chapter 13 good-bye, mr. eppy!

"well!" said dinah, finding her voice first. "of all the cheek! philip, he couldn't have been asleepwhen you saw him in his chair! he must have seen you looking at him and guessed you were up tosomething — and looked about till he found us.""blow him," muttered philip. "now he's seen two of the bits. he knows what the island is toobecause the name was on that second bit. that's an awful bit of bad luck."they left the surprised little shop-woman and went moodily up to the bow of the ship, glad to feel thewind in their faces. micky had come down as soon as mr. eppy had left them, and philip had his bitof paper back in safety. but the damage was done — mr. eppy had seen it!

"if there is anything in our idea, mr. eppy has seen enough to cotton on to it already," said jackgloomily. "i can't say that we have been at all clever over this. anything but.""simply given our secret away," said dinah. "we're losing our grip!""anyway — i don't really see what we could have done about the treasure," said lucy-ann suddenly.

"i mean — we can't possibly go hunting for it, even if we knew exactly where it was. so we might aswell give it up, and if mr. eppy wants to go hunting after it, let him!""well, i must say you're very generous, giving up what might have been our treasure — and justsaying mr. eppy can have it!" said jack, exasperated. "all because you don't want an adventureagain!"

"oh, i say!" cried kiki, and the children stopped talking at once. kiki had given her usual signal forthe approach of lucian. up he came, grinning amiably. he appeared completely to have forgotten hislast meeting with them in his cabin, when he had been in tears. his face still looked a bit blotched,but otherwise he seemed very cheery.

"hallo!" he cried. "where on earth have you been the last half-hour? i've been looking for youeverywhere. i say, look what uncle's given me!"he showed the children some pieces of greek money. "i expect he was sorry for going for me likethat, don't you?" he chattered on. "anyway, he's in a very good temper now. aunt can't understandit!"

the children could understand mr. eppy's sudden good spirits very well indeed. they grinned wrylyat one another. mr. eppy had got what he wanted — or some part of what he wanted — and he waspleased. it struck jack that mr. eppy probably always got what he wanted, in one way or another. hewouldn't much care which way. he thought uneasily that they ought to find safer hiding-places thanthe ones in the cabins, for the remaining pieces of paper.

he felt very gloomy. what was the use of bothering? they would never be able to do much about thetreasure! how could they? aunt allie wouldn't hear of it, he knew. and there would have to be somegrown-up in charge. if only bill had come on the trip with them!

an idea came into his head. "i'm going off by myself for a little while," he announced. "see youlater." off he went with kiki. he had had an idea. what about looking up the island thamis orthemis, whichever it was, on a modern map, and seeing if it was shown there? it would beinteresting to see whereabouts it was. why, it might be quite near where they were cruising!

he went down to the ship's little library with kiki and asked for a good map of the islands. thelibrarian gave him one and looked disapprovingly at kiki. he didn't like parrots in his quiet library.

"blow your nose," kiki advised him. "wipe your feet! how many times have i told you to shut thedoor? pooh. gah!"

the librarian said nothing at all, but looked down his nose. he had never in his life been spoken tolike that before — and by a parrot too! he was most irritated.

"one, two, three, go!" said kiki, and made the noise of a pistol going off. the librarian almostjumped out of his seat.

"sorry about that," said jack hastily, afraid that the librarian would turn him out. he tapped kiki onthe beak. "manners, kiki, manners. shocking!""shocking," repeated kiki, in a mournful voice, and began to sniff in exactly the same way thelibrarian did.

jack pored over the map of the islands, forgetting all about kiki in his interest. for a long time hecouldn't see thamis — and then there it was, under his eyes! it was not a large island, and wasmarked with what seemed to be a city or town, just on the coast. one or two small marks seemed toindicate villages — but there was only the one town.

so that was where the legendary fleet of treasure ships went, years and years ago! they put in at thatcity by the sea, sailing into the port at dead of night. how did they unload the treasure? were therepeople there in the secret? where was it put? it must have been hidden remarkably well if no one hadever found it in all the years that had gone by.

jack pored over the map, his imagination giving him picture after picture, and making him stirred andexcited. he gave a deep sigh, which kiki immediately echoed. if only he could go to thamis — tothat city by the sea — if only he could just have a look at it!

but it would be mr. eppy who would do that — mr. eppy who knew all the islands by heart, andwho could afford to hire ships to go from one to the other, exploring each one as he pleased. jackfolded up the map with another sigh. he put the whole idea away from him, once and for all. youcouldn't go on treasure-hunts unless you were grown-up — his common sense told him that all theplans he and the others had made were just crazy dreams — lovely dreams, but quite impossible.

jack strolled out of the library and up on deck. they were heading for another island. they were togo close by it, so that the passengers might see the romantic coastline, but they were not calling there.

at least, so jack had thought. as they came near, he saw that he must have been wrong. the ship waseither going into the port there, or people were going off in a motor-boat that had come out to meetthe ship. the ship's engines stopped at that moment, and jack leaned over the side to watch themotor-boat nose its way near.

it soon lay alongside the big ship, rising and falling gently on the waves. a ladder was shaken downthe side of the viking star. someone began to climb down, someone who waved back to others onthe boat, and called out in a foreign language.

and then jack got a shock. the someone was mr. eppy! he was calling good-bye to his wife andnephew. he climbed right down to the motor-boat and jumped deftly on the deck. his big suitcasewas lowered down on a rope, and swung down on the deck beside him. he looked up and wavedagain, his dark glasses showing clearly.

jack scowled down angrily and miserably. blow mr. eppy, blow him! jack felt sure he knew why hewas leaving the boat. mr. eppy knew enough to set things in motion for the grand andra treasure-hunt. he was going to thamis. he would smell out the treasure that jack and the others had happenedon, in that old map. it would be his.

and probably jack would never even know what happened about it — never know if it was found, orwhat it was, or anything. it was like reading a tremendously exciting book half-way through, and thenhaving the book taken away and not knowing the end of the story.

the motor-boat chugged away from the ship. mr. eppy and his sun-glasses disappeared. jack turnedfrom the deck-rail and went to find the others. he wondered if they knew about mr. eppy.

he found them in the cabin. micky had eaten something that disagreed with him, and had been sick.

they were looking after him anxiously. they hadn't even noticed that the engines of the ship hadstopped, and were now starting again.

"there!" dinah was saying as jack came into the cabin. "he's all right now — aren't you, micky?

you shouldn't be so greedy."

jack came in looking so gloomy that everyone was startled. "what's up?" said philip at once.

"it's all up," said jack, sitting down on the nearest bed. "who do you think's gone off in a motor-boat— suitcase and all?"

"who?" asked everyone.

"mr. eppy!" said jack. "hot-foot after our treasure! he knows the island, he's guessed the andratreasure may be there — and he's gone to set things going. at least, that's how i see it!""that's a blow," said philip. "we've messed everything up properly. he certainly doesn't let grassgrow under his feet."

"we may as well give up all our grand ideas," said dinah. "what a shame! i did feel so terriblythrilled."

"i bet he had just been sending a radio message for a motor-boat to take him off here, when i met himcoming out of the radio office," said philip, remembering. "just that first bit of paper must have gothim going. now he's seen the second and he's certain!""it's bad luck," said lucy-ann. "we don't usually mess up things like this. hallo — who's that?""oh, i say!" said kiki, at once — and sure enough the door opened, and in came lucian with hiseverlasting cry. "oh, i say! what do you think's happened?""you've got rid of your uncle," said dinah at once. lucian grinned.

"yes. he's gone. said he had had an urgent business message and couldn't fool about cruising aroundwith auntie and me any longer. gosh, i'm glad he's gone.""yes, he's not a pleasant person," said jack. "i'm glad he's not my uncle. some of his little ways arenot what you might call attractive."

"they're not," said lucian, who felt he was quite free now to speak his mind about his uncle. "doyou know — he wanted me to take your little carved ship to him and not say a word to you about it?

what do you think of that?"

"not much," said jack. "did you take it?""of course not!" said lucian, with such indignation that everyone felt he was telling the truth. "whatdo you take me for?"

nobody said what they took him for. they felt that it would be a pity to spoil his pleasure. lucianbeamed round at them.

"now we can have a jolly good time, without my uncle, can't we?" he said.

"i can't say your uncle makes any difference to us one way or another," said jack. "i don't want to talkabout him any more. he's an unpleasant subject for discussion. there's the gong to dress for dinner,lucian. you'd better go. you had no lunch and you must be ravenous.""i jolly well am," said lucian and went, looking quite delighted with life. the others, however,looked anything but delighted. in fact, they looked distinctly gloomy.

"well — that's the end of what looked like a most promising adventure," said philip.

but he was wrong. it wasn't the end. it was really only the beginning!