CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: Schumanzer's folly?

Schumanzer yelped with joy as he held Martin's treasure map in his paws. He paid 300 GP for this and it had better be good.

Born of rich German parents, Schumanzer has seen his fortunes dwindling since he became an avid collector. Quite a collector he is too--mostly of useless things: a dictionary of 5000 useless words; a rare book of useless facts and lies; and the list goes on...

"Alas! another collectible!", he murmured to himself, as he tore open the package containing his treasure.

To his horror, he can't decipher the treasure map. He turned it upside down, then sideways and then all around, hoping that something sensible would just jump out of the map when he did that.

Actually, Schumanzer never went to school and he cannot read a thing. When he does, he reads from right to left...so the word: M-A-R-T-I-N is read as N-I-T-R-A-M, which of course make no sense.

After studying the map for an hour or so, he decided that the treasure must be where the red X is.

" X marks the spot!",he revelled in his cleverness. That was what his dad used to say all the time when they were looking at things in the map.

So began Schumanzer's journey to look for that special place in Dogland that is marked with an 'X'.

"Not any ordinary X mind you, but a RED one!" he reminded himself.

Will Schumanzer find his treasure? Only Martin knows!