breakfast somewhere else, if it helps."

"Don't you go worrying yourselves about that for one moment," Mrs Treloggan said. "I wouldn't dream of asking you to leave. There's room enough here for everyone, if you can put up with other guests being around."

Mr Cooper smiled. "I'd love to meet Conan again. And his family of course. They've got a boy and a girl haven't they, about the same age as these two?"

Mrs Treloggan nodded. "They'm twins. I'm sure they'll get on well together. There's two more bicycles at the back of the barn. Mr Treloggan can make sure they'm roadworthy." She turned to the Two Jays. "It will be a chance for you to get out, and for your parents to have a bit of time together to recover from all the adventure you've just had."

Mrs Cooper smiled at James and Jessica. "That's sorted then. We can stay on for the rest of the week."

James nodded. "I'm really glad about that, Mum. I was afraid we'd end up sleeping in Midnight Cottage. It must be full of rats."

"And spiders," Jessica added. She felt in her long, fair hair. "Are you sure the one at the bottom of the well didn't land on my head, James? I can feel something."

James pretended to examine Jessica's hair, and then jumped back in alarm. "Definitely a different one. Wow, this one really _is_ scary!"

Jessica refused to be taken in. "No problem. I'll keep it as a pet. By the way, have you been told yet?"

"Told what?"

"You're taking the Hound of the Baskervilles home with you as a souvenir. The police took it in for questioning, but it refused to tell them much. It will have to sit on your lap in the car. That's the _good_ news."

"And?"

"The _bad_ news is, we're out of pasties."

THE END

More Christian books for young readers by Chris Wright are on the next pages, some of which are available as both eBooks and paperbacks. More Christian books by Chris Wright and other authors are available in non-fiction and fiction, for adults. 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. His personal website is www.rocky-island.com

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: 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?_

This is the third Two Jays Adventure. They can be read in any order, although each one goes forward slightly in time.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9957594-4-2

Paperback ISBN: 9781-5-211370-3-1

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

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

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

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 Hidden Room Adventure

The Eighth Two Jays Story

Chris Wright

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.

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

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

246 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

Three Adventure Puzzle Books!

eBook and paperback

### The Holy Land Adventure

by

Chris Wright

An Adventure Puzzle Book

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!

eBook ISBN: 978-1-912529-36-0

Also available as a paperback ISBN: 978-1-912529-34-6

### 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

Don't forget to check our website www.whitetreepublishing.com for the latest books, and updates on availability

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