While the Light Lasts - Agatha Christie [36]
There are still four ‘chests’ of treasure (though in a more modern form than gold ingots or coins) and there are to be four competitors–my four living relations. It would be fairest to assign one ‘chest’ to each–but the world, my children, is not fair. The race is to the swiftest–and often to the most unscrupulous!
Who am I to go against Nature? You must pit your wits against the other two. There will be, I fear, very little chance for you. Goodness and innocence are seldom rewarded in this world. So strongly do I feel this that I have deliberately cheated (unfairness again, you notice!). This letter goes to you twenty-four hours in advance of the letters to the other two. Thus you will have a very good chance of securing the first “treasure”–twenty-four hours’ start, if you have any brains at all, ought to be sufficient.
The clues for finding this treasure are to be found at my house in Douglas. The clues for the second “treasure” will not be released till the first treasure is found. In the second and succeeding cases, therefore, you will all start even. You have my good wishes for success, and nothing would please me better than for you to acquire all four “chests”, but for the reasons which I have already stated I think that most unlikely. Remember that no scruples will stand in dear Ewan’s way. Do not make the mistake of trusting him in any respect. As to Dr Richard Fayll, I know little about him, but he is, I fancy, a dark horse.
Good luck to you both, but with little hopes of your success,
Your affectionate Uncle,
Myles Mylecharane’
As we reached the signature, Fenella made a leap from my side.
‘What is it?’ I cried.
Fenella was rapidly turning the pages of an ABC.
‘We must get to the Isle of Man as soon as possible,’ she cried. ‘How dare he say we were good and innocent and stupid? I’ll show him! Juan, we’re going to find all four of these “chests” and get married and live happily ever afterwards, with Rolls-Royces and footmen and marble baths. But we must get to the Isle of Man at once.’
II
It was twenty-four hours later. We had arrived in Douglas, interviewed the lawyers, and were now at Maughold House facing Mrs Skillicorn, our late Uncle’s housekeeper, a somewhat formidable woman who nevertheless relented a little before Fenella’s eagerness.
‘Queer ways he had,’ she said. ‘Liked to set everyone puzzling and contriving.’
‘But the clues,’ cried Fenella. ‘The clues?’
Deliberately, as she did everything, Mrs Skillicorn left the room. She returned after an absence of some minutes and held out a folded piece of paper.
We unfolded it eagerly. It contained a doggerel rhyme in my Uncle’s crabbed handwriting.†
Four points of the compass so there be
S., and W., N. and E.
East winds are bad for man and beast.
Go south and west and
North not east.
‘Oh!’ said Fenella, blankly.
‘Oh!’ said I, with much the same intonation.
Mrs Skillicorn smiled on us with gloomy relish.
‘Not much sense to it, is there?’ she said helpfully.
‘It–I don’t see how to begin,’ said Fenella, piteously.
‘Beginning,’ I said, with a cheerfulness I did not feel, ‘is always the difficulty. Once we get going–’
Mrs Skillicorn smiled more grimly than ever. She was a depressing woman.
‘Can’t you help us?’ asked Fenella, coaxingly.
‘I know nothing about the silly business. Didn’t confide in me, your uncle didn’t. I have told him to put his money in the bank, and no nonsense. I never knew what he was up to.’
‘He never went out with any chests–or anything of that kind?’
‘That he didn’t.’
‘You don’t know when he hid the stuff–whether it was lately or long ago?’
Mrs Skillicorn shook her head.
‘Well,’ I said, trying to rally. ‘There are two possibilities. Either the treasure is hidden here, in the actual grounds, or else it may be hidden anywhere on the Island. It depends on the bulk, of course.’
A sudden brain-wave occurred to Fenella.
‘You haven’t noticed anything missing?