chapter 20 exploring the treasure-route

everyone was amazed. steps! stone steps leading downwards at the base of the hollow stonecolumn? 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'tattempt any scatter-brained exploration till we get the lanterns, and till i have a look myself. do youhear me?"

"yes, right, bill," said philip reluctantly, and jumped down. "micky's down there somewhere — hemust 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. ifwe are going underground, we'd better prepare ourselves!"before the boys returned, micky had come back, a micky very frightened and sorry for himselfindeed. he looked for his beloved philip but he wasn't there, so he went to lucy-ann, and let hernurse 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. itwas 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. nobodytook any notice of her at all.

the boys came back. bill had had a good look down the hollow column with his torch. it puzzledhim how the ancient folk, who had used the column as a way of getting underground, had made anentry in it. he could see no way of entry at all — except, of course, through the great hole broken inthe column.

"it's a narrow spiral stairway," he told the girls. "probably jack is right. it may lead down to thevaults 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 spiralstairway as he had thought. it would be very narrow here, but probably got wider lower down. hehad almost to crawl down the first twelve steps, and two or three times nearly slipped, because thetreads were so narrow and steep.

the girls followed, helped by the boys. dinah took one lantern, finding it very difficult indeed tomanage with it, and at last had to hand it down to bill, because she needed both her hands at the topof 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 fetchit 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 agood way down. as bill had thought, the stone steps grew very much wider and easier a little waydown.

micky was now on philip's shoulder again. kiki had followed jack into the column, very quiet andsubdued. 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 inthe 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 verysecret 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 waywe came is very well hidden. see, from here you can't even see it, hidden behind that enormousrock."

he swung his torch up the wide sweep of steps to which they had now walked over. "i'll go up andsee where they lead to," said bill, and up he went. they heard his steps going up and up, and thenthey 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 greatstone trapdoor — overgrown now with weeds and grass. that was obviously the ordinary way in andout. 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 hisfinger. " 'two-finger rock,' " he said. "we were there, and were stopped by the walled-in place.""yes — then the next thing marked is 'goddess,' said philip. "can't think what that means!""something on the way from 'two-finger rock' to here, perhaps," said jack. "we could go and see.

then look — there comes 'tomb.' i suppose that's where someone was buried.""yes — in a stone cell, i should think," said bill. "and then we come to 'bird,' which seems ratherstrange."

"then to 'bell,' said jack triumphantly. "and that's where we are, i bet!""yes — but not where the treasure is," said bill. "look — you go on to here — marked 'labyrinth.'

not so good that."

"what's a labyrinth exactly?" asked lucy-ann.

"a maze — a place where it's so winding and muddling that you can easily get lost," said dinah.

lucy-ann didn't like the sound of that at all!

"labyrinth," she said. "well, what's next?"" 'catacomb,' " said bill. "and that, apparently, is where the treasure was put! what a way to bringit!"

"let's go and find it!" said jack cheerfully. he folded up the map and put it into his pocket. "come on— we've got nothing else to do. i must say it's nice and cool down here after the heat up above in thesun!"

"the thing is — which way do we go?" said bill. "one way goes to the 'labyrinth,' the other to the'tomb.' but although the points of the compass are marked on the map to make things easy, we're notable to see the sun, so we have no idea of direction. anyone got a compass?"nobody had. "well — we'll have to guess," said bill. "there's only two ways to go, apparently — tothe right — or to the left. let's go right."so they set off to the right of the vault, bill with his torch, the two girls holding hands and each boycarrying a lantern. the shadows were weird, and the hollow echo of their feet strange and ratheralarming. kiki and micky didn't like it at all, and each sat silent on the boys' shoulders.

they went for some way and then came to a wide passage that led downwards in a smooth slope. itwent for a good way, and then stopped short at what appeared to be a door. it was a wooden door andhad once been immensely stout and strong. even now it was still good, but one of the hinges hadgiven way and as the children first pushed and then pulled it, the other hinges gave way too, and thedoor fell inwards, almost on top of bill. he just leapt away in time.

he shone his torch on it. carved right across the door was an enormous bird. "there you are — 'bird,'

" said jack, pleased. "that was one of the clues, wasn't it, bill? it's an eagle — beautifully carvedtoo."

"now we know which way we're going — the wrong way!" said bill. "still, we'll go on now — thisis amazing!"

leaving the fallen bird-door behind, they went through the opening. looking back they saw that thepassage they were now following forked into two by the door — evidently there were two ways to gothere — and the right one was the bird-door — hence the clue called "bird."they went down a very narrow passage indeed. it ran downwards, as the other had done, until itopened out into a narrow chamber. there was a smooth stone ledge at one side. at each end werewooden slabs, carved with intricate symbols. the little company stopped to look at them.

"this must have been a tomb," said bill. "possibly where a priest was buried. there are many oldburying-places like this."

"the sailors who carried the treasure must have had to carry it through this tomb," said philip.

"perhaps they knew this way because they robbed tombs."there was no door to the tomb, but the doorway was cut out smooth and level. possibly there hadonce been a door. beyond it the passage began again, sloping downwards more steeply still.

"now for 'goddess,' said jack. "i say — it's a pretty good guide, this map, isn't it, bill?" if we hadbeen able to make our way through 'two-finger rock' — where the hole was, you know — we couldhave used the map as an absolutely accurate guide.""look out — there are steps here now," said bill. "cut in the rock. it gets pretty steep here."they went carefully down the steps. at the bottom was a beautiful archway. it was made of somekind of marble, set into the natural archway of the rock. beyond the arch was a marble floor, stillsmooth and shining, for there was no dust underground.

the walls were carved too, the solid rock itself chipped out into figures and symbols. eagles, doves,foxes, wolves — curious designs and patterns decorated the whole of the strange little cave.

"this must be 'goddess,' " said bill. "a place to worship some little-known goddess, i imagine —hidden under the ground, only to be visited in secret.""yes — that must be it," said philip. "isn't it strange? i suppose those carvings are hundreds of yearsold!"

"and now for the last clue — or first whichever you like to call it," said bill. " 'two-fingers!' weknow what that is, anyway. but we shall come up against the other side of the stone door, i've nodoubt. here we go. my word, it's steep now, isn't it? no steps either. be careful, you girls!"they made their way, stumbling, down a very steep passage — and, just as bill had said, they cameup against the other side of the walled-up doorway they had seen when they had gone into 'two-finger' hole. they stopped and considered.

"yes — we've found the treasure-route all right," said bill. "now — we'll start from here again —'two-fingers' — and we'll work our way back — past 'goddess' and 'tomb' and 'bird' till we come to'bell' — the temple vault."

"and then we'll go on!" said jack, almost trembling with excitement. "on to 'labyrinth' and'catacomb' — and 'treasure'!"