The Secret of Dinswood

by Ellen Alexander

  “Or maybe it’s here just outside the cave. The riddle said the passage leads to treasure. This is where the cave leads, so maybe it’s here,” Sebastian said.

  “Well, if it’s here somewhere, we’ll need to look around during the day,” Doug said finally.

  Doug was right. Although the half-moon provided some light, it wasn’t adequate for searching for buried treasure. In the dim light, they might very well miss important clues left by Lord Dinswood. They would have to come back and look around during the day with the sun shining brightly overhead.

  “How will we find this spot again?” Sebastian asked.

  “We’ll have to mark it somehow,” Doug answered, looking around for something they could use to mark the entrance. Then his eyes came to rest on Emma, and he got an idea.

  “Emma, could I have one of your hair ribbons?”

  Emma’s eyes widened in surprise for a moment, and then she guessed what Doug was up to. She usually braided her hair, and tonight had been no exception. To camouflage the ugly rubber bands she used to keep the braids from coming undone, she had tied red ribbons over them. They could tie a red ribbon around one of the shrubs, and it would be easy enough to find in the light of day. Untying one of the ribbons, she handed it to Doug.

  “Good idea, Doug,” she said smiling. “I just wish I’d thought of it.”

  Doug took the ribbon from Emma and tied it around one of the bushes. Tomorrow they would have to break another school rule and sneak off into Fangorley Forest. Suddenly weary, Emma looked at her watch. It had taken them almost an hour to cover the mile trek through the cave, and they were going to have to do it all again. It was, after all, the only way they could get back into the school. She looked around at the others and wondered if they realized they were going to have to go through the cave again. As usual, it was Sebastian who broke the brief silence with a question. “How are we gonna get back into the castle tonight?”

  “We’ve got to go back the way we came,” Doug stated matter-of-factly.

  Martha and Sebastian groaned loudly. Emma would have joined them if she hadn’t already resigned herself to another trip through the cave. In an attempt to make the return trip a little more appealing, she said, “Actually it’s a good thing we have to go back through the cave. We might have missed an important clue our first time through. This time we need to keep our eyes open and look for anything out of the ordinary.”

  “Okay,” Sebastian said with a sigh of resignation.

  Once again, Doug led the way. The return trip took even longer as they were going uphill and taking time to look around for clues. When they came to the “bat room,” which was what Sebastian had aptly named it, they made their way slowly and quietly so as not to disturb the sleeping bats. Although they looked around carefully this time through the cave, they detected nothing out of the ordinary. Finally, frustrated and exhausted, they came to the spiral staircase that led up to the library. Wearily, they climbed the stairs until they were once again standing in the library. Now they had to figure out how to reset the mechanism and get the fireplace back in its usual position. It was now two thirty. The security guards would be making their rounds again at three o’clock. Hopefully, they would be in their rooms asleep by then.

  Doug began to examine the exposed backside of the fireplace. Seven stones from the bottom and seven stones from the edge of the right side of the mantle was a metal handle. Putting all of his effort into it, Doug pulled on the handle. The same metal bar that had sprung forward to open the fireplace, clicked back into its original position, and the entire fireplace rotated back around once again, covering the entrance to the passage. With Sebastian’s help, Doug picked up the stone they had removed earlier and slid it back where it belonged. Emma looked at her watch; it was a quarter to three. Before leaving the library, they took a quick look around to make sure they weren’t leaving anything. Spotting the crowbar they’d used to pry the stone loose, Sebastian hastily picked it up and almost dropped it. Just barely managing to keep it from hitting the floor, Sebastian blew out a breath in a silent whistle and held the crowbar up in a sign of victory. Grinning, he said, “I caught it!”

  If Emma hadn’t been so tired, she would have gladly taken the crowbar away from Sebastian and hit him with it. She was in no mood for levity. They still had to sneak back to their dorm rooms and time was running out.

  As if reading her mind, Doug moved quickly to the library door and unlocked it. After a quick peek to make sure no one was in the hall, they left the library. Doug locked the door once again and pocketed the key. They were about to return to their dorms when they heard a door close near the main entrance. The guards were making their rounds early! The boys couldn’t possibly make it past the guards to their dorm rooms in Bingham Hall. With no other option left to them, they all headed to the double doors leading to the girls’ dorm. Knowing that the guards would probably do at least a perfunctory check of Brimley Hall, Emma motioned for the boys to follow her and Martha into their room. Being quiet so as not to awaken Susie and Clarice, Emma opened the door and stepped back to let the others in. Standing just inside the door, they waited. It wasn’t long before they heard footsteps coming down the hallway. The footsteps got louder and then seemed to stop just outside their door. They all held their breath. After what seemed an eternity, the sound of footsteps began again, but this time they were moving away in the direction they had come. Emma would have let out a huge sigh of relief, but she was afraid it would wake Clarice and Susie. The boys waited several minutes longer until the guards had had plenty of time to complete their rounds. Then, with a thumbs-up signal, Doug and Sebastian slipped quietly from the room. Looking at Martha, Emma swiped the back of her hand across her forehead in a silent “whew, that was close.” Martha nodded in agreement then headed toward her bed, yawning as she went. Both physically and mentally exhausted, Emma climbed into her own bed and immediately fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

  Emma and Martha both slept late the next morning, missing breakfast. It was not uncommon for some students to sleep in on Saturdays and not go to breakfast; however, Emma and Martha never did. They were always up bright and early and among the first in line for the breakfast buffet. When Emma finally rolled over and looked at her alarm clock, it was eleven o’clock. Appalled that they had slept so late, she went over and shook Martha awake. Still groggy, Martha looked up at her through a tangle of red hair and asked what time it was.

  “It’s eleven o’clock,” Emma informed her.

  “Eleven o’clock!” Martha repeated in shock. Fully awake now, she threw back her covers and leapt from bed. As she bent over to straighten the mess she’d made of her covers, she said over her shoulder, “We’d better get with it or we’ll miss lunch too!”

  “I know,” Emma agreed. “I just hope the boys got up and went to breakfast. If they didn’t, it’s going to look awfully suspicious that all four of us slept late; especially when we’re usually the first ones up.”

  “I’m surprised we didn’t hear Clarice and Susie getting ready,” Martha said, looking at their now empty and neatly made beds.

  “I was so tired. I think they could have driven a truck through our room, and I wouldn’t have heard it,” Emma said. Martha nodded her agreement and then they both hurried to get ready.

  When they arrived at the dining hall for lunch, they saw that Doug and Sebastian were already there. Sliding onto the bench across from them, Emma said, “Please tell me you guys made it to breakfast this morning.”

  Doug shook his head no and said, “I guess that means you guys didn’t make it, either.”

  “No, we didn’t wake up until eleven. Do you think anyone noticed we were missing at breakfast?” Emma asked worriedly.

  “I don’t know what the big deal is,” Sebastian spoke up. “Lots of kids sleep in on Saturday. It’s not like they take roll at breakfast or anything.”

  “Still, all four of us that normally eat breakfast, skipping it for the first time on the
same day, would look a little suspicious,” Doug said, repeating Emma’s concern.

  “Well, there are a lot of students in this school to keep track of, so I think it’s very unlikely that any of the teachers noticed we weren’t at breakfast this morning,” Martha said, siding with Sebastian.

  Emma still wasn’t convinced, but as there was nothing they could do about it now, she decided to let the subject drop. Unbeknownst to them, they were being observed at that very moment. The truth was that two teachers had noticed that the four of them had missed the morning meal.

  Looking around and lowering his voice, Doug brought up the subject of most importance. “We need to get back down to the entrance of the cave and see if we can find any more clues.”

  Before Doug could continue, Sebastian broke in. “We were thinking we could go right after lunch.”

  “Fangorley Forest is off limits unless you have a teacher go with you,” Martha said, telling them something they already knew. “How are we going to sneak off without being seen?” As usual, Doug had the answer.

  “We’ll go around the back of the castle behind the greenhouse. We can’t be seen from the castle back there, and unless someone just happens to be looking out his dorm room window, we should be able to slip into the forest easily enough. There’s a shed back there where we can get a couple of shovels in case the treasure is buried somewhere.”

  “Sounds okay, but I don’t think we should leave the castle together,” Emma said.

  “I agree,” Doug said. “We’ll go two at a time and meet behind the greenhouse at one o’clock. Is that all right with everyone?”

  The other three nodded that it was and then the rest of the meal was finished in silence. At the mention of breaking yet another school rule, Emma had begun to lose her appetite. She had no desire to be expelled from the only place she’d ever felt she really belonged. If they were caught in Fangorley Forest without an escort, expulsion was a very real possibility. Even though she had already missed breakfast and should have been hungry, she was only able to pick at her food.

  Noticing her lack of appetite, Doug whispered, “It’s okay, Emma. I’ll make sure we’re not seen.” Then smiling, he added, “You’d better eat. I’m going to make you carry the shovels.”

  A few minutes before one o’clock, Emma and Martha grabbed their jackets from their room and headed outside. It was a beautiful fall day. The sun was shining brightly in a cloudless blue sky. The air was cool and crisp and there was only a slight breeze. The leaves on the maple trees in the front lawn had already begun to change to brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows. The leaves of the oak trees were also changing color, but they displayed more muted tones than the maple leaves. Emma looked to the west and Fangorley Forest. The forest was composed chiefly of oak trees, and although the colors were not as sharp, the contrasting hues of the oak trees were just as beautiful. Emma inhaled deeply and marveled at how fresh and clean the air smelled, especially after the city, where the air always had the vague scent of car exhaust and blacktop.

  As nonchalantly as they could manage, they strolled around the fountain in front of the main entrance for a few minutes and then slowly made their way around the girls’ dorm to the greenhouse behind the castle. The fine weather had enticed several students outside, and Emma began to wonder if they would be able to sneak away without being seen. When they got to the area behind the greenhouse, they found that they were the first to arrive. No one else was around. Emma looked up at the boys’ and girls’ dorms and realized that they could be seen by anyone in the back third of either building. Carefully checking all of the windows that she could see, Emma concluded that, at least at the moment, no one appeared to be watching them. If the boys would hurry up, they could slip into the forest now. Unfortunately, the boys didn’t arrive until five minutes later.

  Doug immediately apologized for being late, explaining that his dad had stopped him in the hall when he and Sebastian were on their way out.

  “Dad just wanted to ask me how things were going, and why I wasn’t at breakfast this morning.”

  “We should have realized your dad would notice you weren’t at breakfast. What did you tell him?” Emma asked anxiously.

  “I just told him I was really tired last night, and I overslept,” Doug said with a shrug of his shoulders. “He seemed satisfied with my explanation.”

  Emma nodded but made no reply. Instead, she looked anxiously up at the dorms again. The others did the same, and after agreeing that no one was watching them at the moment, they hurried toward the woods south of the school. Several yards inside the woods stood the shed Doug had told them about. It was a small, wooden building that at one time had been painted red so that it resembled a little barn. The shed was old and in a state of disrepair. The wooden planks that formed the walls were dry and splintered, and the paint was cracked and peeling. Doug explained that the shed wasn’t used much; the gardeners kept some of their equipment like rakes and shovels in it, but it was never locked. Lifting the plank that fell across the shed’s double doors and held them closed, Doug pulled the doors open. The doors made a creaking sound as they swung outward on rusty hinges. The inside of the shed had a musty, earthy smell and was cluttered with various gardening tools, including shovels.

  Doug grabbed two shovels that were leaning against the wall just inside the door and handed one to Sebastian. Shouldering the other shovel, he looked at Emma.

  “I’ll carry this one,” he said with a grin.

  “Okay,” Emma said casually. “You guys carry the shovels, and Martha and I will do the digging.”

  “It’s a deal!” Sebastian exclaimed.

  “She’s just kidding, you big dummy,” Martha said, shaking her head in disbelief. “Honestly, you’ll believe anything.”

  “Will not,” Sebastian said belligerently.

  “Will too,” Martha countered.

  “Okay kids, enough bickering,” Doug said, still smiling. Then growing more serious, he added. “I hate to break up this little party, but we’d better get going.” Without another word, he closed the doors to the shed and headed off into the woods.

  Sebastian stuck his tongue out at Martha and then turned to follow Doug. Martha looked at Emma and grinned, then stuck her tongue out at Sebastian’s retreating back. Emma let out a laugh, and hooking her arm through Martha’s, pulled her along behind Sebastian.

  Doug was leading them west to the stream, and then they would follow it downhill until they came to the entrance of the cave. It looked like they were now walking along a narrow trail. The ground underneath their feet was hard-packed dirt, indicating many others had come this way. Weeds and brush grew on either side of the trail, and the trees made an interlocking canopy overhead. Sunlight filtered through the trees to produce a kaleidoscope pattern on the ground. Except for the occasional rustle of leaves in the breeze, the woods were eerily silent.

  In just a few minutes, the trail had led them to the stream. The banks of the stream were fairly steep and sloped sharply downward. Fortunately, a path had also been cut that led down to the stream. It angled sharply along the bank and ran parallel to the stream. The path was extremely narrow and uneven and looked like it was going to be tricky going. Doug was the first to go down it and reached the bottom without any difficulty. Sebastian, who went next, slipped about halfway down and ended up sliding the rest of the way on his rear end—the shovel he’d been carrying clanking loudly behind him. Other than a dirty bottom and some loss of dignity, however, he was unharmed. After watching Sebastian, Martha hesitated at the top, not at all certain she wanted to attempt going down the path.

  Seeing her uncertainty, Sebastian called up from the bottom, “Come on, Martha, you can do it. I’m just a klutz like I’m always telling you.” Then when Martha still hesitated, “Come on, Martha. I know you can do it.”

  Taking a deep breath, Martha set off down the path. She teetered once but quickly regained her balance, making it to the bottom without any further problems. The
n it was Emma’s turn. Emma decided to do it quickly, before she had time to change her mind. Putting one foot in front of the other like a tightrope walker, she made her way down the path with an inborn grace she hadn’t known she possessed. In no time, she was standing next to the others beside the stream.

  “You didn’t tell me you take gymnastics,” Martha said, looking at her curiously.

  “I don’t,” Emma answered with a frown, noticing that the others were looking at her as if she’d just sprouted a set of wings.

  “Could have fooled me,” Martha said, shaking her head.

  Emma would have asked her what she was talking about when Doug, who’d just realized he was staring, cleared his throat and said, “Uh, nice job, Emma.” Then looking around at the others he said quickly, “We’d best get going.”

  A strip of gravel about four feet wide ran along either side of the stream. In the spring when the stream swelled with melted snow, these gravel bars would be covered with water. It was this gravel that they walked on as they made their way downstream to the mouth of the cave. Doug had estimated that it was a least a mile away.

  Realizing that they were far enough away from the castle that they would not be overheard, they conversed freely. After a while, Emma got up the nerve to bring up a subject that had been bothering her for some time. “Doug, please don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve been wondering something. If the school is doing so poorly financially, why did they build a new greenhouse?”

  “That’s a fair question. I asked Dad that myself. He said that the greenhouse didn’t really cost all that much to build, and it would save the school a lot of money in the long run. He says it costs a fortune to transport fresh vegetables and flowers up here to the school. With the greenhouse, the school can grow a lot of its own vegetables and flowers and have them year-round. The board of directors liked the idea and thought the greenhouse could also be used to expand the curriculum. In other words, the school would be able to offer some new classes.”