chapter 13 junior springs a surprise!

the six children felt a sudden upsurge of excitement, and timmy felt it too and barked loudly.

snippet joined in, and the jackdaw danced up and down on harry's shoulder, chacking hoarsely.

junior, who had seen them start out and was tracking them, stared in surprise from behind a bush in anearby hedge. now what was all the excitement about? what had timmy and snippet found?

he saw the six children spread out and begin to go slowly up the great slope of the hill. timmyfollowed them, rather puzzled. he wished he knew what they were looking for - then he could hunttoo! junior kept safely behind the bush. he knew that if he followed too closely after the children,timmy would hear him, and bark.

suddenly the harries gave a shout. 'hey!' the others looked up from their search, and saw thembeckoning in excitement. 'what about this? come and look!'

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everyone hurried over to the twins, who were standing on a little ridge about two hundred yardsbelow the top of the gently sloping hill. 'look!' said harry, sweeping his arm in a circle. 'would thisbe a likely place for the castle-site?'

the four looked at the great shallow depression that the twins pointed to. in shape it was like a veryshallow soup-plate, certainly big enough for a castle to have been built there! it was covered withthick, closely-growing grass, which was a little darker in colour than the grass around.

julian clapped harry on the shoulder. 'yes! i bet this is where the castle once stood! why should theground here suddenly have this great depression in it, as if it had sunk down, for some reason? theonly reason could be that some enormously heavy building once stood here - and it must have beenthe castle!'

'it's not too far from the kitchen- midden, where they threw their rubbish, is it?' asked anne,anxiously, looking back to see how far away that was.

'no - just about right,' said julian. 'they would be sure to have it some distance away, because itwould smell, especially in the hot weather. yes, twins - i think you really have hit on the castle-site -and i bet if we had the machinery to excavate here, we'd come across dungeons, cellars, undergroundpassages - and all they contain!'

the twins went red with excitement, and stared solemnly at the great basin-like circle, green withgrass. 'what will our mother say?' they said, both together.

'plenty!' said dick. 'this might be the saving of your farm! but look - let's not say a word about it yet,in case it gets round to mr. henning. let's get bill and ask him if he'll lend us spades and things.

we'll tell him we've found some interesting old shells and bones on the hill and want to do a littledigging. we'll soon know if this really is the site of the castle.'

'good idea,' said julian, excited at the thought of being one of the first to dig down into the olddungeons! 'let's pace round this old site and see how big it is.'

they walked round and round it and decided it was more than big enough for even a large castle.

they thought it was strange that the grass should be a different colour there.

'but it does sometimes happen that grass marks out where old buildings once stood,' said julian.

'i say - this is just about the most exciting thing that ever happened to us - and i'm so glad it was thetwins who first recognized the site! after all, it's on their farm!'

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'isn't that junior, running over there?' said george suddenly, as she saw timmy prick up his ears, andturn his nose to the wind. 'yes, it is. he's been spying on us, the little beast! there he goes, look!'

'well, he can't know much,' said julian, gazing after the running figure. 'i don't expect he even knowsthat a castle was once built here, at the top of this hill - and he certainly wouldn't know we werelooking for the site. he's just snooping, that's all.'

but junior did know all about the old castle, for he had overheard the children talking in the hen-house! and he did know what they had been looking for! he had followed them as closely as hedared, listening to their shouts - and now he felt that he must get back to his father and tell him whathe knew!

he found his father still with mr. durleston, examining an old fireplace. 'now that's worth buying,'

mr. durleston was saying. 'you could rip that out, and use it in your own house - a beautiful thing!

very old! and...'

'pop! i say, pop! listen!' cried junior, bursting in. mr. durleston looked annoyed. that boy again!

but junior took no notice of the old man's annoyance, and pulled urgently at his father's arm. 'dad! iknow where the place is that the castle once stood on! and there's dungeons and cellars underneath,full of treasure, i know there are. pop, those kids found the place, but they don't know i saw them!'

'what is all this, junior?' said his father, half-annoyed too. 'silly talk! you don't know anything aboutcastle-sites and dungeons and the rest!'

'i do, i do! i heard them all talking in the hen-house - i told you i did!' cried junior, tugging at hisfather's sleeve again. 'pop, they've found an old rubbish-heap too, that belonged to the castle -they called it a - a - let me see now - a...'

'a midden?' asked mr. durleston, suddenly taking an interest.

'yes! that's it. a kitchen-midden!' said junior triumphantly. 'with bones and shells. and then theylooked for where the old castle might have been built - they said it couldn't have been far away,and...'

'well, they were right,' said mr. durleston. 'a kitchen-midden would certainly pin-point the castlearea! mr. henning, this is extremely interesting. if you could get permission to excavate, it would bea...'

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'oh boy!' said mr. henning, interrupting, his eyes almost starting out of his head. 'can't you see thepapers - 'american discovers old castle-site - unknown for centuries! excavates dungeons -find bones of long-ago prisoners - chests of gold coins...' '

'not so fast, not so fast,' said mr. durleston, disapprovingly. 'there may be nothing at all there.

let us not count our chickens before they're hatched. and mind - not a word to the newspapers,henning. we don't want a crowd of people rushing to pry over the farm, sending up its price!'

'i didn't think of that,' said mr. henning, a little cast-down. 'all right - we'll go carefully. what doyou advise?'

'i should advise you to approach mr. philpot - not the old great-grand-dad, but the farmer himself -and offer to put down, say, ?250 for the right to excavate up on the hill there,' said mr.

durleston. 'then if you strike anything interesting, you can offer a further sum for whatever's downthere - say another ?250. if there is anything there, it will be extremely valuable - so very, very old.

hmmm. hmmm. yes, that is my advice to you.'

'and it sounds pretty good to me,' said mr. henning, excitement flooding him again. 'you'll stay hereand advise me, won't you, durleston?'

'certainly, certainly, if you are prepared to pay my fee,' said mr. durleston. 'i think it would perhapsbe advisable if i approached mr. philpot, mr. henning, not you. you might - er - well -give something away in your excitement. you will come with me, of course - but let me do thetalking.'

'right, old man, you do everything!' said mr. henning, feeling friendly with the whole world. heclapped the listening junior on the back. 'well done, son! you may have let us into something good.

now don't you breathe a word to anyone, see?'

'aw shucks!' said junior. 'what do you think i am? my mouth's sewn up from now on! think i'dsplit, pop, when there's a chance of getting even with those snooty kids? you go on up that hill whenthey've gone, and have a look yourself. mr. durleston will know if it's the real thing or not!'

so, when the six children and dogs were safely out of sight, gone to help with various jobs of workon the farm, mr. henning and mr. durleston went with junior to see the kitchen-midden and thesupposed site of the old castle. mr. henning became very excited indeed, and even the weary-lookingmr. durleston brightened up and nodded his head several times.

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'looks the real thing!' he said. 'yes, we'll get going this evening - after that fierce old fellow - the oldgreat-grand-dad - has gone to bed. he might put a spoke in our wheels. he's as old as the hills, butas cute as a jackdaw!'

and so, that evening, when great-grand-dad was safely in bed, mr. henning and mr. durleston hada private, very private talk with mr. and mrs. philpot together. the farmer and his wife listened,amazed. when they heard that mr. henning proposed to hand them a cheque for ?250merely for the right to do a little digging, mrs. philpot almost cried!

'and i have advised mr. henning that he should offer you further sums, if he finds anything he wouldlike to take back to the states with him, as - er - as mementos of a very pleasant stay here,'

finished mr. durleston.

'it sounds too good to be true,' said mrs. philpot. 'we could certainly do with the money, couldn't we,trevor?'

mr. henning took out his cheque book and produced his fountain-pen, before mr. philpot could sayanything else. he wrote out the sum of ?250, and signed the cheque with a flourish. he thenpresented it to mr. philpot.

'and i hope there'll be more cheques to come,' he said. 'thank you, sir - i'll get men along tomorrowto start digging.'

'i'll have a formal agreement drawn up,' put in mr. durleston, thinking that he saw a rather doubtfullook coming over mr. philpot's face, as he took the cheque. 'but you can cash the cheque straightaway. well, we'll leave you to talk over it!'

when the twins and the four heard of this, the next morning, they were astounded. mrs. philpot toldthe twins first, and harry and harriet ran at once to find the others. they listened, amazed and angry.

'how did they know all that? how did they guess where to find the castle-site?' said dick, fiercely. 'ibet it's that snoopy little junior who put them on to this! i bet he spied on us! i thought i saw twopeople up on that hill after tea yesterday. it must have been mr. henning and that friend of his - withjunior. gosh, i could pull that kid's hair out!'

'well, i suppose there's absolutely nothing we can do now!' said george, angrily. 'the next thing we'llsee is lorries rolling up with men inside, and spades and drills and goodness knows what!'

she was quite right! that very morning the hill became quite a busy place! four men had alreadybeen hired by mr. henning, and they all went up the hill in their lorry, bumping slowly along, 59past the kitchen-midden mound, and on up to the shallow basin-like depression near the summit ofthe hill. spades, forks and drills rattled in the lorry. junior was mad with joy, and danced about at asafe distance, yelling defiance at the six children.

'you thought i didn't know anything, didn't you! i heard everything! serves you right! yah!'

'timmy - chase him!' ordered george, in a furious voice. 'but don't hurt him, mind. go on!'

and off went timmy at a gallop, and if junior hadn't leapt into the lorry and picked up a spade,timmy would certainly have rolled him over and over on the ground!

now what was to be done? the children almost gave up - but not quite! there might be somethingthey could do - there might! why was julian suddenly looking so excited?