17 a treasure map

jack’s first feeling on hearing this was one of tremendous excitement. then his face fell. he knewwhere the treasure was. behind that fall of rock. what use was that? nobody could get at it there.

‘i know where treasure is,’ said jack, trying to speak slowly and simply. ‘i saw you show themen this morning – but the rocks had fallen together, and they could not get into the treasure-cavebehind.’

the man gave a short laugh. he seemed to understand. ‘they are fools,’ he said. ‘big fools.

there is no treesure there.’

jack stared at him. ‘do you mean to say – you fooled them?’ he said. ‘you knew that fall ofrocks was there – and you took them to it, and pretended that the entrance to the treasure was allblocked up? isn’t the treasure behind those rocks after all?’

the man was frowning hard in his attempt to follow all that jack was saying. he shook hishead.

‘no treesure there,’ he said. ‘i fool juan and pepi. ah, ah, how they hurt their hands when theypull – so – at the rocks!’

jack couldn’t help grinning. what a fine trick to play! well, then – where was the ‘treesure’?

‘i draw you map,’ said otto. ‘and i tell you way out of valley too. by the windy pass. you willgo that way, you and your friends, and you will take the map to a good friend of mine. it is timenow to find the hidden treesure.’

‘but why can’t you come with us?’ said jack. ‘surely you could show us the way, otto – thepass – and come to your good friend?’

‘i am very ill man,’ said otto. ‘if i do not get doctor and – how you say it? – middisin . . .’

‘yes, medicine,’ said jack.

‘. . . middisin soon, i die,’ said otto. ‘i have bad heart, very very bad. i get pain very bad. i notwalk far now. so you take treesure map, you good boy, and you take pass out of valley, and go tojulius, my good friend. then all will be well.’

‘all right,’ said jack. ‘i’m very sorry about you, otto. wish i could do something. i’ll do mybest to get to julius quickly and bring back help to you. do you think you might be able to walk toour hiding place tomorrow, and hide there whilst we go?’

‘pardon?’ said otto. you talk too quick, i not understand.’

jack spoke more slowly. otto nodded. he understood the second time.

‘you leave me here today, and tomorrow perhaps i be strong enough to go with you to yourplace,’ he said. ‘we will see. if not, you must go through the pass and find julius. i draw you mapnow, and i draw you also the way to the pass. windy pass. it is very, very narrow, but not difficultto, to . . .’

‘to travel through?’ said jack. otto nodded. he found a pencil and a notebook and began todraw. jack watched him with interest. the waterfall appeared in the map. so did an oddly shapedrock. a bent tree came into the map, and a spring of water. little arrows were drawn showing inwhat direction to go. it was really rather exciting.

otto folded up the map. he gave it to jack. ‘julius will know,’ he said. ‘he will read the map.

once he lived in the big farmhouse not far from here. but our enemies burnt it down, and all theother farms too, and took our cows and our horses, our pigs and everything we had. many theykilled, and only few of us escaped.’

‘now tell me the way to the pass,’ said jack.

otto once more drew a map. the waterfall appeared in it. jack put his finger on it.

‘i know this water,’ he said, speaking slowly so that otto would understand. ‘our hiding placeis near. very near.’

‘so!’ said otto, pleased. ‘the way to the pass is above the waterfall. you must climb to where itflows out of a hole in the mountainside. there – i have drawn you the way.’

‘how shall we find julius?’ asked jack.

‘on the other side of the pass is a village, half burnt,’ said otto. ‘you will ask anyone you meetto tell you where julius is. they will know. ah, julius worked against the enemy all the time.

everyone knows julius. he should be a great man now among his people – but times are strangeand maybe he is no longer great, now that we have peace. but still, everyone knows julius, and hewill know what to do when you give him the treesure map. i will also write him a letter.’

otto scribbled a short note, and gave that also to jack. it was addressed to julius muller.

‘now you must leave me,’ said otto. ‘you must go back to your friends. if i am bettertomorrow i will come with you. but my heart is bad today, so bad. always it pains me here.’ hepressed his hand over his heart.

‘well, goodbye, and thank you,’ said jack, getting up. ‘i do hope you will be safe here. there ismeat for you, and tinned fruit, all ready opened. well – so long till tomorrow.’

the man smiled a tired smile, sank back against the wall of the cowshed and closed his eyes. hewas completely exhausted. jack felt very sorry for him. he must get help as soon as he could, ifotto was not better by tomorrow. he and others would get out of the valley by the pass and go andfind julius at once, whoever he was. if he was a friend of otto’s, he might be able to get a doctorimmediately.

feeling much more cheerful about things, jack went out of the cowshed. golly, what would theothers say when they knew he had the map of where the treasure-cave was to be found – anddirections as to how to get out of the valley!

philip came running up, out of breath. ‘the men have just left the plane and are walkingtowards their hut,’ he said. ‘come on, we’d better go. is the prisoner safely in the shed?’

‘yes. hope the men don’t go there looking for him,’ said jack. ‘come on – let’s get back to thegirls. we shall have been away from them for ages.’

‘we must look out for pepi on the way back,’ said philip, as they set off. ‘he may have got tiredof watching the waterfall and the girls capering about, and have decided to cut back to the others.’

‘i say – do you know what i’ve got?’ said jack, unable to keep the news to himself for amoment longer.

‘what?’ asked philip.

‘a map showing where the treasure is!’ said jack.

‘but we know where it is,’ said philip. ‘behind that fall of rocks we saw this morning.’

‘well, it isn’t!’ said jack triumphantly. ‘the prisoner – his name’s otto – he fooled themproperly. he pretended the treasure was in a cave behind the fall of rocks – he knew the rocks hadfallen, but he thought he could pretend he didn’t know about them, and say the treasure wasblocked by the landslide there. see?’

‘golly, and all the time the treasure was somewhere else!’ said philip. ‘that was good work.

have you really got a map of the whereabouts of the treasure, jack? and did you find out exactlywhat the treasure is?’

‘no, i forgot to ask him that,’ said jack. ‘but i found out an awful lot. i’ve got directions to findthe pass that leads out of this valley – and a note to a man called julius – and i know how thesehouses and things got burnt and why. otto says if he’s strong enough tomorrow he’ll take us to thepass himself – but he gave me the maps in case he wasn’t able to come with us. they’re quiteclear.’

this was really exciting news. philip felt overjoyed. it looked as if they would be able to escapefrom the valley at last – and get help – and perhaps be in at the discovery of the treasure.

‘look out! – i believe i saw something moving over there,’ whispered jack suddenly, and thetwo boys crouched behind a bush. it was a good thing they did, for pepi emerged from a thicket oftrees and walked rapidly towards them. but it was obvious that he hadn’t seen them.

without a glance at their bush he strode on. ‘i bet he’s hungry and wants a meal,’ grinned jack.

‘good thing i spotted him. we’d have bumped right into him in two seconds. well, that’s good –we can hurry on now without being afraid of being seen. gosh, i’m hungry!’

they both were. it was ages since they had had anything to eat. thoughts of tinned salmon,sardines, tongue, apricots, peaches and pears floated before the mind’s eye of both boys. theyhurried as much as they could.

they were thankful when they pushed aside the fern fronds and saw the girls sitting in the cavebehind. dinah had got a fine meal ready and waiting.

‘good old dinah!’ cried jack. ‘i could almost give you a hug!’

dinah grinned. ‘pepi’s gone,’ she said. ‘did you meet him?’

‘almost collided with him,’ said philip. ‘gosh, i could eat a whole tin of salmon by myself.

how have things been with you and lucy-ann, dinah? all right?’

‘very dull,’ said dinah. ‘nothing doing at all, except a few capers now and again behind thewaterfall to keep pepi interested. you should have seen his efforts to find the way up. once lucy-ann and i really thought he had been swept away by the water. he slipped and fell, anddisappeared for about twenty minutes. we were quite relieved when we saw him again.’

‘what about you boys?’ said lucy-ann. ‘you look cheerful. got good news? what about thatpoor prisoner?’

with their mouths full the boys told of all they had done that day. the girls listened eagerly.

when jack fished the maps out of his pocket they fell on them with delight.

‘a treasure map!’ cried lucy-ann. ‘i always wanted to see a real one. oh, here’s our waterfall,look! surely the treasure isn’t anywhere near it?’

‘when are we going to find the treasure?’ asked dinah, her eyes shining.

‘we’re not going to,’ said jack, and her face fell at once. he explained why. ‘we’ve got to getout of this valley, and find this fellow julius. apparently he will see to the unearthing of thetreasure, whatever it is. sorry to disappoint you, girls – but honestly, i do really think we ought toget out as quickly as we can, and let aunt allie and bill know where we are. we should waste alot of time looking for the treasure, and i think that now we’ve been told where to look for the passout of the valley we ought to take it, and get help for ourselves and for poor old otto too. he’s avery ill man.’

it was clear that jack was right. dinah heaved a sigh of regret. ‘i would so very much have likedto go and find that treasure,’ she said. ‘but never mind – perhaps this julius man, whoever he is,will let us join the treasure-hunt with him. we might stay for that!’

it was now almost dark. the boys were tired out. they lay down on the ‘bed’ which dinah hadalready made, feeling very sleepy. but the girls wanted to talk, and so did kiki. they had had avery dull day. they chattered away, kiki joining in, but the boys could hardly find the energy toanswer.

‘kiki’s been in and out of the cave of echoes today, yelling and squawking for all she wasworth,’ said lucy-ann. ‘she’s not afraid of the echoes any more. ‘you should have heard theechoes when she did her express-train screech!’

‘jolly glad i didn’t,’ said jack sleepily. ‘shut up, now, everyone. get to sleep, because we’vegot an exciting day before us tomorrow, fetching otto – and going to find the pass – and lookingfor julius.’

‘it looks as if this adventure is about to come to an end,’ said lucy-ann.

but she was quite wrong. it wasn’t anywhere near its end.