chapter 10 hiding-places

philip and dinah were sitting on the edge of the same deck- chair together, next to mrs.

mannering's. jack was on the foot-end of her chair, with his bit of paper. they all looked veryinnocent and unconcerned.

"i don't really like to bother mr. eppy now," said jack. "he's reading."mrs. eppy heard. she tapped her husband on the arm. "paul," she said. "jack wants to ask yousomething."

mr. eppy knew that perfectly well, but he had pretended not to hear. he looked up.

"very well," he said grudgingly. "what is it?""just some old bit of paper we found," said philip, joining in. "probably quite uninteresting. we can'tunderstand anything on it, of course."

"it mayn't be old at all," said jack, flipping his bit with his thumb.

"it looks old," said mrs. mannering, getting interested. "where did you get it?""i don't really know — picked it up somewhere on one of the islands we visited," said jack. "do youknow exactly where, dinah?"

"no," said dinah truthfully. "i've no idea.""nor have i," said philip.

"pass it over," said mr. eppy, sounding rather bored. his wife passed him the piece of parchment. hetook it and glanced at it, meaning to pass it back with a scornful remark. what did these childrenknow about old things? nothing! it was probably a bit of an old letter blown about by the wind, thatthey had picked up in the street. or maybe they had bought something and this was part of the paperit was wrapped in. mr. eppy looked at it and opened his mouth to say something contemptuous.

but he didn't say a word. he went on looking and looking at the paper. finally he took his darkglasses off and looked at it without them.

"er — is it genuinely old, sir?" asked jack, at last, not able to wait any longer.

mr. eppy didn't answer. he was feeling in his pocket for something. he took out a little black caseand undid it, inside was a strong magnifying-glass set in an eye-piece that could be screwed into theeye — something like watch- repairers wear sometimes when repairing tiny watches. mr. eppyscrewed the glass into his eye, like an enormous monocle, and once more bent over jack's piece ofparchment.

he looked for a very long time. the children waited, almost breathless. why didn't he speak? whywas he such ages? it was mean of him!

at last mr. eppy took the eye-piece out of his eye and looked at the children. they got a shock,because they had never seen his eyes without dark glasses before. he hadn't nice eyes at all! theywere decidedly queer. one was blue and the other was dark brown. dinah felt a little shiver down herback. how very very queer! she couldn't help staring at him, looking first at one dark-blue eye andthen at the other dark-brown one. was one false? no — how silly! — he would have eyes thatmatched if one was false.

"well," said mr. eppy, and paused as if he was thinking what was best to say. "it's — er — quiteinteresting. er . . ."

"but is it genuinely old, mr. eppy?" insisted jack. "that's what we want to know.""the paper isn't all here," said mr. eppy, and his eyes glanced from one to the other of the children.

"this is only a piece of it. and judging by the edges of the paper it has been recently cut. ratherqueer that, don't you think so?"

this was most unexpected. jack answered at once, feeling that there must be no pause which mightgive them away.

"gosh — how very queer! well, i suppose we've just got hold of one bit, sir. er — i wonder who'sgot the rest of it."

"so do i," said mr. eppy, looking at jack and swinging his eye-piece to and fro on his finger. "ishould be very — very — interested to know.""why, sir?" asked philip, looking perfectly innocent, much to dinah's admiration.

"well — i can't tell much from this one piece," said mr. eppy. "it would be a help to have the rest.""what can you tell, mr. eppy?" asked dinah.

he looked at her with his odd eyes. "i can tell that it shows part of an island," he said. "an interestingisland — with some secret on it. i could perhaps tell what the whole secret is, if i had the other bit ofthe parchment."

"what a pity you haven't got it, sir," said jack, holding out his hand for his piece.

"where did you say you found this?" said mr. eppy, snapping out the question so suddenly that thechildren jumped.

"we didn't say — because we don't know," said jack, at once.

mr. eppy frowned. he put his dark glasses on again, and became the familiar, rather puzzling manthey knew, with his queer eyes completely hidden.

"i'll keep this paper for a while," he said, and actually took out a wallet to place it there.

"i'd rather you didn't, sir, if you don't mind," said jack. i'm going to take it home — er — for theschool museum — if it's genuinely old and all that.""yes, it's genuine," said mr. eppy dryly. "i'll buy it off you. i'm interested in old things, as youknow."

"we don't want to sell it, mr. eppy," said jack, getting alarmed. "it can't be worth anything, anyway.

we want it as a curio."

"very well. but i should like to borrow it for a while," said mr. eppy, and he calmly slipped theparchment into his wallet, and put the wallet into his pocket. then he picked up his book and beganto read.

jack looked at the others in dismay. he was angry and crestfallen — but what was he to do? hecouldn't snatch mr. eppy's wallet and grab his piece of paper from it. and if he kicked up a terrificfuss mrs. mannering would be angry, and mr. eppy would get suspicious — if he wasn't suspiciousalready!

philip and dinah were dumbfounded. the cheek of it — taking their parchment like that! would hegive it back? they wished they had taken a tracing of it. if only they had! now they might never getback their treasured bit of paper.

they got up and went, feeling that they must talk about it. mr. eppy took no notice of their going.

jack did not dare to say anything more to him, but he glowered at lucian's uncle as if he could tearhis wallet out of him.

they went to their cabin. "beast!" said jack. "surly fellow! what sauce to pocket our paper likethat!"

"hope we get it back," said dinah gloomily.

"there's one thing — we jolly well know it's old — and genuine — and holds something mostinteresting to mr. eppy," said philip, cheering up a little. "we do know that. he was quite knockedout when he first looked at it — even had to get out that eye-piece arrangement. i bet he knows itmay be part of a treasure-plan."

"i don't think somehow it was a very good idea to take it to mr. eppy," said dinah. "there may bemarkings on it that tell a man like that — who knows about old things — far more than they wouldtell anyone else."

"i hope he doesn't guess we've got the other bits," said jack.

"he does," said philip. "i bet he does."

lucy-ann came bursting into the cabin. "hallo!" she said. "how did you get on? i had to stopplaying with lucian because that uncle of his came up and called him. he took him off somewhere.""he did, did he?" said jack. "i suppose he's going to ask him what he knows, then. good thing heknows nothing!"

"what happened?" said lucy-ann. "you all look rather down-in-the-mouth. wasn't it genuinelyold?"

"yes. but mr. eppy has taken it and put it into his wallet," said jack. "and i bet we don't get it back!"lucy-ann was horrified. "but why did you let him take it, you idiot!""well, what would you have done? knocked him off his deck-chair, grabbed his wallet and run offwith it?" demanded jack, going through a performance of knocking somebody down and grabbingsomething. kiki was astonished and rose into the air in fright, squawking. she settled on top of thecupboard in alarm. jack took no notice of her. he was really crestfallen at what had happened —after all their wonderful, careful, clever plans too!

"we'll just have to hope he gives it back, that's all," said philip. "and if he does — it will probablymean he's got a very nice copy of it!"

"we'll have to find out what he has said to lucian," said jack. "he'll probably tell him to try andpump us about this bit of paper — and find out if we have the other bits — and where we got thething from — and when — and where the rest of the plan is.""yes. and we'll make up a perfectly marvellous tale and stuff him up like anything!" said dinah, hereyes sparkling. "come on — let's think of one! if mr. eppy's up to some game, we'll be up to one too.

now — what shall we say if lucian pumps us?""well, we said we didn't know anything about it, so perhaps we'd better pretend that lucy-annknows all about it," said jack, looking more cheerful, as he considered the idea of pulling lucian'sleg, and perhaps mr. eppy's as well.

"oh dear," said lucy-ann, in alarm. "have i got to tell a whole lot of fairy-tales to lucian?""no. we'll do that for you," said jack, with a grin. "now then — let's think — how did lucy-ann gethold of that paper?"

"she was standing on the sports deck one day," began dinah, "and she was feeding the gulls that liveround about these islands."

"and a great big gull came up with something in his beak," went on philip. "he flew round lucy-ann's head, and . . ."

"dropped a paper at her feet, when he swooped down for bread," said jack. "she picked it up andshowed it to us — and we thought — aha — only a very clever man like dear mr. eppy coulddecipher this strange document handed over by a generous gull. . . .""and so we took it to show him," finished dinah. she giggled. "it's too silly for words. lucian willnever swallow that."

"he will. but his uncle won't!" grinned philip. "serve him right. he'll expect to get the goods fromlucian when he's pumped us — and he'll find he's got rubbish!""well, don't make me say it," said lucy-ann. "i'd go scarlet the whole time.""listen — isn't that lucian now?" said jack. "you go off, lucy-ann. look, take this book, and sayyou're taking it to aunt allie. go on. that will get you out of the way. it is lucian. i know his idiotichumming."

lucy-ann snatched a book and went to the door. it opened as she got there, and lucian's rabbit-facecame round the door.

"hullo, hullo!" he said. "can i come in?""yes, do," said lucy-ann, squeezing by him. "i'm taking this book to aunt allie. but the others arehere. they'll love to see you."