by Stieve Adams
"
"Excuse yourself," Valerie contrasted, "but St. Christopher is independent since many years ago and definitely not a British colony."
"But the little island yesterday well in the British Commonwealth and has several prominent cricket players what I understand. In my opinion, it is a colony, "said the Englishman.
"Stop tjafsa", I whipped "It's about life or death, we have to get around that tugboat that disappears there with a speed of at least 15 knots. But if this junk does not go so quickly, let's find someone else. "
"What does not go fast, this yacht makes 40 knots on idle. Jump in, you'll feel the speed of the caliph. "
The wordman of the Engelsman suddenly became straightforward and less oxford school, he was probably a new financial knight and not an English Count. But what did he do? He assumed the challenge without asking if we wanted to pay for the trip. The suggestion that the yacht was not fast enough apparently made the impact.
"Throw for seventeen", he invited us. "Here's going to sail." Two 70-horse Mercury Motors wrecked up so we were in trouble and bumped him aboard.
"What are we going to drive?"
"The tugboat that is in that direction. It does not look right now but it is behind that big tanker over there. "
"OK. What causes you to pursue a domestic tugboat, if I can ask. "
I explained that it was a distant relative we had to meet because we would leave Singapore during the day. It was not very true, but it got tough. The English gentleman did not seem to believe a word of this but apparently ignored this, only he was allowed to air his yacht.
After rounding the tank on the tankboat, we saw Sitting Bull stopping at full speed away from us. Even though our British friend was eager to do a lot of gasoline it took about an hour before we came to Sitting Bull. Björn stood at the helm and seemed to enjoy his life. The cocoa bottle was still in my t-shirt a few meters from Björn, he had not seen it or did not bother.
When he saw us coming up on starboard, he waved off and continued to keep both speed and course.
"Take a long side and I'll jump to the other boat," I instruct.
"You're not wise," says our British friend.
"You're not wise," Valerie cries.
"Shit the same, do as I say."
The rear of the tugboat is quite low in the water. I climb the higher part of our yacht hunt and jump easily to the tugboat when the boats come close enough to each other.
I pick up the bottle post and put on my t-shirt, despite the heat, it's a bit windy out here at sea. I go to Björn as calm outbreaks:
"What's up in the glow you're doing here?"
I explain with loud voice, such a tugboat for a lot of noise, that we have actually traveled over half the globe, at least, to meet him.
"Why?" Wondering Bjorn eloquently. We had not even talked to Björn at all since we met him. Even though we were together for several hours, it was then under hectic conditions.
"You left some interesting numbers in the Caribbean."
The British lust hunted us close to the port and I was amazed at Valerie. But suddenly it broke down and obviously got problems of some kind.
"No gas", says Björn.
"You must turn around and help them then", I listen.
"Don `t have time."
"You have to help people in the sea. You are the sailor for seventeen. "
"No problem. You see, there is already someone else going to help them. I have to go to Sumatra and back before I have booked the next tow. "
"And why in the world do you have to Sumatra when we want to talk to you?"
"To help you, of course," says Björn surprisingly.
Björn patiently stated that it is not actually he who is in the secret of the treasure. The book, where the mysterious coordinates were found, belonged to a colleague to Björn. The colleague, who was named Jens, had loaned the book to Björn when they sailed on the same ship. The day before their boat was to depart from St. John in Antigua, they had celebrated a little evening before.
As we know, Björn is a bit easily influenced by alcohol, so that Björn became stubborn. When he then rented another ship, the book was left with Valerie. He was forgetful too, dear Bear. However, this guy was a countryman to Björn and they actually met in Singapore.
Jens worked as a cook both on land and at sea. But now he had met a nice girl from Sumatra and decided to go to country and live a safe family life. He felt that he should keep himself away from various people who wanted to talk with him. That's why he moved home to the Sumatra Girl's home island. The only one who knew where he was was Björn, he claimed.
Because Björn refused to turn to pick up Valerie, just keep my good and keep going. It was difficult to operate, it was an archipelago with many islands outside of Sumatra. I tried to get Björn to tell me more about what he knew about the treasure in the Caribbean. But he claimed that Jens was terrified as soon as he mentioned something about it and did not even say a word about it. The only thing Björn knew was that he had been a cook on a boat that was in some way involved.
Björn described Jens as a nervous type, short and quite round. With a chef's head on his head, he looked like a herb type for a chef, said Björn. Or maybe even more like the world's most famous Swedish, that is, the chef in the TV series All these Muppet. Every now and then he made his home country specialties, which were not always appreciated in this continent. At Sumatra, however, there were a lot of Dutch who liked European food.
In the afternoon we came to a river mouth, the river called Kampar. The jungle was dense on both sides of the river, and there were plenty of snakes and crocodiles. Although there were 60 million inhabitants of Sumatra, they clearly did not live here. If you were to hide from the outside world, this seems to be a great place.
Here, at least, there was an open space on the banks of the river where the villagers daily battle with the surrounding jungle about the rule of the ruler. Apart from a house, which seemed to be built by Dutchman, there were only a few plate shells and various primitive buildings.
"No big place to run a restaurant," I say.
"It's time to come to tourists on adventure safaris. In the manor house there's both the kitchen and the dining room, actually, "says Björn. The Manor was probably built a hundred years ago and was a monument to a bygone colonial era.
"I can not go to the dock with this boat, but as you can see, there's a canoe and pick up."
The canoe in question was a large trenched wooden house with two smaller wooden trunks as a trigger. It recalled the canoes in the South Sea but was apparently not unknown here, even though we usually saw more modern craft.
Björn spoke to the people in the canoe in a language that sounded like Swedish or Dutch. The two languages are quite similar to one who can not do any of them. Probably it was Dutch because the missionaries had done a good job of teaching the natives both Christianity and Dutch. At least I did not understand what they were talking about.
"They say that Jens is not in the village right now," explains Björn. "But you can come by country. I'll be back in two days and pick you up. Now, unfortunately, I have to return to Singapore and take care of my job. Morsning! "
There was not much to choose from. This morning, I had not meant to end up in a small town in the middle of the jungle. But because I wanted to complete my assignment, I followed my country while Björn's boat quickly removed.
I tried to talk with my new friends in the canoe, but they did not seem to understand English. There are actually areas on earth where English is not working. Jens girlfriend should be able to speak English, I assumed.
But neither was the girlfriend in the village. The nice people came to me in a hut in the middle of the village, not far from the well. When I tried to ask myself if there was someone who could speak English, they only shook their heads.
A helicopter approached the river and stopped above the place where Björn's tugboat should be at the moment. It then continued up the river and approached our city.
22. Elephants in the jungle
The experiences of recent days had made me a little suspicious. A helicopter in this fortified city did not seem fully normal. The villagers also seemed a little upset. One of the villagers who had robbed me in land hurried to talk about something that I did not understand. He pointed to the forest and I understood that it might be best if I disappeared from the village into the woods.
When the helicopter approached I walked in the trees, they might see me from the helicopter, maybe not. I entered the humid-jungle jungle and it was extremely difficult to get along. There were also no points right there. The trees were high so I went back in my own tracks until I found a lush tropical tree to climb in. I climbed for a while and tried to get an overview of the village.
From the ground I was completely invisible and I actually managed to find a small titular hole where I could peek down towards the central part of the village. An intensive discussion went down there. My pursuers were of Asian origin, perhaps our opponents were from the previous day. As I sat there for good, I saw that one of the branches almost wandered. I'm not very afraid of snakes, but this great python-like thing seemed worrying about me.
I was terrified at the same time as I called myself to sit still and not reveal myself to the snake. And not for my persecutors either for that matter. The descendants approached the woods and seemed to look for me. One of them was looking for fresh trails in the woods and apparently found the tracks for my