"That's all very well, Penny, but we haven't got any clues."

She jumped up and rubbed her knees which were sore with kneeling.

"You are so dull, Jon! I bet you've got a box full of clues. Have you forgotten the box already? I don't see why there shouldn't be a clue in this room. It's the sort of place that's made for clues... I bet this room was used by smugglers and I expect mine was, too, 'cos it's just underneath... Come and look at the window and see if you can make out these letters. Maybe they are a clue. Maybe we can start looking for the treasure right away after you've read this. I can't do it. The letters are funny and I think the first word is God. Come and look."

Jon laughed and got off the table.

"Look," she said, as her grubby finger rubbed away some of the dirt.

"God Save England and ye Towne of Rye," Penny read out triumphantly. "That's it. It's not much of a clue for us, is it? We must ask somebody here if it used to be a watchword or something... It might have been a password, though, mightn't it?"

"Doesn't help us now, anyway," Jon said. "But it is interesting. It's been scratched on with a diamond. Nothing else is hard enough to mark glass like this... Now, I've got an idea, Penny. It's raining hard again... Let's spend the rest of the day up here. Let's get a lamp and hang it from this beam and I'll fetch some wood for a fire, and perhaps Mother would let us have some food and then we'll lock the door and go through the box."

Penny agreed that this was a good plan, so Jon locked the door behind them and they went downstairs to see what they could find. So that no time need be wasted, Penny went by herself to find her aunt and beg for provisions.

Jon found Vasson in his den off the yard. Fred was busy with something in a vice, but when Jon told him that his mother had said that he might know where there was a hanging oil lamp, he stopped his work and said:

"Now that be very unaccountable, fur I kin put me hand upon the very thing... Used to hang over door to lounge before they had electric... There, Master Jon... Will that do?" and from under the bench he produced an old copper lamp with a reflector and a glass chimney and a chain to hang it by.