The sixth adventure for the Trents and Mannerings begins on board the Viking Star, a cruise ship that sets sail from Southampton and heads for the Greek islands. On the way, the children come across an old ship in a bottle which contains a Greek treasure map, and they set out to hunt down the treasure on the remote island of Thamis. For me, the best part of the book is while they're sailing about the islands trying to figure out how to translate the treasure map, while the actual "adventure" part of the booksearching for the treasue and dealing with bad guysis all a little contrived and unbelievable.

To back-track a little: Mrs Mannering decides that she and the children are to go on a cruisewithout Bill, because (she says) he keeps leading them into trouble. I thought it was the other way around! So anyway, off they go to Southampton, staying the night in a hotel so they can set sail at eight thirty the next morning. Kiki is not allowed on board the ship, so Jack quietly "makes arrangements" for his friend Porky to look after her in Southampton while they're gone. Finally the ship sets sail and, as they pull away from the docks, the children suddenly spot someone waving them off with a parrot on his shouldera parrot that looks suspiciously like Kiki. The parrot breaks free and flies towards them. But Jack has by this time mysteriously disappeared, and it takes a while for the others to find him. When they do, he's in the boys' cabinwith Kiki on his shoulder! Jack has cleverly plotted with his friend Porky to "accidentally" let Kiki loose so she can join the children on board!