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 destitute 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 assassin 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 document, 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 circumstances 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 assassination, 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
Edgecumbe."
"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 glass 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
glasses, 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 shore 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 passion 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 passion 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-God, 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 god 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
anticipate?" inquired Fryer.
"Well, after reading such an authentic document 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
asserting itself.
"Most certainly," replied the professor. "I am, of course, most
intensely interested in this matter, and if I can be of any assistance 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."