The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More

Dahl opens this story with a brief note about its history. After encountering the story of the found treasure in the newspaper in 1946, Dahl drove to Mildenhall to interview Gordon Buther, one of the finders of a trove of Roman silver. The account of “The Mildenhall Treasure” comes directly from this interview. When the story was published in the Saturday Evening Post, Dahl sent half the money to Butcher.

Gordon Butcher arises around seven in the morning. He lives a happy life with his wife and three children and works as a farm laborer through contracts with local farms. This morning, Gordon rides his bike in the early winter light to see Sydney Ford, an agricultural engineer who hires Gordon to assist with plowing a field.

Butcher works in the field until three o’clock in the afternoon when the wooden peg that he used to hitch his plow breaks. As he checks his blades, he notices a glint of something lodged to one of the blades. He feels a rush of unexplained anxiety, abandons his equipment, and rushes home.

Gordon reprimands himself for being a coward and returns to Ford. The two men visit the field, and Ford instructs Gordon to dig.