“What did he say?” asked Jack, crimson with anticipation.
“It’s genuine. No doubt of that at all,” said Bill, and everyone breathed loudly in relief. “He doesn’t know if it’s a copy of any older map, or a fresh one made by a Greek sailor a hundred or so years ago — probably a mixture, he says. The island is Thamis. It is shown clearly on the map, and even if the name had not been there it could have been recognised by its shape — it’s curiously formed at one end.”
“Yes. I noticed that,” said Philip. “Go on, Bill!”
“The map is in two distinct parts,” went on Bill. “One shows the island, and on it is marked a city or a port. He doesn’t know the island himself so he can’t tell. The other part shows this same city or port, and is apparently a guide or directions to some spot in the city where something valuable is placed. He says it isn’t clear if this valuable thing is treasure or a temple or even a tomb — he only knows it was something of value to the person who first drew the map.”
The children were listening, all eyes and ears. This was marvellous!
“But — doesn’t he think it’s the Andra treasure?” asked Jack.
“He apparently doesn’t know that tale very well — he says there are hundreds of old legends of pirates and treasure-ships and kidnapping and so on — most of them untrue. He hadn’t much to say about that. He is inclined to think it’s a temple.”
“I think it’s the Andra treasure,” said Lucy-Ann, her eyes shining. “I really do!”
“I got him to redraw the whole map for us, with the Greek words in English — he speaks English extraordinarily well,” said Bill, and he spread out a nice new sheet of paper on his lap, drawn with fine lines, and marked with words. The children pored over it, too thrilled to speak.
Yes — there was the old map redrawn — put into English — the faded marks shown clearly. How simply wonderful! Even Tim was intensely interested, and almost began to believe in it.
Jack read some of the words out in a whisper. “Labyrinth — Catacombs — Two-Fingers — Goddess — Bird — Bell — gosh, what does it all mean? Are the labyrinths and catacombs in this city or port? Was the treasure taken down them?”
“We don’t know. All we know is that a way is shown here to a certain place in the city where a certain valuable thing can be found — if it hasn’t already been found and taken away or destroyed,” said Bill. “But you must remember that the original of this map is probably hundreds of years old — the way shown on this map possibly no longer exists. In fact the probabilities are that it doesn’t.”
“Oh, Bill — do you really believe that?” asked Dinah reproachfully.
“Well — to be perfectly honest — I do,” said Bill disappointingly. “I think the map is genuine — no doubt about that at all — but I also think that as all this happened so long ago there’s no hope of finding the secret way shown here. It would either have been built over, or destroyed, or even completely forgotten, so that there may not even be an entrance to the labyrinths or catacombs, whatever they are.”
“But — Mr. Eppy obviously thinks there’s some hope,” said Philip.
“Oh, that reminds me — this old chap, the one I’ve been to see, knows Mr. Eppy. He says he’s a real crank about these things — quite dippy about them — and goes off on all sorts of hare-brained schemes,” said Bill. “Buys and sells islands as if they were books or carpets or pictures! He admits that Mr. Eppy knows a lot about the islands, and about the antiques that can be found in them — but he doesn’t think that because he believes in the map, for instance, that necessarily means there is anything to get excited about. Rather the other way about, I gathered.”
“Blow!” said Jack. “So there may be nothing in it after all. In fact, probably not.”
“In fact, probably not, as you say,” agreed Bill. “All the same, if we had the chance, which we shan’t have, of course, I wouldn’t mind hiring a motor-boat and chugging off to have a look at Thamis, wherever it is.”
“Oh, I do wish we could,” said Lucy-Ann. “It would be lovely just to see it.”
“I could run you over there,” said Tim unexpectedly. “That is, if it’s not too far away.”
“No time,” said Bill, folding up the map. “We’ve got to be back by six, as you know. Thanks all the same, Tim. Now, we’d better be off, I think.”
By the time they got to the port it was half-past five. The Viking Star had been piloted right in to the pier, and was lying there looking very white and beautiful, but with no sign of the bustle about her that usually meant she was soon sailing.
The gangway was down, and passengers were trooping along it. Lucian was among them with his aunt. They hadn’t seen him all day, except in the distance, and then they had taken no notice of him, not wanting him to tag himself on to them now they had Bill. He waved to them and shouted.
“Oh, I say! Where have you been all day? My aunt wanted you to come with us and have lunch with one of my relations on the island.”
“Sorry! We had other plans!” called back Jack. “See you sometime.”
“Who’s the rabbit-mouth?” enquired Bill. “Oh — it’s the boy Lucian, I suppose, the nephew of your Mr. Eppy. He must be a bit of a nuisance to you!”
“We can manage him all right,” said Philip. “Look — here’s the notice-board. There’s a big notice up. What does it say?”
The notice was printed in chalk on the big black notice-board.
Passengers are regretfully informed that the Viking Star will have to remain in port for a day or two until damage to her engines is repaired. Passengers may remain on board, if they wish, or stay in a hotel provided by the ship’s Company, or may use the motor-boats which the said Company will provide for the use of any passenger wishing to explore this romantic part of the Aegean Sea.
(Signed) L. PETERSEN, Captain.
The same thought struck all four children at once. They turned to one another, their eyes shining.
“We could, couldn’t we?” said Lucy-Ann, and the others understood at once. Jack nodded, his eyes bright. He slipped his arm through Bill’s.
Bill looked round at the children. He smiled broadly, and then laughed out loud to see the four eager faces looking at him, all with the same question in them.
“Can we go to Thamis after all — that’s what you want to know, isn’t it?” he said. “Well, I don’t see why not. It looks as if we’ll be here a few days, and if the Company provide us with a motor-boat, well, we’ll agree to their kind proposal, and off we’ll go in one!”
“Bill! BILL! How marvellous!” cried everyone, and Jack and Philip began to thump one another on the back, and the girls squeezed Bill’s arms till he yelled. Kiki and Micky flew off the boys’ shoulders in a hurry, and retired in surprised annoyance to the top of the notice-board.
“Come on — stop this pantomime,” said Bill, still laughing to see the children’s excitement. “Let’s get up on deck and make a few plans before we change into clean things for dinner. Get Micky, look — he’s beginning to rub out the top part of the notice with his tail.”
They went up to a favourite corner on the promenade deck and sat down. “It’s too good to be true,” said Jack, delighted. “We keep on thinking things are no good, we’ll have to give them up — and then something happens and everything’s all right.”
“Yes. We knew we couldn’t do anything without Bill, and he wasn’t here — and then he suddenly came,” said Lucy-Ann.
“And then we knew we still couldn’t do anything, because we’d have to go with the ship on her cruise,” said Dinah. “And now she’s held up, and we can go off by ourselves!”
“Extraordinary how you children get what you want,” said Bill. “Now about this motor-boat tomorrow. I rather think we’ll hire one on our own. If we take one that the Company provide we’ll have to go with some of the other passengers — and they certainly won’t want to go to Thamis, wherever it is.”
“And we wouldn’t want them to, either,” said Jack. “No — let’s have a boat of our own. Can Tim come too?”
“He’s got other plans,” said Bill. “But we’ll tell him, just in case he’d like to come. Well — it certainly will be a thrill. I must find out exactly this evening where this Thamis is. “I’ll get hold of the second officer and ask him if there’s a sailor on board that can tell me anything. We’ll have to find out the precise route or we might go cruising among these islands for weeks!”