"Underfoot is a red stone an ell square. Raise the—"
And then nothing distinguishable until the concluding line of farewell.
"Well?" demanded Betty triumphantly as we all studied the cryptic dots.
Hugh shook his head.
"Betty, you were a brick to remember it," he said, "but honestly, what use is it? Whatever words are missing are unimportant. They must have been or somebody would have rewritten them."
"That does not necessarily follow," spoke up Vernon King. "Old documents, especially those inscribed on parchment, are tricky records. It frequently happens that some isolated portion will be spoiled, while the other parts of the same sheet may retain their integrity. Moreover, we should not lose sight of the possibility that the person who last concealed the parchment, the Lady Jane Chesby of whom you have spoken, seems not to have been inclined to attach much importance to it. She would have been the last one to attempt to make good its deficiencies."
"But where could the treasure be that we have not looked?" demanded Hugh. "The directions are explicit. We followed them faithfully. So far as they exist we have verified their accuracy. But we have uncovered no place which could have served as a treasure chamber."
"Yes, Hugh, the directions are explicit," retorted Betty. "And as you say, so far as we have them they have proved correct. They left us in the passage under the red stone which ends at the drain. And why was that passage built? Why to get into the drain!"
"And the treasure was in the drain?" protested Hugh. "That's absurd, Bet."
"It would have been washed away long ago," I scoffed. "That place is full of water at very high tides."