Harding's Luck Part 39

The three children hugged each other, and then turned to the Mouldiwarp.

"How can we get home?"

"The old way," he said; and from the sky above a swan carriage suddenly swooped. "In with you," said the Mouldiwarp; "swan carriages can take you from one time to another just as well as one place to another. But we don't often use 'em--'cause why? swans is dat contrary dey won't go invisible not for no magic, dey won't. So everybody can see 'em. Still we can't pick nor choose when it's danger like dis 'ere. In with you. Be off with you. This is the last you'll see o' me. Be off afore the soldiers sees you."

They squeezed into the swan carriage, all three. The white wings spread and the whole equipage rose into the air unseen by any one but a Roundhead sentinel, who with great presence of mind gave the alarm, and was kicked for his pains, because when the guard turned out there was nothing to be seen.

The swans flew far too fast for the children to see where they were going, and when the swans began to flap more slowly so that the children could have seen if there had been anything to see, there was nothing to be seen, because it was quite dark. And the air was very cold. But presently a light showed ahead, and next moment there they were in the cave, and stepped out of the carriage on the exact spot where d.i.c.kie had set out the moon-seeds and Tinkler and the white seal.

The swan carriage went back up the cave with a swish and rustle of wings, and the children went down the hill as quickly as they could--which was not very quickly because of d.i.c.kie's poor lame foot.

The boy who had killed a Cromwell's man with his little sword had not been lame.

Arrived in the courtyard, d.i.c.kie proudly led the way and stooped to examine the stones near the ruined arch that had been the chapel door.

Alas! there was not a sign of the inscription which d.i.c.kie had scratched on the stone when the Roundheads were battering at the gates of Arden Castle.

Then Edred said, "Aha!" in a tone of triumph.

"_I_ took notice, too," he explained. "It's the fifth stone from the chapel door under the little window with the Arden arms carved over it.

There's no other window with that over it. I'll get the cold chisel."

He got it, and when he came back d.i.c.kie was on his knees by the wall, and he had dug with his hands and uncovered the stone where he had scratched with the nails. And there was the mark--19. R.D. 08. Only the nail had slipped once or twice while he was doing the 9, so that it looked much more like a five--15. R.D. 08.

"There," he said, "that's what I scratched!"

"That?" said Edred. "Why, that's always been there. We found that when we were digging about, trying to find the treasure. Quite at the beginning, didn't we, Elf?"

And Elfrida agreed that this was so.

"Well, I scratched it, anyway," said d.i.c.kie. "Now, then, let me go ahead with the chisel."

Edred let him: he knew how clever d.i.c.kie was with his hands, for had he not made a work-box for Elfrida and a tool-chest for Edred, both with lids that fitted?

d.i.c.kie got the point of the chisel between the stones and pried and pressed--here and there, and at the other end--till the stone moved forward a little at a time, and they were able to get hold of it, and drag it out. Behind was darkness, a hollow--d.i.c.kie plunged his arm in.

"I can feel the door," he said; "it's all right."

"Let's fetch father," suggested Elfrida; "he _will_ enjoy it so."

So he was fetched. Elfrida burst into the library where her father was busy with many lawyers' letters and papers, and also with the lawyer himself, a stout, jolly-looking gentleman in a tweed suit, not a bit like the long, lean, disagreeable, black-coated lawyers you read about in books.

"Please, daddy," she cried, "we've found the treasure. Come and look."

"What treasure? and how often have I told you not to interrupt me when I am busy?"

"Oh, well," said Elfrida, "I only thought it would amuse you, daddy.

We've found a bricked-up place, and there's a door behind, and I'm almost sure it's where they hid the treasure when Cromwell's wicked men took the Castle."

"There is a legend to that effect," said Elfrida's father to the lawyer, who was looking interested. "You must forgive us if our family enthusiasms obliterate our manners. You have not said good-morning to Mr. Roscoe, Elfrida."

"Good-morning, Mr. Roscoe," said Elfrida cheerfully. "I thought it was the engineer's day and not the lawyer's. I beg your pardon, you wouldn't mind me bursting in if you knew how very important the treasure is to the fortunes of our house."

The lawyer laughed. "I am deeply interested in buried treasure. It would be a great treat to me if Lord Arden would allow me to a.s.sist in the search for it."

"There's no search _now_," said Elfrida, "because it's found. We've been searching for ages. Oh, daddy, do come--you'll be sorry afterwards if you don't."

"If Mr. Roscoe doesn't mind, then," said her father indulgently. And the two followed Elfrida, believing that they were just going to be kind and to take part in some childish game of make-believe. Their feelings were very different when they peeped through the hole, where d.i.c.kie and Edred had removed two more stones, and saw the dusty gray of the wooden door beyond. Very soon all the stones were out, and the door was disclosed.

The lock plate bore the arms of Arden, and the door was not to be shaken.

"We must get a locksmith," said Lord Arden.

"The big key with the arms on it!" cried Elfrida; "one of those in the iron box. Mightn't that----?" One flew to fetch it.

A good deal of oil and more patience were needed before the key consented to turn in the lock, but it did turn--and the low pa.s.sage was disclosed. It hardly seemed a pa.s.sage at all, so thick and low hung the curtain of dusty cobwebs. But with brooms and lanterns and much sneezing and choking, the whole party got through to the door of the treasure room. And the other key unlocked that. And there in real fact was the treasure just as the children had seen it--the chests and the boxes and the leathern sacks and the bundles done up in straw and in handkerchiefs.

The lawyer, who had come on a bicycle, went off on it, at racing speed, to tell the Bank at Cliffville to come and fetch the treasure, and to bring police to watch over it till it should be safe in the Bank vaults.

"And I'm child enough," he said before he went, "as well as cautious enough, to beg you not to bring any of it out till I come back, and not to leave guarding the entrance till the police are here."

So when the treasure at last saw the light of day it saw it under the eyes of policemen and Bank managers and all the servants and all the family and the Beales and True, and half the village beside, who had got wind of the strange happenings at the Castle and had crowded in through the now undefended gate.

It was a glorious treasure--gold and silver plate, jewels and beautiful armor, along with a pile of old parchments which Mr. Roscoe said were worth more than all the rest put together, for they were the t.i.tle-deeds of great estates.

"And now," cried Beale, "let's 'ave a cheer for Lord Arden. Long may 'e enjoy 'is find, says I! 'Ip, 'ip, 'ooray!"

The cheers went up, given with a good heart.

"I thank you all," said the father of Edred and Elfrida. "I thank you all from my heart. And you may be sure that you shall share in this good fortune. The old lands are in the market. They will be bought back. And every house on Arden land shall be made sound and weather-tight and comfortable. The Castle will be restored--almost certainly. And the fortunes of Arden's tenantry will be the fortunes of Arden Castle."

Another cheer went up. But the speaker raised his hand, and silence waited his next words.

"I have something else to tell you," he said, "and as well now as later.

This gentleman, Mr. Roscoe, my solicitor, has this morning brought me news that I am not Lord Arden!"

Loud murmurs of dissatisfaction from the crowd.

"I have no claim to the t.i.tle," he went on grimly; "my father was a younger son--the real heir was kidnapped, and supposed to be dead, so I inherited. It is the grandson of that kidnapped heir who is Lord Arden.

I know his whole history. I know what he has done, to do honor to himself and to help others." ("Hear, hear" from Beale.) "I know all his life, and I am proud that he is the head of our house. He will do for you, when he is of age, all that I would have done. And in the meantime I am his guardian. This is Lord Arden," he said, throwing his arm round the shoulders of d.i.c.kie, little lame d.i.c.kie, who stood there leaning on his crutch, pale as death. "This is Lord Arden, come to his own. Cheer for him, men, as you never cheered before. Three cheers for Richard Lord Arden!"

CHAPTER XII

THE END

WHAT a triumph for little lame d.i.c.kie of Deptford!