“You know why I have bought it?” repeated Mr. Eppy. “Tell me, boy.”
“Well — I suppose you wanted to look for treasure on it,” said Jack, in a sulky tone. “But you won’t find it. You only saw two pieces of the map, remember!”
“Then you will tell me what was on the other pieces,” said Mr. Eppy, in a dangerous tone.
Lucian was by now looking distinctly frightened. “Here, I say, Uncle,” he began. “I don’t think you ought to talk to old Jack like that, you know. I mean to say . . .”
Mr. Eppy took a step backwards, and slapped Lucian neatly across the mouth. His hand made a noise like a whip-crack and Kiki immediately imitated it. Then she scolded Mr. Eppy. “Naughty boy, naughty boy, nit-wit, mistersir!”
Lucian burst into howls. He put his hand up to his mouth, and stumbled away to a corner. The three men didn’t turn a hair.
“That is how I treat foolish boys,” said Mr. Eppy, turning back to Jack. “Are you going to be foolish too?”
Jack said nothing. Mr. Eppy put his face close to him, and hissed at him so startlingly that Jack took a sudden step back, and trod on the foot of one of the three men.
“Where are the others?” demanded Mr. Eppy, with his face close to Jack’s. “They must be here too. I sent away your boat yesterday. I threatened the man with prison for daring to land people on my island!”
“Oh — so that’s why Andros ran away,” said Jack, in disgust. “What a fool thing to do, Mr. Eppy! Don’t you know he’ll come back again, probably with help?”
“He won’t,” said Mr. Eppy. “He knows I shall put him in prison if he opens his mouth. No, no — I knew what I was doing. When I saw the boat there I guessed you and that big friend of yours were interfering here. I have heard of him! This is my island! Everything on it is mine.”
“All right, all right,” said Jack. “But why send the boat away without us? Why not send us off too? If we had been told by you it was yours — and I know you do buy and sell islands — we wouldn’t have trespassed without permission.”
“I wanted you here,” said Mr. Eppy. “You have the plan — have you not? You did not leave it behind you? Ah, no — you would bring such a precious thing with you!”
Jack was silent. Of course — that was why Mr. Eppy had sent the boat away without them — he meant to get the plan! And as he thought of that, Jack also thought of something else — something absolutely maddening.
He had the plan on him — the redrawn one. He had looked at it with Bill, underground, and hadn’t given it back! Suppose Mr. Eppy searched him? He would most certainly find it! How could he destroy it before he was searched?
“It was you, I suppose, who met the farm-boy yesterday, and today too, and took the food I had sent for,” said Mr. Eppy. “A most extraordinary thing to do! I am not pleased with things like that — they make trouble for me.”
“Well — goodness gracious — how in the world were we to know that the food was for you, when we didn’t know you were here, and couldn’t understand a word the boy said?” cried Jack. “Your boat wasn’t in the creek. We didn’t know anyone else war visiting the island.”
“I came to the other creek,” said Mr. Eppy. “But I shall not tell you where it is. No — not till you tell me where the others are — and then, when I have the plan, maybe, I say maybe, I will set you free from this island — all of you, who have come to interfere with my plans.”
“You’re mad,” said Jack, in disgust. “We haven’t come to interfere. Bill would be the first to say we’d all go, if he knew you had bought the island.”
“Where are the others?” barked Mr. Eppy suddenly.
“Somewhere about,” said Jack indifferently. “Why don’t you look for them? And don’t shout at me like that. I’m not Lucian.”
“Has this Bill the plan?” asked Mr. Eppy, his voice getting sharper.
“Why don’t you find him and ask him?” said Jack. “Call him! See if he answers! If I’m here why shouldn’t he be?”
Mr. Eppy gave Jack such a sudden box on the ears that the boy had no time to dodge it. Kiki almost got the slap too, but rose into the air in time. She pounced down on the angry man, and gave his ear such a vicious nip that he yelled in agony.
Jack suppressed a smile. Serve him right! Good old Kiki! The parrot sailed to a high branch and perched there, scolding hard.
“Bad boy, naughty boy! Gr-r-r-r-r! Go to bed, go to the doctor, go to the weasel!”
Mr. Eppy said a sharp sentence to the three silent men behind Jack. In a thrice they had him pinioned by the arms, laid flat on the ground. Then with a practised hand one of the men searched him. He drew out the plan at once.
Mr. Eppy took it. Jack could imagine how his eyes gleamed behind the dark glasses!
“And so! You had it,” said Mr. Eppy. He unfolded it, and saw that it was not the original plan. He looked at it closely. “What is this? It is drawn by someone who has seen the other — drawn for you — it has been deciphered and translated?”
“Find out for yourself,” said Jack, still lying on the ground. He expected a kick or a blow, but Mr. Eppy was so intent on the redrawn plan that he did nothing. Jack remembered that the man had seen only two parts of the map before — enough to tell him which island to come to, and that there was treasure there — he must now be studying the other parts with eager interest.
” ‘Two-Fingers,’ ” he muttered. Then he looked at Jack. ” ‘Two-Fingers,’ ” he said. “That showed on the piece I saw before — and I found the two-fingered rock. But there is no way through.”
“Oh — so that was your old battery we found in the hole, I suppose,” said Jack, sitting up. “We wondered whose it was.”
Mr. Eppy did not answer, or seem even to hear him. He was studying the map again. He was muttering something to himself. ” ‘Two-Fingers’ — ‘Goddess’-‘Tomb’ — ‘Bird’ — ‘Bell’ — ‘Labyrinth’ — ‘Catacomb’ — that is the route they took. The whole of it!” Then he began to mutter in Greek, and Jack could no longer understand him.
Lucian was still holding his hand up to his mouth, and his face was tear-stained. Kiki was down by him, pecking at his shoe-lace. “Oh, I say!” she was repeating. “Oh, I say!”
“Have you found the way at all?” demanded Mr. Eppy.
“What way?” said Jack innocently.
“Pah! The way to the treasure-chamber!” spat Mr. Eppy.
“Pah!” spat Kiki at once. “Pah!”
“I’ll wring that bird’s neck,” threatened Mr. Eppy. “Answer my question, boy.”
“No. We haven’t found the way,” said Jack, truthfully, feeling quite glad that they had gone the wrong way and not the right one, in their following of the route! All the same, he wondered if Bill and the others had managed to find the way by now, without him. But surely they would have waited for him? They must be wondering what in the wide world had happened to him! Jack hoped fervently that they wouldn’t all come climbing out of the broken column. If they did they’d be taken prisoner by Mr. Eppy and his men, and Bill would find it extremely difficult to keep his secret. In fact it wouldn’t be any good his trying, now Mr. Eppy had the map.
“Once Mr. Eppy knows the way down the broken column, the treasure is as good as his!” thought Jack. “What a good thing Lucian didn’t spot me getting out of it! I only hope the others don’t make a sudden appearance. I’m sure they will soon!”
But they didn’t, for the very simple reason that they had lost their way in the labyrinth! They were still wandering about the passages, getting more and more anxious. They had lost Jack, and had lost their way too.
“This awful maze!” said Dinah, in despair. “Look, Bill — I’m sure we’ve been in this passage before. I remember the way this horrid piece juts out — it knocked my elbow last time, and this time too. I’m sure it’s the same.”
“We’re going round and round and in and out and goodness knows whether we’re near the vault or near the catacomb!” groaned Philip.