Escape to Gozo(1963)

Tom and Sukie arrive in Malta to spend the holidays with their father, an archaeologist digging for a legendary golden statue of Calypso on the island of Gozo. He fails to meet the children who make friends with Jiminy, a Maltese boy, and go to the villa where they overhear two crooks threatening their father. The cooks fool the police to whom the children have gone. They escape and make their way finally to Gozo to see their father's colleague where they all captured. Just before the statue is handed over Jiminy arrives with an army of children who rout the crooks and drive them into the arms of the police. Based on the novel. By Jiminy by David Scott Daniel