‘If anybody does notice us, let’s hope they will put our activities down to excess of zeal. What about the evenings? I should think we could knock off at five or half-past. We could get dinner at the Barbican at six-thirty, and that would give us a nice bit of time before dark to push on with our search.’
‘Perish such an unworthy idea! No, Tommy lad, I’ll get up with the lark, but by the time we’ve done our personal and private stint before breakfast and then put in a nine to one and then a two-thirty to (probably) five- thirty labourer’s day on Saltergate’s account, I shall be ready for beer, skittles and bed.’
‘Perhaps you’re right. No sense in running ourselves into the ground.’
‘Besides, I expect Fiona has brought her guitar and will sit on the steps of the caravan after dinner and sing plaintive love songs in a throaty contralto which will start all the village dogs howling. We shall be much better off in a pub. Come on! I’ve got the thirst of Tantalus upon me after all that salt-water bathing.’
‘There is one more thing. I don’t see why we need to pitch a tent down there by our cars and the caravan. If we’re planning to start work before breakfast, what’s wrong with carting the folding camp-beds and our sleeping- bags up to the keep and camping out there so long as the weather keeps fine? We shan’t need a roof over our heads unless it rains and there is plenty of shelter from the wind up there. What do you say?’
‘Pub first, plans later.’
They drove inland and found a hostelry in a small inland village called Stint Magna where the moors ended and a river wound through water meadows. They drank their beer and bought sandwiches at the bar and, fortified, returned to Holdy. Finding themselves first in the field (for service at the Barbican for Veryan and Tynant, and at the Horse and Cart, where the Saltergates were staying, was willing but slow), Tom and Bonamy transferred camp- beds and sleeping-bags from their cars up to the keep and cleared one side of it of rubble.
‘Young Monkswood is the godson of Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley, he tells me,’ said Lilian Saltergate to her husband, as they walked from the Horse and Cart alongside the little river which curved round the foot of the castle mound. ‘I hope that it means he is going to take his work here seriously. The other young man, Mr Hassocks, strikes me as a somewhat frivolous individual.’
‘I am not sure that Dame Beatrice herself has not a frivolous side to her nature,’ said Edward. ‘I remember offering her a cocktail on one occasion and she was guilty of responding with what I imagine is a rather well-worn pun.’
‘Oh? What did she say?’
‘She quoted from the Rubaiyat.’
‘A cocktail, you say? Oh, well, there are certainly lines there which would be apposite. Which did she choose?’
‘
‘How naughty of her! Poor Edward Fitzgerald never dreamed of such levity. Did she accept your offer of a cocktail after all that?’
‘No. She said she preferred dry sherry.’
‘If we co-opt those two lads to help with the digging,’ said Malpas Veryan, ‘I think we ought to stake them to daily breakfast and dinner with us. Lunch they can get for themselves. The Saltergates and Dr Lochlure are making similar arrangements for the two women students. The idea emanates, of course, from the motherly Lilian. A kind and thoughtful woman, that, and practical, withal. She spoke to Saltergate and asked him to speak to me.’
‘About giving the lads breakfast and dinner?’
‘She only mentioned that they were providing for the caravanners. She spoke about toilet facilities for the two boys.’
‘Oh, I expect they will dig a trench in some convenient spot. The Scouts do it when they camp, I believe.’
‘There will be quite enough trenches on the hillside when we begin our work, without one which has a purpose of its own. Besides, there is the question of baths. This is going to be dirty work and sweated (literally) labour. I thought that, if we fixed up a regular breakfast and dinner routine for the two lads, the landlord would not be averse to their using the facilities at the hotel.’
‘There is a public convenience in the village square.’
‘But no facilities for washing, let alone baths. The girls will be all right. Their caravan is well equipped, but Lilian Saltergate was concerned for the two youths, so I felt I had to reassure her.’
‘Very well. Mind you, I expect young fellows like Tom and Bonamy eat like horses and will order two of everything.’
‘I would not be surprised if we found you yourself ordering two of everything when you have spent a week or so on that hill.’
Edward mustered his forces.
‘This afternoon,’ he said, ‘we shall walk round the site and then I shall assign specific tasks for tomorrow. I must stress that it is important we keep clear of the work Professor Veryan will be doing. Nominally, Tom and Bonamy are attached to that party, but theirs is to be a divided allegiance. After all, they came here to survey the castle on their own account, so we must be grateful for any assistance they are willing to give. Well, now, when we have finished our survey, which should take about an hour, the rest of the afternoon is free. We begin work in earnest tomorrow, but it is necessary for us first to relate what we have seen on the plan to what we shall now see on the ground.’
‘Which is most of the castle,’ said Fiona, looking disparagingly at a large block of Purbeck stone which was near where she was standing. She turned to Priscilla. ‘What shall we do when we’ve finished walking round these ruins?’ she asked almost in a whisper. They loitered a little as their seniors moved off, and held a short colloquy. Then they tailed in behind the rest of their party.
Meanwhile Malpas and Nicholas appeared to be doing nothing but converse while they looked at the broad, oddly shaped expanse of the outer bailey. Then, as Edward’s party approached a kind of slag-heap which had once been the castle stables, Veryan went over to Bonamy and drew him out of Edward’s circle. At this, Fiona took the
