magnifying-glass mounted in silver--a gift from Frank on theprevious Christmas--he carefully examined each word in its order.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, "the first three lines, underlined as you see, areapparently a portion of some prophecy regarding the captivity of theJews in Babylon, `the period of the Blood-debts,' after which comes theperiod when the oppression will lose its power, which means theirrelease by Cyras. Come now, this is of some interest!"
"Read on, dad," urged the dainty girl, excitedly. "Tell us what yougather from it."
The pair were standing hand-in-hand, at the back of the old man'swriting-chair.
"Not so quickly, dear--not so quickly. That's the worst of women. Theyare always so erratic, always in such an uncommon hurry," he added witha laugh.
Then, after a pause during which he carefully examined the lines whichfollowed, he pointed out: "You see that somebody--not the writer of thedocument, remember--has stated that Moses' tablets `The Cha--', whichmust mean the Chair of Grace, between two cherubims of fine gold, anumber of other things, including the Ark of the Covenant itself and thearchives of the Temple down to B.C. 600 are--what?"
And he raised his head staring at the pair through his round and greatlymagnifying-glasses.
"Doctor Diamond's theory is that the treasures of Solomon's Temple arestill concealed at the spot where they were hidden by the priests beforethe taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar."
The Professor laughed aloud.
"My dear Farquhar," he exclaimed, "on the face of this folio it would,of course, appear so. One may read it as a statement of fact that allthe relics of the Temple and all the great treasures of the agesbygone--the Treasure of Israel--are concealed `beneath',somewhere--`which is a series' of something. To this, there are threeentrances, one only being accessible. Then in the final lines, we haveanother prophecy that the tablets shall `remain in their hiding-place--that is with the Ark of the Covenant--till the coming of the Messiah whoalone may open the treasure-house, or place of concealment, in orderthat he may show proof of--', and the rest is lost." he added with asigh of disappointment.
"I admit," said Frank, "that is one reading of it. But what is yourreading--that of an expert?"
The old man merely shrugged his shoulders and said:
"I don't think that the Doctor's theory is the correct one. The beliefthat the Treasure of Solomon's Temple still exists is far too wild andunsubstantiated. Of course, it is not quite clear in history whatbecame of the contents of the Temple, but I think we may safely at oncedismiss any possibility of the relics of Moses as being intact after acouple of thousand years or so. Stories of hidden treasure haveappealed to the avarice of man throughout all the ages, from the days ofthe Roman Emperors, down to the day before yesterday, when a ship wentforth to search for the lost gold of President Kruger. There have beenhundreds, nay thousands of expeditions to search for treasure, but innearly every case the searchers have returned sadder and poorer men.No, Frank," he exclaimed, decisively, "I don't think any one would besuch an utter fool as to attempt to suggest that the Treasure of Israelstill exists. At least no scholar would. Whoever would do such a thingwould be a clumsy bungler, ignorant of both the Hebrew language and thehistory of the Hebrew nation. Doctor Diamond, from what you tell me,is, I gather, one of such."
"But they are not the Doctor's documents," Frank hastened to point out."As I've told you, a man dying in Paris ordered him to burn them. Hedid so, but they were not all consumed."
"The Doctor worked a trick upon a dying man," sniffed the Professor."Hardly played the game--eh?"
"I quite agree with you there," answered young Farquhar. "Yet,according to the Doctor's version, he was in no way responsible for thefact that only half the folios were consumed."
"Well, whatever it is," declared the Professor, very decisively, "itseems to be some rather clumsy `cock-and-bull' story. In what I'veread. I, as a scholar, could pick many holes. Indeed, such a screed asthis could never have been concocted by any one with any pretence ofknowledge of old Testament history. There are certain statements whichare utterly absurd on the face of them."
"Which are they?" inquired Frank eagerly.
"Oh--several," was the rather light reply. "As you are not a scholar,my dear boy, it would be useless me going into long and technicalexplanations. The disjointed bits of prophecy are, I admit, really mostartistic," he added with a laugh.
If the truth be told, Arminger Griffin was concealing the intenseexcitement that had been aroused within him. He was making adiscovery--a wonderful, an amazing discovery. But to this youngjournalist, who would merely regard it as a good "boom" for one of hisirresponsible halfpenny journals, he intended to pooh-pooh it as a mereclumsy fairy tale.
"Well," he asked, a moment later, in an incredulous tone. "What elsehave you to show me?"
"No more typewriting," was Frank's reply. "The only other folio is oneof manuscript, and it will probably interest you, for it contains twoHebrew words," and he placed before the great expert a half-consumedfragment of lined manuscript paper which bore some close writing inEnglish of which the present writer gives a facsimile here.
"H'm," grunted the old man, after a swift glance at it. "A copy,evidently. The Hebrew words are too clumsily written. No scholar wrotethem. Probably it's a translation from German or Danish--I think yousaid that the man who called himself Blanc, was really a Dane--eh?"
"Yes. He told Diamond that he came from Copenhagen," Farquhar replied.
But the old man was too deeply engrossed in the study of the neatmanuscript. How he wished that the context had been preserved, forhere, he recognised, was the key, or rather the commencement of the keyto the whole secret. He was now anxious to get rid of Frank Farquhar,and be allowed to pursue his investigations alone. There was certainlymuch more in it than he had at first suspected.
With such a sensation as that contained in the half-burnt documents tolaunch upon the world, he would be acclaimed the most prominent scholarof the day. The whole of academic Europe would shower honours upon him.
"What does it mean about the `waw' sign?" inquired the young man. "Doesthat convey anything?"
"Nothing," laughed the Professor with affected indifference. "What canone make out of such silly nonsense? It says, apparently, that inEzekiel the `waw' sign appears with great regularity. Well, so it doesin all Hebrew texts. The letter `a' appears often in English doesn'tit? Well, so does the Hebrew `w' or `v'. Therefore it's all bunkum--that was my first impression--and I still retain it!"
Gwen looked genuinely disappointed. She had hoped that this wonderfulmanuscript which had fallen into her lover's hands would turn out, as hehad declared it would, to be of utmost value, both to history and alsoof financial value to its possessors.
But her father, recognised as one of the first authorities of the day,had decisively condemned it as a clumsy fraud.
"The reference given in the manuscript is, I see, Ezekiel xli. 23,"remarked the girl, and turning over the pages of the Bible which shestill held in her hand she exclaimed:
"Here it is. Let me read it: `And the temple and the sanctuary had twodoors. And the doors had two leaves _apiece_, two burning leaves; two_leaves_ for the one door, and two for the other _door_. And _therewere_ made on them, on the doors of the temple, cherubims and palmtrees, like as _were_ made upon the walls; and _there were_ thick planksupon the face of the porch without. And _there were_ narrow windows andpalm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of theporch, and upon the side chambers of the house, and thick planks.'"
"Yes," remarked the old man. "The first Hebrew word in the manuscriptmeans either `palace' or `temple'. That occurs as the third word of thequotation. But there is no mention of `cupbearer'. If I recollectaright, there is a mention of the doors of the Temple in the First Bookof Kings. I believe it's in the sixth chapter. Look, dear, and see ifyou can find it."
His daughter turned over the leaves quickly, found the chapter he hadindicated
, and scanned over the verses.
"Ah!" she cried, a moment later. "Yes. You are right, dad. Here itis, beginning at verse 31: `And for the entering of the oracle he(Solomon) made doors _of_ olive tree: the lintel _and_ side posts _were_a fifth part _of the wall_. The two doors also _were_ of olive tree:and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and openflowers, and overlaid _them_ with gold, and spread gold upon thecherubims, and upon the palm trees. So also made he for the door of thetemple posts _of_ olive tree, a fourth part _of the wall_ And the twodoors _were of_