by Mike Crowson
* * *
By the time the Landrover turned back into the field there was a small pile of oddments turned up by the volunteers, but Gill and Frank's digging had drawn a complete blank. The latter threw down his shovel and sat at the bottom of the trench, leaning against the side. "I've got to take a break," he said.
"I'm sure it's here somewhere," insisted Gill, "we've even found his sword with an enormous nick in it."
"We didn't find anything. They," and he nodded towards the volunteers, "found the sword, though I'll grant you it's a hell of a nick. Mind you, bronze nicks pretty easy. Anyway, we've dug carefully and we haven't found a thing. You can't even tell what's been dug before in this sandy soil."
"I thought it was all artificial," said Gill. "Hello, what's this?" She bent down. "Nope. Just a pebble. As I was saying, I thought they built all the houses and then threw up enough soil to make an artificial hill so that the entire village was underground."
"That's the way Alicia tells it."
"In that case most of this hill goes back to when the village was first built."
"So?"
"So either the hand in Steve's story is in the entranceway or it will be lying pretty close to the surface."
Frank thought about this for a moment. "That makes a lot of sense. We probably have been digging in the wrong place." He got up slowly, dusting the sand off his jeans. "We're going to have to shift the sand a foot or two into the passageway. I suppose I'll make a start."
By the time Steve had finished his other jobs and had time to spare to cross the field, Frank had taken a break while Gill dug and then taken over again, but there was still no sign of the hand.
"Found it?" Steve as soon as he was within earshot.
Frank emerged from the passageway. "No sign," he said, "I don't think it's there."
"Where exactly was the bloke standing in your story?" asked Gill.
"He'd just come out of the village."
"Show us," she said.
Steve jumped down into the trench and Frank got out of his way as he backed into the passage. The two volunteers watched curiously.
"He came out bent very low like this," Steve said, showing them. "And put his hands on the grass to support himself as he straightened up, like this." Steve put his hand on the ground beside the trench, moving some loose sand piled at the side as he did so.
Gill hit her forehead with the heel of her hand. "We've been digging in the wrong place. It's probably about six inches or so down and underneath the sand we piled up." She started moving the excavated sand.
"I'll give you a hand," said Steve, taking Frank's spade. The latter stood back and watched. "Two in fact, to find one!" Steve continued and Frank laughed.
Steve and Gill shovelled madly. Between them they moved back the loose sand in no time at all and stood back panting. "Right," Steve continued, "which of you experts is going to break the ground?"
Frank broke the turf very gently and knelt down to peel it back while the others watched intently. "Pass me a sieve," he said, and Gill did. The small crowd grew as Alicia's team wandered over.
About three or four feet from the doorway, just beyond the area dug so far and some six or so inches down, Frank began to uncover a bone. There was a fascinated silence as he gradually uncovered more and more of what was obviously a hand and arm. Alicia herself said absolutely nothing as Frank worked, until he had uncovered everything, including the very rusted remnants of an iron sword.
"Right," she said, "Let's get some photographs of this, then we'll break for lunch."
Steve didn't move immediately to deal with lunch. Instead he frowned for a moment looking at the hand, lost in thought and contemplation. The hand was exactly where he had described. That implied ... but what did it imply? If that bit of his story were "true", what about the rest? And what about Gill's story? He looked across at Gill and caught her eye. She was wondering much the same thing.
As he slowly turned and walked back to the group of caravans, he noticed the bird watcher, watching them through binoculars and wondered why that gentleman wasn't busy watching birds.
Nobody at the dig actually said anything and, as if by agreement, the subject of the find and what it might mean were not raised over lunch. That Steve's story was more or less 'true' nobody doubted any more, but there was enough uncertainty over the meaning that nobody wanted to speak out yet.
"The bits of your story we can check up on seem to be true." remarked Gill to Steve as she helped clear up after lunch.
"Did you doubt it?" he asked.
Gill thought for a moment. "Not really," she said. "Your story had a ring of truth about it even before I experienced mine."
"Your story rang true as well."
"It did for me, and the detail was so vivid that I couldn't have made it up, but there isn't any way I can prove it."
Steve looked her full in the face and their eyes met momentarily. "You don't have to prove anything to me."
"I think that's why I enjoy talking to you, but I was referring to my story," she answered, meeting his gaze straight on.
"So was I just then. I meant that my experience was enough to make me believe yours. It's true more generally as well though."
"Oh."
"Now, you'd better join the others before they start looking for you."
She gave him a quick smile and left across the field.
Alicia got everyone to work again. Since the second house appeared to be intact she put Gill in charge of numbering and stacking the roofing stones as the roof was removed for better access.
"You can cover over the first part of the entrance tunnel again." said Frank, on his hands and knees in the trench. "It's only about four feet to the first house and I can see daylight already."
Alicia scrambled down to look. "You're right," she said. "Do you think the stonework's safe enough to allow us to clear the passage?"
"Seems it. It's not carrying any great weight and the stonework's strengthened by bones across the passage."
Alicia looked more closely. "So it is," she said. "They used whale bones at Scara Brae but these look shorter. More like cattle bones."
"Mebbe I should clear the passage before the sand and soil go back on top, just to be safe." Frank squatted on his heels and turned to Alicia. "What do you make of Steve's story now that we've found the hand?" he asked her.
"The whole thing bothers me," she answered. "It isn't logical that we remember what the ring wants us to. I mean, a ring doesn't have a mind of its own and yet how else could Steve have known the hand was there?"
"All the same, his story checks out with every fact we know - and we know quite a lot."
"But if Steve's story is true, then Gill's is too." Alicia sounded just a little pathetic as she gave an airing to what was really worrying her. "Where did a copper ring come from in the stone age?"
"Well," he answered slowly, "we might get one answer to that if somebody else tried on the ring. Now," he brightened, "would you like me to clear the passage of sand?"
Alicia was glad enough to think of something else for a while. "If you're volunteering, OK," she said. "I'll find you somebody to sieve the sand before we tip it," and she scrambled out of the trench.
Alicia had set Manjy and the two volunteers on to the job of tracing the route of the passageway but they found it rather dull.
"I've known more interesting ways of spending my time," she told Alicia when she asked how they were getting on. "Incidentally," she added, nodding his head vaguely, "the bird watcher over there with the binoculars seems to be taking an awful lot of interest in what we're doing here."
Alicia looked at the direction of her nod. The 'bird watcher' was still looking at the dig. When he saw Alicia watching him, he turned away and focused his binoculars out to sea. "Probably just curious about us," she said at length, and turned her attention elsewhere.
By the end of the day Frank had cleared the passageway not only as far as the first house but several feet b
eyond it. The sand had drifted like snow through the openings and further in there were a couple of stretches which were almost clear, enabling Frank to make much quicker progress than either he or Alicia had expected.
While Frank didn't find anything new that afternoon, Alan's team did. Of course, things which would burn had burnt, but there was a lot left. They uncovered the bronze blade of a knife, various household oddments and some pots, one showing signs of having been exposed to heat. When Alicia stopped to look at their handiwork Alan asked her about removing the remains of the human.
"You've cleared up around the remains," she remarked. "I'll get a board and lay out the bones in their present position and see if they can tell us anything."
It was not as easily done as her words implied. Although a section of the roof had collapsed, the hole was still a bit small for the board to negotiate on the level horizontally, so it proved necessary to number and remove a few stones first. Alicia called Manjy over to help her and while they worked on the remains Alan's gang sorted through the stones from the collapsed roofing section with a view to rebuilding later.
By knocking-off time Alicia was able to view the whole project with some satisfaction. Steve had set up a second generator to feed lights into the passage, a good crop of intact, interesting remains had been found and the early, exploratory diggings not now needed had been filled in. One house had been well excavated, a second was being dug and a third discovered.