chapter 22 mr. eppy again

yes, jack did know why mr. eppy had bought the island. he stared at the man miserably, his heartsinking. if the island was mr. eppy's, then the treasure would be his too. once again it looked as ifthe adventure had come to a sudden end.

"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'tfind 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 youought 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 noiselike 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 threemen didn't turn a hair.

"that is how i treat foolish boys," said mr. eppy, turning back to jack. "are you going to be foolishtoo?"

jack said nothing. mr. eppy put his face close to him, and hissed at him so startlingly that jack took asudden 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. isent away your boat yesterday. i threatened the man with prison for daring to land people on myisland!"

"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 — iknew what i was doing. when i saw the boat there i guessed you and that big friend of yours wereinterfering 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? ifwe had been told by you it was yours — and i know you do buy and sell islands — we wouldn't havetrespassed without permission."

"i wanted you here," said mr. eppy. "you have the plan — have you not? you did not leave it behindyou? 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 — hemeant to get the plan! and as he thought of that, jack also thought of something else — somethingabsolutely maddening.

he had the plan on him — the redrawn one. he had looked at it with bill, underground, and hadn'tgiven it back! suppose mr. eppy searched him? he would most certainly find it! how could hedestroy 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 sentfor," said mr. eppy. "a most extraordinary thing to do! i am not pleased with things like that — theymake trouble for me."

"well — goodness gracious — how in the world were we to know that the food was for you, whenwe didn't know you were here, and couldn't understand a word the boy said?" cried jack. "your boatwasn'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 tellme where the others are — and then, when i have the plan, maybe, i say maybe, i will set you freefrom 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'dall 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 melike 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 whyshouldn't he be?"

mr. eppy gave jack such a sudden box on the ears that the boy had no time to dodge it. kiki almostgot the slap too, but rose into the air in time. she pounced down on the angry man, and gave his earsuch 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 andperched 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 pinionedby the arms, laid flat on the ground. then with a practised hand one of the men searched him. hedrew 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. helooked 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 seenonly two parts of the map before — enough to tell him which island to come to, and that there wastreasure 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 onthe 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. "wewondered whose it was."

mr. eppy did not answer, or seem even to hear him. he was studying the map again. he wasmuttering 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, andjack could no longer understand him.

lucian was still holding his hand up to his mouth, and his face was tear-stained. kiki was down byhim, 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 thewrong way and not the right one, in their following of the route! all the same, he wondered if billand the others had managed to find the way by now, without him. but surely they would have waitedfor him? they must be wondering what in the wide world had happened to him! jack hoped ferventlythat they wouldn't all come climbing out of the broken column. if they did they'd be taken prisoner bymr. eppy and his men, and bill would find it extremely difficult to keep his secret. in fact it wouldn'tbe 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!" thoughtjack. "what a good thing lucian didn't spot me getting out of it! i only hope the others don't make asudden 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 werestill wandering about the passages, getting more and more anxious. they had lost jack, and had losttheir 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'msure it's the same."

"we're going round and round and in and out and goodness knows whether we're near the vault ornear the catacomb!" groaned philip.

bill was very worried. he stood and thought for a moment, trying in vain to get a sense of direction.

it was so difficult underground! he set off again, and soon came to a fork.

"well," he said, "i vote we go right here. it may be one of the places where we're supposed to goright. so we'll hope for the best! come on!"they trailed after him, lucy-ann getting very weary of it all. they reached another fork, and turnedright once more. then they came to where the passages branched into four ways. again they took theright-hand fork. bill was feeling a little more cheerful. perhaps they were on the right road now. theyno longer came to blind ends and had to turn back as they had been doing before. ah — here wasanother fork. well, to the right again!

the passage ended abruptly in a downward flight of steep steps. bill swung the lantern up high andpeered down the steps.

"we've come the right way at last!" he said. "these must be the catacombs — underground caves andpassages all joined together that were once used as hiding-places, burial-places and goodness knowswhat!"

"oh, bill — have we really come right?" said lucy-ann, in joy. "i thought we were lost for ever andever! do we go down the steps?"

"we do," said bill. "i'll go first. come on."down he went and the others followed carefully. there were about thirty steps, and it seemed to thechildren as if they really were going down into the bowels of the earth. at the end was a queer place,stretching out into the darkness. lining its walls were stone shelves, rocky niches, hollowed-outplaces that looked as if they had been used for storing things in, or for people to hide in and sleep.

they came to a hole in the floor of this queer place. bill shone his torch down it. it was a shaftleading downwards, and there were footholds in the rock. "i'm going down," said bill. "i've got ahunch this is the place!"

he disappeared down the shaft with his torch. and soon his voice came back, excited and loud.

"this is it! this is the treasure-chamber — the treasure's still here!"