The LOST WILL

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21708, 15 February 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

The LOST WILL

"No, my dears, I am afraid Bicky and Floss will have to go. It's all for your own good, of course. And you know that I promised your father not to leave here until I found the will which means so much to US.” • The 12-year-old twins, Janet and Roy McKercbar stood silently listening to their mother’s words. Their father had been killed at the war. Before he left Mr ,McKerchar had asked his wife to try to find the lost will. Floss and Bicky were the twins’ , ponies, which they had owned ever since they could remember. Bicky, so called because of its colour, belonged to Janet, and Floss to Roy. A sob caught in Janet’s throat and her eyes filled with tears. Her mother laid a trembling hand on her shoulders and spoke soothingly. "There, there, dear. I know it will be hard to lose the ponies, but you must try and be brave children for ' me.” . i • Roy squared his shoulders bravely, trying to receive the bad news as a man. “I—-I don’t mind, mother,” he said, although in the bottom of his heart he felt he could never go on living without Floss as his own pet. “Come on, Janet. Let’s go and groom the ponies,” Hoy said a moment later, “We had better make ' them look respectable if they are to be sold.” Janet dried her swollen red eyes. /“Of course I will. Boy,” she* said, Smiling. 4 That night, when the twins had groomed Floss and Bicky and ware having their tea, an idea came to Roy. Leaning over to Janet-he whispered, "Hurry up with your tea. I’ve got an idea!” Janet nodded. When the dishes were cleared away, Janet accompanied Roy to the bottom of their well-kept little garden. "Come to the willow tree,” Roy whispered mysteriously, , “I’m going to climb up to the top and see if it’s hollow, if it is—l’ll tell you the rest later.”., .... •- Janet gasped ip dismay, “Oh, Roy. you mustn’t. You know you might fall and-—But the rest of her warning was drowned in a low cry from Roy. Janet looked up. Roy had disappeared from view.

“Roy! Roy, Where are you?*’ A panic seized her, and she started scaling the tree trunk, heedless of tom garments. A faint muffled voice answered hen “I’m all right. Come down here, but be careful. , I have my torch.” , With, a sigh of relief, Janet called softly dowp the yawning black hole. “Switch the light up here, Roy. I can’t see a thing. Now get ready, I’m coming.” Taking a deep breath she slid down the inside of the tree trunk. On reaching the bottom Janet' found Roy at her side. He clutched her arm excitedly, , ‘‘Quick, Janet,” he whispered. There is a flight of atone steps going up into a passage.” The two excited children went on through the passage, Roy leading the way. Their voices echoed as they wandered along the damp, mustysmelling corridor, • “It is great-grandfather’s will we are searching for, isn’t it?” Roy queried anxiously. , •‘Ye?’* Janet answered. “And he left • the lands, together with his most cherished possessions, to be shared between his son and his son’s daughter.” Suddenly the torch light flickered dully and then went out, thus leaving them in utter darkness. Janet wda trerpbling, but she found Hoy’s hand. ‘Do you think this has anything to do with the will, Roy?” Janet asked as they walked on. have, because mother said grandfather lived in the big house on the hill and this passage seems to lead toward it ” B Janet sighed. “Maybe we’d be * h f r ®‘ ** mother hadn’t mar»l e ,«*/, a A her> That’s what made grandfather angry. He ordered her never to set foot Jn his house again.” At last Roy spoke. “Let’s get on. He broke off, as his outstretched hand felt something hard. Next moment he cried out to Janet Its a door, Janet! A door,” he cried excitedly, thrusting his sister forward to feel it for herself. Janet’s hand sought for a means of opening the door. For a second nothing happened, then her fingers came in contact with a knob. She pressed it. Instantly the door swum? open to reveal to the’ twins’ bewildered gaze a stone room, curiously lit,' complete with a table and a cnair. The light of the room did not come from a lamp, but from rouhd the Walls of the stone chamber, on which hadsettled thousands of glow-worms. Suddenly Janet, who had been gazing on this peculiar scene in amazement, stepped into the middle of the room, and picked up a piece of paper, which was yellow with age, on which was written:

This is my will. Signed—Thomas Chaucer, Witnessed—James Willouby. “It’s the lost will!” Janet cried. Two hours later, the twins and their mother were seated in a cosy study drinking tea with grandfather. On the table lay the lost will. “All has been forgiven, May,” Mrs McKerchar’s father said softly, “You are to come and live here. In the meanthhe, I think two overexcited adventurers are ready for bed. It is 1 o’clock.” Roy and Janet had found their way out of the underground room, where the lost will was found, to their grandfather’s garden. As the tired twins climbed up the stairs of their new home to bed, Roy suddenly remembered what his use of the willow tree was to •be. “I was going to use it for a play of Robin Hood which I thought you and I could act in the garden,” he explained. “Oh, well, all’s well that ends well,” Janet murmured. “Goodnight, Roy!” “Goodnight, Janet!” So when Mrs McKerchar and her father came to say good-night to the twins tViey found them asleep, with a contented smile on each of their faces. —RAE NUTT, L.B.H.