Bill gave him the map. Jack took it into the space once occupied by the temple, and sat down in a corner. Lucy-Ann came to sit with him. Kiki settled between them, murmuring companionably.
The two red heads bent over the map together. “It’s got so many things on it that I can’t make out the reason for,” said Jack. ” ‘Two-Fingers’ — well we know what that means all right — and now look here — a lot further on, it says ‘Bell.’ Well, what does that mean? Bell! What has a bell? A donkey, of course — and schools have bells — and . . .”
“Churches,” said Lucy-Ann. “I expect this old temple had a bell once upon a time. I wonder where it was.”
She looked round and about but could see no place where a bell could have hung.
Jack looked at her suddenly. “Lucy-Ann — of course — a temple would have a bell. The temple may be one of the clues, one of the guides to the treasure.”
“Do you think so?” said Lucy-Ann doubtfully. “But — surely the treasure would have been hidden deep underground somewhere — not in the temple, up here. We know the entrance to the secret passage was far down the hill, just above the creek.”
“Would it be hidden under the temple perhaps!” said Jack. “Or somewhere near. Maybe the temple had vaults. I say — that’s an idea! If this one once had vaults, they must still be there. Vaults don’t become ruins, like buildings. They’re not exposed to wind and rain and sun. Vaults! Yes — going deep down into the hill — reached by an underground passage from the creek — a passage that could be approached easily enough from the sea — could be used by sailors who wanted to smuggle in goods. Lucy-Ann — there must be vaults! Come on — we’ll look for them.”
Lucy-Ann, half excited, half disbelieving, got up and followed Jack. He began to hunt all over what must have once been the courtyard. It was too overgrown to tell if any way could be found underground.
They leaned against a great half-broken column to rest themselves. There was a large piece out of the column just above their heads, and Kiki flew up there to perch. At that moment Micky came bounding into the old courtyard of the temple, followed by the others. He saw Kiki and leapt up beside her.
She wasn’t expecting him, and was startled and angry. She gave him such a violent nip that he lost his balance on the ledge — and fell backwards into the inside of the enormous column!
He shrieked with fright as he fell, and Kiki poked her head inside the hole to see what had happened to him.
“All gone,” she announced in a hollow voice. “All gone. Ding-dong-bell.”
“You idiot, Kiki!” shouted Philip. “Hey, Micky, Micky. Come on up!”
But there was no Micky. Only a little whimpering cry came up. “He’s hurt,” said Philip. “Here, Jack, give me a leg-up. I’ll go down into the column after him. He can’t have fallen very far.”
Jack gave him a leg-up. He got on to the broken place, swung his legs in and was about to jump down when he stopped and looked in cautiously.
“Hey, Bill!” he called. “Hand me your torch. I’d better look before I leap, I think. There’s something queer here!”
Bill handed him up his torch. Philip switched it on and looked down into the hollow of the great column. He turned and looked back at the others.
“I say — it’s queer. It looks as if there’s steps at the bottom of this column! What do you think of that!”
Chapter 20
EXPLORING THE TREASURE-ROUTE
EVERYONE was amazed. Steps! Stone steps leading downwards at the base of the hollow stone column? Jack gave a loud whoop.
“I bet they go to the vaults!”
“What vaults?” asked Dinah, in astonishment. But Jack was too excited to tell her.
“Bill — let’s go down. Come on. We’re on the track of the treasure. Didn’t the map say ‘Bell.’ Well, the temple must have had a bell. I bet the treasure’s somewhere underneath!”
“You’re talking double Dutch,” said Bill, not following this at all. “Philip — come down. Don’t attempt any scatter-brained exploration till we get the lanterns, and till I have a look myself. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, right, Bill,” said Philip reluctantly, and jumped down. “Micky’s down there somewhere — he must have fallen on the steps and gone bumping down. I can still hear him whimpering.”
“I expect he got a bit of a shock,” said Bill. “Go and get the lanterns and also the food, you boys. If we are going underground, we’d better prepare ourselves!”
Before the boys returned, Micky had come back, a Micky very frightened and sorry for himself indeed. He looked for his beloved Philip but he wasn’t there, so he went to Lucy-Ann, and let her nurse him like a baby. He whimpered all the time, and Lucy-Ann was very distressed.
“Now, now — you haven’t really hurt yourself,” she consoled him. “Just a bruise or two, I expect. It was very very naughty of Kiki. Still, you’ve made a wonderful find, Micky. Really wonderful!”
Kiki was very ashamed of herself. She went into a corner and put her head under her wing. Nobody took any notice of her at all.
The boys came back. Bill had had a good look down the hollow column with his torch. It puzzled him how the ancient folk, who had used the column as a way of getting underground, had made an entry in it. He could see no way of entry at all — except, of course, through the great hole broken in the column.
“It’s a narrow spiral stairway,” he told the girls. “Probably Jack is right. It may lead down to the vaults of the temple — a very secret way to them, possibly known only to the head priest. Come on, boys — help the girls up. I’ll go down first.”
He dropped down deftly to the head of the steps. He shone his torch down. Yes — it was a spiral stairway as he had thought. It would be very narrow here, but probably got wider lower down. He had almost to crawl down the first twelve steps, and two or three times nearly slipped, because the treads were so narrow and steep.
The girls followed, helped by the boys. Dinah took one lantern, finding it very difficult indeed to manage with it, and at last had to hand it down to Bill, because she needed both her hands at the top of the stairway. Lucy-Ann went down by the light of the second lantern, held for her by Jack.
The food was dropped in behind them. “Might as well leave it there,” called back Bill. “We can fetch it if we need it — and it’s as good a hiding-place as anywhere else.”
So they left the food at the top of the stairway, on a stone ledge there, and pretty soon all five were a good way down. As Bill had thought, the stone steps grew very much wider and easier a little way down.
Micky was now on Philip’s shoulder again. Kiki had followed Jack into the column, very quiet and subdued. Down they went and down.
They came to the end of the stairway. It finished in a vast cave or vault that stretched out endlessly in the rock of the hill. The lanterns only lit up a small part of it.
“Yes — here are the vaults all right,” said Jack. “The way we’ve come to them must have been a very secret one, I should think. Look — there’s another way up, Bill — over there — more stone steps — straight ones this time, not spiral — going quite steeply upwards.”
“Yes. I should think that was the ordinary way used up and down to the vaults,” said Bill. “The way we came is very well hidden. See, from here you can’t even see it, hidden behind that enormous rock.”
He swung his torch up the wide sweep of steps to which they had now walked over. “I’ll go up and see where they lead to,” said Bill, and up he went. They heard his steps going up and up, and then they stopped. They heard them coming down again.
“Came up against a stone ceiling!” he reported. “Probably there’s an exit there, closed up by a great stone trapdoor — overgrown now with weeds and grass. That was obviously the ordinary way in and out. Well — where do we go from here?”
“Bill, let’s look at the map again,” said Jack. “I’m sure we must now be at the place marked ‘Bell.’ ‘Bell’ for temple, you know.”
By the light of Bill’s torch they all pored over the map again. Bill traced the “Treasure-path” with his finger. ” ‘Two-Finger Rock,’ ” he said. “We were there, and were stopped by the walled-in place.”