Behind Mt. Baldy (56 page)

Peter spoke next. “The Kosarian
Crown Jewels,” he said, looking directly at Princess Mareena.

She gasped again. “Oh! We don’t
know. We...” She fell silent as Prince Peter gripped her arm. She bit her lip
and hung her head. Every eye was on her.

“So you were searching too?”
Inspector Sharpe asked.

Prince Peter nodded, mouth set in
a hard line.

“What for?
What is it?” Inspector Sharpe
probed.

“We don’t know,” Prince Peter
replied.
“Something very valuable.
Only Captain
Krapinski knew. He had kept it hidden and secret all these years. It was only a
month ago that he first contacted us and only last week that we received a
cryptic message from him that he had something valuable for our cause. We hoped
it might be the crown so that I could wear it on my return.”

“And now we will never know,”
Princess Mareena added. “Only Count Krapinski knew what it was and where it was
hidden; and he is now dead.”

“Are there no clues?” Inspector
Sharpe asked.

After some hesitation, during
which the prince and princess looked at each other, Prince Peter replied: “Only
one. It is in that briefcase Detective Sergeant Crowe is holding. It looks like
the one young Bronsky has.”

Inspector Sharpe called to DS
Crowe to bring the briefcase while the boys looked at the clue in Peter’s hand
in amazement. Prince Peter took the briefcase and unlocked it. After a moment’s
shuffling inside he drew out a plastic bag. Inside was an oblong of yellow
cardboard. Printed on it in black block letters was:

ALL FIVE

PLATYPUS LOOKOUT

“Platypus Lookout!” the boys all
cried.

Roger felt a sharp chill of
dread. “That is where Captain Krapinski was murdered,” he said.

“It is where I put the first of
my clues,” Capt Conkey added.

Graham scratched his head.
“But....? I don’t get this,” he said.

There was a short silence. Then
Prince Peter said: “We received this from Dorkoffsky in a sealed envelope. By
mail we received two keys. I have no idea what they open but they were fastened
to a piece of the same yellow cardboard by sticky tape. There was no
explanation.” He held up the keys,
then
said, “We went
to Platypus Lookout and searched but found nothing. We searched for hours.”

What a mystery! Roger was agog.
He racked his brains. What did it all mean?

Peter spoke first: “I’ve got it! Dorkoffsky
read the note. He told the KSS and they came to search. They probably tried to
capture Captain Krapinski too. But they found the blue clue left by Captain
Conkey, instead of the yellow clue left by Count Krapinski.”

“Yes! That would be it. Where
were your clues sir
?” Graham asked.

Captain Conkey thought for a
moment,
then
said: “Platypus Lookout, Robsons Creek,
the Chimneys. The next one was down a timber track in the rainforest; to test
your navigation. So was the next one at Mobo Creek. Then there was one at the
junction of the Danbulla Forestry Road and the Gillies Highway, then Lake
Eacham, Lake Barrine, Malanda Falls, Bromfield Swamp, Wongabel and Atherton.”

“Not Mt Baldy?” Roger asked.

“No Roger, not Mt Baldy.”

They all laughed. Roger sniffed.
His stomach rumbled audibly.

Peter spoke again: “So that must
be why you could not find any clues Your Highness.” He looked at Prince Peter.
“The KSS took ours and we took yours.”

“Knowing that does not help much
does it?” Prince Peter replied.

“Yes it does sir,” Graham said.
“We’ve got them all here. We followed them all the way.”

“On foot,” Roger added.

They all laughed at his tone.
Graham swung off his webbing and undid the pack. He took out the clues in their
plastic bags. Then he held up his hand. “May I have yours sir?” he asked.
Prince Peter handed it to him. The others stood around in fascinated silence
while he sorted them out and laid them on the grass in order.

Roger ran his eyes over them.
They read:

ALL FIVE

PLATYPUS LOOKOUT

MT BALDY

THE CHIMNEYS

HIGH SCHOOL

CURTAIN FIG

MICROWAVE TOWER

RAILWAY TUNNEL

SEVEN PINES

MT BALDY

BUTTS SHED

ATHERTON RIFLE RANGE

Prince Peter studied them
closely. “Are they in the right order?” he asked.

Graham nodded. “Yes sir. That is the
order in which we went to them. I am not sure about the first one though.”

Peter pointed. “See, Mt Baldy is
mentioned twice,” he said.

“You followed these?
How?”
Prince Peter asked.

Graham explained. “Well sir, we
got the first one at Platypus Lookout. It said ‘Mt Baldy’ and ‘The Chimneys’.
We found those places on the map. The Chimneys was closer so we walked there.
There we found the next one. As we didn’t know which High School we went to the
Curtain Fig. Then on to the Railway Tunnel and so on.”

“We followed the bottom clue in
each case,” Peter added.

“Where were you to go next?”
Prince Peter asked.

They all looked at the clues.

Graham shook his head. “I don’t
know sir,” he replied.

“Around the top
clues perhaps?”
Stephen suggested.

This time Peter shook his head.
“No, that doesn’t make sense. We would have to go back up Mt Baldy. We’ve just
been there,” he disagreed.

Stephen frowned. “There must be
another clue then, at the Butts Shed,” Stephen suggested.

“Yes, come on. Let’s look,”
Graham cried.

They went to run off. Inspector
Sharpe stopped them. “Wait a minute! Let’s have something to eat and drink
first. Crowe, have something brought over to the shed. I’m famished.”

“Me too,” Roger agreed. His
stomach rumbled loudly and they all laughed.

Graham scooped up all the clues
and the group began walking across the rifle range. The captured partisans
still sat in a dejected group on the mound, guarded by two policemen. A couple
of the partisans glared at them but Roger noted that at least three stared at the
prince and princess in awe. Five helicopters clattered across behind them
heading for the Herberton Range.

As they walked Prince Peter said:
“But why did Count Krapinski
lay
such a complicated
trail? Why not just meet us and take us to the treasure, or give it to us?”

Graham answered. “Excuse me Your
Majesty, but I can guess,” he said.

“Yes?”

“I think he was suspicious. Did
he know any of you by sight?”

“No, I don’t think so. But how
does that explain it?”

Graham replied: “If he did not
know you to look at
he
would want to check. So he
picked isolated places where he could hide and watch who came to collect the
clue. If he was not satisfied he could have broken the trail, or stopped them.”

“You may be right. But he could
only have stopped someone by using force,” Prince Peter replied.

Stephen frowned. “Is this thing
that is hidden worth killing someone for?” he asked.

Prince Peter nodded grimly: “Yes.
If it is what I think it is, it has cost many human lives.”

Graham nodded. “He could easily have
sprung an ambush at any of those places,” he commented. Roger re-examined the
places in his memory and agreed.

Peter waved his arm around. “Like
here. Who would take any notice of shooting at a rifle range?”

Prince Peter nodded. “Yes. You
could be right. Count Krapinski was a very good rifle shot, a marksman. When we
commenced our enquiries we discovered that he was a very keen member of the
local rifle club and would sometimes come here to shoot every day. But we did
not find a rifle in his house.”

“Be in the lake,” Roger said.
Then he wished he hadn’t, as the awful memories flooded back.

They walked around the end of the
earth mound. Behind it was a concrete retaining wall and walkway with steel
frames to raise and lower the targets. Nearby was the corrugated iron
shed.
It was unlocked so they trooped in and began to
search. The place was full of stacks of plywood figure targets, paper patches,
planks, odd tools and assorted junk. Princess Mareena remained outside.

By the time DS Crowe and two
constables had arrived with cordial and sandwiches the group had searched every
nook and cranny, turned over every target and looked on every beam and rafter.

“Must be outside,” Stephen
suggested.

“Have some lunch,” Capt Conkey
ordered.

Roger needed no prodding. His
thirst and hunger were so acute that even the excitement of a real treasure
hunt was dulled.

Within minutes they had eaten and
were searching again. The Lt Colonel stood talking on his radio and conversing
with the Inspector and Princess Mareena but Prince Peter joined Captain Conkey
and the boys in the search. They searched all around the shed, on all the
nearby trees, on the target frames and in the nearby grass. Twenty minutes of
looking produced nothing. They came back together on top of the mound, where
the princess sat on the grass.

Roger felt incredibly frustrated.
Despite his exhaustion he really wanted to solve the mystery. “Not a sausage. I
don’t get it?” he said.

Capt Conkey said: “Lay out the
clues again CSM. We may have missed something.”

Graham did so. The others
clustered around and studied them.

Roger wracked his brains to try
to think of how the clues worked. “Perhaps we take compass bearings from each
one?” he suggested.

“What compass bearings?” Graham
asked.

Roger shrugged and felt both
silly and irritated.

Stephen took off his glasses and
cleaned the lenses. “Maybe we join all the places with pencil lines on the map
and the treasure is where they cross?” he offered.

“Let’s try that,” Peter said. He
took out his map and sat and began ruling lines using the side of his compass
as a ruler. He snorted in annoyance and took out his other map and tried to
hold them together, then gave up. He shook his head. “No, they just go all over
the place.”

“There must be a key,” Inspector
Sharpe mused, tugging at his chin. They all re-read the clues and thought hard.
Inspector Sharpe said: “You followed the bottom clues to get here and if you
follow the top ones it takes you back to Mt Baldy, either way. If you go from
the Butts Shed you would go to ‘Seven Pines’. Where is that?”

Everyone shook their head. Nobody
knew of any place with that name on the Tablelands.

Graham shrugged.
“Might be a farm.
It’s not on our maps,” he said.

“There were pines at The
Chimneys, big ones in a line,” Stephen said.

Peter laughed. “There are pines
up there behind Mt Baldy too,” he reminded. “There are bloody pine trees all
over the Tablelands. Sorry Miss, er,
Your
Highness.”

Princess Mareena’s face dimpled
with laughter at his confusion. She said, “I went to boarding school in Sydney.
I have heard Australians swear before.”

‘Gosh she’s beautiful!’ Roger
thought. Lest his adoration be noticed he looked away. He gazed down the Rifle
Range into the distance. ‘If only! Ah well! Now, where were the Seven Pines?
There are some pines!’ He stared hard at the southern slope of the hill
Atherton was on. Yes, seven large pine trees stood out in clear silhouette
against the sky. He counted them to be sure. “There are seven pines,” he said,
pointing.

They all swung to look.

Captain Conkey carefully counted
them aloud.
“Possibly.
Now, where are all those other
places? Perhaps we don’t have to go to them. Where is the Microwave
Tower?"

“There it is. On top of the hill
to the left of the pines,” Roger said.

“Good. Now, where is the High
School?”

They looked but could not see it.
Stephen spoke: “You should know where it is Roger. That’s where we rescued you
from Willy’s Airship last year.”

Roger shuddered at the memory. It
had been one of the more terrifying experiences of his life. He looked in the
correct direction but trees obscured the view. He felt his excitement rising.
Now they seemed to be getting somewhere. He was sure there was a simple key to
the mystery. The answer seemed to shimmer tantalisingly on the edge of his
mind.

Peter looked at his map, then
down the range. “You can’t see the High School from here sir. It is hidden by
those trees. You might be able to see it from the other end of the mound.”