Glastonbury

Chapter 3

Chapter 3Cutler figured he'd done a reasonable job of selling the scheme to the others; otherwise they wouldn't be sitting on his bed in room 3 of Mrs. Cleveley's Rowan Tree Guest House, discussing their plans for the next few days. It hadn't been too hard to convince Winston of the possibilities exhibited by the project. Perhaps it was the romantic soul of his Caribbean background that had led the big Jamaican to think a search for the sword of King Arthur might make a pleasant diversion from their usual fare of surveying jobs for building contractors or gas pipe-laying companies and the like. Either that, or the prospect of the fame and fortune coming their way if they were successful convinced Winston Fortune that his boss might not be totally crazy and they might just find what they were looking for. As Winston had pointed out; the client must have good reason to believe in his cause, otherwise, he wouldn't offer them a big fat fee to carry out the search, would he?

Sally Corbett had been a little harder to convince. Younger and definitely more cynical and sceptical than Winston, she'd laughed aloud when Cutler first told her of Capshaw's quest, and the part they were expected to play in it.

“Excalibur?” she'd exclaimed. “You really have lost it this time, boss! You're surely not serious, are you? Who is this Capshaw guy anyway? Has he just escaped from a loony bin, or what? I thought you had more sense than to fall for something like this, I really did.”

“Look, Sally” he'd replied patiently, “I ran a check on Capshaw. Seems like he's rich beyond anything you or I could ever dream of being. He's made a fortune from property speculation and from playing the world's financial markets. Stocks, shares, futures, they're all like bread and butter to him. He's donated vast sums to charities over the years, particularly to those with an artistic connection. He also invests in projects around the world to recover historical artefacts. He's funded a whole range of archaeological expeditions in the last ten years, and he definitely isn't the sort of man to waste his, or anyone else's time on wild goose chases. If he believes in the existence of King Arthur and Excalibur, and he thinks he can find it with our help, then I'm not going to refuse his money without at least giving it a good try.”

“Did you see the original document then?” she'd demanded.

“Yes, Sally, I did, and what's more, I believe it's the real thing. Capshaw was very secretive about where and how he got hold of it, but I couldn't doubt his sincerity for a minute. Anyway, he's paying the bills, and our wages for the job, so what have we got to lose by going along with him, eh? Come on, Sally girl, where's your sense of adventure?”

She'd eventually given in to his persuasion, though in truth, she could hardly refuse to go along with him in reality. Sally had the greatest of respect for Joe Cutler. After all, he'd given her a job when she'd abandoned university without a degree, after she'd suffered a long spell of depression when her twin sister had been killed in a horrific hit and run road accident while on her way to visit their sick mother in the hospital. Sally and her twin, Maggie had been more than close. They'd shared that special bond only identical twins possess, including the ability to second-guess each other's thoughts, and 'see' the same things in their minds simultaneously. Losing Maggie, Sally felt as though a part of herself had died along with her sister. Deeply distraught, she'd ended up packing her things, walking out of the halls of residence at Oxford University, and disappeared into a world of her own for almost a year. Unwilling to return to university, she'd plucked up the courage to start job hunting. Seeing herself as little more than a failed geology student, she hadn't held out much hope of securing a job within her chosen profession. When she'd seen the advertisement for a survey team assistant in her local newspaper, she'd applied just to see what would happen. At the interview, Joe Cutler's down-to-earth approach had been a surprise, he'd refused to see her lack of a degree as a problem, and she'd been totally over the moon when he'd told her he'd rather have someone knowledgeable and prepared to get her hands dirty, than someone whose head was filled with too much theory and a sense of their own importance.

Two days after the interview, Sally received the telephone call that had made her the third member of the team now sat waiting to begin their unlikely quest to discover King Arthur's long-lost sword. They worked well together, and Cutler appreciated everyone's personal opinions. He wasn't the sort of man who imposed his own ideas, merely because he was the boss. If they could devise a better way of doing something, or had an idea which might help get the job done quicker without compromising safety or accuracy, Cutler was always ready to listen. He might be nearly twice her age, (she thought), but Sally knew she was ever-so-slightly in love with the man who paid her wages, not that she'd ever dare to admit it to him, or anyone else, of course.

“Hey, boss. Look.” Winston was pointing at the window. “If I'm not mistaken I could swear that it's getting brighter out there.”

“Looks like Mrs. Cleveley was right. The rain's easing off and the sun's trying to come out,” Sally concurred.

Sure enough, as Cutler stared hard through the wet pane of his bedroom window he could just about see that the clouds were beginning to move away from what had appeared to be their permanent mooring over the town and were gradually giving way to a pale blue and brighter sky blowing in from the east. A broad smile broke out on his face as he turned back to face the others.

“Well, folks, it looks like our luck's in. If things dry out just enough, we'll be able to start laying out our search grids first thing tomorrow. Now, let's go through everything one more time, shall we?”

Sally and Winston groaned, and Sally took the liberty of playfully throwing their street map of Glastonbury at her boss.

“Slave driver,” she laughed at him as Cutler ducked.

“Okay, boss man,” said Winston, sounding resigned to the inevitable. “Let the lecture begin.”

Cutler removed a whole mass of papers from his briefcase along with a beautifully leather bound book, the page edges deckled with gold. It was a thick and heavy volume containing almost everything known about the legend of King Arthur, Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table. Whether fact or fiction, virtually everything ever written on the subject was contained within this one concise work of literature, and Cutler had been left in no doubt as to its value when Capshaw had entrusted it to him. They'd studied the text so many times over the last few days, and now the time was near when they would put what they'd learned to good use. If Excalibur really did exist, then with the information contained within the pages of the book, together with the information on the document furnished by Capshaw, Joe Cutler knew that he and the others would find it. They just needed to sift through the myths, find the facts, forget the possibility of failure, and make sure they followed the trail to wherever the sword was buried.

As the sun broke through the clouds and shafts of golden light suffused the room, he made himself comfortable, leaning back against the headboard of the bed. Having made sure he had Winston and Sally's full attention, Cutler began to read aloud from what, until now, they'd thought of as nothing more than the 'legend' of King Arthur.