by Don Bosco
THE
SCROLL OF
GREATNESS
© 2016 Don Bosco (Super Cool Books) and Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Pte Ltd
This book is published by Marshall Cavendish Children in association with Super Cool Books. Marshall Cavendish Children is an imprint of Marshall Cavendish International
First published 2014 in e-book format by Super Cool Books
All rights reserved
Cover Illustration by Ann Gee
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National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Bosco, Don, 1971- author.
The Scroll of Greatness / Don Bosco. – Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Children, 2015.
pages cm. – (Sherlock Hong adventures)
eISBN : 978 981 4721 63 9
1. Conspiracies – Fiction. 2. Scrolls – Fiction. 3. Criminal investigation
– Fiction. 4. Teenagers – Fiction. 5. Singapore – History – 1867-1942 – Fiction. I. Title. II. Series: Sherlock Hong adventures.
PR9570.S53
S823 -- dc23 OCN920497468
Printed in Singapore by Fabulous Printers Pte Ltd
CHAPTER 1
Why are we here?
Is there something special that we’re supposed to do?
What’s your destiny? How can you be sure about this?
My name is Sherlock Hong. The year is 1891. As I write this, I feel alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic.
I have a great story for you, my friend. Something wonderful and marvellous, amazing beyond your wildest dreams.
So much has happened over the past few months. It feels like the whole world is moving into a magical new era. The old becomes the new, and the new very quickly becomes something else altogether.
This is a tremendously significant time for us, the International Order of Young Seekers. Where there is mystery, we must show up and apply our skills to establish the truth. Where there is fear or doubt, we must stand firm and do everything we can to promote courage and loyalty.
The future belongs to the young and brave!
Read every page carefully, imagine each scene in your head. This latest adventure changes everything that I know about the world around me. There is more to life than we can imagine.
And this colony that I call home, I am just beginning to realise its true significance. It is like a city that shines brightly for the world to admire. And therefore all sorts of people are drawn here to seek their fortune: heroes, villains, alchemists, pirates, saints, thieves, inventors, dreamers, and others.
Stop wasting your time telling silly jokes, or playing foolish games, or standing in front of the mirror and trying to dance like a zombie.
Pay attention, for I have seen the Scroll of Greatness with my own eyes. And I have heard about visitors from a distant planet.
CHAPTER 2
On the day this whole affair started, I was waiting in Chinatown for my friend Aisha at the street corner across from where the exhibition was held.
It was a part of Chinatown that I wasn’t familiar with. My own home lies closer to the east boundary, where the older mansions are, and where most of the clan halls are located.
This place, on the other hand, was all the way over in the north section, an area filled with big warehouses and private courtyards.
Everyone here looked strangely unfamiliar. The men dressed in long coats, with silk vests and tight caps on their heads, while the women wore padded jackets and powdered their faces so thickly that often you couldn’t make out any of their features; only the dainty blacks of their eyes could be seen.
I was getting anxious because my friend Aisha was supposed to meet me at that spot, but she was very late.
For just one afternoon, the Scroll of Greatness would be on display right here in Singapore, in the very mansion across the street, before they shipped it to Penang.
It’s also sometimes called the Great Scroll, and it explains the secret techniques they used to build the Great Wall of China.
I had read a number of books about this legendary Chinese wonder, and my tutor, Miss Priya, recently showed me a map of it that was drawn by a French traveller a hundred years back.
I remember staring at that map for hours, asking her endless questions, trying to picture it all in my head.
How on earth could any human being have come up with such an ambitious scheme to construct this magnificent wall?
It would surely take a person of tremendous intelligence and mastery over the many elements of this world.
I remembered reading somewhere that the ancient pyramids of Egypt might have been built by visitors from another planet, where the methods of construction were significantly more advanced. I asked Miss Priya about this but she only gave me a funny look.
And so I waited and waited, playing with the two crimson marble balls that Miss Priya gave me for my birthday, tossing them in the air and trying to juggle them, but dropping them on my feet so often – and once even on my head, hard, and I almost fainted. But still there was no sign of Aisha.
My father, the popular physician Master Hong, had refused to visit this exhibition. When I heard this, I was astonished. Didn’t he want to examine the Scroll himself?
But later I learnt why. The organiser, Master Chun, had been dismissed from the local Chamber of Prosperity because he had brought in the Scroll of Greatness from China without first seeking their consent.
Pa was a senior member of the Chamber of Prosperity, and he did not want to be seen supporting Master Chun. The Chamber of Prosperity was one of the more powerful organisations in the colony, and Pa often needed their help.
As I stood there contemplating all this, sometimes bending down to make funny sketches in the sand with my index finger, the wind got stronger and the shadows on the ground grew a little longer.
Aisha! Where could she be?
CHAPTER 3
Then, across the street, in front of the mansion, I saw a man appear from out of nowhere and peel off the row of big yellow notices that were stuck along the wall, until only one was left.
The exhibition would be over soon!
I looked around frantically. Should I keep waiting for Aisha? Or would she understand if I went in on my own?
I so badly wanted to see the Scroll of Greatness for myself. For too many nights I had been dreaming about it. I had heard that it contained precious informatio
n written in a strange code. For thousands of years, nobody had managed to make sense of it.
I knew that if I could figure it out, I’d be famous! People would come from all over the world to listen to me speak and offer me jars and jars of delicious yam pudding with bits of sweet plum inside. What a wonderful life that would be!
The man was closing the door just as I made up my mind.
“No!” I yelled. “Wait!”
I dashed across the street, squeezing my way between a cart and some coolies, but I was too late, he didn’t notice me.
I banged on the door. “Please, just for a few minutes, let me see the Scroll!”
I held my breath and listened, hoping that he would come back.
I remember thinking that it should have been Master Chun taking down the notices and closing up, or one of his regular assistants, but instead it was someone else, a complete stranger.
CHAPTER 4
There was a sound just behind me. I turned around.
I was hoping to see Aisha. Maybe she would be breathless after running all the way. Maybe she would be offering all sorts of apologies for being so late.
But no, instead it was an old woman, dressed in simple Malay clothes. She didn’t seem to notice me.
She reached out and ran her fingers gently all over the yellow notice, the last one left on the wall.
It was covered in elegant Chinese calligraphy, with a brush sketch of a long box at the bottom.
“Can you tell me what’s written here?” she said softly, without even glancing in my direction.
That was when I realised that she could not see.
“It’s the Scroll of Greatness,” I mumbled. “It was on display this afternoon. But they’re closed now.”
“Oh!” the woman replied, with a slight nod of her head.
There was a pause, and then she added, “Young man, is something wrong?”
“No,” I said, even though I guessed that she could sense the truth.
I turned and walked away. My heart was heavy with so much disappointment.
Aisha promised me she would be there. And I believed her!
Aisha and I have been friends for many years, since the days of our early childhood when we chased each other by the stream that runs past the back gate of my garden. She’s very smart and mostly soft-spoken, except when she gets angry and then she can kick up quite a storm.
When I first came back from London, I had no one else to turn to for help. But to my delight she proved to be a most capable assistant during my previous two adventures, the one where I helped the police catch a local cheat, and also the one where we travelled to Malacca and helped to save the young Peranakan princess.
Sometimes I fear that Aisha has her own agenda, her private schemes that might distract her from our important duties. For example, she spends a lot of time with Jayathri, the daughter of a senior engineer working at the Singapore Prison. Jayathri doesn’t like me, and she makes this quite clear. Once when Aisha wasn’t looking, Jayathri even stuck out her tongue at me and hissed rudely.
If Aisha had turned up that day, she would have stopped me. But I was so desperate to see the Scroll that I got carried away and what I did next was absolutely crazy and wrong.
CHAPTER 5
The exhibition was supposed to last half an hour longer. Although they had locked the front door early, I figured that I was still entitled to see the Scroll if I managed to find another way inside.
Or at least if I could find the man who had just locked the front door, I could beg him to make an exception for me and let me spend a few minutes examining the Scroll.
It was already getting dark as I walked around to the alley behind the mansion.
Looking back, that was a silly thing to do. But I am a proud member of the International Order of Young Seekers. It is my duty to seek out the mysterious matters of this world and report them to all of you, my brothers and sisters.
I’d been especially inspired after reading our latest newsletter, which arrived twenty-five days ago. The stories inside made me realise how much we can achieve once we set our hearts and minds to it. I was particularly interested in the reports about:
Amelia Graham, 15, daughter of Lady Jane Graham, the writer and painter. Amelia invented an improved pulley system and introduced this to some villages in the south of England so that the people could draw water from their wells much faster and with less effort. The pulley system is so well designed that even children are able to use it.
Ram Joshi, 18, son of the esteemed botanist and poet K K Joshi, who translated seven books of the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras, mostly writings about the invisible systems that govern all of creation.
Abdullah Ali Hazan and his sister Fatma Ali Hazan, 16 and 15 respectively, who volunteered for three weeks at a hospital in Turkey after there was an outbreak of a strange fever that gave its victims rashes and severe hallucinations.
That day, as I stood at the back wall of the mansion, I sincerely hoped that I might join their ranks soon, so that my contributions to society would be acknowledged by our Order, and I might serve as an inspiration to the younger members who come after me.
I thought all this over for a while, and when I was ready, I started to climb the wall.
I balanced myself at the top and looked around. I was hoping to see someone there, so I could ask him or her to open the front door for me.
But no, I was out of luck.
The backyard was filthy beyond belief. The ground was covered in dead leaves and the place stank of dog droppings. There was also a line of dead animals piled up along the left wall: small cats perhaps, or large rats, or perhaps a breed of skinny dogs, I couldn’t quite tell, and of course there were flies swarming menacingly all over the rotting flesh.
Believe me, I have seen many dirty places in my time, especially during my travels with Pa to visit his patients across the region, but this place seemed outstandingly disgusting.
I was peering hard at the back door of the mansion — it was half open — when perhaps there was a gust of wind, or maybe my foot slipped, and somehow I fell off the wall and landed on the other side.
My hands were badly scratched, and my right sleeve was ripped all the way up past my elbow.
I hadn’t planned on entering the place without permission; I just wanted to speak to someone. But now it was too late.
The ground on the inside was much lower and I couldn’t get back up the wall. The only way out again was through the mansion itself.
I crossed my fingers and hoped that there wasn’t a bunch of crazy dogs inside, ready to rush out and attack me.
I took a deep breath and reminded myself, “The future belongs to the young and brave!”
Then I walked towards the back door.
Maybe I’d get to see the Scroll of Greatness after all.
CHAPTER 6
Inside, it was all creepy and quiet.
“Hello?” I said. “Excuse me?”
No response.
I went past the kitchen and entered a big room. I was so dazzled by what I saw that I forgot to breathe. The room contained a collection of the most amazing treasures from all over the world!
There were weapons from China: big swords, tiny daggers for throwing, heavy spears, collapsible fans with sharp cutting edges that looked innocent and elegant, but in the hands of a martial arts expert, were as effective as any blade.
Statues from India: beautiful figurines of all sizes, some even towering above me, representing mythological characters of all sorts, humans as well as deities as well as demons. Some sitting with their eyes closed, some dancing with a look of great joy on their faces, some pouting and scowling with so much aggression that any young child would have been terrified.
Masks from Africa. Paintings from Europe. Engravings from Egypt. Lovely vases from the old Greek and Persian empires. Strange machines assembled from rods and wheels and pendulums, probably from England or France.
I tiptoed around in a
we.
I recognised so many of them from my time in London studying the books in my mentor’s private library. But in a corner, there was a bizarre-looking statue that made my jaw drop. I had never seen anything like it before.
When I close my eyes now, I can still picture it clearly. It had a small and thin body, while its head was big and pointed. Its eyes were huge and they bulged out of the creature’s face. From head to toe, it was painted an unsettling shade of green, which made its skin look like tough leather. In the dim light, I almost expected it to step forward and greet me in a language from some other world.
I was lost in these thoughts when suddenly a big shadow fell over me!
I turned around in panic, just as a monstrous sound made my skin crawl.
It sounded partly like the angry roar of a cursed creature, and partly like the violent sneeze of an abominable monster.
I felt the air around me turn cold, and a sudden shiver ran down my back. It was like an invisible hand had gone under my clothes and was running its fingernails along my spine. I so very much wanted to scream, just to release the awful sense of dread I could feel building up inside me, but it got stuck in my throat and refused to emerge.
Fear held me in its grasp so strongly that I could even smell it. Truly, I almost peed in my pants, but I managed not to.
CHAPTER 7
The man who caught me, he was tall and very thin. He wore an elegant silk robe, and he had a neat beard that reached down to his chest. There was something sinister about him. His eyes were shaped in an unnatural way, and they reminded me of a painting I once saw at the home of a snake charmer in Penang, when I accompanied my father there on one of his trips.
The snake charmer explained that the painting was an old masterpiece from the Kingdom of Siam, and it showed an ancient snake goddess about to devour her enemies.
This man had the same cold and merciless eyes, and I could sense a dark power emanating from him.