Part one. Revsk

That morning, Misha Polyakov got up very early to cut out a rubber band for a slingshot from Uncle Semyon, an outdated bicycle chamber. In the courtyard he saw a neighbor, sailor Sergei Ivanovich Polevoy, who was hiding something under a doghouse. When the neighbor left, Misha put his hand in the cache and pulled out a sea-dagger without a scabbard wrapped in soft fabric. The blade of the dagger was trihedral, and "around the brown bone handle the snake wriggled with its bronze body with an open mouth and a tongue bent upward." Having examined the dagger, the boy returned it to its place, but could no longer forget it. He wondered why Polevoy was hiding this weapon.

At breakfast, it turned out that Uncle Semyon needed a bicycle cell, irreparably damaged, and Misha had to flee. Grandmother caught him just before dinner. To Misha’s surprise, they didn’t scold him at home. The adults were talking about Valeria Sigismundovich Nikitsky, the leader of the local gang, who in the past was a white naval officer. In the evening, the boy sat for a long time on the porch with Polevoy, and the sailor told him about the battleship “Empress Maria”, which he had once served on. This battleship exploded and sank, but for what reason the explosion occurred - no one knew.

Misha could not sleep at night. He remembered Moscow and his mother, whom he missed. The boy’s father died in imprisonment, his mother worked in a textile factory. Life was hard for them, so Misha was sent on vacation to Revsk to his mother’s parents.

The next day, Misha was put under house arrest. The boy was bored, and he decided once again to look at the dagger. In the yard, two woodcutters sawed wood. Misha pulled out a dagger and noticed that on each of the three faces of the blade the hallmarks in the form of a wolf, a scorpion and a lily were crowded out. The woodcutters, suspiciously interested in Polev, prevented the boy from hiding the dagger. Then my grandmother went out into the yard, started making jam, and Misha had to hide the dirk under the roller of her sofa.

Toward dinner, when it became completely boring, a red-haired Gena Petrov appeared, the son of the driver, Misha's best friend, and knocked him out of the window. Friends took refuge in the Genkina hut, arranged on a tree, from where the whole Revsk was visible. The boys were still in hiding when the whites burst into the city. After some time, Misha made his way home. "In the dining room there was a desperate struggle between Polevoy and the bandits." When the sailor was twisted, Nikitsky began to demand a dirk from him, but Polevoy was silent. Having searched the sailor's room, the White Guards led him to the door, and here Misha put the dagger in Polevoy’s hand, and he threw himself under the feet of one of the White Guards. The field ran away, and a blow of a gun hit the boy’s head.

When Misha came to his senses, his mother was nearby: she came to take her son home. The wagon leaving for Moscow was to be attached to the military echelon under the command of Polevoy. Misha hit Genka with a hare to go to Moscow to his aunt Agrippina Tikhonovna, who lived in the same house as the Polyakovs.

Soon Polevoy came to Misha and told the story of the dagger. He belonged to an officer named Vladimir, who served on the Empress Mary. Polevoy saw Nikitsky, an officer of the same ship, just before the explosion killed Vladimir from behind a dagger. Polevoy tried to stop the villain, but during the battle an explosion thundered. When the sailor woke up, he had a dagger in his hand, and Nikitsky remained the scabbard. Upon learning that Polevoy lives in Revsk, Nikitsky came for a dagger. Why did he need him, the sailor did not know, but he was not going to give the dagger to the enemy ...

Two days later, the train went to Moscow. Genka hid in an iron box under the car.In the morning, Misha discovered that the train was on the siding, and Genka was caught and interrogated at headquarters. Rescued a friend Polevoy, after which Gena received permission from his father to go to his aunt.

... The train for the second week was at the station Nizkovka. There was not enough food, and the guys decided to go to the nearest forest for mushrooms. The road was shown to them incorrectly, so friends returned to the train late in the evening and asked for overnight to the lineman. Friends had already fallen asleep when Nikitsky burst into the house. He wanted to make the lineman stop the train, which was supposed to pass here in an hour. The lineman refused. The boys jumped out of the house, saw that the bandits were sorting out the paths, and ran to the echelon with all their legs. They managed to warn Polevoy.

After the battle, Polevoy said goodbye to Misha, gave him a dirk and revealed his last secret. It turned out that the handle with a copper snake is disassembled. A thin metal plate with a cipher is stored inside the handle. Polevoy believed that the key to the cipher was in the sheath that Nikitsky had left. That is why he seeks to get a dagger. Nikitsky had an assistant, a former orderly Filin, originally from Revsk. Misha recalled that Filin also lives in his Moscow house.

Part two. Yard on the Arbat

A year has passed. All this time, the dagger was safely hidden in Misha’s closet. The boy kept the secret of the dagger and often wondered if his neighbor was Filas' zavskladom, thereby an accomplice of the Nikitsky bandit. Only Genkin's aunt Agrippina Tikhonovna knew about the past of this Filin, called him a crappy person, but did not tell the boys anything. Misha was still friends with Genka. Another of his friends was the pianist Slava Eldarov - a pale, sickly boy, the son of a singer and chief engineer of a factory where almost all the women of Misha’s house worked.

In 1921, after a hungry winter, Misha's vacation began on May 15. On the first day of vacation, the boy met Borka Filin in the courtyard, nicknamed Zhila. Misha knew that the greedy Borka "trades in the Smolensk market in bulk and toffee". Under their house was a vast basement, which Zhila knew best of all. His favorite amusement was tales of the dead, coffins and underground passages to lure someone into the basement, leave in the dark and lie low until the victim pleads for help.

On that day, Misha decided to play the same cruel joke with Zhila himself. Wandering in the dark through the labyrinth of the basement, the boy fell into an underground corridor. Borka did not give him an inspection of this place, but promised that he would capture the lantern and bring Misha here the next day. In the morning, however, it was discovered that the janitor had pounded the entrance to the basement by order of the Owl’s warehouse — his warehouse adjoined the basement. Misha’s suspicions intensified.

Meanwhile, a rumor went around the yard about a circle of pioneers organized by the Krasnopresnenskaya printing house. The guys decided to find out who the pioneers are and join them, but for now open their own theater group. In the basement, where all the circles of the house settled, Misha found another move into the basement and persuaded his friends to explore the dungeon. The boy believed that the owl was hiding something there.

Through the passage, the boys entered a high room filled with wooden crates that really resemble coffins. In front of the guys brought new boxes into the basement. Then, along with Filin, a tall man descended there, whose voice Misha knew. He named the stranger Sergei Ivanovich as a warehouse manager. Coming out of the basement, Misha saw this man, but did not make out his face. The boy began to suspect that Nikitsky was hiding under an unfamiliar name.

Misha was appointed the administrator of the theater circle. To raise money, he organized a lottery, the prize in which was his own volume of Gogol. Vein, as always, tried to interfere, and Genka in the heat of the moment told him that he knew about the underground passage and the boxes. He did not know how serious all this was, and Misha had to show his friends a dirk.Genka instantly became convinced that the code of the dagger hides the place where the treasure is hidden. Friends decided to hunt down a tall stranger.

Part three. New acquaintances

A few days later Misha went to the Smolensky market to buy makeup and props. There he met Elena and Igor Frolov, acrobats, who somehow gave a performance in their yard. The boy invited them to speak at the opening of the circle. The collection from the first performance was intended to starve the Volga. Then a street kid stole Misha’s wallet. The boy caught up with him and tore off both sleeves of the shabby coat in which he was dressed in a fight. Misha had no choice but to take a street kid named Mishka Korovin to his home. There he was fed dinner, and Misha’s mom sewed on her sleeves.

Meanwhile, Gena, who was watching the owl’s warehouse, noticed a tall stranger and escorted him to the diner. The guys rushed there, but the stranger disappeared. After scouring the surrounding streets, Misha saw a stranger and an owl enter a philatelic store. Following them, the boy discovered that the conspirators had come out through the back door, and managed to peep as the old philatelist hid under the lock an oblong object, a ring and a ball, which opened as a fan. It must have been a scabbard from a dagger.

The boys needed to make sure that Filin was from Revsk. They found out this information from Genkina’s aunt. Was Filin a sailor, the guys decided to find out from Borka.

On the same day, friends visited Krasnopresnensky pioneers. Their Komsomol counselor promised to help organize a pioneer detachment on the Arbat.

The next day, tracking down Owl, Slava and Genka gave themselves out with reckless behavior. Now, none of the friends could go to the philatelic store.

The first performance of the theater circle was a success, and after the performance a pioneer squad was created.

Part Four. Squad No. 17

To find out if Filin served in the Navy, the children succeeded by deceiving Borka-Zhil. Friends told him that they were going to stage a “play from sailor's life”, and asked to get something out of uniform. In exchange for Mishin, Borka’s knife brought a faded ribbon from his cap with a gold inscription “Empress Maria”.

The suspicions of the guys were confirmed - Filin turned out to be a former batman of Nikitsky. Now friends were thinking how to get the scabbard from the dagger. The boys could not come to the philatelic store: the old philatelist knew them by sight and was on his guard. The guys made an action plan only by the end of August. From their brother and sister Frolov, who now worked in the circus, they took an old cart. Having fixed billboards with cinema advertisements on it, friends installed a trolley every day opposite the philatelic store. One of them hid between the shields and watched the old man and his guests. Soon, Misha overheard the philatelist discussing a complex cipher with Filin, and then he saw the old man picking up the scabbard. They folded like a fan and secured with a ring. Misha no longer saw the tall stranger, but found out that in fact his name was Valery Sigismundovich.

The criminals handed each other the scabbard through Borka, while Zhila had long been stuck on an advertising trolley. Seizing the moment when he was carrying a bundle with a scabbard, the boys offered Borka to buy a cart and began to bargain with him. He put the bundle of Veins on the ground, and Korovin, a street child, by agreement with the guys, carefully removed the scabbard from it. Having deployed them at Misha’s house, friends saw the same code as on the dagger plate.

Part Five Seventh group "B"

Classes at school began. At one of the lessons, Misha was guilty: the teacher found on his desk an extraneous book about ancient hand weapons. The school principal Alexei Ivanovich became interested in Misha’s unexpected hobby. He also knew that friends were interested in ciphers. Misha had to tell the director everything and show the dagger with the scabbard.

Alexey Ivanovich connected the two parts of the cipher, and one inscription was obtained, encrypted with ten-digit litorea.With the help of a book on ciphers, he read: "By this reptile to start a watch, the arrow will follow at noon the tower itself will be turned." Reptile was a snake on the hilt of the dagger. She should have started some hours. Misha suggested that the watch belonged to the owner of a dagger named Vladimir. Now he had to find his family.

The director introduced the boys to Comrade Sviridov, a man in an overcoat and a military cap, who confirmed the information found by the guys in the library. Dirk made a regimental weapons master, who lived in the XVIII century. This is the boys set according to the marks on the blade and along its length. Then, in the marine collection, the director found the name of V.V. Terentyev, an engineer in the navy who died in the explosion on the Empress of Mary. The encyclopedia also found information about the weapons master of the XVIII century Terentyev. It turned out that the marine engineer was a descendant of the gunsmith, and the dagger could be inherited. The guys hid from adults only their guesses that Nikitsky was in Moscow, and Filin was helping him.

An engineer Terentyev could be a student of the professor and admiral Podvolotsky, whose granddaughter was Misha's classmate. Having taken her address, friends went to the widow and daughter of the admiral. The old woman remembered Vladimir Vladimirovich Terentyev. It turned out that Valery Nikitsky was the brother of his wife. There were also old letters from Terentyev with a return address.

Part Six House in Pushkin

Terentyev was from Petrograd, but Pushkino was mentioned in one of the letters. The passport office did not give them specific information about whether relatives of Terentyev were still living in Petrograd. It turned out only that the mother of the engineer lives somewhere near Moscow.

On winter Sunday, the boys went to Pushkino. Having traveled the whole village on skis, they found nothing and were about to leave. At the station, the guys met acrobats. As it turned out, they also lived in Pushkin, next door to Maria Gavrilovna Terentyeva. Climbing into the attic of their house, Misha saw Terentyev’s courtyard and a tall stranger who left her house. This time the boy saw his face. It was Nikitsky.

Misha told Sviridov about everything, who ordered "to wait and not to go to Pushkino anymore." The guys plunged into their worries - began to prepare for joining the Komsomol. After an interview in the selection committee of the Komsomol cell, friends went to Petrovka to Sviridov. He said that Nikitsky denies everything and “stubbornly calls himself Sergei Ivanovich Nikolsky,” and Filin liquidated his warehouse: someone frightened him.

Sviridov organized a confrontation between Nikitsky and Misha. The boy spoke in detail about the raid on Revsk and presented a dagger. Then Terentyeva entered the office and recognized her son’s dagger. Nikitsky also deceived her, calling himself a stranger and entering confidence.

A large tower clock was found in the Terentyev’s house, to which the snake approached from the hilt of the dagger. In the watch case a cache filled with papers opened. It was a detailed list of sunken ships with coordinates and a list of treasures. Nikitsky was interested in the ship of the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey, who sank in Balaklava Bay with a cargo of gold on board.

The list was sent to the organization Sudopod, where Polevoy worked, and three friends were solemnly accepted into the Komsomol.