chapter 8 the ship in the bottle
lucy-ann managed to get some paper and wrap up the bottle and ship before philip saw it. theothers were curious to know what she had got, but she wouldn't tell them.
"it's something breakable because you're carrying it so carefully!" said jack. when they got back tothe ship she unwrapped the bottle when she and dinah got into their cabin, and showed it to her.
"what a dirty old thing!" said dinah. "what is it? you haven't spent your money on that, surely!""half of it," said lucy-ann. "it's for philip's birthday. he said he wanted one. it's a ship in a bottle.""is it really? gosh, so it is!" said dinah, interested. "let's clean it up and see it properly. isn't it a bigone?"
they rubbed soap on a flannel and proceeded to clean up the bottle. once the glass was clean the shipinside could be plainly seen. it was a beauty, quite big, intricately carved, with carefully-made sails.
in contrast to the bottle, it was clean and free from dust. the colours it had been painted with werestill bright.
"look at that!" said lucy-ann in delight. "it must be a model of one of the old greek ships. how didit get into the bottle, dinah? look, the neck of the bottle is small and narrow — nobody couldpossibly push that lovely little ship through the neck. it would be quite impossible.""i can't imagine how it got into the bottle," said dinah, puzzled too. "but it's certainly inside. won'tphilip be pleased? i rather like it myself.""oh, so do i. it's wizard," said lucy-ann. she stood it on a shelf. the bottle had a flat side, and stoodon this, the lovely little ship sailing along as it seemed, in the middle of the bottle, all its sails set.
"what's the ship called?" said dinah, peering at it. "i can't tell, can you? the letters on it aren't likeours. they must be greek."
the ship in the bottle was duly given to philip two days later on his birthday. he was thrilled. lucy-ann glowed with delight when she saw how pleased he was.
"but where did you get it? why, it's the nicest one i've ever seen!" he said. "quite the nicest. reallybeautifully made. i wonder how old it is. i'm glad it's such a nice big one too. most of the ships inbottles i've seen are much smaller than this."micky and kiki came to look at the ship in the bottle. micky saw the ship through the glass and triedto get hold of it. he couldn't, of course, because of the glass, and it puzzled him.
"happy christmas," said kiki to philip, every now and again. she had been taught to say "happyreturns" but she kept mixing it up with "happy christmas," which she said every few minutes.
"thanks, old thing," philip said. "happy new year to you!""oh, don't muddle her any more," said dinah. "let's go and show mother the ship in the bottle."they went up on deck and found mrs. mannering. her deck-chair was next to lucian's aunt's chair,which she found rather trying sometimes, as she didn't very much like the uncle.
"look, mother — see what lucy-ann's given me for my birthday — something i've always wanted,"said philip.
it was admired, and then passed on to lucian's aunt and uncle to see. mr. eppy looked at it carefully.
he seemed puzzled.
"the ship is very old — really old," he said. "but the bottle is modern. the idea of a ship in a bottle,is a comparatively recent one, of course. but the ship inside is far older — almost an antique! veryinteresting."
"it's got a name carved on it, very small," said lucy-ann. "i can't read it. can you, mr. eppy?"he peered at it and spelt it out. "yes — a-n-d-r-a — queer name for a ship! never heard of onecalled that in greek."
"i've heard the name before," said lucy-ann, and she tried to remember. "oh yes — wasn't it thename of the girl in that lovely treasure story of lucian's — the girl who didn't want to marry a one-eyed man? well, we often call our ships by the names of girls or women — look at our big liners,queen mary and queen elizabeth. i don't see why a greek ship shouldn't be called after a princesstoo."
mr. eppy wasn't listening. he wasn't at all interested in any of the children, not even in lucian, hisown nephew. he yawned and settled himself to sleep. mrs. mannering nodded to the children to go.
micky and kiki were rather tiresome when anyone wanted to sleep. kiki's squawks and micky'schatter and tricks didn't appeal to the grown-ups as much as they did to the children.
they took the ship and bottle back to the cabin — this time to the boys' cabin. philip decided to put iton the shelf opposite his bed, where he could see it. he was very pleased with it indeed. it was quaintand queer, and beautiful, and he had always wanted it. now he had it.
"be careful that monkey of yours doesn't tamper with it," jack warned him. "he's very curious aboutthe ship inside — keeps trying to touch it through the glass, and he gets quite annoyed when hecan't."
the viking star cruised from island to island. time didn't seem to exist, and not one of the childrenhad any idea of the days. it was all like a pleasant dream, where, fortunately, the food tasted very realand very nice. in fact, as jack said, if the food hadn't tasted jolly real he might honestly have thoughtthat he was dreaming.
and then a squabble blew up between micky and kiki that broke up the dream in a strange way, andmade things very real and earnest indeed from that time onwards.
it happened one evening. the boys had gone up to play deck-tennis with the girls, and for once hadleft micky and kiki down below in their cabin. micky was such a nuisance when they played deck-tennis because he would fling himself after the rubber ring, and, if he got it, tear up to the top of thenearest pole and sit there, chattering in glee.
so he had been relegated to the cabin that sunny evening, with kiki as company. kiki was cross. shedidn't like being left behind. she sat on the porthole-sill and sulked, making a horrible moaning noisethat distressed micky very much.
the monkey went to sit beside her, looking at her enquiringly, and putting out a sympathetic paw tostroke kiki's feathers. kiki growled like a dog and micky retreated to the shelf, where he sat lookingpuzzled and sad.
he tried once more to comfort kiki, by taking jack's tooth-brush over to her, and trying to brush herfeathers with it, chuckling with delight. kiki turned her back on him, and finally put her head underher wing, which always puzzled and frightened micky. he didn't like her to have no head. he beganto look for it cautiously, parting the parrot's feathers carefully and gently. where had the head gone?
kiki spoke from the depth of her feathers. "nit-wit, nit-wit, nit-wit, oh, i say! grrrrrrr! wipe the doorand shut your feet! god save the king."
micky left her in despair. he would wait till she grew her head again, and became the jolly parrot heknew. he put the tooth-brush back into its mug and considered the sponge near by. he picked it upand sucked some moisture out of it. he sponged his little face with it as he had seen philip do. thenhe got tired of that and darted back to the shelf again.
what could he do? he looked down at the shelf. on it was the ship in the bottle. micky cautiously puthis hand down to the bottle. why couldn't he get that little thing inside? why couldn't he get it andplay with it? he put his head on one side and considered the ship inside.
he picked up the bottle and nursed it like a doll, crooning in his monkey language. kiki took herhead out of her wing and looked round at him. when she saw him nursing the bottle, she was jealousand cross.
"shut the door, shut the door, naughty boy," she scolded. "where's your hanky, pop goes the weasel!"micky didn't understand a word and it wouldn't have made any difference if he had. he shook thebottle hard. kiki raised her crest and scolded again.
"naughty, naughty! bad boy! pop-pop-pop!"micky chattered at her, and wouldn't put the bottle down. kiki flew across to the shelf and gave thesurprised monkey a hard peck. he gave an anguished howl and flung the bottle away from him,nursing his bleeding arm.
the bottle fell to the floor with a crash, and broke in half. the little ship inside was shaken loose fromits base and fell over on its side. micky saw it and leapt down to it. here was that thing inside thebottle at last! he picked it up and retired under the bed in silence.
kiki was shocked by the noise of the bottle falling and breaking. she knew it was a bad thing tohappen, she made a noise like a motor-mower, and then relapsed into silence. what would philipsay?
five minutes later the two boys came clattering into the cabin to wash and put on clean things fordinner. the first thing they saw was the broken bottle on the floor. philip looked at it in horror.
"look! it's smashed! either kiki or micky must have done it!""where's the ship?" said jack, looking all round. it was nowhere to be seen. it wasn't till they hauledmicky out from underneath the bed that they got the ship. he hadn't harmed it at all. he got threehard smacks, and kiki got three hard taps on her beak.
"my beautiful present!" groaned philip, looking at the little carved ship. "look, isn't it a beauty,jack? you can see it better out of the bottle."jack looked at it and pulled at a tiny knob in one side. "what's this?" he said. to his great surprise theknob came out and he could look inside the ship.
"it's hollow inside," he said. "and there's something there, philip — looks like paper or parchment. isay — what can it be?"
philip suddenly felt excited. "parchment? then it must be an old document! and why should it behidden inside the ship? only because it contains a secret! i say, this is super. goodness knows whatthe document is!"
"let's probe it out and see," said jack. "look — this little section of the ship can be moved, nowwe've taken that knob out — and we'll just about have room to get out the parchment.""be careful! it may fall to pieces if it's very old," philip warned him. jack removed the loose sectionof the ship and put it beside the knob. then, very carefully, he began to try and probe out theparchment. but he was excited and his hands trembled too much.
then the gong went to say that dinner was ready. "we can't go, we can't go," groaned jack. "we mustfind out what this is!"
"look out — you're tearing it," said philip. "let's wait till after dinner, jack. we won't have timenow. and i think the girls ought to be here to see all this.""yes. you're right. we'll wait till after dinner," said jack, with a sigh. "lock the whole thing up,philip. we can't risk anything happening to the ship and its secret!"so they locked the little ship up in a cupboard, and then, hot with excitement, went up to have theirdinner. what a thrill! they could hardly wait to tell the girls!
the two girls couldn't imagine what was the matter with the boys that dinner-time. jack kept grinningquite idiotically at them, and philip did his best to do a little whispering, to give the news.
mrs. mannering frowned at him in surprise. "philip! you forget yourself. say what you have to sayout loud, please."
that was just what philip couldn't do, of course. "er — who won at deck-tennis?" he said feebly.
"well, really — i can't imagine why you had to say that in a whisper," said mrs. mannering. "don'tbe silly, philip."
"sorry, mother," said philip, not looking in the least sorry, but extraordinarily pleased. he simplycouldn't help it. he kept thinking of the ship and its secret parchment. it was something reallyexciting, he was sure of it.
as soon as dinner was over the four children slipped away. when they got to a safe corner, jackclutched at the girls. "lucy-ann! dinah!""what is it?" said dinah. "you both acted like lunatics at dinner. what's up with you?""sh! listen! you know that ship in a bottle," began jack, but philip interrupted him.
"no. let me tell. well, micky and kiki broke the bottle between them, the wretches, and when wegot down into the cabin, there it was, smashed on the floor — and the ship was gone!""where?" said lucy-ann, upset.
"micky had it, under the bed. we got it and looked at it — and will you believe it, there was a knobthat came out, and then we could remove another section of the ship — and inside there's aparchment document of some sort!"
"no!" cried the girls, both together, thrilled to hear the news.
"it's true. you come down and see. don't tell anyone though, especially lucian. it's our own secret."they all tore down to the boys' cabin and nearly knocked over the steward, who had been turningdown the beds.
"sorry!" said jack. "have you finished, steward?""yes, i've finished — but what's all your hurry?" said the astonished steward. he got no answer. thedoor closed in his face, and he heard the latch being put across to lock it. now what were those lambsof children up to?
inside the cabin the light was switched on, and the cupboard unlocked. philip took out the littlecarved ship. the others crowded round to look at it.
"see — you take out this knob — and that loosens this section of the side — and it comes right out,"said philip. "and now look — can you see the document neatly crammed inside? i'm sure it'sparchment."
the girls took a deep breath. "gosh — it's a thrill," said dinah. "get it out, quick!""we'll have to be careful not to tear it," said jack. "stand back a bit, you girls. you keep jogging myarm."
how the boys managed to wheedle the closely-folded paper out of the inside of the wooden ship wasa miracle. little by little they edged it out, until at last it was completely out, and the inside of theship was empty.
"there we are!" said jack triumphantly, as he laid the yellow parchment carefully on the dressing-table. "now to see what it is."
with gentle, careful fingers philip unfolded the parchment. it spread out into quite a big sheet. thechildren pored over it, thrilled.
"it's a map!"
"a plan of some kind!"
"i can't read the words. blow, they must be in greek or something!""what is it? it looks like some island or something!""look at these marks — they must be the bearings of the compass — look, would that be north,south, east, west?"
"it's two maps, that's what it is. look, this bit must show an island, i think — surely that's meant to besea round it. and that bit is a plan — a plan of some building, i should think, with passages andthings."
the excited talk went on and on, each of the four children trying to press closer still to the map.
philip remembered that he had a magnifying-glass and went to get it. then they could all see evenbetter, and could make out a few strange words and marks too faded to see before.
"see this queer word here, at the left-hand side, right at the top," said lucy-ann suddenly. "well, itlooks exactly like the name on the ship, doesn't it? let's compare them and see."they looked at both the words, first on the ship and then on the map. they certainly were the same.
"well — mr. eppy said the ship's name was andra — and if the name on the map is the same, itmust have something to do with an island or a person called andra," said dinah.
there was a silence. everyone was digesting this, and wondering if they dared to say what theythought it meant. no — it wasn't possible. it simply wasn't possible.
lucy-ann voiced their feelings first. she spoke in rather a breathless voice.
"andra — the name of the girl who wouldn't marry the one-eyed prince. do you suppose that one ofthe ships of treasure sent out and lost was called andra in her honour? and do you suppose andrawas the name given to the search for the treasure — and that's why this ship and this map are markedandra?"
"it can't be!" said jack, under his breath. "it isn't possible that we have hit on the old plan that waslost — the copy of the older plan made hundreds of years ago! it just isn't possible.""it's probably a hoax," said philip, feeling perfectly certain that it wasn't.
"no — it can't be," said dinah. "mr. eppy, who knows about old things, told us this ship was old,didn't he? he was puzzled about it, because he said the ship was far older than the bottle.""well, i'll tell you what i think," said jack slowly. "i think this may be the plan — and i thinkprobably that old greek merchantman who copied the original one and died, hid it in this ship —which he may have carved himself."
"yes — and after he died his family may have kept it as a curio, not knowing what was inside it —and later on somebody else got the ship and thought it would be a very suitable one for putting insidea bottle," finished philip.
"but how did it get inside?" wondered lucy-ann. "that's a real puzzle to me.""oh, don't be silly. everyone knows how a ship gets into a bottle," said jack impatiently. "all they dois to blow a glass bottle round the ship, idiot. you know how bottles are made, don't you — blownlike bubbles of glass? well, that's how ships get inside bottles — the glass is just blown round them.""gosh — how clever," said lucy-ann. she looked at the ship again, and at the map lying beside it,old and yellowed.
"to think we are looking at a plan that was first drawn ages ago by a greek captain in charge of afleet of treasure-ships! and on this very map is shown where that treasure is still hidden — and we'rethe only people in the world that know the secret!"it certainly was rather a tremendous thought. silence fell on the four children. they looked at oneanother. lucy-ann spoke again, timidly.
"jack! philip! this won't be another adventure, will it?"nobody answered her. they were all thinking about the strange map. jack voiced their thoughts.
"the thing is, as lucy-ann says — we may be the only ones in the world that know this secret — butit's all greek to us! we can't read a word on the map, we don't even know what the name of the islandis, that is marked here. it's maddening.""we shall have to find out," said dinah.
"oh yes — run around to various greek people — mr. eppy, for instance — and say, 'please will youdecipher this strange document for us?' that's not a very bright idea, dinah. anyone who knowsanything would see there was something worth while in this map — and it would disappear like ashot!"
"oh dear — would it?" said lucy-ann. "do let's be careful of it then.""i know what we could do to make sure nobody could possibly steal it and use it," said jack. "wecould cut it carefully into four pieces, and each one of us could have a bit — then if anyone tried tograb our bit he wouldn't be any better off — he'd only have a quarter of the plan, which wouldn't helphim much!"
"yes — that's a good idea," said philip. "though why we are imagining thieves and robbers like thisi don't know!"
"only because we've had a bit of experience in our other adventures," said dinah. "we're getting toknow how to handle them now!"
"and you know," said jack, still thinking of his plan, "if we cut the map into four pieces, we couldquite well go to four different people to ask them to decipher each quarter — without their seeing theother bits at all — so they wouldn't be any wiser, but we could fit their explanations together and geta complete picture of what the map means.""that's really a very clever idea, jack," said philip, considering it. "all the same — i vote we don't goto mr. eppy about one of the bits."
"i don't see why not," said jack. "he won't be able to tell anything from one bit, and we certainlyshan't say we've got the rest. in fact, it wouldn't be a bad idea to go to him first — he'd be able to tellall right if it was a genuine document. if it isn't we shan't need to waste our time trailing round to findthree other people to decipher the other bits.""do you think he might guess what we guess — that this map is a plan of the andra treasure hiding-place?" asked philip, still doubtful of the wisdom of asking mr. eppy about the map.
"we won't give him the bit with the name andra on," said jack. "and we won't say a word about theother bits, or even where we found them. we'll just say we came across his bit in our explorations,but we don't know where. lucy-ann doesn't need to say a word. she's the only one who knows wherethe ship was bought — we don't. so we can truthfully look him in the eye, and say 'no, sir — wehaven't any idea where this bit of paper originally came from. it just — er — kind of appeared.' ""i hope he believes you," said dinah. "he never seems to believe a word that lucian says.""oh, well — that nit-wit," said jack.
"lucian's really nicer than you think," said lucy-ann. "it was all because of him, don't forget, that igot this ship — i'd never have found the ship in the bottle if it hadn't been for him.""well, he shall have a small share in the treasure if we find it," said jack generously.
"oh — are we going to look for it, then?" said lucy-ann. "what about aunt allie? what will shesay? and will the viking star mind us going to hunt for a treasure island?""don't be a baby, lucy-ann," said jack. "how can we possibly settle anything in the way of futureplans till we know what the map says? i imagine aunt allie will be as thrilled as we are when shehears about this."
"well, i don't," said lucy-ann. "i think she'll hate it. she'll take us all straight back home! she won'thave us rushing about looking for islands and treasure, i know. she's had enough of that kind of thingwith us."
"we shan't tell her then, till everything is settled — and when it is we'll send for old bill," declaredjack.
lucy-ann cheered up immediately. as long as bill cunningham was there, nothing would matter.
the four sat down on the two beds, quite tired out with their exciting talk. they wished the electricfan would go twice as fast because they felt so hot. it whirred away, turning this way and that, a realblessing in the warm cabin.
a terrible noise, far louder than the electric fan made, came to their ears. they jumped.
"that's kiki — making her express-engine screech," said jack. "come on — we'd better get her orwe shall have the captain himself down to see what's up. my gracious, there she goes again. we'veleft her too long in the girls' cabin. little wretch!"the children hurried to the cabin next door, anxious to stop kiki before other passengers complained.
kiki was standing on the dressing-table in front of the mirror, screeching at herself. although sheknew mirrors very well indeed there were still times when she flew into a rage at seeing anotherparrot there, one that she couldn't peck.
"stop it, kiki, bad bird!" cried jack. "i'll tie your beak up, i will! bad bird, naughty polly!""happy returns," said kiki, speaking to philip and ignoring jack. she made a sound like a cork beingpopped out of a bottle, and then another noise like the gurgling of a liquid being poured out.
"she wants a drink," said jack. "sorry, old thing. i forgot you'd be hot in here." he filled a tooth-glasswith water and kiki sipped it thirstily. micky came out for a drink too.
"we are awful," said philip. "we forgot all about these two in our excitement. there's always waterfor them in our cabin, but there isn't any in the girls'. poor kiki, poor micky!""nit-wit," said kiki politely. she gave a realistic hiccup. "pardon! micky, kiki, micky, kiki, micky,ki . . ."
"that's enough," said jack. "we don't think that's funny. come along for a walk on deck. we'll all getsome fresh air, and then sleep on our plans."they went up on deck with the parrot and the monkey. the other passengers smiled to see them.
they liked the four children and their amusing pets. kiki gave a hiccup every time she passedanyone, and immediately said "oh, i say! pardon!" she knew that made people laugh, and she lovedshowing off.
it was cool on deck in the evening air. the children said very little, because they were thinking such alot. the bottle — the ship — the old map — quartering it — deciphering it — hunting, hunting,hunting for — andra's treasure!
down in their cabins that night they all found it very difficult to go to sleep. they tossed and turned,wishing they could get cool. micky and kiki were on the porthole-sill for coolness. the boys had itopen always now, because neither of the pets showed any sign of wanting to go out of the big roundopening.
lucy- ann lay thinking in her bed. she had the old familiar feeling of queer excitement andanticipation, mixed with a little dread. she knew that feeling! it was the one she got when anadventure was beginning. she called softly to dinah.
"dinah! are you asleep? listen — do you think we're beginning one of our adventures again? do dosay we're not!"
"well, if we are, whose fault will it be?" came back dinah's voice, very wide awake. "who boughtthat ship?"
"i did," said lucy-ann. "yes — if we plunge headlong into an adventure this time, it'll be all becausei bought the little ship — the ship of adventure!"
