church. I was niver fool enough ter put my money in the bank. I know all
about them. Yer put yer money in fer years, an' then, w'en they've got
enough, they shut the door, an' the old bloke wi' the white weskit an'
gold winkers cops the lot. No banks fer me, thank yer!"

Then she explained that ever since she opened the laundry, she had
squeezed something out of her earnings as one squeezes blood out of a
stone. She had saved threepence this week, sixpence that, sometimes even
a shilling went into the child's money-box that she had chosen as a safe
deposit. When the coins mounted to a sovereign, she had changed them into
a gold piece. Then, her mind disturbed by visions of thieves bent on
plunder, she had hit on a plan. A floorboard was loose in the kitchen.
She had levered this up, and probed with a stick till she touched solid
earth. Then the yellow coin, rolled carefully in a ball of paper, was
dropped into the hole. And for years she had added to her unseen treasure,
dropping her precious coins into that dark hole with more security than a
man deposits thousands in the bank. But the time was come to unearth
the golden pile.

She trembled with excitement when Jonah ripped up the narrow plank with
the poker. Then he thrust his arm down till he touched the soft earth.
He seemed a long time groping, and Mrs Yabsley wondered at the delay.
At last he sat up, with a perplexed look.

"I can't feel nuthin'," he said. "Are yez sure this is the place?"

"Of course it is," said Mrs Yabsley, sharply. "I dropped them down right
opposite the 'ead of that nail."

Jonah groped again without success.