‘Granted that their value goes down with every copy that we make, but we’re not primarily interested in selling them and using them as wealth. What we want is the information the maps contain, and whether we can use it to get back home. That doesn’t degrade, no matter how many times we copy the maps, and if we can make a bigger, better map that contains all the details from the smaller maps, then we might even make it more valuable.’ He shrugged. ‘If Crows wants the originals after that, then he can take them, and it won’t bother us at all. How does that sound?’

Crows sounded incredulous. ‘You would give me the maps? All of them?’

‘After we’d made copies and checked them, why not? Like I said, we don’t want to spend them. We want to use them to find our way. In the meantime, you can make sure we’re not mugged by some other bunch of thieves.’

‘Why not copy the maps here?’ asked Elena.

‘It’s not like we can pop to the shops for a pad of A4 and a packet of biros,’ said Dalip. ‘Paper-making is going to happen in only a very few places here. We may as well go to one of them.’

She nodded, satisfied with his explanation, and his plan. ‘Okay. I trust you, and if you say he comes, he comes.’

‘I do not trust him,’ said Luiza. ‘At all. Leave him here to rot.’

‘I don’t trust him either,’ said Dalip. ‘But I still think we can work together.’

Mama humphed and put her hands on her hips. ‘Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. And I’m figuring that you’ve been doing a lot of fooling, Mr Crows, and you don’t know when to stop. Oh, I’m sure you’re full of stories and helpful advice, and who knows, some of it, even most of it, may be true. But at heart, you’re a liar and a thief. You’re not going to change that any time soon, and being so close to so much treasure is going to be such a temptation, that apple Eve offered Adam is going to look like wormwood after a while. Mark my words, this man is not to be trusted with anything important.’

Crows looked sourly at the ground. ‘That is harsh, to have all your faults laid out before you. But, good lady, I cannot deny that you are right. My nature is to betray those who trust me, eventually, when it will do them most damage. I will leave you now, and wish you well. Perhaps we will meet again, under different circumstances.’

Head still down, he started to walk away, and only stopped when Mary started her slow hand-clap.