Gaskin glowered at the Doctor. 'Get out of that well, you d.a.m.n fool.'

The Doctor stared back. 'Say please.'

Gaskin reddened, and then his gaze quickly took in Martha too. He knew they were strangers to the village. 'Creighton Mere's well is a listed building,' he advised them. 'You'll need official authorisation to come anywhere near it.'

'Show him your ID, Doctor,' suggested Sadie.

'ID be d.a.m.ned,' snapped Gaskin. 'You'll all leave here this instant.'

'All right, here are my papers,' sighed the Doctor, clambering out of the well and reaching into his pocket.

'You have no papers,' Gaskin declared emphatically. 'The necessary doc.u.ments can only be obtained from the local magistrate and as I am the local magistrate, I can confirm that you have not, and will not, be granted any kind of permission to touch this well. Do I make myself clear? You have one hour.'

With a final black look at Angela, Gaskin turned on the heel of his shoe and marched back towards the Daimler. They watched as the car started up, pulled around the green and then disappeared in the direction of Gaskin Manor. The exhaust smoke was still in the air when Angela said, 'Confound that awful man. He never stops trying to interfere.' 'He did seem a bit upset,' the Doctor commented. 'Is he right about the well? Is it protected?'

'He's never provided any proof at all,' Angela said. 'I just don't believe him.'

Sadie said, 'Until he shows us evidence that there's any kind of preservation order on the well that could prevent us working on it, we're going to carry on.'

'Good for you,' said Martha. 'He's a right old misery guts, isn't he?'

Sadie smiled. 'Don't let all the bl.u.s.ter fool you. He's not so bad. He's done a lot for the village, really, and I think what he really resents is the fact that he's not involved in the well refurbishment.'

'Didn't anyone ask him?'

'It's complicated.' Sadie lowered her voice and glanced across at Angela, who was talking to the Doctor by the well. 'Angela and Henry go back a long way; there's a bit of a feud going on.'

'Why?'

'Well, only Angela can explain that. But it has something to do with her husband. Roger Hook was killed in a mountaineering accident in 1989. Henry Gaskin was with him, they were climbing together. So Roger died and Henry survived. I don't think Angela's ever forgiven him. . . '

Martha nodded, feeling sorry for her. Angela seemed like such a strong, cheerful old lady, but in reality she was a widow of nearly twenty years and every time she saw Henry Gaskin it just reminded her of the painful loss. It certainly explained Angela's bitterness towards Gaskin and clearly the dispute over the well was the perfect opportunity to express it.

'Right then,' said the Doctor, clapping his hands together in an effort to restore some purpose to the proceedings. 'First things first: before we can get the new winding gear installed, we need to remove the grille.'

'Won't be easy,' grunted Angela. 'The wretched thing's rusted into the brickwork.'

'Oh, I might have something that'll help,' the Doctor smiled casually, holding up his sonic screwdriver. 'That doesn't look especially useful, Doctor.'

He shook his head patiently. 'Don't be deceived by appearances, Angela. Some people think I don't look especially useful. Whereas in fact. . . ' He clicked his tongue. 'Actually you might have a point, but let's see.'

Angela laughed uproariously at this. Martha watched her carefully, thinking that perhaps the Doctor reminded Angela of another energetic, enterprising young man she had known a long time ago.[image]

The grille came away more easily than anyone could have hoped.

The Doctor loosened the concrete around the edges with his sonic screwdriver, and a couple of burly young men helped lift the metal trellis free. They dumped it on the gra.s.s by the Land-Rover.

The burly young men were from a carpentry firm in Congleton, and they had brought the new windla.s.s. It was made of treated oak and extremely heavy, although Sadie a.s.sured them the well's original uprights could take it. 'It's been made to measure,' she said, 'according to the plans and the engineer's report. It's perfect.'

The burly young men were happy enough to deliver the windla.s.s, but they didn't like the idea of helping to fix it in place at least until Martha walked around from the far side of the Land-Rover. Then they were only too pleased, stripping off their shirts and arguing about which of them was going to take the heavier end of the windla.s.s.

Martha smiled shyly at them, which only urged them to greater efforts, while Angela, Sadie and the Doctor all watched with amuse-ment.

It took nearly an hour to install the spindle and the men were per-spiring by the end of the job. They collected their shirts and then looked for Martha, who smiled warmly at them and linked her arm through the Doctor's. The men glowered at the tall, skinny geek in the tight suit and then clambered wearily back into the cab of their lorry. Everyone waved as the engine started and the lorry drove off in a cloud of black exhaust.

'Right then,' said Angela, clapping her hands in triumph. 'Let's put it to the test!'

'Already?' Sadie asked.

'Why not? At the very least it might help us see how deep the well is.'

The Doctor and Sadie installed the rope on the spindle, and then Martha wound it on. Her arms were aching by the time all one hundred feet was coiled around the windla.s.s. Then it was simply a matter of attaching a bucket.

'You won't bring any water up, that's for sure,' cautioned Sadie.

'You may not even reach the bottom of the well the bucket may get caught up in some of the vegetation.'

'Let's find out!' said Angela.

They wound the bucket down and slowly the rope uncoiled. Martha and the Doctor peered down the well-shaft but the bucket soon disappeared into the shadows. 'It's a deep one,' said the Doctor as the rope continued to play out. Eventually it went slack as the bucket came up against something.

'The bottom, do you think?' asked Angela.

'Can't tell. We must be seventy feet down already, though.'

Suddenly the rope went taut again, as the bucket dropped a little further.

'Hang on,' said Angela. 'It must have got caught on something, and now it's free.'

Then the rope began to play out again, the windla.s.s spinning on its own.

'It's falling,' said Martha as the winch handle spun faster and faster.

The windla.s.s whirred in its sockets and then suddenly jerked to a halt as the rope reached its end. A loud tw.a.n.ging emanated from the well-shaft as it drew as taut as a violin string.

'Wow, that's deep,' said Martha with a nervous laugh. 'Hang on, something's wrong.' The Doctor peered down the shaft.

The rope was humming, a ruler-straight white line disappearing into the depths. 'It's being pulled!'

'What?' Martha ran to join him. 'How?'

Suddenly the windla.s.s gave a loud crack and the uprights shuddered.

'It's going to break the spindle!' yelled Angela as the solid oak beam began to creak under the strain.

The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at the rope and the tip glowed blue. The rope instantly unravelled and snapped, whipping like a headless snake as it was yanked down into the well.

Then silence.

'What was that all about?' wondered Angela quietly.

'Something's down there,' said Martha, her voice shaking slightly.

'Nonsense,' said Sadie. 'There can't be anything down there. Probably the bucket dislodged some loose brickwork from the shaft on the way down and the weight did the rest.'

The Doctor exchanged a glance with Martha and then said, 'There's only one way to find out.'

'What's that?'

He grinned at her. 'I'll have to go down and have a look myself!'

Ben and Duncan had uncovered the entire skeleton, much to Nigel's annoyance. He thought they were simply wasting time. 'Just dig!' he instructed them. 'You're practically through to the treasure chamber!'

Duncan looked up from the bones. 'We don't want to disturb the remains too much,' he said. 'This was a person, once, Nigel.'

'Well it's not a person now, is it? Leave it. Keep digging.'

'Look at him, though. . . ' Ben indicated the exposed corpse. It was lying slightly on one side, legs pointing towards the end of the dig.

There were some sc.r.a.ps of leather clinging to the feet, the remains of a pair of boots. The rest of his clothes were little more than pieces of material mixed with mud and stone, with the occasional bone sticking out whitely from the dirt. 'You can see that this is where he fell,' Ben continued, enthused by his amateur post-mortem. 'One leg is slightly bent and this arm here is outstretched. . . '

'Almost as if he was trying to get away from the treasure chamber,'

said Duncan.

'Yeah almost like he was crawling.'

'It's pretty sad, really,' Duncan remarked. 'He died down here all alone, probably terrified. Maybe there was a tunnel collapse and he suffocated to death.'

Ben looked up at the roof of the tunnel and swallowed. 'Doesn't bear thinking about, does it?'

'Exactly,' said Nigel. 'So let's get on with it.' He made a show of checking his watch. 'I estimate that we could have been rich beyond our wildest dreams almost fifteen minutes ago.'

Duncan got to his feet, wiping the mud from his jeans. 'All right, all right. . . We just wanted to give the poor fella a bit of respect, Nigel.'

'OK, fine, respect given.' Nigel picked up the shovel and handed it to Duncan. 'Now dig.'

'Uh oh,' said Sadie. 'Look who's coming. . . '

Martha and the Doctor looked up to see Henry Gaskin striding across the village green. This time his trousers were tucked into green wellington boots and a lively looking Border Collie was trotting alongside him. Angela immediately bristled, standing upright and squaring her shoulders.

'I've been on to the local council,' stated Gaskin without preamble.

'They haven't sent anyone here today.'

'Ah,' said the Doctor, 'that's because you asked the wrong council.'

'Wrong council? What are you blithering about, man?'

'We're from the Well Council.'

'Well Council?'

The Doctor smiled. 'All's well that ends well, that's our motto.'

'I've no time for impudence,' snapped Gaskin. 'You'd better leave before I call the police.'

'Hang on a minute,' said Martha, 'we're not doing any harm. . . ' 'It's pointless arguing with him,' said Angela. 'He won't listen, he never does.'

'I'll listen if there's anything worth listening to,' Gaskin replied tartly. His dog was busily exploring the well, sniffing here and there at the equipment spread about. Gaskin's beady eyes alighted on the new windla.s.s. 'What's that?'

'The new windla.s.s,' said Sadie.

'You've no right.'

'Don't worry about it,' said the Doctor. 'All we need now is a new rope. Give us enough and we'll hang ourselves, no need for you to put yourself to any trouble.'

'The Doctor's going to go down the well,' Angela announced triumphantly. 'Spot inspection, on behalf of the Well Council.'

'Wishing Department,' smiled the Doctor genially.

'I absolutely forbid it,' Gaskin said. He gave the Doctor a very black look. 'I don't know what you're doing here, young man, but I'm calling a halt to it right now. I know the stories about this well treasure and monsters and what have you. You lot are just trading on those stories for your own ends. There is no treasure and there are no monsters.

Fact. Now I am asking you, once again, to stop what you are doing and leave.'

Angela stepped forward, hands dug deep into her camouflage jacket pockets. 'Now listen here, Henry. I've had just about enough of you trying to throw your weight around this village, and particularly this well. The truth is you have no business here, no authority, and there's nothing you can do to stop us. Sadie and I were voted onto the refurbishment committee by the village Residents' a.s.sociation, and there's not a blind thing you can do about it. We're not after any treasure frankly I don't even believe in it but we do want this well properly restored and fit for use. If you don't want to help us with that, then at least don't try to hinder us.'

Gaskin met her gaze steadily for a long moment. The two of them stared at each other, as if each was willing the other to break the silence. Finally, in surprisingly gentle tones, Gaskin said, 'Very well, if that's your final word on the matter I'll let you waste your time and money on a pointless exercise. It'll be your loss.' He turned to leave and then paused. 'But don't say I didn't warn you, Angela.'

And with that he strode off towards the manor, with the Collie dog at his heels.

Sadie clapped her hands. 'Oh, well done, Angela! Bravo! You were superb!'

'About time someone stood up to him,' muttered Angela.

She seemed suddenly deflated, as if the confrontation had taken all the energy out of her.

Martha was frowning. 'But what was that all about at the end what warning? What did he mean?'

'Don't take any notice, dear,' Angela said wearily. 'He's full of hot air, that one. He's just trying to frighten you.'

'Which is interesting,' the Doctor said quietly to Martha. 'We've heard all about the treasure and the highwayman and the well. . . but he's the first person to mention anything about monsters.'[image]

The Doctor checked the last buckle on his harness and grinned at Martha. 'All set?'

'No,' said Martha, arms folded. Angela and Sadie were busy fitting a new rope to the windla.s.s, having supplied the Doctor with the necessary equipment. Angela still had a lot of her ex-husband's climbing gear and had dashed home to fetch it. Now the Doctor wore a sort of mountaineer's belt fitted with leg-loops and various metal hooks over his own suit. 'Isn't there anything else we can do?' Martha asked eventually.