still they could not even begin to unravel the complicated thread of the poem.
Gonff was becoming disgruntled. He lay on the floor, drumming his paws against
the armchair.
"Huh, woods and trees and bread and cheese, rainy days and castles and forts.
What a load of old twaddle!"
Dinny had commandeered the armchair again. He sat back with eyes closed
lightly as if taking a nap.
"Keep 'ee paws still, Gonffen, oi be a-thinken."
Bella pursed her lips and crinkled her brow. " 'Boar is badger named after
wood.' I never knew my father was named after a wood."
Gonff rolled over onto his back. "If he was named after the wood, he'd be
called Mossboar or Boarflower or Moss-boarflower ..."
Martin silenced the mousethief with a stern look. "Please, Gonff, we're
supposed to be solving the riddle, not fooling about. The second line tells
you that Boar is not named after the forest, but after the trees."
"Oi baint never 'card of no Boartrees, nor oi 'spect 'as moi granfer," Dinny
chuckled.
Bella agreed. "Neither have I, there's elm and birch and sycamore and all
kinds of trees, but no Boartree. I wonder if that's an old nickname for some
type of tree?"
Gonff sat up. "Say that again, Bella."
The badger looked at him, puzzled. "What, you mean about Boar being a nickname
for some kind of tree?"
"No, I think I see what Gonff means," Martin interrupted.
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"You said there were all kinds of trees, like elm, birch, sycamore, and so on.
Dinny, where d'you think you're off to? I thought you were helping us to solve
this riddle."
The young mole trundled out of the study, calling over his shoulder. "Burr,
that be 'zackly wot oi'm a-doen, goen t'get they owd leafs wot you'm founden
afor."
"Of course! The leaves!" Gonff leapfrogged over Dinny's back before he was out
of the door. Dashing back into the main hall, he scrabbled about collecting
the leaves while Dinny followed up, berating him.
"Yurr, that be moi idea, zurr Gonffen, 'ee gurt mouse-bag."
They brought the leaves back to the study between them. All four looked at the
dried, withered specimens despondently.
"They're only dead leaves, many seasons old, but what are they supposed to
mean?"
Bella touched them lightly with her paw. "Well, let's see. There's four leaves
here—an ash, an oak, a rowan, and a beech. There's nothing written or sketched
on them. What do you make of it, Martin?''
The warrior mouse inspected the leaves. He arranged them in patterns, turned
them over and rearranged them, shaking his head.
"I don't know. Ash, beech, rowan, oak; rowan, oak, , beech, ash. Search me."
: Gonff smiled in a highly superior way. "Listen, matey, it's [ a good job I'm
a Prince of leaf-puzzle solvers. Try this: beech, '•: oak, ash, rowan!"
!. "Is this another one of your jokes, Gonff?" Bella asked, ;' eyeing him
sternly.
:s Gonff placed the leaves in order, still smiling. "If it is a r joke, then
it's a very clever one, you'll admit. Beech, oak, I ash and rowan in that
order, can't you see, it's the first letter ; of each one. B then o then a
then r, spells Boar." iji, Bella shook her paw warmly. "You're right. Boar is
badger, k;named after wood. And look at this line lower down: The ^:way is in
four trees.' "
!/ Dinny clapped his paws together with excitement. "O joy, Uiow we'm
agetten sumwheres. Roight, thinken carps on." H' "Yes. Look at this line:
'Search inside, stay indoors.* At
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least we know the map is somewhere in Brockhall; we don't have to go out
scouring the woods."
"But where indoors?"
"Where Boar played on rainy days."
"Boar the Fighter, playing?"
"Ho aye, 'ee mustVe played when he'm a liddle un."
"Good thinking, Din!"
"Now, 'where did I eat bread and cheese?' D'you think that'd be Boar having
his lunch?"
"Nay, that'd be thy granfer, Miz Bell."
"Of course. Boar was very close to old Lord Brocktree. It's quite probable
he'd be playing around near him while Brocktree was eating."
"Aye, but there's the difficult bit: 'Your castle your fort.' Where's there a
castle or a fort inside Brockhall?"
"No no, look at the next line; 'Or so you thought.' Didn't you ever play
make-believe with something when you were little?"
"Haha, I still do, matey."
"Hurr, we'm know that, zurr. Coom on, Miz Bell. Show us'ns whurr Bowar did
play when 'ee wurr a liddle un."
They wandered haphazardly from room to room. Every so often Bella would stop,
look about and shake her head, muttering, "I'm not too sure, my father never
talked too much about playing when he was little. Besides, I wasn't even born
then."
Martin paused between the passage and the main hall. "Then think for a minute.
Did your father ever say where Lord Brocktree went to eat his bread and
cheese?"
"Hmm, not really. I expect he ate it at the table like any civilized creature
would do indoors."
"The table!"
They hurried into the main hall to where the huge dining table stood.
Gonff rapped it with his claws. "Well, a good stout table, looks like it's
made from elmwood. What do you do now?"
Bella had a faraway look in her eyes. "Wait, I remember now. Lord Brocktree
was a crusty old soul. I recall my father telling me that he refused to eat at
this big table, said he needed a spear to reach for things from the other end.
So one day he made a table of his own, just big enough for him to
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sit at and handy, so that his bread and cheese and ale were all close to paw.
It's out in the kitchen. Grandfather loved the beat from the oven. Besides, he
used to dip his bread into any pans of sauce that were cooking. He liked it
out there."
Standing in the kitchen was the very table Bella had told diem about. Gonff
climbed on top of it and stood looking upward.
"Doesn't make sense, matey. All I can see is the ceiling. The riddle says:
'Look up and find the secret is yours.' "
Bella sat in the chair, spreading her paws across the table. "This is it. The
answer is in this table somewhere. Look, my grandfather made it from beech,
oak, ash and trimmed it with rowan wood. Do you know, I can picture my father
sitting at this table just as his father did before him, eating bread and
cheese and drinking October ale."
Martin had not spoken. He was staring at Bella as she sat at the table. It
came to him like a flash.
"While you played underneath it. It probably had a table cloth on it then."
Bella smiled at fond memories. "Yes, a big white one. I would pretend it was
my tent."
The warrior mouse scrambled underneath the table,
"Not Boar the Fighter, though. He'd probably pretend it was a fort or a
castle. Ha, here's an odd thing. Underneath here is covered with a few pieces
of chestnut bark. Pass me your knife, Gonff."
Martin worked away underneath the table, cutting the chestnut bark and tossing
it out. The other three inspected each piece of bark for clues without
success. Dinny sniffed |t and raked it with his claws.
"O foozlum! Thurr baint nuthen yurr."
"There's something here though. It's the map!" Martin's
TOice could not conceal his delight. He came tumbling out
with a pale bark scroll in his paws. "It was laid between the
bark and the table. Look, it's covered with strange writing."
,. Bella took the scroll. "Haha, this is ancient badger script.
'Right, back to my study. I'll have to translate it. Thank you,