An ancient pact, a daring theft, a carved message and an untimely death set the scene for the story of The Mystery of the Goodfellowes' Code. When Monty and Herbert start their first term at Wakeford College neither of them can envisage the journey that lies ahead of them to decipher a code that has remained a tantalizing secret for two decades.

In 1935 a group of seven men meet in a London Club to celebrate the refurbishment of the Wakeford College icon, a small stone shield presented to the school by Henry VI. The men have clubbed together to pay for the restoration but one of the number suggests that perhaps a more lasting contribution be made to the school in the form of a ‘tontine.’ Each of the members contribute to an endowment policy, the responsibility for which passes from each member as they die until such time that the last member dies and the endowment is made over to the school. It is hinted at that the continued upkeep of the shield may have a bearing on this.

The time then jumps to the mid-eighties and Sebastian Barton-Brooks a sporty and colourful member of the school and Goodfellowes House steals the shield during the end of term service. He leaves a verse carved into the fireplace at Goodfellowes and leaves to embark on a gap year mountaineering. It comes to light later that he disappears during this expedition and the secret of the shield’s hiding place dies with him.

The action moves forard to the present day and Monty Maudsley has just passed into Wakeford College and we meet him on his first evening at Goodfellowes' House a boarding House set some way from the main school. The scene is set and by the end of the morning of his first day he has not only seen the inscription but has teamed up with fellow new boy Herbert Mint. On his way back from the school a fellow member of Goodfellowes fills him on the Barton-Brooks story. Fuelled by this and having read an inscription on a war memorial in the local church he sets out to recover the shield.

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