The river of adventure by Enid Blyton

Author:Enid Blyton [Blyton, Enid]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: jack, Blyton
Published: 1955-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

NEXT DAY

NEXT day Tala took the boat farther on down the river. They went very slowly, for Chaldo was only half a day’s run, and they did not want to get there too soon. They passed some desolate country on the way, almost desert-like.

‘Some of Mr. Uma’s beloved excavations must have been going on here!’ said Jack. ‘Bill, it certainly must cost an awful lot of money to dig over this enormous expanse — look!’

‘It does,’ said Bill. ‘But there are rewards, you know. It’s not only old ruined cities that are found lying beneath the mud and dust of centuries, it’s treasure too.’

‘Treasure!’ said Philip, surprised. ‘What treasure?’

‘Well, much of this country held age-old buildings that housed the tombs of rich kings,’ said Bill. ‘Don’t ask me their names, I’ve forgotten them.’

‘Nebuchadnezzar?’ suggested Lucy-Ann.

Bill laughed. ‘You certainly know your Bible, Lucy-Ann. Yes — probably even Nebuchadnezzar might have lived in a palace not many miles from here, or the great King Saigon. I really don’t know. Anyway, when they died, they were buried in magnificent tombs, surrounded by their jewels and their other treasures, such as jewelled shields, wonderful swords, and so on.’

‘My word!’ said Jack, thrilled. ‘And do you mean to say that things like that have been dug up — things’ thousands of years old?’

‘Oh yes,’ said Bill. ‘They are in museums all over the world — bought gladly because of their historic value. They are valuable in themselves too, of course. I have seen one beautifully carved gold bowl, with bulls all the way round it, that must have been worth thousands of pounds. It was set with wonderful precious stones.’

‘Well, then,’ said Jack, ‘I’m not so sure that Mr. Uma’s hobby isn’t just the right one for him.

Picking up priceless treasures for nothing!’

‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ said Bill. ‘They can’t be picked up for nothing — as I told you, a digging outfit, composed perhaps of fifty or so natives, and a good sprinkling of white experts, may cost thousands of pounds. And we should certainly know if Mr. Uma had an outfit like that!’

‘Yes — I suppose you would,’ said Jack. ‘I mean — you can’t help seeing wholesale excavations going on, can you? It would be in the papers too, of course.’

‘Look — there are some ruins, over there!’ cried Lucy-Ann, pointing to the opposite bank.

‘They look fairly recent. Would Tala know about them, do you think?’

‘Go and ask him, if you like,’ said Bill. ‘I don’t expect he can tell you much.’

The children went off to ask Tala. He nodded his head. ‘Tala know. Tala’s father, he dig there.

Dig for treasure, much, much treasure. But no find any. All gone.’

That seemed to be all Tala knew. The children went back to Bill and repeated what Tala had told them. He nodded.

‘Yes — he meant that whatever expert was in charge of the digging probably had a plan showing that royal tombs were to be found at a certain depth below — tombs possibly with much treasure.

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