"Well," said the Judge, pushing aside the plate of soup which he had
hardly tasted, "I don’t know whether or not the story will interest you.
It ought to, because it’s romantic, and also melodramatic—that is to
say, it is concerned with death. It came into my possession nine years
ago, when I was presiding judge at Sierra Leone. I remember being
informed by the police that a native from the region of Lake Chad had
come into the country with several Arabs on his track. He had fled for
his life from the hills; he had gone as far south as the Congo, and had
then cut back on his tracks; and all this time, over thousands of miles
of almost impenetrable country, the Arabs—slave-traders by repute—had
clung to his heels like bloodhounds. In Sierra Leone he turned upon his
tormentors and killed two of them. He was brought before me on a charge
of murder, and I had no option but to sentence him to death. The day
before he was hanged he wished to see me, and I visited him in prison.
He gave into my hands a large, circular piece of jade, and I have kept
it ever since, always looking upon it merely as a curiosity and a
memento of a very unpleasant duty. Never for a moment did I dream it
was the Sunstone itself.
"Now, before you can understand the whole story, you must know something
of Zoroaster. Zoroaster was the preacher, or prophet, who was
responsible for the most ancient religion in the world. He was the
first of the Magi, or the Wise Men of the East, and it was he who framed
the famous laws of the Medes and Persians. He is supposed to have lived
more than six thousand years before Christ.
"The doctrine of Zoroaster is concerned with the worship of the sun;
hence the name of the Sunstone. This religion was adopted by the
Persians, who conquered Egypt, and thus spread their influence across
the Red Sea into Africa. To-day, among the hills that surround Lake
Chad, there exists a tribe of which little is known, except that they
are called the Maziris, and are believed still to follow the religion of
Zoroaster.
"In the days when Zoroaster preached, it was the custom of his followers
and admirers to present the sage with jewels and precious stones. These
were first given as alms, to enable him to live; but, as his fame
extended, the treasure became so great that it far exceeded his needs.
"One rumour has it that Zoroaster died in the Himalayas; another that
his body was embalmed in Egypt and conveyed by a party of Ethiopians
into the very heart of the Dark Continent, where it was buried in a cave
with all his treasure.
"The Sunstone is referred to by many ancient Persian writers. I have
known of it for years as the key to the treasure of Zoroaster. As I
have said, it is a circular piece of jade, bright yellow in colour, and
of about the size of a saucer. On both sides of the stone various signs
and symbols have been cut. On one side, from the centre, nine radii
divide the circumference into nine equal arcs. In each arc is a
distinct cuneiform character, similar to those which have been found
upon the stone monuments of Persia and Arabia.
"The Arabs are in many ways the most wonderful people in the world.
Their vitality as a race is amazing. For centuries—possibly for
thousands of years—they have terrorized northern and central Africa.
They were feared by the ancient Egyptians, who built walls around their
cities to protect them from the Bedouins—the ancestors of the men who
to-day lead their caravans to Erzerum, Zanzibar, and Timbuctoo.
"So far as I can discover, the Maziris are an Arab tribe who have given
up their old nomad life. Somewhere in the Maziri country is a group of
caves which no European has ever entered. They are known as the ’Caves
of Zoroaster’, for it is here that the sage is supposed to have been
buried. The bones of Zoroaster, as well as the jewels, are said to lie
in a vault cut in the living rock; and the Sunstone is the key which
opens the entrance to that vault. The man, whom in my capacity as a
judge I was obliged to sentence to death, had no doubt stolen it, and
had been pursued across the continent by the Maziri chieftains, who
desired to recover the Sunstone.
"There is the whole story. A week ago I came across a description of
the Sunstone in the writings of a Persian historian, and that
description led me to suspect that the very thing was in my own
possession. I followed up clue after clue, and this evening I put the
matter beyond all doubt."
Mr. Langton’s two nephews had listened in breathless interest. Harry
was leaning forward with his elbows on the table and his chin upon a
hand. Von Hardenberg lay back in a chair, his arms folded, his dark
eyes fixed upon his uncle.
"Then," said he, "you have but to get into these so-called ’Caves of
Zoroaster’ to possess yourself of the jewels?"
The Judge smiled, and shook his head.
"And to get into the caves," he answered, "is just the very thing that,
for the present, it is almost impossible for any European to do. The
Maziri are a wild and lawless tribe. They are indeed so bloodthirsty,
their country so mountainous, and their valleys so infertile, that
hitherto no one has ever interfered with their affairs. Like all the
Arabs, they are a nation of robbers and cut-throats, who lived in the
past by means of the slave-trade, and to-day exist by cattle-stealing
and robbery. The man who tries to enter the ’Caves of Zoroaster’ will
have his work cut out."
"Will you let us see the Sunstone?" asked Harry.
"Certainly, my boy," said Mr. Langton. "I’ll take you both down to the
bungalow to-morrow morning, or—if you cannot wait till then—we can go
to-night."
"Isn’t it rather risky," asked von Hardenberg, "to keep such a valuable
thing out of the house?"
"The bungalow is always locked," said Mr. Langton, "and I keep the
Sunstone in a cabinet. Moreover, you must remember that nobody knows of
its value. No thief would ever dream of stealing it. It is, to all
appearances, only an inferior piece of jade."
"But you have money there as well?" said von Hardenberg.
"Not much," answered the Judge. "Since I do my accounts there it is
convenient to have my cashbox at hand. But it seldom contains more than
twenty pounds—the amount of money I require to pay the men employed on
the estate."
"What an extraordinary thing," said Harry, still thinking of the
treasure of Zoroaster, "that it should have existed for all these years
and never have been plundered."
"Not so extraordinary," said Mr. Langton, "when you know the Arabs. The
Maziris, as I have told you, are of Arab descent, though they are not
followers of the Prophet. The sun-worshippers are extremely devout. No
priest of Zoroaster would think of stealing the treasure; that would be
to plunge his soul into eternal punishment."
"And no one else," asked von Hardenberg, "no Mohammedan or heathen, has
ever been able to enter the vault?"
"Never," said Mr. Langton, "because the Sunstone is the secret. That is
why, when the Sunstone was stolen, they were so anxious to run the thief
to earth."
Von Hardenberg knit his brows. He was silent for a moment, and appeared
to be thinking.
"And you believe you have solved the mystery?" he asked.
"I know I have," said the Judge. "If at this moment I suddenly found
myself in the Caves of Zoroaster, with the Sunstone in my hand, I could
gain access to the vault."
Von Hardenberg bit his lip quickly, and then looked sharply at his
uncle. When he spoke, it was in the voice of a man who took little or
no interest in the subject under discussion.
"I should rather like to see it," he remarked.
Accordingly, as soon as dinner was finished, they put on their
overcoats, and conducted by the Judge, who carried a lantern, they
followed a path through the woods until they came to the bungalow.
Mr. Langton unlocked the door and put the key into his pocket. Then he
lit an oil lamp, which presently burned up and illumined the room. They
found themselves in what to all intents and purposes was a library. The
four walls were stacked with books, but the overflow of these was so
great that many were piled upon chairs and in odd corners of the room.
In the centre of the floor-space was a large writing-desk, and near this
a cabinet with several drawers. Lying open on the writing-desk was a
fair-sized cash-box, in which several golden sovereigns glittered in the
light.
"How careless, to be sure!" exclaimed the Judge. "I had no business to
leave my cash-box open. The truth is, I was so excited about this
discovery that I forgot to put it away."
"And where’s the Sunstone?" asked von Hardenberg.
"I keep it here," said Mr. Langton.
Going to the cabinet, and unlocking the third drawer from the top, he
took out a large stone and laid it on the table in the light of the
lamp. His two nephews, one on either side of him, leaned forward to
examine this extraordinary relic.
On one side of the Sunstone were the cuneiform characters already
mentioned by the Judge. On the other was a great deal of writing in the
same primitive language, scratched upon the face of the jade, but so
faint as to be barely legible.
"It was only with the greatest difficulty," observed the Judge, "that I
managed to decipher and translate this writing. It is in no known
language. Indeed, I would never have been able to make head or tail of
it had I not been a scholar of Sanskrit. This writing is nothing more
nor less than the definite instructions for using the Sunstone for the
purpose of entering the vaults of Zoroaster."
"What does it say?" asked von Hardenberg.
"You are told to begin with a certain character and take the others in a
circle ’in the way of the sun’—that is to say, from left to right, as
with the hands of a clock. Before the main vault is a large lock, which
works on the same principle as the modern Bramah lock—a very ancient
device. It consists of nine enormous wheels. The outside, or tyre, of
each of these wheels is adorned with hundreds of cuneiform characters,
all of them quite different. Each wheel must be turned until the
characters visible along a given line correspond with those upon the
Sunstone. Not otherwise can the vault be opened."
There followed a silence of several moments. The Judge’s discovery
seemed so romantic and so astonishing that it was almost impossible to
believe it was true. After a while, it was von Hardenberg who spoke.
"And now that you have made this discovery," he asked, "what do you
propose to do?"
"I don’t know," said the Judge. "I have no desire to pillage a sacred
shrine. For the present I propose to keep the affair a secret whilst I
continue my researches. There are several points upon which the
historical world desires to be enlightened. Very little is known
concerning the life of Zoroaster."
"But surely," exclaimed von Hardenberg, "you don’t intend to keep this
to yourself!"
"When I have the whole facts of the case at my finger-tips," said the
Judge, "I will make the result of my investigations known to the
authorities of the British Museum."
Soon after that they left the bungalow. Before they went to bed that
night von Hardenberg took his cousin aside and looked at him intently.
"What do you make of it?" he asked.
"Of the Sunstone?" asked Harry.
"Yes," said the other. "It seems to me, if the old gentleman wanted to,
he could make himself a millionaire."
Harry laughed.
"I don’t think Uncle Jack cares much about money," said he. "He looks
at the whole matter from a scientific point of view."
"No doubt," exclaimed the Prussian. "No doubt. I dare say he does."
And at that he turned and went slowly up the stairs.