Journey to the River Sea

‘Yes. But Bernard wrote to me, and his letters made me want to see the place where he was so happy. I tried hard to save enough for the fare but I never succeeded – and then this job came up with the Carters. Just two weeks after I accepted it, I heard that Bernard had died – the letter came back with a blue cross and ‘deceased’ on the envelope. It was a fearful shock. Then when I came out here and guessed what the crows were up to, I kept my eyes open. I knew how Bernard felt about Westwood and that he would hate his son to be dragged back there against his will.’

‘Well, thank goodness you did,’ said Finn.

But Miss Minton now wanted to see the animals that Bernard had written about.

‘Does the anteater still come?’ she asked, ‘and the capuchin monkey?’, and Finn said yes, and showed her everything – the humming bird bottle, the place where the turtle hauled out of the water, while the dog padded between them.

‘I see why he was so happy here,’ she said. ‘It’s a wonderful place.’

‘Yes, but Finn’s going away. In the Arabella,’ said Maia. ‘He’s going a long, long way,’ and Minty frowned at the sadness in her voice. ‘And he won’t take me.’

‘No, of course not,’ said Miss Minton. ‘That would hardly do.’

Maia looked up into her face. ‘Wouldn’t you like to go on a great journey? Find a place no one knew about?’

‘What I would like has nothing to do with it. I have my living to earn – and you must get an education.’

But even though she knew that Finn would not take her, Maia was hungry for all the details of his journey.

‘What if they aren’t there any more?’ she wanted to know. ‘The Xanti?’

‘Then I’ll go on till I find them,’ said Finn. ‘They have to be somewhere.’

Miss Minton was silent. It wasn’t strictly true – tribes had been wiped out by illness, or fighting, or been kidnapped. She could not be happy about a boy of his age making such a journey alone, but she had no power to prevent Finn from living his life as he wished. Maia was a different matter. She was wholly responsible for keeping Maia safe and it was out of the question that she should be allowed to go.

It was as they came away from the lagoon in Furo’s canoe that Miss Minton suddenly told Furo to stop. A breeze had sprung up and as the leaves of a tall broad-leafed tree blew to one side, she had seen on its trunk, a large and most exquisite butterfly.

Miss Minton did not chase butterflies, but this one was so enormous and so beautiful – and so still – that she clambered out of the canoe and went to look.

‘My goodness!’ she said.

The butterfly was still because it was dead. Dead, but perfectly preserved in the web of a large spider who had left it there, and would probably come back and eat it later.

Very carefully, Miss Minton took the butterfly from the tree, using her handkerchief so as not to touch it directly, and carried it back.

‘Oh!’ said Maia. ‘I’ve never seen anything like that!’, and even Furo shook his head.

The brilliant yellow and black of the wings ended in two long tails, like the tail of a swallow.

‘It looks special, doesn’t it?’ Maia went on. ‘Professor Glastonberry will know what it is.’

Miss Minton nodded, trying not to feel excited. ‘It is most unlikely that it will turn out to be anything unusual,’ she said firmly, but Maia saw her looking at the creature lying on her lap again and again.

In Manaus it quickly got about that Finn Taverner had been snatched by the crows and taken on board the Bishop, and that it was the Carter twins who had betrayed him.

The reaction of almost everyone was anger. Anger with the crows, anger with the twins.

Colonel da Silva was particularly upset. All the trouble he had taken to lead the crows astray had come to nothing. He felt he had failed his old friend Bernard, and he was going to miss Finn.

‘I’d better go and see what’s to be done about the Arabella,’ he said to his second in command. ‘And all Taverner’s things. The dog’ll go wild, I imagine; he can fend for himself.’ He sighed. ‘I’ll go next week – the Indians will see that no one steals anything. And if those wretched Carter twins come again to ask about the reward, send them away with a flea in their ear. The boy hasn’t been gone three days. Nasty, money-grubbing little worms!’

And he turned aside and spat out of the window, a thing he hadn’t done since he was a young cadet and thought spitting was the thing to do.

Professor Glastonberry had had trouble with the exhibits he was supposed to collect in Obidos and had been late coming home. It was therefore not till nearly a week had passed that he came back to the museum, and found that his first caller was Miss Minton.

Miss Minton had been very distressed when the sloth came crashing to the ground, and although they had been able to right the skeleton before they left there had been no time to examine it.

Now she knocked on the door of the lab and found the professor standing by it with a worried look.

‘I came to ask if there had been any serious damage. We never thought the crows would be so violent.’