The Quest

The Auction room was buzzing,their had been a lot of publicity about this sale.It was a specialist sale with a lot of Chinese Antiquities. That was why Cheung was here. His father had received a phone call from his Uncle telling him about the sale. He told him he had to go to England has his uncle had seen the catalogue for this Auction sale and said their was a Buddha statuette in the sale like the one stolen from their village.

The Buddha statuette had been in the Buddhist Temple at the top of there village. They believed it guarded the village and brought good luck and blessings to their community.But two years ago thieves had broken into the temple and stolen the statuette. Since then they had nothing but bad luck and calamities. Now they had a dangerous shortage of water and the Elders of the temple said it was because Buddha was displeased that his statuette was no longer in position in the Temple.They believed if they got the Buddha back it would bring blessings they had previously enjoyed and that the water would start flowing again.

So here he was in the Auction room, he noticed a young Englishman who seemed very flamboyant, and was bidding on all the Chinese antiquities. he seemed to have plenty of money and the Auctioneer knew him by name, he called him Mr Davis, he had already bought a silver dragon and a bronze tiger for a very large amount of money. Cheung was worried he wouldn't have enough money to outbid this man, but he dare not go home without it.
The Auctioneer said the next lot was the much sought after Buddha Statuette, the guide price his between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds, so let us start at a thousand pounds, Cheung's hand shot up, then Mr Davis said 2,000 and their were several other bids. But it settled down to between Cheung and Mr Davis, It became very tense in the room Cheung felt the sweat running down his back.It had reached 7,000 pounds now and Cheung had nearly reached his limit, but his village depended on him getting the statuette,he bit his lip nervously. The Auctioneer said its with Mr. Davis at 8,000 pounds he looked at Cheung but he shook his head he hadn't got enough money for it. 'Right sold to Mr.Davis for 8,000 pounds and his Gavil came down, it was over Cheung hung his head bitterly disappointed.

Cheung stood waiting outside the saleroom waiting for the Englishman to come out, he'd thought of approaching him to try and do a deal with him. But he'd seen the gleam of triumph in his eyes and new it was no good. He emerged at last with someone carrying the goods for him, well he'd wait till he was alone, he had to have it, he just waited for the right moment.