The two girls couldn’t imagine what was the matter with the boys that dinner-time. Jack kept grinning quite idiotically at them, and Philip did his best to do a little whispering, to give the news.
Mrs. Mannering frowned at him in surprise. “Philip! You forget yourself. Say what you have to say out loud, please.”
That was just what Philip couldn’t do, of course. “Er — who won at deck-tennis?” he said feebly.
“Well, really — I can’t imagine why you had to say that in a whisper,” said Mrs. Mannering. “Don’t be silly, Philip.”
“Sorry, Mother,” said Philip, not looking in the least sorry, but extraordinarily pleased. He simply couldn’t help it. He kept thinking of the ship and its secret parchment. It was something really exciting, he was sure of it.
As soon as dinner was over the four children slipped away. When they got to a safe corner, Jack clutched at the girls. “Lucy-Ann! Dinah!”
“What is it?” said Dinah. “You both acted like lunatics at dinner. What’s up with you?”
“Sh! Listen! You know that ship in a bottle,” began Jack, but Philip interrupted him.
“No. Let me tell. Well, Micky and Kiki broke the bottle between them, the wretches, and when we got down into the cabin, there it was, smashed on the floor — and the ship was gone!”
“Where?” said Lucy-Ann, upset.
“Micky had it, under the bed. We got it and looked at it — and will you believe it, there was a knob that came out, and then we could remove another section of the ship — and inside there’s a parchment document of some sort!”
“No!” cried the girls, both together, thrilled to hear the news.
“It’s true. You come down and see. Don’t tell anyone though, especially Lucian. It’s our own secret.”
They all tore down to the boys’ cabin and nearly knocked over the steward, who had been turning down the beds.
“Sorry!” said Jack. “Have you finished, steward?”
“Yes, I’ve finished — but what’s all your hurry?” said the astonished steward. He got no answer. The door closed in his face, and he heard the latch being put across to lock it. Now what were those lambs of children up to?
Inside the cabin the light was switched on, and the cupboard unlocked. Philip took out the little carved ship. The others crowded round to look at it.
“See — you take out this knob — and that loosens this section of the side — and it comes right out,” said Philip. “And now look — can you see the document neatly crammed inside? I’m sure it’s parchment.”
The girls took a deep breath. “Gosh — it’s a thrill,” said Dinah. “Get it out, quick!”
“We’ll have to be careful not to tear it,” said Jack. “Stand back a bit, you girls. You keep jogging my arm.”
How the boys managed to wheedle the closely-folded paper out of the inside of the wooden ship was a miracle. Little by little they edged it out, until at last it was completely out, and the inside of the ship was empty.
“There we are!” said Jack triumphantly, as he laid the yellow parchment carefully on the dressing-table. “Now to see what it is.”
With gentle, careful fingers Philip unfolded the parchment. It spread out into quite a big sheet. The children pored over it, thrilled.
“It’s a map!”
“A plan of some kind!”
“I can’t read the words. Blow, they must be in Greek or something!”
“What is it? It looks like some island or something!”
“Look at these marks — they must be the bearings of the compass — look, would that be north, south, east, west?”
“It’s two maps, that’s what it is. Look, this bit must show an island, I think — surely that’s meant to be sea round it. And that bit is a plan — a plan of some building, I should think, with passages and things.”
The excited talk went on and on, each of the four children trying to press closer still to the map. Philip remembered that he had a magnifying-glass and went to get it. Then they could all see even better, and could make out a few strange words and marks too faded to see before.
“See this queer word here, at the left-hand side, right at the top,” said Lucy-Ann suddenly. “Well, it looks exactly like the name on the ship, doesn’t it? Let’s compare them and see.”
They looked at both the words, first on the ship and then on the map. They certainly were the same.
“Well — Mr. Eppy said the ship’s name was Andra — and if the name on the map is the same, it must have something to do with an island or a person called Andra,” said Dinah.
There was a silence. Everyone was digesting this, and wondering if they dared to say what they thought it meant. No — it wasn’t possible. It simply wasn’t possible.
Lucy-Ann voiced their feelings first. She spoke in rather a breathless voice.
“Andra — the name of the girl who wouldn’t marry the one-eyed prince. Do you suppose that one of the ships of treasure sent out and lost was called Andra in her honour? And do you suppose Andra was the name given to the search for the treasure — and that’s why this ship and this map are marked Andra?”
“It can’t be!” said Jack, under his breath. “It isn’t possible that we have hit on the old plan that was lost — the copy of the older plan made hundreds of years ago! It just isn’t possible.”
“It’s probably a hoax,” said Philip, feeling perfectly certain that it wasn’t.
“No — it can’t be,” said Dinah. “Mr. Eppy, who knows about old things, told us this ship was old, didn’t he? He was puzzled about it, because he said the ship was far older than the bottle.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what I think,” said Jack slowly. “I think this may be the plan — and I think probably that old Greek merchantman who copied the original one and died, hid it in this ship — which he may have carved himself.”
“Yes — and after he died his family may have kept it as a curio, not knowing what was inside it — and later on somebody else got the ship and thought it would be a very suitable one for putting inside a bottle,” finished Philip.
“But how did it get inside?” wondered Lucy-Ann. “That’s a real puzzle to me.”
“Oh, don’t be silly. Everyone knows how a ship gets into a bottle,” said Jack impatiently. “All they do is to blow a glass bottle round the ship, idiot. You know how bottles are made, don’t you — blown like bubbles of glass? Well, that’s how ships get inside bottles — the glass is just blown round them.”
“Gosh — how clever,” said Lucy-Ann. She looked at the ship again, and at the map lying beside it, old and yellowed.
“To think we are looking at a plan that was first drawn ages ago by a Greek captain in charge of a fleet of treasure-ships! And on this very map is shown where that treasure is still hidden — and we’re the only people in the world that know the secret!”
It certainly was rather a tremendous thought. Silence fell on the four children. They looked at one another. Lucy-Ann spoke again, timidly.
“Jack! Philip! This won’t be another adventure, will it?”
Nobody answered her. They were all thinking about the strange map. Jack voiced their thoughts.
“The thing is, as Lucy-Ann says — we may be the only ones in the world that know this secret — but it’s all Greek to us! We can’t read a word on the map, we don’t even know what the name of the island is, that is marked here. It’s maddening.”
“We shall have to find out,” said Dinah.
“Oh yes — run around to various Greek people — Mr. Eppy, for instance — and say, ‘Please will you decipher this strange document for us?’ That’s not a very bright idea, Dinah. Anyone who knows anything would see there was something worth while in this map — and it would disappear like a shot!”
“Oh dear — would it?” said Lucy-Ann. “Do let’s be careful of it then.”
“I know what we could do to make sure nobody could possibly steal it and use it,” said Jack. “We could cut it carefully into four pieces, and each one of us could have a bit — then if anyone tried to grab our bit he wouldn’t be any better off — he’d only have a quarter of the plan, which wouldn’t help him much!”
“Yes — that’s a good idea,” said Philip. “Though why we are imagining thieves and robbers like this I don’t know!”
“Only because we’ve had a bit of experience in our other adventures,” said Dinah. “We’re getting to know how to handle them now!”