Chapter 4
Lime Lane, Swainshurst, Wealdshire. Saturday 9 May 1998
Chris slammed his bedroom door behind him and stomped along the landing to his sister's room.
'Come in,' Josie called when she heard the tap on the door.
A quick glance at Chris's face told her that he was in one of his I-am-bored moods. 'You look happy,' she said. 'It'll have stopped raining by tomorrow. You can go out with your metal detector and seek your fortune then.'
'Huh!' was the not-unexpected response, 'It'll never stop raining.'
He ambled across to where Josie was sitting and, with hands in pockets and scowl on face, looked down at the map which was spread out on the table. 'What are you up to, then?' he asked, feigning interest.
'I'm looking for leys.'
'What are they when they're at home?' he grunted.
'Magic lines,' Josie said enthusiastically, hoping that her huge grin would snap her brother out of his mood.
'Magic lines, eh? You're as nutty as old potty Potter.'
'No I'm not. These lines are real. I've been reading about them. People have been ley hunting since the 1920s. Someone called Alfred Watkins discovered them and, since then, hundreds have been found.'
Chris screwed his eyes up and scratched his nose — an indication that he was interested but sceptical. 'Oh yeah. So wha'do these lines do?'
'Maybe nothing. No-one really knows what they are — but it doesn't stop people coming up with all sorts of weirdo theories. Some people even think they're tracks which UFOs follow.'
'Oh yeah, very likely! If UFOs come from the other side of the universe, they're hardly likely to need help with navigation once they get here.'
'I think the idea is that they get power from the leys. They kind of top up their batteries so that they can fly home.'
'So you're spending your afternoon looking for filling stations for flying saucers! You must be more bored than I am.'
'No. I don't believe in all that crap. I'm just fascinated by the idea that there are these lines crisscrossing the country and no-one really knows what they are.'
'Okay. Try and convince me. How do you know these lines exist? How can you find them on a map? They're not marked with purple lines or anything, are they?'
'What you do is look for ancient sites on a map — standing stones, old churches, stone circles, ancient cross roads, islands in lakes and stuff like that.'
'Yeah yeah. Then what?'
'Then you see if any of those features are linked by straight lines.'
Josie looked up and saw a flicker of interest in her brother's eyes.
'Wait a minute,' Chris said scornfully, 'If I put lots of marks on a blank sheet of paper I could probably make lots of them line up.'
'Hmmm — yes. But what you will find with a map is that you get far more straight lines than you would by chance. If you can link three points there's a possibility you've found a ley. If you find four, there's a good chance you've got one. And if you find five points on a straight line it's almost certain that you've found yourself a ley.'
'I dunno . . .' Chris said, still sounding doubtful. 'That sort of makes sense — I think. So how many have you found?'
'Two, possibly three, at the moment. Look.'
Josie picked up a length of string, held it taut against the map and moved it until she was happy with its position. 'Now look along the string and see what you can find.'
Chris bent over the map and followed the string with a finger. 'There's a church . . . another church . . . and a third one. Three churches.' He looked up. 'What else? What were the other things you said to look for?'
'Try crossroads.'
Chris moved his finger along the string again. 'Crossroads . . . hmmm . . . no . . . yes. Pucks Cross. Will that do?'
'That's a good one because it's a crossroads and there is — or was — a cross there. See if you can find any more.'
Chris looked at his sister and narrowed his eyes, just to warn her that he might get fed up any minute and was only doing this to humour her. When he was sure she'd got the message he looked back at the map. 'There's a crossroads without a name,' he murmured, 'and . . . Bradley Cross and . . . Can't see any more. How many points do you have now?'
'Six. Three churches and three crossroads.'
'You've found a ley then.'
'Uh-uh. Not necessarily. One or more of those churches may be new ones, so they won't count.'
'Yeah, but they're all in villages, so they're bound to be pretty old.'
'I'm not sure how old a church has to be to be a reliable ley marker but, I suppose, the older the better.'
'Show us your other leys.'
After Josie had moved her string to indicate the other possible leys, Chris said, 'Why don't you mark them in pencil? I've got a long strip of wood in my room. You can use it as a ruler.'
When Chris returned, the two of them carefully drew two faint lines on the map.
'Hey hey. Look at that,' Chris exclaimed, forgetting he was supposed to remain unenthusiastic. 'They cross near Swainshurst — in Blackfriars Wood. Where's your third ley?'
Josie carefully lined up the strip of wood with the third set of features and then cried, 'I don't believe it! It crosses the other two lines at exactly the same point! Awesome! We have three leys intersecting just a couple of miles from where we live!'
'Hmmm. Fascinating,' Chris muttered, remembering he was supposed to exhibit apathy. 'Now what are you going to do with them?'
'I don't know. Nothing I suppose. They just exist, and that's that.'
'You don't think there's buried treasure where the leys intersect?'
'I doubt it . . .' Josie started, and then realised that Chris was pulling her leg. 'Why don't you go and see? Take yourself off to Blackfriars Wood with your metal detector and, with a bit of luck, something smelly and slimy and bloodthirsty will leap up out of the underworld and take you back home with it.'
'Okay,' Chris laughed, 'But I'll wait until the rain stops if you don't mind. Slimy things from the underworld probably stay at home when it's pouring. Now, how about letting me thrash you at chess?'
'Thrash me at chess!' Josie retorted. 'Is that before or after you've walked on the ceiling, skateboarded to the moon and tidied your room?'
'Okay — tell you what,' he said, as he took a crafty look at what was on Josie's dressing table, ' I'll let you thrash me at chess if I can have one of your birthday chocs.'