There was a disappointed silence. “But who got the treasure then?” asked Jack.
“Nobody,” said Lucian. “The old merchantman never told a soul. But it’s said there’s a copy of the map and plan he made somewhere. Goodness knows where! He hid it before he died; or so people say. He lived about a hundred years ago.”
“What a thrilling story!” said Dinah. “I wish we could find the map. Where did the old man live? Surely the map would be hidden in the house he had?”
“I should think it’s been searched from top to bottom,” said Lucian. “I know the island he lived on. We shall come to it in a day’s time. It’s called Amulis.”
“Oh! Are we going to land on it?” cried Lucy-Ann. “I’d like to!”
“Yes. We usually do call there,” said Lucian. “It’s quite a big island, with towns and villages, and some good shops that sell antiques and things. Visitors often go in parties from the ships and buy things.”
“We’ll go together!” said Dinah. “I want to buy some things — I haven’t nearly enough. Come with us, Lucian, you’ll really be a very great help!”
Chapter 7
LUCIAN IS VERY HELPFUL
MRS. MANNERING was pleased to hear that the ship was to call at the romantic island of Amulis. She, like the children, had been fascinated by all the misty-purple islands that kept looming up in the dark-blue sea. She had been dipping into Greek history, and somehow it seemed as if the Aegean Sea belonged to the past, not to the present.
The children borrowed her books and read them too. How old these islands were, and what stories they held! Lucy-Ann was fascinated by them. She stood at the deck-rail and watched all day long.
“Why are there so many?” she said. “What do you call a collection of so many islands — it’s a long name, I know.”
“Archipelago,” said Mrs. Mannering. “You know, Lucy-Ann, it’s said that once all these islands were joined together, making a great mainland. Then something happened, and the sea rushed into what is now the Mediterranean basin, filled it up, and drowned a lot of this mainland. Only the highest parts, the hills and mountains, were left — and they show above the water as islands — the Aegean islands we are cruising among!”
“My goodness,” said Lucy-Ann, her quick imagination showing her a great sweep of water, rushing relentlessly over a land where towns and villages stood — swallowing them up one by one, drowning them — and at last leaving only the highest parts showing above the surface of the waters. “Oh, Aunt Allie — do you mean that far below us on the ocean bed, are the ruined remains of cities and villages? Did it happen long ago?”
“Thousands and thousands of years ago,” said Mrs. Mannering. “There wouldn’t be a trace of them left now. But it explains the myriads of little islands in this sea. I’m glad we are to visit one of the them.”
“You’re not afraid of us falling into some exciting adventure now, are you?” said Lucy-Ann slyly. “You think it will be safe to visit this romantic little island?”
“Quite safe,” said Mrs. Mannering, laughing. “For one thing I shall be with you.”
“We’ve asked Lucian to come too,” said Dinah. “I know he’s a nit-wit — but he really does know about these islands, Mother. He’s told us all sorts of stories about them. His uncle owns some of them.”
“Yes, I heard that he did,” said Mrs. Mannering. “I’ve talked to his wife — quite a nice woman. I can’t say I’d like a husband who did nothing but buy up islands and dig frantically for months, then sell them and start somewhere else. He’s got a bee in his bonnet, I think. Still, he certainly seems to have made some interesting finds — finds that have made him a wealthy man!”
The Viking Star sailed into a small port the next day. The children were hanging over the deck-rail and were surprised when their ship came to a stop and anchored where she was, without steaming to the jetty.
“We can’t get any closer in — the jetty isn’t suitable for us. We’re too big,” explained one of the officers to the children. “You’ll go ashore in a motor-launch.”
Sure enough a launch came out to the ship, and a score or so of passengers climbed down the ladder to the deck of the launch. The four children went, of course, and Lucian, also Mrs. Mannering and some of the other interested passengers. Lucian’s people didn’t go. They knew so much about the island that they had no desire to visit Amulis.
But to the children it was all very thrilling indeed. The motor-launch sped off to the jetty where they all landed. Lucian was quite at home on the island, which he had visited before with his uncle.
“You keep with me. I can show you all the interesting things,” he said. “And I can talk to the people too, and bargain for you, if you want to buy anything.”
Lucian was certainly very very useful. He pushed off the dirty little children who came crowding round begging for money, and sent out such a fierce stream of queer-sounding words that even Kiki was most impressed. He knew his way about and was quite good at explaining things.
“Here’s the market. The people from the hills up there bring their goods down here — look at all the stalls — then they spend the money they get at the shops in the town. Or they go to the cinema.”
The natives were a picturesque lot, but rather dirty. They wore big hats because of the sun, and a collection of nondescript white garments that might have been anything, but which suited them quite well. The children were beautiful, Lucy-Ann thought, with their dark eyes beautifully shaped faces and thick curling hair.
Lucian took them to an old ruined castle, but the boys were disappointed because there were no dungeons to be seen. The girls were amazed to see people apparently living in parts of the castle, together with their goats and hens.
“They’re only poor peasants,” explained Lucian. “They’ve got nowhere else to live. Further inland, if I’d time to take you, you’d see people living in caves in the mountain-sides. They used to do that thousands of years ago, too. It’s queer to think those caves have sheltered people century after century.”
“Do those cave-people go to the cinema in the town?” asked Dinah.
“Oh yes. They love it, though they can’t read anything on the screen, of course. None of them can read or write,” said Lucian. “They live in two worlds really — the world of long ago, when people used caves as shelter and scraped along with their goats and hens and geese, and in the world of today, where there are motor-cars and cinemas and so on.”
“A queer mixture,” said Jack. “I shouldn’t know where I was!”
“Oh, they know all right,” said Lucian, and he paused to shout angrily at a small child who was trying slyly to pull at a ribbon Lucy-Ann was wearing in her dress. Kiki also began to scream excitedly, and Micky jumped up and down on Philip’s shoulder, chattering. The child flew away in terror. Lucy-Ann felt quite sorry for it.
Lucian took them to the shops. Some of them were small, native shops, dark and full of strange goods. One shop which was full of antiques to attract visitors was quite big.
“You can go in here if you want to look around and buy something,” said Lucian. “Oh, I say! Where’s Micky gone?”
“Just to have a little exercise on the canopy over the shop,” said Philip. Micky was amusing, the way he often leapt off Philip’s shoulder and hung on to all kinds of things near by, scampering here and there, flinging himself through the air to some fresh place, never once falling or missing his hold. He was now galloping over the sun-canopy, running from side to side, occasionally stopping to fling himself up to a window-ledge overhead and then drop back. But when he saw that Philip was going into the shop below he threw himself down from the canopy and with a flying leap was back on the boy’s shoulder.
“Can’t get rid of you, can I?” said Philip. “You’re a bad penny, always turning up — and you do make my neck so hot!”
The shop was fascinating to the four children. They had no idea which things were genuinely old and which were not. Lucian, with the knowledge he had picked up from his uncle, pointed out a few really old things, but they were far too expensive to buy. Lucy-Ann looked at her money, and asked Lucian if there was anything at all she could afford to buy.