The Pamphylian Treasure

"Andrew," I began immediately, "is the CIA doing some bizarre archeological work?"

"What, like Raiders of the Lost Ark?" he answered, catching on quickly, as any good movie fan.

"Yes, exactly like that, but not the lost ark, or the Holy Grail, nor yet Cleopatra's tomb."

"There's not a lot left" he said, laughing. "What's led you to this speculation? You're not normally let to pursue myths and legends, apart from tracing abandoned railroad lines in New England when you're home long enough."

"Yes, but they're real enough," I said. "Beanie Rice was in town the other day with Solange, and we went to see them at her parents.

"Well, you know how sometimes you hear two random bits of information within a short time of each other, and they fit together with a click?" I continued. "That's what happened.

"An old friend of Sabine's was around about a month ago with a colleague from one of the Sorbonnes. He made a throw-away comment about some archeological work in Turkey having been abandoned a few years ago because the area was to be flooded to make a reservoir. The archaeologists moved out and the engineers moved in. A dam was built, turbines installed, the lot, but the valley was never flooded."

"I remember this," Andrew said. "There was a television documentary about it. Roman mosaics and villas - that sort of thing."

"That's it. Only, apparently, the engineers have now moved out and the oil companies have moved in."

"Sounds typical," Andrew said. "So what did Beanie say?"

"It was a casual remark," I said. "He wasn't giving away secrets."

"No, he wouldn't," Andrew agreed.

"It's not an oil company's anyone's heard of. It's based in Indonesia. No known backers in the oil trade. That was the second piece.

"The third is something I stumbled on myself. It's a line in a minor Russian short story from the 19^th century that talks about the flight of the Trojans after their defeat, and how before dispersing to other destinations, a good number of them regrouped in Pamphylia. They planned to return so they hid the rest of the Trojan treasure.

"Now the coast of Pamphylia has always been a notorious place for pirates, and some of those pirates were descended from the rump of the Trojans."

"So you think the oil company is the CIA in treasure-hunting mode?" Andrew asked.

"The CIA has plenty of people who know about oil, and Beanie isn't one of them," I said.

"True. But is he a treasure hunter? No," Andrew said, "but he's a hunter. You could be right. Bus is there a Pamphylian treasure?"

"Not until someone finds it."