Chapter 10 WHAT CAN BE HAPPENING?
Forty fingers and thumbs were very hard at work trying to loosen the heavy stone. At last Julian gothold of a corner which could be held more easily than any other part of the stone. He tried to lift itand it came away a little.
'Help me this side, Dick,' said Julian, and Dick put his strong fingers there too. 'Heave-ho!' he said -and up came the stone.
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It went over with a crash and Timmy barked loudly, jumping aside. Everyone peered down - and thenlooked exceedingly disappointed!
There was nothing there at all. Not even a hole! The black earth, hard as iron, lay underneath², andnothing else.
They all stared down at the dry, hard earth, puzzled. George looked up at Julian.
'Well - that's queer, isn't it? Why should anyone lift up this heavy stone if there is nothing hiddenunderneath?'
'Well, it's clear that whoever was here didn't find anything - nor did he hide anything either,' saidJulian. 'Dear me - why should anyone lift up a heavy stone and put it back - just for nothing?'
'He was obviously looking for something that wasn't here,' said Anne. 'The wrong stone, probably!'
'Yes. I think Anne's right,' said Dick. 'It's the wrong stone! Probably there is something veryinteresting under the right stone! But which one is it?'
They all sat and looked at one another, and Timmy saw it too, wondering why all this fuss was madeabout a flat white stone. Julian thought hard.
'From what you've told me, Anne - about seeing a light in the cottage that first night you were here -and hearing voices - and then seeing those figures outside last night in the storm - it looks as ifsomeone is urgently hunting for something round about here.'
'Yes - something under a stone. Treasure of some sort, do you think?' said George.
Julian shook his head. 'No. I hardly think that much treasure would be hidden anywhere about thisold cottage - all the people who lived here must have been fairly poor. The most they would havehidden would have been a few pieces of gold, and that would have been found long ago.'
'Well - someone modern might have hidden something valuable here - even something stolen,'
said Anne.
'Yes. We can't tell. It's obviously important and urgent to somebody,' said Dick. 'I wonder if thepeople that Guy said came bothering him were anything to do with this?'
'They may have been,' said Julian. 'But they have clearly decided³ that what they are looking for ishere now, whatever it is. And they must have been most annoyed to find you and Anne here lastnight, George. That's why someone came and looked in at the window, I expect - to make sure youwere asleep! And you weren't.'

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