He picked up the wine cup and sipped from it and then sat on the bed next to Sir John, staring down at the great wooden bed posters. He dozed and was about to fall asleep when suddenly he woke with a start. The carvings! Especially the one on the right . . . He got off the bed and went around. Whoever had constructed the bed post had created a vivid scene. The serpent carved there seemed to writhe, its tongue darting, whilst its intended victim, Eve, stood like the personification of innocence with one hand covering her groin, the other raised to hold back her long flowing hair. In between them was the drooping branch of an apple tree. Even in wood the fruit seemed full and lush. Athelstan stood for a moment in disbelief, then he moved over to the other bed post: there, in the centre, the artist had etched a life-like horse. The dark brown of the wood made the creature seem real, one leg raised, head arched, and on its back a frightening, ghostly figure with a hood. Peeping out from beneath it was the skeletal face of Death itself. Athelstan gasped with excitement and went round to rouse the coroner.

‘Sir John! Wake up!’

The coroner moved, snored and smacked his lips.

‘Sir John!’ Athelstan slapped him gently on the face. The coroner’s eyes opened.

‘My dear Maude . . .’

‘I am not Maude!’ Athelstan replied sharply. ‘Sir John, I have discovered something.’

‘A cup of sack?’

Athelstan refilled the goblet and held it to the coroner’s lips. ‘For God’s sake, Sir John, wake up!’

The coroner sat up, shaking the sleep from his eyes, and stared blearily round.

‘For God’s sake, Friar, what has happened now?’

Athelstan showed him. At first, his mind dulled with sleep and wine, Cranston stared blankly but the significance of the friar’s discovery gradually dawned on him. Without more ado, the coroner began to finger the carving of the figure of Death, probing and pressing it.

‘There must be a secret compartment. I have heard of such in the Italian mode, built into chairs, tables and desks. I have even heard of hiding places in beds but never seen one.’

Their search was fruitless so they moved to the other bed post. They pushed different parts of the carving but nothing moved. Suddenly Cranston looked up and nudged Athelstan.

‘Look, Brother!’

Athelstan stared across at the bed post where a small block of wood on which the carving had rested had now opened outwards like a door.

‘The mechanism must be in this bed post, with a spring that runs here under the boarding and up into the other.’