The photograph 4/9

The following Wednesday the local newspaper was delivered to the Bell family, as usual Dave began reading selected bits aloud in between mouthfuls, while eating his breakfast.

“Usual sort of stuff most of this,” he said, “I sometimes wonder why we bother to buy it!”

He turned the page then stopped and looked at it in amazement. “Good heavens, just listen to this. ‘Magical mystery in Holmwood deepens with new discovery by one of our readers! Older readers may remember the reputation gained by our local woods when the motorway workings were abandoned.

Many of the workmen considered the wood to be haunted after heavy rain and a series of accidents damaged the earth moving machinery. These fears peaked when a lightning bolt destroyed more machines, while at the same time the shock wave fractured an earth fault locally, giving rise to a new cliff in the area of the workings.

The next mystery involved the archaeological dig on the site of a prehistoric stone circle uncovered during the clearance for the proposed motorway. Ancient man had once used the site for religious or magical purposes and it had been proposed to try and erect stones specifically brought here, in an endeavour to recreate the methods which may have been used.

However, a local group of witches belonging to a coven known as MAGIC, held a midnight ceremony in the circle, resulting in the magical raising of one stone without the use of any machinery at all. A line of magical significance known technically as a Ley line, is also supposed to run through this site. This line runs to the local church and then on through Telegraph hill to the remains of the Stone Age village on the common.

A more recent event of magical significance was the so-called conjuring show put on by Miss Jane Bell at the local school. Almost unbelievable in itself, it was explained by the statement that it had all been contrived using conjuring skills and illusion.

Even so, the fact remains that no photographs of this act are known to exist. Every camera used during this performance failed to produce any images at all. This newspaper has checked carefully with all the people attending this event and whilst most of the pictures taken of the rest of the show were perfect, neither our reporter with his professional equipment, nor any of the amateurs were successful.

It is significant in our opinion that Miss Bell was involved, not only on this particular evening, but also in her capacity as a junior member of MAGIC, during the events at the stone circle on the night previously referred to.

The latest revelation comes from a reader who was recently walking in the haunted wood, when he unexpectedly came across a pond. Being a keen amateur photographer he took a series of snaps, which to his amazement represented the apparently small natural pond as a much larger lake, which upon investigation he found to contain salt water!

His photos also revealed the presence of a man made quayside, long enough for several small boats. Indeed one small craft is shown in the accompanying photograph. Local maps going back over many years are unreliable in the position of this pond. It seems to appear and disappear over the course of the years and is not shown on the current ordnance survey.

While the mystery behind all these events remains to be resolved, there is now one clue contained in the picture of the small boat. It is of an unusual type, not produced in very great numbers and it is hoped that an investigation by this paper with the builders, will discover the local owner.’”

Dave put the paper down and looked at his family. Breakfast had remained uneaten on the table while everyone had listened intently to his reading.

“Look here’s the picture. It’s our lugger in the giant’s pool. Goodness only knows how anyone found the pool, let alone managed to take a picture of our boat!”

“I think the only thing to do is take a copy of the paper to show Abigail,” said Mary, “and see if she can think of a way out of this.”

“We’ll have to do something about the boat as well,” said Dave, “it won’t take them too long to find the boat builder and he’s bound to have records of owners in this area. I wouldn’t mind betting I’m the only one!”

“What I can’t understand,” said Jennifer Jane “is how anyone could find their way to the pool. The paths are usually kept closed by the goblins and there’s always one of them told off to keep an eye out for me in case anyone is following!”

“Well whatever the reason,” said Mary, “you’ve got to go to school and Dave’s going to work today. I’ll take the paper to show Abigail and hopefully she’ll have an idea for something to do about it.”