Читать книгу The Adventures of Anna Atom - Elizabeth Wasserman - Страница 13

Chapter 9

THE CHIVONNE

“Ton, Hodoul’s diary’s been stolen from the archives!” Anna almost shouted, once they were on the street outside.

“I know,” Ton said. “I heard the whole hullabaloo.”

“You were eavesdropping?” Anna asked. “Did they teach you that … wherever it is that you trained?” She never missed an opportunity to try and find out more about Ton’s mysterious past, but to no avail.

“You were both practically shouting. Now let’s get you out of here before that lady decides to make trouble.”

Anna noticed that they had turned down one of the narrow alleys that snaked between the small shops, and she was battling to keep up with Ton’s long strides.

“Where are we going, Ton? This is definitely not the way to the jetty!”

“As I said to that nice lady, we’re going to see the director of the museum.”

“I’m not going to give him the dagger, Ton. It’s mine. I found it!” she said as she trotted behind him.

Around them, people were hurrying along, finishing the day’s business before they returned home to their families, their cooking and other preparations.

“Some things, Anna,” Ton said over his shoulder, “are bigger than we are. You are only eleven years old, but you want to hold on to something that has a two-hundred-year-old story?” Ton turned to smile down at her. “If you had to choose, Anna, between the dagger and its secret, which would it be?”

“I’m nearly twelve!” Anna retorted, but it took her a while longer to figure out the question, and by that time they had arrived at an old colonial-style house with a high roof and a broad veranda that had recently been converted to luxurious offices. A security guard stood at the door.

“We’re here to see Monsieur Raymond Hodoul,” Ton told him.

“And you are?” the guard inquired.

“People who want to see Monsieur Hodoul,” Ton repeated, louder and more slowly, as if he was speaking to a little child.

The guard sized up the enormous man in his black suit, and then looked down at the wisp of a girl with her dark hair in their spiky tufts. Glancing back at the formidable Ton, he wisely decided not to offer any further resistance. He spun round on the heel of his polished boot, and disappeared through the high wooden door.

Ton stood like a statue while they waited, while Anna started a skipping game on the pavement. After about three minutes, the guard appeared again.

“This way!” he beckoned, jerking his head towards a door.

Inside the house, a descendant of the great pirate sat behind a huge wooden desk. He wore a crisp white linen shirt, and the nails of the long, elegant hands that rested on the papers in front of him were carefully manicured. Nevertheless, he still managed to look like a pirate: his grey hair was swept back from his high forehead, and he had a splendid moustache and a clipped but unruly beard.

His dark eyes flashed like polished metal. He smiled at them, exhibiting a row of strong teeth.

“Ah, the man from Monpetit and the daughter of my dear old friend, Abraham Atom! What gives me the honour of this visit?” he asked, crossing the floor in long strides to first shake Anna’s hand, and then Ton’s.

Raymond Hodoul was wearing khaki shorts and slip-slops. He had looked so grand and formidable sitting behind his huge desk. But on second glance, he appeared to be a typical relaxed islander.

“This!” Anna said, holding out the dagger to him.

Raymond Hodoul’s face remained expressionless, but she could hear him draw in his breath. He took the dagger from her, and slowly turned it around in his neat hands.

“You are returning this to the family to whom it belongs, and for that I am most grateful. But you expect something for your efforts, I assume?” he said, glancing at Anna shrewdly.

“I do,” she replied. “I would like to know how it got to where I found it.”

“And you are going to tell me where you found it?” Monsieur Hodoul asked.

Anna looked deep into his dark eyes. She turned to Ton. He gave her a small nod.

“Just beyond the reef of the bay opposite the house on Monpetit. It’s where I have my sea-slug garden,” she said.

Monsieur Hodoul looked at her closely. Then he turned, and with his hands clasped behind his back, walked over to a window. He stood there, staring out to the street, deep in thought.

“Beyond the reef of the bay … Yes, it is possible,” he said at last.

Anna waited for him to continue.

“An ancestor of mine once lost a ship, the Chivonne, in that area. Fortunately, he and most of his men were able to abandon the sinking vessel and swim to a small island nearby. The island had no name in those days, but from his description of the disastrous journey it could very well have been Monpetit. It was a very special journey, you know, and it’s a great tragedy for all of us that it ended in failure.”

Monsieur Hodoul turned around, and walked over to stand right in front of Anna. He bent forward slightly, so that he could look the girl straight in the eye.

“Do you know, young lady, why that voyage was so special?”

Anna shook her head, mesmerised by his story.

“It was special because on the Chivonne, my great-great ancestor was carrying a cargo of animals from Île de France – Mauritius it is called today. Some of the animals were endangered due to human activities on the island, and they couldn’t be found anywhere else in the world. They were unique!”

He started pacing the room briskly.

“Those days things were different. Animals were viewed merely as a food source – some species were facing total extinction because they tasted nice! Can you think of such an animal, young lady?” he asked, stopping his pacing and turning a fiery eye on Anna.

“The dodo, Monsieur Hodoul,” she whispered, her pulse racing. Was it the story, or was she feeling a bit scared of the pirate’s great-great-grandson?

“Very good!” he flashed a brilliant smile. “The dodo is one of the most famous species to have disappeared from the earth forever. But there are others: the green parrot of the Seychelles, for example, and the poulet bleu, a stupid pigeon that tasted like chicken. Too sad! But it was a cage full of dodos, some of the last ones alive, that Hodoul had in the hold of his ship. His plan was to set the birds free on Silhouette Island.”

Anna started to say something, but Monsieur Hodoul interrupted her.

“If you think this is impossible, you would be right – at least according to the history books. Dodos supposedly became extinct at the end of the eighteenth century. That was a hundred years before my great ancestor sailed the Chivonne. But there were actually still some dodos on a very remote little island, one forgotten by the great ships of those days.”

Anna knew of the Îles Éparses, or “Scattered Islands” of the Indian Ocean – she’d mapped them out on the globe in her bedroom, dreaming of visiting them all one day.

“According to my great-great-grandfather’s diary, he found a colony of fat, friendly birds on a group of small islands at 11° south, 47° east, just above the Mozambique Channel. Today we call them the Glorioso Islands. On the larger of these islands, the vegetation closely resembled that once found on Mauritius. Hodoul immediately realised that these birds were dodos, the last survivors of a species that was already thought to be lost. He had read about them in the records of the early settlement of Mauritius. He settled there for a while because it was a good hideout for him and his men. But that’s another story.”

The modern-day Hodoul had a faraway look, as if he could see his pirate ancestor in his mind’s eye, planning his next foray on the richly loaded ships crossing over from India.

“When they finally abandoned the little island, Hodoul realised that if he could settle a colony of dodos on Silhouette, the birds could be saved. Nobody would bother them there. You may know that we still attempt to settle rare birds on more than one island – it gives them a better chance of survival should disaster strike one of the islands. So you see, Mademoiselle Anna, my ancestor was an environmentalist way ahead of his time. And no ordinary pirate.” He made this last statement with pride.

A story about dodos? It was interesting, but not quite what Anna had hoped for, so she ventured a last, hopeful question.

“Was there anything else on the Chivonne? Anything of value?”

Monsieur Hodoul threw his hands in the air dramatically.

“Anything of value? My dear girl, if those dodos were still alive they’d be one of the greatest treasures imaginable. What the world wouldn’t give for the return of its most famous lost species! But there may have been other things on the ship, yes. The records aren’t clear. Hodoul only mentioned the birds in his diary, but … he was a great pirate, after all.”

“His diary!” Anna suddenly remembered. “His diary, or at least a copy of it, has been stolen from the archives.”

“What?” This news clearly upset Monsieur Hodoul, so Anna sat down on a wooden chair and told him about her unhappy afternoon at the archives.

Monsieur Hodoul started to pace the room again, rubbing his beard as Anna continued her story.

“… and I could see that the bars had been sawn through, and the window was still unlatched. But you know, Monsieur Hodoul, that the window had to be opened from the inside, and it wasn’t broken!”

Suddenly, he spun on his heel and walked to the door, holding it open for Anna and Ton. He handed the dagger back to her.

“Thank you, mademoiselle. You had brought very interesting information to my office this afternoon. Now, you must go, because I have much to think about. Keep the dagger. Consider it a present from the Hodoul family. I know what it’s like to be young and in search of treasure. Let it be your treasure, ma petite, and keep on dreaming.”

He gave her a warm smile, and nodded at Ton, who followed Anna out of the house.

“Wow!” Anna exclaimed once they were outside. “That was weird! I don’t really get him, you know? Is he interested in my story, or does he just think I’m a nuisance?”

She looked quizzically at Ton, but his face was expressionless, as usual. Sometimes Anna felt like giving him a good kick. However, Ton was Ton, and that was that.

Would anybody take her seriously?

She considered talking to her mother, but Professor Sabatina was usually on another planet. She was only interested in her work – as if the hole in the ozone would get bigger if she stopped watching for a moment!

No, Anna’s only hope was to talk with her dad that evening after dinner. He would listen, and he would understand!