“And you know,” said Jack, still thinking of his plan, “if we cut the map into four pieces, we could quite well go to four different people to ask them to decipher each quarter — without their seeing the other bits at all — so they wouldn’t be any wiser, but we could fit their explanations together and get a complete picture of what the map means.”
“That’s really a very clever idea, Jack,” said Philip, considering it. “All the same — I vote we don’t go to Mr. Eppy about one of the bits.”
“I don’t see why not,” said Jack. “He won’t be able to tell anything from one bit, and we certainly shan’t say we’ve got the rest. In fact, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go to him first — he’d be able to tell all right if it was a genuine document. If it isn’t we shan’t need to waste our time trailing round to find three other people to decipher the other bits.”
“Do you think he might guess what we guess — that this map is a plan of the Andra treasure hiding-place?” asked Philip, still doubtful of the wisdom of asking Mr. Eppy about the map.
“We won’t give him the bit with the name Andra on,” said Jack. “And we won’t say a word about the other bits, or even where we found them. We’ll just say we came across his bit in our explorations, but we don’t know where. Lucy-Ann doesn’t need to say a word. She’s the only one who knows where the ship was bought — we don’t. So we can truthfully look him in the eye, and say ‘No, sir — we haven’t any idea where this bit of paper originally came from. It just — er — kind of appeared.’ ”
“I hope he believes you,” said Dinah. “He never seems to believe a word that Lucian says.”
“Oh, well — that nit-wit,” said Jack.
“Lucian’s really nicer than you think,” said Lucy-Ann. “It was all because of him, don’t forget, that I got this ship — I’d never have found the ship in the bottle if it hadn’t been for him.”
“Well, he shall have a small share in the treasure if we find it,” said Jack generously.
“Oh — are we going to look for it, then?” said Lucy-Ann. “What about Aunt Allie? What will she say? And will the Viking Star mind us going to hunt for a treasure island?”
“Don’t be a baby, Lucy-Ann,” said Jack. “How can we possibly settle anything in the way of future plans till we know what the map says? I imagine Aunt Allie will be as thrilled as we are when she hears about this.”
“Well, I don’t,” said Lucy-Ann. “I think she’ll hate it. She’ll take us all straight back home! She won’t have us rushing about looking for islands and treasure, I know. She’s had enough of that kind of thing with us.”
“We shan’t tell her then, till everything is settled — and when it is we’ll send for old Bill,” declared Jack.
Lucy-Ann cheered up immediately. As long as Bill Cunningham was there, nothing would matter. The four sat down on the two beds, quite tired out with their exciting talk. They wished the electric fan would go twice as fast because they felt so hot. It whirred away, turning this way and that, a real blessing in the warm cabin.
A terrible noise, far louder than the electric fan made, came to their ears. They jumped.
“That’s Kiki — making her express-engine screech,” said Jack. “Come on — we’d better get her or we shall have the captain himself down to see what’s up. My gracious, there she goes again. We’ve left her too long in the girls’ cabin. Little wretch!”
The children hurried to the cabin next door, anxious to stop Kiki before other passengers complained. Kiki was standing on the dressing-table in front of the mirror, screeching at herself. Although she knew mirrors very well indeed there were still times when she flew into a rage at seeing another parrot there, one that she couldn’t peck.
“Stop it, Kiki, bad bird!” cried Jack. “I’ll tie your beak up, I will! Bad bird, naughty Polly!”
“Happy returns,” said Kiki, speaking to Philip and ignoring Jack. She made a sound like a cork being popped out of a bottle, and then another noise like the gurgling of a liquid being poured out.
“She wants a drink,” said Jack. “Sorry, old thing. I forgot you’d be hot in here.” He filled a tooth-glass with water and Kiki sipped it thirstily. Micky came out for a drink too.
“We are awful,” said Philip. “We forgot all about these two in our excitement. There’s always water for them in our cabin, but there isn’t any in the girls’. Poor Kiki, poor Micky!”
“Nit-wit,” said Kiki politely. She gave a realistic hiccup. “Pardon! Micky, Kiki, Micky, Kiki, Micky, Ki . . .”
“That’s enough,” said Jack. “We don’t think that’s funny. Come along for a walk on deck. We’ll all get some fresh air, and then sleep on our plans.”
They went up on deck with the parrot and the monkey. The other passengers smiled to see them. They liked the four children and their amusing pets. Kiki gave a hiccup every time she passed anyone, and immediately said “Oh, I say! Pardon!” She knew that made people laugh, and she loved showing off.
It was cool on deck in the evening air. The children said very little, because they were thinking such a lot. The bottle — the ship — the old map — quartering it — deciphering it — hunting, hunting, hunting for — Andra’s treasure!
Down in their cabins that night they all found it very difficult to go to sleep. They tossed and turned, wishing they could get cool. Micky and Kiki were on the porthole-sill for coolness. The boys had it open always now, because neither of the pets showed any sign of wanting to go out of the big round opening.
Lucy-Ann lay thinking in her bed. She had the old familiar feeling of queer excitement and anticipation, mixed with a little dread. She knew that feeling! It was the one she got when an adventure was beginning. She called softly to Dinah.
“Dinah! Are you asleep? Listen — do you think we’re beginning one of our adventures again? Do do say we’re not!”
“Well, if we are, whose fault will it be?” came back Dinah’s voice, very wide awake. “Who bought that ship?”
“I did,” said Lucy-Ann. “Yes — if we plunge headlong into an adventure this time, it’ll be all because I bought the little ship — the Ship of Adventure!”
Chapter 9
THE SECRET OF THE SHIP OF ADVENTURE
WHEN the morning came the boys began to realise the difficulties in front of them concerning the strange document they had got hold of. The matter didn’t seem half so easy to tackle or a quarter so straightforward as they had imagined the night before.
Things the boys had pooh-poohed, such as Mrs. Mannering objections, suddenly seemed very awkward indeed. In fact the whole idea lost its rosy glow and seemed to recede into the realm of the Impossible. It was very disappointing.
But when they got out the map again, which Philip had carefully put into an envelope and placed under his pillow all night long, the excitement of the night before swept over them again. Somehow they must get the map deciphered, they must find out for certain if it was genuine — and then, who knows what might happen!
They made their plans. The map must be carefully cut into quarters. Each quarter must be placed in a small envelope, which in turn should be put into one a little larger. Each child must secrete his bit of the map either about his or her person, or in the cabin.
That was the first thing to do. Then one of them must take his quarter to Mr. Eppy and see what he said. Not the bit with the name of the island on, of course, but one of the other pieces.
“And Lucy-Ann mustn’t come with us when we ask him,” said Philip. “Because if he asks us straight out where we originally got the paper we can all say truthfully we don’t know — but Lucy-Ann can’t say that — and she’d blush or something and give the game away.”
“I should not,” said Lucy-Ann, who didn’t want to miss any of the excitement.
“You would. You’re such a truthful person,” said Philip. “Don’t look like that, Lucy-Ann — it’s a very nice thing to be, and we wouldn’t have you any different. It’s only that this is important, and it just might spoil things if you show there’s something up.”
“All right,” said Lucy-Ann, with a sigh. “Perhaps you’re right. I do wish Mr. Eppy would take off his sunglasses sometimes — I just don’t know what he’s really like if I can’t see his eyes.”