“Ships,” said Keller. “The fleet of the sea king.”

His surrender was so complete, so unexpected, that Jim was taken aback.

“What?” he gasped.

“Yes.” Keller let out a long, shuddering sigh. “It is yours by right. It was his. I am only the guardian.”

Jim’s arm tightened around my shoulders.

“He’s right,” I said. “ Frederick knows about it too. That’s why he brought me here.”

“Wait a minute,” Jim said dazedly. “I can’t take it in, it’s too much. A fleet? One Bronze Age ship was found in Turkey. A trading vessel, fantastically well preserved, but not carrying a rich cargo. Are you trying to tell me that an entire Minoan fleet sank in that bay, and that it survived? No. I don’t believe it.”

“He saw it,” said Keller. As always, he avoided the name, but neither of us wondered who the pronoun “he” referred to. “Two years before the war, when he was on Thera for a few days. To hear him describe it, was an experience one could never forget. The sea bottom for many acres strewn with rotting ships and cargo-anchors, masts, amphorae, even the ropes of the rigging.”

The words came pouring out of him. The sheer relief of being able to speak, after years of silence… Or was it more than that? Words aregiven to us to conceal our thoughts; people sometimes talk about one subject in order to avoid another that is more dangerous. The suspicion flashed through my mind and then was gone, in the fascination of Keller’s story.

“It was a summer of bad weather. Storms and winds and earthquakes. He had come, after a season’s work in Crete, to pursue a personal theory. He had read the reports of the early excavators- you know, of course, that Fouque discovered Minoan houses here in the 1870’s. Nothing was done to follow up those discoveries, and since Fouque’s time the excavations on Crete had opened up an entire new civilization. So he came, dreaming, as young men do, of making great discoveries.

“Do you believe in accident? If so, you will say that by pure accident he arrived between two storms, one of which swept the bottom of this bay clear of the sand that had covered the fleet for thousands of years. He had hired one of the fishermen to take him on a trip around the island. The man was reluctant to go because he feared more bad weather, but at last he was persuaded.

“They anchored briefly in this bay, so that he might search the base of the cliffs for ruins. Diving, he struck his hand on an anchor that protruded out of the ocean floor. Accident, you say? Cling to that thought. It is not pleasant to think we are the toys of vast forces indifferent to man…

“You were thunderstruck to hear of his discovery. Imagine his sensations, seeing it spread out before his very eyes. But he was trained, he knew these islands and their people. He knew that if the ship’s captain learned what he had found, there would be looting, hasty and destructive. He dared not remove any object large enough to be noticed by the crew. He took only one thing-”

“The dagger,” I interrupted. “Like the inlaid daggers from Mycenae, Jim. Frederick has it now. How did he get it?”

Keller’s mouth tightened. “If he told any other of his find, I was not informed. He told me, because he could not bear that it should be lost, and because he knew I felt as he did about archaeology.”

Jim had been frozen throughout the long speech. Now he said, in a croaking voice, “But why didn’t he come back? Why didn’t he tell someone-other archaeologists, the Greek government-”

“He did come back,” Keller said. “Three days later, after the second storm. He came on foot, overland, and swam, recklessly, alone. He found nothing. Another convulsion-accident, my young friends?-had reburied the ships. He had not the opportunity to do more. You must remember that this was before the war, before the development of the self-contained breathing apparatus for diving. His find was deep, deeper than you”-he nodded at me-“have yet gone. Fifty feet, perhaps more. Oh, certainly, divers could work at greater depths, even without the clumsy suits that were the only equipment available then. The sponge divers of the Aegean have been doing it for centuries. But this was an entirely new field. None of the techniques of underwater archaeology had been dreamed of, much less worked out. He was dazzled by the immensity of the problem; and he had also a touch of the hoarding instinct all scholars have. The find was his, his alone, and no one else should see it until he was in a position to handle it as it deserved. Also, I think, he was something of a mystic. It was as if someone had opened the sea to him with one sweep of a giant hand and said, ‘Here. It is for you. I have kept it for you for three thousand years.’ What had waited so long could wait a little longer. The warclouds were gathering, and the Greek government was not concerned with protecting antiquities. At any moment the waters might be closed to him and his people; to speak out would disclose the secret to those who would exploit it for themselves or neglect it in the more urgent demands of survival. You shake your head; you cannot understand. But I can. Even now, I think I would have acted as he did under those circumstances.”

“Oh, I can understand,” Jim muttered. “Certainly I can understand his desire to keep it for himself. But it’s like a-like a fantastic dream. Even if he wasn’t hallucinating, the ships can’t be there now.”

“I think they are gone,” Keller said calmly. “I, too, have searched. When I was younger and stronger, I swam often in the bay. Never did I find a scrap. For ten years now I have done nothing. When Frederick came here, I suspected that he also knew. How he found out I do not know. I never spoke to anyone, not even to Kore.”

“How did Kore and Frederick know each other?” I asked, since he seemed to be in an informative mood.

But Keller had finished for the day. “Kore’s life is her own to discuss,” he said curtly. “She has been loving and faithful to me, and that is all that concerns me. You asked me what I knew; I have spoken.”

He swung on his heel in a neat military about-face and walked away.

Jim sat down on the rock, pulling me down with him. He let out a long whistle.

“That hit the jackpot, didn’t it? Sandy, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know it was your uncle’s discovery. I don’t remember exactly what Frederick told me, but he certainly implied that he found the ships himself.”

Jim was silent, but his silence was suggestive. I went on, answering the question he hadn’t asked.

“Maybe your uncle told him.”

“Maybe,” Jim said dubiously. “We’ll never know, not if we expect Frederick to tell us. I passed the house on the way up here. He was in the courtyard washing pots, as if that were the most important thing on his mind.”

“I’m not sure he believes in the ships himself,” I said. “His behavior has been so erratic, almost as if he were afraid to pursue the idea for fear it will turn out to be a mirage. Jim, now that you know, what are we going to do about it?”

“Damned if I know. It’s too big to take in all at once, and too amorphous. And there are more pressing problems.”

“Like what?”

“Like you. I can understand now why you’re reluctant to leave Thera. I was pushing you too hard. How about a compromise?”

“Such as?”

“You could move to a hotel in Phira for a few days while we consider the situation. I know you’re worried about money, but that’s a minor consideration. With what we know now, we can blackmail Frederick if we have to. We need time and freedom from pressure to sort out all the possibilities.”

“What about the hotel in the village? Does Angelos still refuse to rent me a room?”

“I wouldn’t take it if he offered. Things have gone from bad to worse down there. We haven’t gotten any work done for days. The men show up, but they don’t do anything; they stand around in groups muttering.”