A sudden call from the locksmith caused us to return hastily to Fryer"s room, and there we saw that the top of the ancient cylinder had been filed entirely off.
"There"s something inside, sir," said the man, addressing the solicitor.
"Perhaps you"d like to take it out yourself."
And Mr Fryer drew forth a portion of an ancient leather thong, attached to which was a large old seal of clay with an ancient Egyptian cartouche impressed upon it.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
WHAT THE CYLINDER CONTAINED.
Mr Fryer then took the cylinder in his hand, and with eager fingers first drew forth a piece of modern paper about six inches long, folded lengthways many times. When he opened it I saw that parts of it were brown as though scorched, while it bore at its base one of the long green stamps used in the Consular service, obliterated together with attesting signatures.
At a glance he recognised its nature.
"Why!" he exclaimed. "This is a fresh will signed a year ago before the British Consul-General at Naples! Ah!" he went on, reading it swiftly.
"I see. His disillusion regarding Harford, whom he believed to be his friend, caused him to revoke his previous will, and by the terms of this he leaves his entire fortune, as well as what may accrue from the enclosed knowledge, unconditionally to his daughter Asta, but in the event of her death, it is to go to found a sanatorium for the treatment of dest.i.tute consumptive patients."
"Then he must certainly have had suspicions of Harford!"
"Without a doubt. In order to warn Asta of the existence of that deadly spider, and probably to make other provisions for her, he came to England from Egypt, but unfortunately died on the day prior to her call at the hotel. When he wrote to me he, no doubt, felt a presage of imminent death, for he knew well that he suffered from heart-affection and might expire quite suddenly. He intended, by making this new will in secret and placing it in your hands, that should Asta expire mysteriously, the a.s.sa.s.sin would receive a shock at finding that the money did not revert to him after all. And see," he said. "Read what is written here."
I peered over his shoulder and read the lines of small but clear handwriting at the foot of the doc.u.ment, evidently penned after it had been completed at the Consulate.
"Memorandum made by me this Fourth day of February, 1909:--In case of the sudden or mysterious death of my dear daughter Asta before the opening of this cylinder, I desire that the circ.u.mstances of her death be fully investigated. The man Harford, alias Harvey Shaw, in whose charge I injudiciously placed my beloved daughter, keeps as pet a specimen of the lycosa tarantula of Ecuador, which is most venomous and dangerous, and will attack human beings when they are asleep. In Ecuador and Peru, on account of its size and formation, it is known as `The Death Hand." Inquiries I have made show that a bite causes inflammation of the brain, so that medical men in South America are very frequently deceived. I have suspicions that the man Harford intends to use his pet for purposes of secret a.s.sa.s.sination, and hereby place my strong convictions upon record for my above-named executor, Mr Cyril Fryer, to use at his own will and discretion. Signed by me, Arnold Edgec.u.mbe."
"By Jove!" I said. "That"s a pretty plain allegation."
"Yes, and not far short of the truth," replied my friend. "With these suspicions in his mind I wonder what could have been the nature of his letter to Harford which you delivered at Totnes Station?"
"It was addressed in the name of Dawnay."
"One of the names he used--one of his actual Christian names. It is evident, however, that, in it, he gave Harford no cause to suspect that he was aware of the existence of the strange pet, otherwise he would not have made that too successful attempt upon Nicholson."
"Yes, but by its delivery he knew that its writer was dead," I said.
"Your client, perhaps, acted with some indiscretion in sending it. It at once placed Asta in peril."
"He had a motive, no doubt--but it imperilled Asta. Yet if he had not sent it you would never have met the young lady, or been instrumental in exposing the clever and ingenious plot from which she has so narrowly escaped with her life," the solicitor remarked.
The locksmith had been paid and retired. So we were again alone together.
"The wording of this latest will is peculiar," Mr Fryer went on. "It refers to `all that may accrue from the enclosed knowledge." What enclosed knowledge, I wonder?"
And taking up the cylinder he again looked into it. "Why, there"s something else here?" he exclaimed, and inserting a long steel letter-opener he succeeded in drawing forth a small roll of ancient brown papyri which, very tender and crumbling, was covered by puzzling Egyptian hieroglyphics.
"This, in all probability," he exclaimed, "is what the cylinder originally contained when he discovered it in the tomb of the Great Merenptah. We must obtain a translation."
"Yes," I cried eagerly. "Let us take it to the British Museum.
Professor Stewart will be able to decipher it at once."
So, replacing the papyri in its bronze case, we took it with us in a taxi, and half an hour later sat in the room of the professor, the same eminent Egyptologist whom I had seen on my previous visit there.
The great scholar put on his spectacles very leisurely, and with great care opened the crumbled relic out before him as he sat at this table and placed a sheet of gla.s.s over it.
Then for a long time he pored closely over the queer, crude drawings.
At last he broke the silence as he looked up at us through his round gla.s.ses, saying--
"This, I may as well tell you, is one of the most remarkable and interesting records that have ever come out of Egypt, and, like the papyri which I deciphered for Mr Arnold, and which was found accompanying this cylinder, it is in the hieroglyphics in use during the period after Alexander the Great had delivered Egypt and it was ruled by Ptolemy and his descendants. Ptolemy the First, you will remember, perhaps, reigned from 323 to 285 B.C., and was succeeded by twelve other kings of his dynasty. The famous Cleopatra was daughter of Ptolemy the Eleventh, and in 43 B.C. became Queen of Egypt. Here we have before us, upon this piece of papyri, a most important record concerning that famous woman. This was written at Thebes by one Sanehat, or Sa-nehat, son of the sycamore, a general and a royal favourite in the year and month of Antony"s death. Listen, and I will decipher one or two extracts to show you its purport," and carefully wiping his spectacles the celebrated Egyptologist readjusted them; and then, examining the half-faded lines of hieroglyphics, said--
"The opening is a long one in which Sanehat, son of the sycamore-- probably from his having been born or living at some place where there was a celebrated sacred sycamore--describes the love between Cleopatra and Antony, and the great treasures of the wonderful palace of the Ptolemies, which stood about in the centre of the sh.o.r.e of the eastern bay of Alexandria. He relates how Antony and Octavian fought desperately for the possession of the world at the Battle of Actium, and how, after that wonderful royal banquet which Athenaeus has already described to us in his writings, Antony sank deeper and deeper in the flood of his wild pa.s.sion for Cleopatra. We have the Queen"s marvellous beauty, her fascinations--her limbs like gold and her hair like lapis lazuli, so precious in Egypt in those days--and her sins here described by the hand of one who was her most trusted general--and who, by the way, is mentioned in at least two other records of this period, one now preserved at St Petersburg, and the other at Berlin, published in facsimile in the _Denkmaler_ of Lepsius. It tells us of the gorgeous life led by this most brilliant Queen of Queens, of the wealth and favours she lavished upon Antony and his captains, and of how she built her tomb near the temple of Isis Lochais, at the eastern end of the harbour where Fort Silsileh stands to-day. All this is most intensely interesting, coming as it does from the hand of the Queen"s trusted favourite, but there is something more--something which certainly arouses our curiosity and which must be investigated. Listen, and I will read just the most important extracts."
Then again he paused for a few moments, and halfway down the crinkled papyri he read a disjointed decipher as follows:--
"_The Horus, life of births, lords of crowns, life of births, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Kheper-ha-ra, son of the Sun, Amen-em-hat, ever rising into eternity. Order for those who read. Behold this order of the Queen is sent to thee to instruct thee of her will_...
"_Cleopatra, whose ruling pa.s.sion was to be a monarch of a greater Egypt and to enlarge the borders of the South, remained in the Palace of her fathers, but Antony was valiantly defending the fortress of Pelusium against Octavian. In dead of night I was called by the Lord Steward unto the pearl chamber of the Queen, and she, reclining upon her bed of pearl and gold with censers of sweet perfumes burning, commanded me to silence, and sent away her slaves. She had received Neb-ka-n-ra as messenger from Antony telling her of Octavian"s strength... She therefore commanded me with my captains User-ref and Hordedef to repair unto the treasury of the while house and take possession of the greatest of her jewels and place them in a place of safety, lest the accursed Octavian conquering, the Palace be attacked_.
"_In obedience I called my two most trusted captains, and went in secret unto the white house, and opening it with the Queen"s own key, obtained therefrom much gold and precious stones... with the great jewels of Sotor of Euegates, and of Ruddidet... and the sacred sapphires of Amen-em-hat... and next night we concealed them. Five times did we journey, under cover of night, unto the treasury, and in baskets of green tamarisk took therefrom... strings of emeralds and of pearls and electrum and new malachite... the hundred rubies the size of pigeons"
eggs... the goblets of gold and stones and the great bowls of gold encrusted with jewels which were served at the banquet to Antony...
Know ye that fifteen basketsful of precious stones of ka, statues of gold, breast ornaments of emeralds, beads of lapis lazuli, and pearls of great price did we take and conceal in the place where Octavian--whose name be accursed--should not know_.
"_...And at dawn, when our work was completed, I went again unto the Queen and kneeling told her of the place where we had hidden them. And Ra had spread fear over the land; his terrors in every place, and the Queen was greatly pleased, and rewarded me with fifty talents. And she commanded me to write this record and to place it where it should remain through the ages, so that if death consumed her, the whereabouts of her treasure shall not be utterly lost unto the world_.
"_Know, therefore, ye who dareth to open this tube of bronze which she gave unto me and to face the wrath of the Sun-G.o.d, and of Osiris the Eternal, that the pit where we have dug... and wherein we have concealed the great treasure and gold and lazuli and heart scarabs and khulal stones set in gold of our Queen Cleopatra the Magnificent, lieth three hundred cubits and seven towards the sunrise from the eastern angle of the Temple of Denderah, which our Queen hath founded and which beareth her image graven by Uba-aner upon its wall. With thy back unto the eye of her image pace three hundred cubits and seven, and the gold and jewels which our Queen secured for Antony... shall there be found hidden_...
"_I, Sanehat, make this record lest the great treasure of Cleopatra be lost for all time. I write this so that he beloved of Ra, of Horus, and of Hathor, who readeth this my message, may seek and may find... for Antony fought well, and went from battle unto death by his own hand because he heard falsely that his Queen was already dead. Yea, in their splendour but one moon ago, they founded the synapothano menoi (the people who are about to die together), and so Antony took his life when he heard that his Queen was dead_.
"_Two suns have not set since User-ref and Hordedef, my loyal and well-beloved captains, were put to death by the Queen"s orders, the month Paophi... the seventh day the G.o.d entered his horizon... so that they may not betray the hiding-place of her jewels, and I have fled here unto Thebes, for, alas! her hand is now uplifted against me for the same cause... and this written record will I place in the tomb of the Great Merenptah, that it shall remain there through generations in the keeping of Ra, till it be discovered by one of courage who cometh after me, and upon whom may the blessing of our great Osiris for ever rest.
Excellently finished in peace. He who destroyeth this roll may Tahuti smite him_."
"How curious!" I exclaimed, utterly astounded.
"Does this Temple of Denderah still exist?"
"Most certainly," replied the professor. "I myself have seen the graven image of Cleopatra upon its wall, as well as that of her child Caesarion. As far as I can distinguish, this record, which has reposed in its cylinder for nearly two thousand years, is perfectly genuine, and as it is known that the marvellous Egyptian queen must have possessed untold treasures, this record of Sanehat should certainly be investigated. It was evidently written on the day of Cleopatra"s death, but before the news that the gorgeous queen had committed suicide rather than be carried captive to Rome had become known."
"But does this wonderful collection of gems still exist, do you antic.i.p.ate?" inquired Fryer.
"Well, after reading such an authentic doc.u.ment as this, I am certainly inclined to believe that it may very possibly be found. I recall that the vicinity of the temple is desert, and that the ground at the spot indicated certainly shows no signs of recent excavation."
"Then knowledge of this papyri must be kept a profound secret, and the Egyptian Government approached in confidence with a view to allowing exploration in the vicinity," Fryer said, his business instinct at once a.s.serting itself.
"Most certainly," replied the professor. "I am, of course, most intensely interested in this matter, and if I can be of any a.s.sistance I shall only be too happy. Personally, I believe that by this important papyri the great treasures which Cleopatra was known to possess, and of which history gives us no account after her death, may actually be recovered."
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
CONCLUSION.
Twelve months have pa.s.sed.