chapter 12 really very thrilling

at teatime julian spoke to mrs. philpot about the old kitchen door. 'that's a fine old door,' he said.

'did it come from the castle, do you suppose?'

'yes - so it's said,' answered mrs. philpot. 'great-grand-dad here knows more about it than i do,though.'

great-grand-dad was not at the table. he was sitting in his enormous old chair in the window withsnippet at his feet. he was pulling contentedly at his pipe, a cup of tea on the window-sill beside him.

'what's that?' called the old man. 'speak up!' julian repeated what mrs. philpot had said, and the oldfellow nodded.

'oh ay! that door's from the castle all right. made of the same oak as the beams in the barns, and thefloors of the bedrooms above! ay, and that american fellow's been at me about it, too! ho!

offered me fifty pounds for it. fifty pounds! i wouldn't take a thousand. what - have that olddoor hanging in some newfangled house out in that american country, wherever it is? no. i say no,and i'll say it till i'm blue in the face!'

'all right, grand-dad - don't upset yourself,' said mrs. philpot. she spoke to julian in a low voice.

'change the subject, quickly, or grand-dad will go on and on, poor old fellow!'

julian racked his brain for a change of subject, and fortunately remembered the hen-houses. he atonce began to tell great-grand-dad all they had done that afternoon, and the old fellow calmed downat once, and listened with pleasure. snippet, who had run in fright to the twins as soon as great-grand-dad had begun to shout, ran back to him, and settled on his feet. timmy also decided to jointhem, and soon great-grand-dad was completely happy again, drawing on his old pipe, with one dogat his feet, the other resting a great head on his knee. timmy certainly did love great-grand-dad!

mr. henning did not come back that night, much to everyone's relief, but arrived next day just beforelunch, bringing with him a dried-up little fellow wearing thick glasses, whom he introduced as mr.

richard durleston.

'the great mr. durleston!' he said proudly. 'knows more about old houses in england than anyoneelse in the country. i'd like him to see that old door after lunch, mrs. philpot - and that 51queer opening in the wall of the bedroom upstairs, which was used to heat embers and bricks forwarming beds years ago.'

fortunately great-grand-dad was not there to object, and after they had had dinner, mrs. philpot tookmr. durleston to the old studded door. 'ah yes,' he said. 'quite genuine. very fine specimen. i shouldoffer two hundred pounds, mr. henning.'

how mrs. philpot longed to accept such an offer! what a difference it would make to herhousekeeping! she shook her head. 'you'd have to talk to old great-grand-dad,' she said. 'but i'mafraid he'll say no. now i'll take you to see the queer old opening up in one of the bedrooms.'

she took mr. henning and mr. durleston upstairs, and the four followed, with timmy. it was indeeda strange opening in the wall! it had a wrought-iron door rather like an old oven door.

mrs. philpot opened it. inside was a big cavity, which had obviously been used as a kind of oven toheat bricks for placing into cold beds; some of the old bricks were actually still there, blackened withlong-ago heating! mrs. philpot took out what looked like a heavy iron tray with an ornamented raisededge. on it were old, old embers!

'this tray was used for heating and holding the embers before they were put into warming-pans,'

she said. 'we still have one old warming-pan left - there on the wall, look.'

the four, just as interested as the two men, looked at the copper warming-pan, glowing red-gold onthe wall. 'the red-hot embers were emptied into that,' mrs. philpot told the children, 'and then the panwas carried by its long handle into all the bedrooms, and thrust into each bed for a few minutes towarm it. and that funny little opening in the wall is, as i said, where people years and years agoheated the embers - and the bricks too, which were wrapped in flannel and left in each bed.'

'hmmmmm. very interesting. quite rare to see one in such a well-preserved state,' said mr.

durleston, peering into the opening through thick glasses. 'you could make an offer for this too, mr.

henning. interesting old place. we'll have a look at the barns too, i think, and the outbuildings. mightbe a few things there you could pick up with advantage.'

george thought it was a good thing the twins were not with them to hear all this. they seemed toshare with their great-grand-dad a hatred of parting with any of the treasures belonging to the oldfarm-house!

mrs. philpot took the two men downstairs again, and the four followed.

52

'i'll just take mr. durleston to the old chapel, mam,' said mr. henning, and mrs. philpot nodded.

she left them and hurried back into the kitchen, where she had a cake baking. the four looked at oneanother, and julian nodded his head towards the two men, now making their way out of doors. 'shallwe go too?' he said. 'we haven't seen this chapel yet, either!'

so they followed the two men, and soon came to a tall, quaint old building with small and beautifularched windows set high up in the walls. they went in at the door, a few paces behind the two men,and stared in wonder.

'yes - you can see it was once a chapel!' said julian, speaking instinctively in a low voice. 'thoselovely old windows - that arch there...'

'and the feel of it!' said anne. 'i know now what old mr. finniston down at that little shop meant,when he said that though it was now a store-house, it was still full of prayer! you can feel that peoplehave been here to pray, can't you? what a lovely little chapel. oh, i do wish it wasn't used as a store-house!'

'i was told by an old fellow down in the village antique shop that a lady phillippa, who was once thelady of the castle, brought each of her fifteen children here to learn their prayers,' said mr.

durleston, surprisingly. 'hmm, hmm - nice old story. probably true. chapels were often built near tocastles. wonder which path they took from the castle to the chapel. all gone now, no castle, nothing!

hmm, hmm.'

'i'd like to buy this chapel, knock it down, and take it stone by stone to my place in the states,'

said the american enthusiastically. 'fine specimen, isn't it? it would look wunnerful in my place.'

'can't advise that,' said mr. durleston, shaking his head. 'not in good taste. let's go to thoseoutbuildings yonder. might see something in the old junk there.'

they went off, and the children stayed behind, entranced with the little chapel. sacks upon sacks ofgrain and what looked like fertilizer were arranged in rows all over the floor. a cat had three kittenscuddled together on one sack, and a dove cooed somewhere high up in the arched roof. it was a verypeaceful sound, somehow just right for the silent little place. the children trooped out quietly, notfeeling inclined to follow the brash mr. henning round any more.

'at least the other man stopped him from his mad idea of removing the chapel stone by stone,'

said anne. 'i couldn't bear that beautiful old place to be torn up by its roots and replanted somewhereelse.'

53

'you sound quite angry, anne - almost as fierce as old great-grand-dad!' said julian, slipping his armthrough his sister's. 'i don't somehow think the old chapel will be sold to mr. henning - even if heoffered a million dollars for it!'

'well, i like most americans very much,' said anne. 'but not mr. henning. he - he wants to buyhistory just as if it were chocolate or toffee!'

that made the others laugh. 'i say!' said julian, 'what about having a snoop round, now we're out, andjust see if we can decide where to hunt for the site of the castle? i presume we all agree that it can't bevery far away from the chapel?'

'yes - that's agreed,' said dick. 'and it's also agreed that the site is probably on a hill. the snag is thatthere are rather a lot of hills on this undulating farmland!'

'let's make our way over there - up the nearest slope,' said george. 'hallo, here are the twins.

we'll call them. they might like to come.'

the twins soon joined them, and said yes, they would certainly like to hunt for the castle-site.

'but it might take years!' said harry. 'it might be anywhere on the farm!'

'well, we plan to examine this first slope,' said julian. 'heel, tim, heel, snippet. oh gosh, here'snosey the jackdaw too. not on my shoulder, if you don't mind, nosey. i rather value my ears!'

'chack!' said the jackdaw, and flew to the twins.

they made their way up the slope. there was, however, absolutely nothing to be seen except grass,grass, grass! they came to a big mound and stood looking at it.

'a very large mole must have made that!' said dick, which made them all laugh, for the mound wasas high as their shoulders. rabbit-holes could be seen at the bottom, though it was probable that veryfew burrowed there now - the great rabbit-disease, myxomatosis had wiped them practically out ofexistence on finniston farm.

timmy couldn't see a rabbit-hole without scraping at it, and soon he and snippet were scatteringearth over everyone. snippet was small enough to disappear into one hole, and came out carrying- of all things - an oyster shell! julian took it out of his mouth in amazement.

'look here - an oyster shell - and we're miles from the sea. how did it get there? go in again,snippet. scrape hard, timmy. buck up! an idea is glimmering in my brain!'

before long, what with timmy's excited scraping and snippet's explorations deep into the burrow,quite a collection of oyster shells, and small and large bones, lay on the grass!

'bones!' said anne. 'not bones of people surely! don't tell me this is a mound covering an old graveor something, ju.'

'no. but it is something rather exciting!' said julian. 'i'm pretty sure it's an old kitchen-midden.'

'a kitchen-midden? what on earth's that?' said george. 'oh look - timmy's got another mouthful ofoyster shells!'

'a kitchen-midden is what you might call the rubbish-heap of the old days,' explained julian, pickingup some oyster shells. 'it was often very big, when it comprised the rubbish thrown out from largehouses - or castles! things like bones and shells wouldn't rot away like other rubbish -and i do believe we've found the kitchen-midden of the old castle. my word - what a find! now weknow something very important!'

'what? asked everyone, in excitement.

'well - we know now that the site of the castle must be somewhere on this slope!' said julian.

'the kitchen-midden was probably not far from its walls. we're on the scent, scouts, we're on thescent! come on - let's go further on. spread out. examine every inch of the ground!'