by Kismet » 06 Feb 2017, 22:15
It was a glorious afternoon. Biggles was strolling through the park enjoying the sunshine. The birds were singing, the flowers were blooming brightly and a number of little children played nicely under the supervision of their nannies. One small boy a little older than the others, with fading spots on his face, took advantage of his nanny's momentary inattention due to his little sister falling over and requiring attention, to make a break for the small ornamental lake. Biggles hastily followed in case an intervention was needed.
It wasn't. The boy stopped where he could look over the lake and pulled a bedraggled piece of paper from his pocket and compared the two.
'Have you got a treasure map?' Biggles asked, rather amused.
The small boy started and then nodded.
'My father bought an old trunk from an auction what belonged to a pirate an' this was inside. It looks like that island in the lake.' The boy pointed and showed Biggles the paper, which to his amazement did look like a genuine old hand drawn map. 'But I don't know how to get onto it to dig it up, an' Amelia's nursemaid wouldn't let me bring my spade. I'm too old for a nursemaid,' he added darkly. 'I should be at school 'cept I got measles.'
'Hard luck, old chap,' commiserated Biggles. 'But I think you'd have to get permission from the park keepers to dig up that little island.'
Amelia's nursemaid came bustling up and collected the boy, whom Biggles gathered was Thomas, and scolded him for disappearing.
'And I don't know where you got that nasty dirty piece of paper,' she complained, 'but it's going into the first bin I see. You could catch anything from that.'
Thomas protested in vain. Biggles followed at a discreet distance, and removed the piece of paper from the receptacle into which the nursemaid had put it and looked at it thoughtfully. It was rather an interesting map.
'Major Bigglesworth' said Von Stalhein coldly, 'there are times when I seriously wonder if you were created by the devil just to annoy me.'