Preface

Jack went inside the ruin. He had a good look round and decided that the side in the shade would be the best place to dig the latrine. Apart from the shade, the remains of the wall would also afford some privacy. There was a shrub growing in the corner, so he decided to dig midway along that wall.

On the second jab of the shovel he hit wood. ‘Well it can’t be floorboards,’ he thought. ‘The houses only have mud or stone floors.’ He scraped the soil off the wood and it became apparent that it was the top of a box. He dug all around it and lifted it out of the hole that he’d now made. It was about four feet long, eight inches wide and eight inches deep. Maybe someone had buried a rifle or a large sword? Maybe it was buried treasure? He levered off the top of the box with the edge of the shovel. He figured he had made enough mistakes for one day so he didn’t put his hand into the box to find out what treasure was hidden in it. ‘Probably crawling with snakes or scorpions,’ he thought, remembering how every morning it was standard practice to check boots and socks before putting them on, to make sure that there were no venomous temporary lodgers hiding in them, having a siesta. He took out a match and lit it so that he could see what the box contained. No snakes or unpleasant creepy-crawlies and disappointingly no precious stones reflecting their presence back at him - no gold coins, not even a sword or a gun. The only thing in the box was an old stick, which had what looked like Arabic writing carved on it. There were a few bits of yellowed paper stuck to the stick and a square piece of wax with some sort of imprint on it, half attached to one of the pieces of paper. Jack carefully pulled the stick from the box, gave it a cursory inspection, threw it to one side, then continued digging the latrine.