He’d forgotten his own belief system. Perhaps there had been another reason Praise-God Barebone had chosen to put this great treasure beneath the Jesus Stone. The same reasonhedragged the old dog into the healing waters of the pond: longevity and the attempt to escape the inevitability of death.
Barthrop came forward, shoving Miles along as he did, keeping his eyes on the caskets.
‘You know this is all cursed, yes? Some pretty gruesome deaths associated with this knowledge.’ He poked the skull, which sat upon one of the boxes.
‘I think this guy got buried in the collapse, head first. Suffocated to death with his feet sticking up. Possibly not worse than a hot poker up your arse but close. Ironically, we’d never have found any of this if it wasn’t for my dog finding him.’
‘What dog?’
‘That big one right behind you.’
* * *
Chapter Twenty- FOUR
It all happened at the same time. Barthrop spun around. Miles, his neck slippery with blood, dropped to his knees out of his grasp. Aleksey dived towards the boy, losing momentum on the crumbling sand, but piling into him, covering him, and then Barthrop was screaming. Aleksey rolled to one side, dragging Miles with him, as, slowly, the sides of the great pit began to crumble in—particularly where he’d been stealthily undermining the supports as he’d kept Barthrop talking.
Radulf hadn’t even moved. He’d apparently decided this situation was an insult to his skill set, and so why waste a good bite? He’d merely lifted his muzzle a fraction on one side and possibly given a low warning rumble, but on stepping so sharply back, the little museum director had crumbled down with the sandy sides and, flailing his arms like a wind turbine, stumbled backwards into the hole. He caught his head on the side of one of the boxes. Precarious as this heavy object had been without its timber support (which was now in the pond) it tipped, and then it fell, and Barthrop was pinned on his back under its ponderous weight of knowledge.
Aleksey got to his feet and helped Miles up. They were both bleeding fairly profusely, and Aleksey watched with wonder as a trickle from the gash in his arm ran from his fingers to mingle with the boy’s. He mussed up his hair, because he knew the boy disliked it, and told him simply, ‘Well done. You delayed him and I got here. I told you I would.’
Miles smiled. He was filthy, bloodied and wet. But he didn’t seem particularly fearful or shocked now.
‘I took him into Guillemot and told him I’d written the code inside Molly’s house. It took him ages to get into it. It was so funny.’ He mimed slashing away with a knife. ‘We did a really great job with it at Christmas, didn’t we? Did you know that the Dead Sea Scrolls also talk about giants? I was going to mention it to him, ask if he knew, but he didn’t seem like someone who would be interested in knowing things.’
‘Why don’t you ask him now then?’
They went to peer over the edge of the hole. Radulf was sitting happily with a leg between his front paws. Miles wrinkled his nose.
The banks were still very soft, and Aleksey held onto the boy’s t-shirt as he peered over. He was looking at the fuel cans, thinking. Then he saw the Jesus Stone off to one side, discarded, and felt it a severe reprimand to his thoughts. Then he recalled he’d renamed it.
‘Are you all right, Mr Barthrop? That looks very heavy. Is it gold, do you think? Did you know that there is a river of gold in America that is worth one trillion dollars? It’s a bit of a silly way to talk about it, because obviously gold isn’t liquid unless it’s melted, but the gold is in the sand alongside this underground river. One trillion istwelvezeros. Did you know that? I expect you did.’
Barthrop didn’t reply only continued to stare at the sky.
‘Are you going to climb down and get him?’
‘Yes. I might need some help though. Why don’t you go and see if you can find Ben and Harry? I left them at the house. If they are not there, go straight to the lighthouse and search for them. Then go to Kittiwake.’
Miles nodded happily, but before he waded into the pond, he turned back and said crossly to Barthrop, ‘You really shouldn’t have broken my telescope. It can’t be replaced you see.’ He swallowed and said more to himself than to the pinned man, ‘There are already so many things that can’t be replaced that it’s really horrible of you to make more.’ He went cautiously into the water.
‘Get your neck under, Miles.’
‘Why?’
‘Because you are my second-in-command and obey my orders, that’s why.’
Miles lowered himself and then plunged in, swimming in the worst splashing doggy paddle Aleksey had ever witnessed. When the boy was finally out of sight in the trees, he turned to consider Barthrop. He seemed to be coming back to himself after the shock of his fall and hitting his head. Which was a huge shame for him, Aleksey reckoned.
He went behind the tree and lugged over one of the fuel cans.
That definitely made the man’s eyes widen, and he began to struggle feebly against the weight of the heavy gold casket trapping him.
‘Help me!’
‘I hope you did your reading about the treasure, Barthrop. Knowledge is a wonderful thing. I know lots of things. I know that the devil rode the Frobishers’ backs; then he walked by their side…closer and closer, just like the game Mr Wolf—always coming closer the moment you stop looking for him. Well, now he’s caught you up.Hello.’
‘What do you mean? What are you doing?’
