“Move Micky up a bit, will you?” said Bill. “He keeps breathing down my neck. Now then — what’s this map? It’s very old, I can see that. Why is it in four pieces?”
They told him. They told him the old legend of the lost Andra treasure. They told him of Mr. Eppy’s queer behaviour. They told him of his departure — and all that they feared.
Bill listened intently, asking one or two curt questions now and again. When they had finished he took out his pipe, and began to stuff it very slowly with tobacco. The children waited. They knew that Bill was thinking hard. Their hearts beat fast. What did Bill think of their tale? Would he take it seriously? Would he do something about it?
“Well,” said Bill, putting his pipe into his mouth, and speaking out of one side whilst he hunted in his pocket for matches. “Well — I think you’ve got something there — but I’m basing my feelings on Mr. Eppy’s behaviour, not on your map, which I don’t know enough about to decipher. You’ve been very ingenious in trying to get it explained to you, and you’ve fitted various curious facts together very well — such as finding the name Andra on the little ship, and noticing it again on the map.”
“Yes — that was a bit of luck,” said Jack. “You really do think the map is genuine, Bill? I mean — do you think there’s any hope of its really showing where the old treasure is?”
“I can’t say,” said Bill, puffing away at his pipe. “Can’t possibly say. I’d have to take the map to an expert, get it deciphered properly, find out all I can about the old Andra legend — it may be just a tale, you know — and see if there really is an island called Thamis, and what it’s like.”
“There is,” said Jack triumphantly. “I found it on a map.”
Bill began to laugh. “I don’t know how it is that you children always seem to happen on something extraordinary,” he said. “Just when I thought we were in for a lovely, peaceful trip, I shall have to go hunting about for an expert on old documents, and get him to translate Greek so old that it’s probably impossible to read correctly. And if there’s anything in it, I suppose we’ll have to see this island called Thamis.”
“Bill! Will you really?” cried Jack in delight, and Philip bounced up and down on the bed, nearly upsetting everybody. Dinah clutched Lucy-Ann, her eyes shining. They were all so pleased because Bill hadn’t pooh-poohed the whole idea.
“We’d better get to bed now,” said Bill. “It’s very late. We’ll talk about all this in the morning — but don’t get excited! We can’t possibly do more than give this map to an expert, and then maybe run over to Thamis and back, if it’s near enough, just to give it a look over. After all — we’re on a cruise, you know.”
The children got up reluctantly. Bill went with them to their cabins. “I’m going up on deck to smoke my pipe,” he said. “Happy dreams!”
In the early morning Jack and Philip woke up with a jump. They sat up in bed. Light was just filtering through their porthole, and a curious noise was coming from far below them.
“It’s the engines of the ship,” said Jack, in relief. “I wondered whatever in the world it was. What a queer noise they’re making. What’s happening?”
“They’ve stopped,” said Philip, after listening for a minute or two. “No — there they go again — clank-clank-clank. They don’t sound a bit right. They don’t purr like they usually do. I hope nothing’s wrong.”
“Now they’ve stopped again,” said Jack. “Well — if there’s any danger we shall hear the ship’s hooter hooting and hooting and the steward will come along and bang on our door.”
“Yes. And our life jackets are ready in the cupboard, so we’ve nothing to worry about,” said Philip, feeling sleepy again. “It’s nothing. Let’s go to sleep.”
But in the morning they found that the ship was still not using her engines. She lay there on the purple-blue sea, rocking a little, with the airport island lying not more than a mile or two off.
“Funny!” said Jack, and dressed quickly. He banged on the girls’ door as he went by with Philip. The two boys tore up on deck, and found their friend, the second officer.
“What’s up?” they asked him. “Why have we stopped?”
“Mac’s got trouble with his engines,” said the officer. “Soon be all right, I expect.”
They saw Bill coming along. He had been up for some time, walking round the deck for exercise. They rushed to him, and he grinned. “Hallo! Ready for breakfast? I’m ravenous. Hallo, Micky, hallo, Kiki.”
“Micky-Kiki-Micky-Kiki, Micky-Ki . . .” began Kiki. Jack tapped her on the beak.
“That’s enough. Take a bit of exercise. Go and chase the gulls!” But Kiki didn’t want to. She was bored with the gulls now. Besides she wanted breakfast. Breakfast was nice on board ship because there was always grape-fruit, and Kiki liked that. She loved the cherries on top of the grape-fruit halves, and the children took it in turn to give her one.
When breakfast was over the children took Bill all over the ship. They were not allowed down in the engine-room because of the trouble with the engines. Mac was in a fearful temper, and had been up all night long working on them.
A message was put up on the ship’s notice-board that morning.
Owing to trouble with the engines of the Viking Star, we are putting back to port. Passengers will be notified further at six o’clock this evening.
With a curious clanking and labouring the Viking Star made her way slowly to the island with the airport. Motor-boats came roaring out to meet her and find out what was wrong. In one of them was Bill’s friend, Tim. He was soon on board, and Bill introduced him to the children.
“Tim, here are the four children I’ve told you about. Be careful of them, or they’ll pull you into a perilous adventure. That’s the kind of children they are. Put them in the middle of an iceberg and they’ll find an adventure somehow!”
The children liked Tim. He was younger than Bill, had a mop of unruly curly hair which the wind did what it liked with, and eyes as green as Lucy-Ann’s. He had as many freckles as she and Jack had, and a most infectious laugh.
“You’d better come off in the motor-boat with me, hadn’t you?” he said to Bill. “Come back to the island. It’s interesting.”
“Right,” said Bill. “We’ll have the day together. Come on, you four — down the ladder with you!”
Chapter 16
BILL MAKES A FEW ENQUIRIES
THEY had a wonderful day on the island. Tim hired a car and away they went to explore. They had lunch in a big town set in the centre of the island, a proper town with shops and buses and cinemas.
After lunch Bill disappeared. “I’ve heard of an old chap who’s a real expert at old documents,” he told the children. “One of the greatest experts there are. It’s a bit of luck. I’ll go and see him. You’ve got the four bits of the map with you, haven’t you, Jack?”
Jack nodded. The children had decided that it would be safer to bring them than leave them behind. He gave them to Bill in an envelope. “I do hope the expert will say it’s genuine,” he said earnestly. “I say — shall we tell Tim?”
“You’d be quite safe to,” said Bill. “Tim is all right! Whether he’ll believe you or not is another matter!”
So, whilst Bill was gone, the children told Tim their secret. He was inclined to grin at first, and laugh it all off as a tale. But they were so serious that he saw that they, at least, believed in it all. He tried to be serious too.
“Well, it’s marvellous,” he said. “I believed in all these treasure tales when I was a kid too. Jolly nice of Bill to take it seriously and go off to have your map explained.”
The children saw that he didn’t really take their tale seriously, and they dropped the subject, polite but disappointed. A little doubt crept in Lucy-Ann’s mind. Was it all a tale? No — surely Mr. Eppy wouldn’t have behaved so queerly if there had been nothing in it.
Bill was a long time gone. The children were tired of waiting, and Tim was just suggesting they should take a run in the car to a queer-shaped hill in the distance, when he came back.
“Sorry to have been so long,” he said. “I found the old boy — looks as if he’s come out of the fifteenth century, he’s so old and dusty — and so slow I could have screamed. But he knew his stuff all right.”