Chapter Sixteen. Search for the Key.

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ChapterSixteen 

Search for the Key

The boys met the next morning on the fish shop steps, their usual meeting place. Rev, after a quick perusal of the note, soon figured out a possibility.

 "Remember that day when you two followed the paths leading from the stones. You said that the paths always led to a barrow. Are you absolutely sure of that? Wasn't one missing?" 

"I can't answer that. We didn't follow them all." 

"What d'ya mean, P.C.?" 

"Well it was quite a distance from the centre of the circle to a barrow and we thought it a bit pointless to follow all the paths. They all seemed to be the same." 

"Which ones didn't you follow?" 

"The ones leading to Bardsea, Urswick and the Priory." 

"You mean you only followed half of them!!" 

"Hang on there, Rev. If you think about it, there's only one we haven't followed." 

"How come?" 

"Where did the tunnels lead to?" 

"I get your point, Henry. So the only one you didn't follow was the path leading to the Priory. I think that's where we should be looking." 

"Wait a minute. How can we possibly find something that's missing?"  

P.C's obvious comment brought the discussion to a temporary halt. Rev moved to the top step, sat down with his back to the door, and adopted his thinking pose, hands clasped and held to his mouth.  

"You did say that the barrows all seemed to be the same distance from the circle didn't you." 

"Yeah! Several times," said P.C. 

"Then all we have to do is walk that same distance in the direction of the Priory and we've got it. Did you measure the distance?"  

P.C. and Henry looked guiltily at each other and shook their heads.  

"Bloody Hell, you two are hopeless." 

"No need to swear, Rev. All we have to do is go up to the circle and count how many strides it takes to get to one of the barrows, then stride out the same number along the path leading to the Priory. That should take us right to the oak." 

"Wouldn't it be easier to use a map?" suggested P.C. 

Rev had been thinking exactly the same thing.  "Hang on a minute. I'll just dash home. My Dad has a map we could borrow."  He returned a few minutes later, a large ordinance survey map tucked under his left arm, a ruler and a lethal looking metal dart held in his right hand.  

"What's that?' asked Henry. 

"A compass," replied Rev. 

"It doesn't look like any compass I've ever seen. Where's the needle pointing to the North Pole?" 

"It's not that sort of compass, Henry. It's used to draw circles. Let me show you."  

Rev took a newly sharpened pencil from his pocket and slid it through the hole on one of the two arms of the compass. He closed the arms and made sure the point of the pencil and the tip of the metal spike on the other arm were perfectly aligned."Now all you do is stick the metal point in the paper, open the arms then turn the pencil arm keeping the metal point fixed all the time." 

"I get it," squealed Henry. "The metal point has to be placed on the map in the position of the stones, the arms spread so that the pencil point is on one of the barrows and draw a circle." 

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