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For several minutes, there was little sound beyond the scraping of metal against stone and the occasional instruction from Watkins. Even the family above them had fallen silent, and Nathaniel was conscious of a small gathering of faces looking down into the trench with great expectation.

At last, the stone began to move. The men eased it carefully to one side, and Nathaniel felt his heart give an excited thump as the dark opening beneath became visible. With a final effort, the slab was moved clear and rested securely upon the earth beside the entrance. Watkins straightened and wiped his brow with the back of his hand, looking immensely relieved.

"There you are, sir. Open at last."

"Excellent work, Watkins. Thank you. Now, let us have a little light and see what we have found."

Nathaniel took the lantern one of the men handed him and crouched beside the opening, holding it low enough to illuminate the little chamber beyond. It was smaller than he had imagined, a narrow space lined with great slabs of stone, and for a few moments he could make out very little beyond the rough walls and a scattering of objects upon the floor. There was no magnificent collection of weapons, no glittering treasure and certainly no chest of gold to satisfy Harwood. But there was something within, and as he moved the lantern carefully from one side to the other, he began to distinguish the shapes of several pottery vessels and what appeared to be bones lying near the centre.

"Cathy, come and look at this."

She knelt beside him, taking care not to disturb the loose earth around the entrance, and leaned forward to examine what lay within. Her shoulder pressed against his, and for a moment they studied the chamber in silence.

"Oh, Nathaniel," she whispered. "There are bones. Do you see them? And those little pots beside them. How wonderful! But how strange. I had thought the chamber would be larger."

"So had I. And I must admit that I am puzzled by the arrangement of the remains. Let me bring the light a little closer."

He shifted the lantern and examined the skeleton more carefully. The bones were well preserved, lying together in a position which suggested the body had been placed upon its side. But there was something very odd about the shape of the skull. It was long and narrow, and when he followed the line of the spine towards the limbs, he realised the occupant of their ancient tomb was not human at all.

"Cathy," he said slowly, "I believe..."

"Is that a dog?" she interrupted, leaning closer. "Nathaniel, I think that is the skeleton of a dog!"

He turned towards her, and for a moment they stared at one another in astonishment. Then Nathaniel began to laugh. He could not help it. They had spent weeks imagining the ancient chieftain who might lie beneath the earth, and after all their careful work, they had uncovered the resting place of a dog.

"Oh, my darling, I do believe you are right! Good heavens, what a wonderful thing!"

Kate was laughing now too, her eyes filling with tears as she looked from the skeleton to Nathaniel and back again. Their amusement drew an immediate response from the family above, who had been waiting impatiently for some announcement.

"What is it?" called George. "Good God, Briar, you cannot leave us in suspense like this! Have you found the treasure?"

"We have found a dog!" Nathaniel called back, still laughing. "An ancient dog, Harwood, laid to rest in his own burial chamber."

There was a moment of astonished silence before George let out such a tremendous roar of laughter that Pegasus, who had been lying contentedly in his heap of earth, sprang to his feet and began barking in alarm.

"A dog!" George exclaimed. "After all this time, all this trouble, and you have dug up a blasted dog! Oh, Briar, that is magnificent!"

"George!" cried Bella, although she too was laughing. "Do not be so unkind! I think it is very sweet. To think someone loved their dog enough to give him such a grand burial."

"Well, I should say he must have been a very important dog," said Elizabeth, looking down into the trench with great interest. "Perhaps he was the favourite hound of some ancient king."

"Or perhaps he was worshipped," suggested Mina, who had forgotten all her earlier objections to skeletons and was now trying to obtain a better view. "The Egyptians worshipped cats, did they not? Perhaps the ancient people of Derbyshire worshipped dogs."

"I do not believe there is any evidence of such a practice, Mina," said Kate, still smiling as she examined the chamber. "But look how carefully he has been laid to rest. And there are several vessels beside him. Perhaps they contained food for his journey into the next world."

Nathaniel moved the lantern towards the pots. Two were small, rather roughly made vessels, while a third was larger and had been placed near the animal's head. Whatever they might once have contained had long since disappeared, but there was a little residue at the bottom of one which he thought might repay further examination. He wondered whether they had held food, as Kate suggested, or whether they had been offerings of some other sort. He would take samples and make careful notes before disturbing anything.

"That is an interesting suggestion, Cathy. We shall have to examine them more closely. But I think we can safely say that whoever buried this fellow went to a great deal of trouble over him."

"Oh, I hope he was a happy dog," said Kate softly. "I wonder what he was called."

Nathaniel smiled at her. It was a very Kate-like thing to wonder about, and he found himself imagining the animal alive, running across the hills that covered this part of Derbyshire, or sleeping beside the fire of some ancient family who had loved him dearly. It was a curious thought, and one he found unexpectedly touching.

Then something near the skeleton's neck caught his eye. "Hold on, Cathy. What have we here?"

He moved the lantern closer, and she leaned forward beside him. There was a narrow band of metal lying among the bones, partly concealed beneath the earth, and as Nathaniel brushed a little of the loose soil away, a warm golden gleam appeared beneath his fingers. He stopped at once, hardly trusting his eyes.

"Good heavens," he murmured. "I believe that may be gold."