ancestral portraits on the walls.
The servant did not reappear, but from the corridor came a florid man with a petulant mouth and hooded eyes. Differently dressed, he might have sat for one of the portraits at which Edward had been looking. The likeness was explained, perhaps, when he spoke.
‘Mr Saltergate? I am Mr Mathew’s cousin. I am sorry to have kept you waiting, but I spent a moment of time in looking up your letters.’
‘My last one received no answer.’
‘I should have acknowledged it, of course, but I put off a reply in the hope that my cousin would have answered my own letter on the subject. I’m standing in for him while he is away. Do come along and take a glass of something, won’t you? Wrong time of day, I know, for alcohol, but perhaps something long and cool—?’
He led the way and they went into a white-painted room with a plain ceiling and a modernised fireplace. From the circular table in the centre of the room and the straight-backed but upholstered chairs against the wall, Edward took it that he was in the dining-room. There was no sideboard, but a small occasional table stood against the wall at one side of the fireplace. On the opposite side was the only armchair in the room. The owner’s cousin drew it forward, indicated to Edward that he should seat himself and then added, ‘Shan’t be a minute. Can’t rely on Wicklow to fix a decent drink. Now,’ he went on when, having returned with two tall glasses, he had pulled forward a chair for himself, ‘what can I do for you? My name is Sandgate, by the way. Sandgate and Saltergate, eh? We should get on well together. You health!’
‘I will come to the point,’ said Edward. ‘I wrote, some months ago, as you know, to ask permission to attempt some reconstruction work at Holdy Castle. I was granted that permission, but, now that I have begun work, I find that other parties have been granted equal facilities.’
‘But not, I understand, to carry out the same kind of work.’
‘That is a fair observation, but my difficulty is that I am now faced with a case of encroachment. May I explain?’ He took out a scribbling pad from the briefcase he had brought with him and made rapid sketches with a BB pencil, explaining as he went along. ‘Here is the keep – no problem there – and here is the hall next to it. We shall get them both cleared of rubble and, later on, we hope to repair the top of the keep sufficiently to render it safe. It is secure enough in itself, but the parapet is so much broken away as to leave only a few inches of walling at one place. We can collect enough broken stone to build it up.’
‘And you have my cousin’s permission to do this, I know. I have not visited the ruins myself. So what exactly is your problem?’
‘This,’ said Edward, sketching in his flanking-towers. ‘The other party has permission for an archaeological dig. It is being carried out scientifically and is based, I understand, on a survey previously made from the air as well as on another from the ground. Unfortunately, if Professor Veryan is permitted to carry out his ideas, this is what will happen.’ He traced out a broad circle which cut into the sketch-plan of the walls and towers. ‘You see what I mean.’
‘Yes, indeed. Most unfortunate, but what can I do about it? There are letters from Professor Veryan, too. He has equal rights with yourself. I don’t see anything for it, Mr Saltergate, but for the two of you to come to some amicable agreement between yourselves. My position here is merely that of a bailiff. I can’t alter decisions made and permissions given by the owner of the property.’
‘There must surely be a question of priorities. Didn’t my application arrive before that of Professor Verya.n?’
‘Even if it did, he has an established right to work on the site, just as you have. My cousin also filed a letter from someone who signs himself T. V. M. Hassocks and the filed copy of my cousin’s reply gives this person permission to attempt to locate the castle wells. What interest he can have in them I do not know, but there it is. My cousin seems to have strewn permissions all over the place.’
Profoundly dissatisfied, Edward drove back to the Horse and Cart to seek what consolation he could obtain from Lilian and he was even less pleased when, just beyond the manor house gates, he passed Veryan’s car with Tynant seated beside the owner-driver.
‘Professor Veryan?’ said Sandgate. ‘I am delighted to make your acquaintance. I have just had a visit from a Mr Saltergate, whom I believe you know.’
‘Yes, indeed. I thought he might have been here. I passed his car on the road. Not to beat about the bush, I have reason to think that my visit may not be unrelated to his.’
‘Come and sit down and let us talk things over. He left some sketch-plans with me.’
‘Of his flanking-towers, no doubt.’
‘His? I was under the impression that, if they belong to anybody, it is to my cousin, the owner of the Holdy estate.’
‘Of course, of course. I meant only to refer to the work he intends to carry out.’
‘And I meant only a rather clumsy pleasantry. Mr Saltergate was not very coherent. This is the sketch-plan he left with me. Perhaps you can explain it better than he did.’
‘Oh, well,’ said Veryan, taking a chair and picking up the sheet which Saltergate, at leaving, had torn off his scribbling pad, ‘it is simple enough and is what I hope to talk to you about.’
‘Before you begin, I had better repeat what my position is here. I am nothing more than a caretaker. Portia (if I remember my schoolmasters and their attempts to get me to read Shakespeare and, what was worse, to get some of him by heart) could not alter a decree established. I find myself in exactly the same circumstances. I have been through all the relevant correspondence very carefully and it seems to me that my cousin has granted you and Mr Saltergate equal rights. There is also another candidate in the field, someone called Hassocks.’
‘Oh, he can be ignored. He and his companion are undergraduates with a thesis to write. They are glad to learn from Saltergate and myself, and have put themselves at our disposal. They are charming boys and will be a great help when it comes to all that digging.’
‘Digging? Digging for what?’
‘Obviously Saltergate did not explain very clearly what our object is. We certainly are not digging for gold or diamonds, although young Hassocks may have some such idea. We are excavating a Bronze Age burial ground. Unfortunately the trench – here it is on Saltergate’s plan – is likely to touch (no more than touch) the foundations of
