"Then let's do it," said Beth. "I'm on for anything to save Aunt Agatha and your old pet of an uncle whom I love. And the bishop. I've always liked bishops, and this one seemed particularly nice. You'll help too, Mary, won't you?" "Of course I will. I may not be as keen on bishops as you are, Beth, but there are very few things I wouldn't do for the sake of three dozen pairs of silk stockings." "The first question," said Jimmy, "is, can we persuade your uncle to chip in and stand by us?" "He'd do anything for Aunt Agatha," said Beth. "He's just as fond of her as she is of him." "I wonder would he do the sort of thing that some people might call wrong?" "Of course he would," said Mary. "Anybody would. All really nice and exciting things are wrong, but everybody does them." Beth was doubtful. "Uncle Timothy," she said, "isn't like you, Mary, or like most other people. He has a conscience, rather a queer kind of conscience, quite different from Aunt Agatha's, though hers is pretty silly too. The way it takes her is, making her do things, for the parish and all that; whereas it works the other way round with Uncle Timothy, and won't let him do anything hardly. Queer things consciences are, aren't they?" "Glad I haven't got one," said Mary. "Well," said Jimmy, "we'll try him. But I tell you plainly that if he won't, we're in an ugly place. Whether he helps or not, we're in an ugly place; but it'll be much uglier if he won't stand in with us. I'm not going to ask him to do much; but I must be able to count on his not giving us away. I think I'd better go up to the church and tackle him." Chapter XVIII While he was speaking Mrs. Eames came up the drive holding the vicar's hand. She was trying to walk much more quickly than he wanted to, and it looked as if she was dragging him after her, a prisoner, but apparently not an unwilling one, for his face expressed a kind of puzzled delight. "Beth," she shouted, "you naughty girl! And you're just as bad, Lord Colavon. Fancy your knowing all about it for days and days and never saying a word to me, either of you." "I've just been showing her our little discovery," said the vicar in a tone of mild apology. "You remember, Beth, the passage from the church to the cave." "Aunt Agatha," said Beth, "I want to tell you----" "You were a wicked girl not to tell me before," said Mrs. Eames. "It's the most exciting thing that's ever happened in Hailey Compton. We'll get down the Royal Society of Antiquaries--I suppose there is a Royal Society of Antiquaries. If there isn't we'll get down the whole British Association, all sorts of learned men from everywhere. You remember the fuss that there was over that skull they dug up somewhere a few years ago. That will be nothing to what this will be. Hailey Compton will be famous all over the world. I always said you ought to do something for the parish, Timothy, and you have at last."