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Slugger and Dora were now driving back from Tockwith, in the old horsebox after a major shopping expedition that involved lots of horse feed and D.I.Y materials for Slugger, Steve and Ron to work with back at Follyfoot farm. Of course the truck itself belonged to the Colonel whom he had once cherished, having been bought brand new, some ten or more years ago however the truck these days looked prematurely aged-just like it's owner- with scratches and dents and paintwork pealing off everywhere-and with red- rust patches beginning to emerge underneath the discoloured bodywork. Even the wood panelling was beginning to rot; moss and litchens were taking up residence. The 'well worn' engine groaned and whined as Slugger changed the gears and decided to take a little detor.
'Where are we going Sluggs?' said Dora, 'we don't normally go this way.'
'I am Dora, whats known as taking a little trip down 'memory lane', replied Slugger.
After about 20 minutes, as the truck crawled up to the top of a particular hill, Dora could see a large mansion in the distance, perhaps some 2 or 3 miles away, set within a valley. Adjacent to the house, was a great sea of trees-a vast forest full of every type of tree species one could imagine- 'Robin Hood and his band of merry men' would not have been out of place-had they resided there!
As the truck carried on, the mansion seemed to disapear from view for a few minutes, then returned, looming a little larger than before.
Slugger said, 'see that old house-well that was where I briefly worked as a handyman, some 30 years or more ago.' I used to repair the old horse sheds there.They reckon the whole place is 'aunted but I can tell you I never saw anything strange goin' on when I was there.' All I heard was that the original owner back in the 17 hundreds, had caught wiff that his long affair wif' one of the local maids- who 'appened to be married to an Admiral of the Queens Navy-was found out and rumour spread like wild fire in the locale.'
Dora said, 'Oh Slugger!'
Slugger continued, 'Well the squire soon heard that a band of seamen were goin' to 'sort 'im out,' so apparently he hid in the nearby forest and lived there for a few months, until the forore had died down like- then he returned back to the house. But when he did, word got out and he fled for his life back into the woods again but this time he had apparently taken with him a treasured item-said to be a candlebra-made intirely from solid gold!' Slugger's eyes lit up and added, 'an I used to look around in the woods hoping to stumble across it like-but of course wif' my luck- I never did!'
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Dora by now was completely engrossed by Slugger's story. 'Why did he take the candlelabrum with him, slugger?'
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'Well, you see he did not want any of them to steal it- as a valuable 'trophy' like.' Anyhow the squire never returned back to the house and they reckon he may have been murdered in the forest. They say his ghost 'aunts the whole area bt I never saw his ghost in the 8 years I worked there.'
'But what hapened to the candlelabrum,' said Dora inquisitively. Surely someone must have known where he hid it?'
'Well rumour is, he buried it under a large rock, covered some soil over it and planted an acorn on top- 'an thats all I know Dora.'
As they drove past, Slugger looked at Dora and grinned-they've got horses there too! Right lets get back home -it's a good 20 miles to Follyfoot 'an the Colonel will wonder where we've been.'
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