Jasper and the Green Marvel by Deirdre Madden Page B

you even think such a thing!’
    Rags shrugged. ‘It looks cold,’ he said, pointing at the lake, ‘but I suppose there’s nothing else for it.’
    They stepped into the water together, pulling faces and going ‘Oh! Oh! Oh!’ because the water was indeed very cold; but, fair play to them, they kept going. As they moved out of their depth, they kicked and flicked their legs, not quite sure what they should be doing, and hoping it would work out.
    And it did.
    ‘Look! Look at me!’ Bags cried. ‘I’m swimming!’
    ‘Me too!’
    They weren’t very good at it, but they weren’t bad either, given that it was their first attempt. Bags found it hard to swim in a straight line, and kept drifting off course. Rags, try as he might, couldn’t help splashing water up his own snout, which was most unpleasant. To begin with, they were just pleased to be able to do it, but as time passed the novelty wore off. It seemed to take forever, and they were both shivering with cold and exhausted by the time they finally reached the island and stumbled up the steps of the folly. 

18 The Folly
    To their relief, the folly didn’t have a proper door, just an open archway through which they went. In the shelter of the building they shook the water of the lake from their pelts, and looked around them, starting to get quite excited again. ‘Just think, at any moment now, we could find the Green Marvel!’
    The folly was circular, with six high rectangular windows. Against the walls were two curved benches made of stone, and the floor was covered in big square grey flagstones. They looked under the benches, but there was nothing there. Where could the emeraldnecklace be hidden? Puzzled, the two rats scratched their heads. The problem was that there was nowhere else to look. Apart from the benches, the folly was completely empty. There were no cupboards or boxes, no little nooks where something might be concealed.
    ‘This is a stupid place anyway,’ Bags grumbled. ‘I don’t see the point of it.’
    ‘Maybe the bat got it wrong,’ Rags said, as he walked across the floor. But as he did so, he noticed something. One of the stones moved beneath his paws! He stopped and thought about this, then carefully inspected the flagstone. It was identical to all the others except for one small detail: it had a crack running across it, which marked off a triangle in one corner. And that little corner, Rags now saw as he bounced up and down on it, was quite loose.
    ‘There could be something hidden under it. Help me, Bags, quickly!’
    It didn’t take them long to prise up the broken piece of stone, and Bags held it whileRags looked underneath.
    ‘Hurry up! This thing’s heavy.’
    ‘There’s nothing there,’ Rags said, with terrible disappointment in his voice.
    ‘Nothing at all?’
    ‘No necklace. No jewels. Just a measly piece of paper, exactly like the one Georgiana had, the one with the clue written on it.’
    ‘Urrrrgh … well, grab it, you nitwit,’ Bags cried. ‘And hurry up, I can’t hold this thing forever.’ Rags darted his paw in and had just managed to snatch out the note before Bags’s strength gave out, as he let the triangle of stone fall back into place, just missing Rags’s head.
    ‘Really, I wonder about you sometimes,’ Bags said crossly. ‘“Nothing there”! Give that note to me. I’ll keep it safe and give it to Georgiana.’ Not for the first time in their lives the rats regretted that they didn’t know how to read.
    ‘Sorry,’ Rags said meekly. ‘I suppose we should think of heading back.’
    ‘I suppose so.’ Neither of them was looking forward to getting into the cold water of the lake again.
    ‘Look, there’s another doorway.’ Rags pointed to the far side of the folly. ‘Let’s have a peek through there. Perhaps we won’t have to swim quite so far this time.’
    But when they went over to the doorway and looked out, they couldn’t believe their eyes. It wasn’t just that the distance