CHAPTER XII
TITTY'S DISCOVERY
"What! How can you!" Nancy was cynical of Titty's assertion. "We're not going back to some Peter Duck nonsense, are we?"
This was unkind, and though she knew Nancy did not intend to be, for the second time Titty showed a side to her character that none of the others had witnessed before.
"Nancy, why do you always jump in and not give people a chance to explain themselves, and when you do jump in you so often get it wrong! Do you want to know if there is gold here or not?" As John had been the night before Nancy was now chastised. She looked shamefaced.
"Yes, of course. Sorry. Go on Titty. How can you tell?"
Her point made Titty's irritation subsided.
"Do you remember when I found water on the fells in the drought when we were prospecting?"
"Of course! Dowsing!" Nancy responded as if this was obvious.
"Well, when I first lived in London I found a dowser who taught me more about it, gave me lessons on how to do it properly. Then during the war I volunteered to dowse and help to find things after the bombings."
"What!" John seemed to be impressed. "During the Blitz?"
"Yes, well, after raids, I found a few unexploded bombs, but it was mainly bodies or people's belongings." Now John was incredulous after she had mentioned bombs.
"You!" Titty again was annoyed.
"Yes John, me, your flibbertigibbet little sister who just wasted her time having fun in the war."
"I've never said that!" John was now defensive. She was irritated.
"But you thought it, didn't you? Always going about what you were doing in the navy, what Susan was doing, what Roger was doing, but you never asked me what I was doing did you?" John looked sheepish.
"Well, you never said anything."
"Why should I have done? The others didn't."
Nancy interrupted.
"Look, stop it you two. Titty, do you really mean you can actually dowse for gold?" Titty was still irritated.
"Of course I can. You can dowse for anything."
Titty reached in to one of her pockets and pulled out a small red velvet bag. It bulged slightly and was kept closed with drawstrings. She opened the bag and drew out a plumb-bob that looked liked a wooden acorn, but about twice the size. Attached to one end of it was a fine chain about six inches long.
"You don't use a twig?" Nancy again was full of questions.
"No Nancy, you can use all kinds of things, for me this works better." Daisy was curious about the actual plumb-bob.
"What wood is that?"
"It's Bubinga, from Africa. You need to find out the response you will get to any questions you ask. It's easiest to start with how it will react for just 'yes' and 'no' and go from there making any question answerable in that way."
"Do you ask out loud?" Nancy again, Peggy shushed her.
"Yes, you can, but you can think about them too."
Ignoring them all she grasped the end of the chain not attached to the pendulum between her thumb and forefinger of her right-hand and held it away from her body almost at arms length, her arm relaxed so the pendulum was free to move. The pendulum started to swing gently back and forth almost naturally as expected, there was a look of concentration on Titty's face, and then the pendulum began to swing more regularly in an oval rotation but doing so in the opposite direction from before. After a few moments it changed direction once more but continued in the same oval motion.
"I'm ready." Nobody dare ask her what had just happened.
Titty climbed down the shallow side of the valley nearer to the opening, held the pendulum once more near the mouth of the workings, again there was a look of concentration on her face. They all watched as once again the pendulum swung and changed direction a number of times, Titty said nothing and seemed to be disconnected from them all.
As suddenly as she had begun she reached up with her left hand and brought the pendulum to a stop. She looked up at them.
"Do you want to know?" Again Nancy was the first to speak.
"Of course! What happened?"
"There is gold around this spot."
For a moment there was silence. John broke it.
"Are you sure?" Titty ignored him; she remembered how he had doubted she had found water in the fells.
"Find me a lump of rock that looks possible and we'll see." Nancy scrambled down the valley to the entrance of the workings and pulled at the trees and weeds that covered it, there were piles of rocks and heavy stones, at some time there must have been small rock falls at themouth. She picked each one up, glanced at it then cast it aside. She suddenly stopped having found one that looked as if it had a seam of metal.
"Titty!"
"Yes."
"Can you do that for this rock?"
"Of course." She stood away from Nancy. "Put it on the ground." Once Nancy had let go of it she held the pendulum over it. The pendulum swung as before, Titty concentrated as the pendulum changed direction a few times. Again she held the plumb-bob to stop it from moving.
Nancy asked what they all wanted to know.
"Is that gold?" Titty paused.
"I think so." Nancy whooped with pleasure. "Are you sure?"
"As I can be. I was about ninety percent successful during the war." John once again looked disbelieving.
"Ninety percent!"
"Yes, but others could do better."
"There were others?"
"Of course there was, you don't think it was just me do you!" John was chastised once more.
Titty put the pendulum back in its bag, and the bag back in her pocket. Nancy picked up the rock and wrapped it in her handkerchief and put it in the knapsack.
"We'll show Uncle Jim tonight. He'll know for sure."
Peggy looked at her watch.
"We should make a start back to the cottage."
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