A PROPHECY FULFILLED.
It was not long before my uncle made known to me the real reason for his
journey to the East. The description that I had sent home of the Temple
of Sophana had, as he told me, caused the smouldering fire within him to
break into flame, and he decided that he was not too old to do something
in the world of discovery. The report of my death, however, was a great
shock to him, and extinguished the flame of his ambitions. Then, when he
heard of my success, he no longer hesitated, but persuaded my father to
accompany him, and set out at once. It was therefore, I found, not so
much the Golden Girdle that had impelled him to come to Baghdad, as his
craving to visit the ruins of Katib, and see with his own eyes what no
other European, except myself, had seen. That I should wish to go with
him was only natural; but it was not to be, as Edwards declared that I
was wholly unfit for such an undertaking.
In due course all arrangements were made; and, at my suggestion, Faris
was communicated with, and asked to conduct my father and uncle to the
ruins. But it was nearly a month before everything was settled. In the
end, Faris agreed to meet the party at the Birs Nimroud on a certain
day, and to bring with him a sufficient escort of Aeniza. There he was
to receive from my uncle the much coveted shoe of Shahzadi, and he
promised to be responsible for the safety of the relatives of his
"brother the magician" until he brought them back again to the Birs
Nimroud. In my opinion, no expedition ever started under more favourable
circumstances, and it was with many heart-burnings that, after seeing
the two adventurers and their zaptiehs a few miles on the road, I turned
back, and returned with Edwards to Baghdad.
"It is rather sickening," said I, "to be out of this. I must say I
should have liked to have had a look at the temple in cold blood."
"Be content," said Edwards, "with what you have already seen and done.
Your constitution has been pretty well undermined as it is, and if you
are not ever so careful, you will shatter it altogether."
"It will be a trifle dull," said I, "idling about this place until they
come back."
"They will not be very long, I fancy," said Edwards. "The professor
promised to waste no time, as he is most anxious to get home with the
Girdle. I am to go on six months' leave by the same boat, so we will
have merry times. In the meanwhile, I have got a job for you, and if you
undertake it, you will not be bored by idleness."
"What is it?" I asked. "Nothing very exciting, I expect."
"Perhaps not quite up to your standard of excitement," said my friend,
"but I told your father that I would do my level best to persuade you to
carry out his wishes. All you have to do is to take pen, ink, and paper,
and put together the story of your wanderings in search of the Golden
Girdle."
"How deadly uninteresting," said I, with a groan.
Yet, as the time went on, and I found myself unable to do much riding or
take other hard exercise, I began to jot down notes and headings on the
paper which Edwards, each day, thrust obtrusively before me; and, at
length, I came to the conclusion that such a treasure as the Golden
Girdle was indeed worthy of having its history put on record. So I set
to work with a will, full of misgivings of my ability to describe the
queer things that I had seen and heard in the desert; and, each morning,
sitting at my window, overlooking the mighty waters of the Tigris, I
added a few sheets to the fast-growing pile.
While thus engaged, I received the first news of the wanderers,
contained in a long letter from my father. It was written at Hillah, and
finished as the camp was being struck at the Birs Nimroud. Edwards and I
read it with intense interest, and both of us blushed when we came to
passages dealing with the good names which we had left behind us; for
many were the nice things that my father told me he had heard, not only
from the Aeniza, but also from the Turkish officials at Hillah. There he
had met the cheery old Commandant, who had recently returned from
reinstating Ali Khan at Adiba. In the eyes of Ali Khan and his people,
we were, the Commandant affirmed, the greatest heroes that Arabia had
yet known, and if ever we revisited Adiba, our welcome would be
magnificent. At the Birs Nimroud, Faris, Sedjur, two hundred horsemen,
and many camels were found waiting, and immediately on his arrival, my
uncle presented the sheik, in the presence of his men, with the shoe of
Shahzadi, the Aeniza displaying extraordinary enthusiasm on the
occasion. "We are just off," concluded my father, "and Sheik Faris is
capering around on little Kushki, with the prized shoe dangling from her
neck--the two of them as proud as peacocks."
[Illustration: "THE TWO OF THEM AS PROUD AS PEACOCKS"]
After this, we received no further news for some time. Then came the
first letter from the ruins, my uncle having arranged that his zaptiehs,
whom he had left at Hillah, should act as despatch riders, the Aeniza
carrying his letters from Katib to a small village on the Sea of Njef,
whence the zaptiehs rode on with them to Hillah and Baghdad. When this
first letter was written, the party had been only three days in camp
near the ruins, and the temple itself had not then been explored,
although my uncle had looked down into it from the gap in the roof. The
whole time had been occupied in a thorough examination of the outer
chamber, with its ramification of passages, of which my father had made
several elaborate plan-drawings. Faris and I had been right in thinking
that there was only the one chamber, and that the various passages
always led back to it, except, of course, the one by which we had
originally entered, by way of the steps. Apparently, this form of
building was not unknown to my uncle, who, however, had never actually
seen anything of the kind, and was delighted with what he had now
observed. With the drawings were numerous rubbings from glazed bricks,
paper mouldings from carvings, copies of inscriptions, and a few
photographic films, which I was to develop. All such things I had been
instructed to place in the great safe with the treasured Girdle, and
before long the collection began to swell to vast proportions.
Soon, the desert despatches came in regularly once a week, and each one
was more bulky than the last, until the safe would hold no more, and
cupboards had to be set apart to receive the accumulating mass of
papers. Knowing what I did of my uncle's life at the British Museum, I
trembled to think of what he was laying up for his old age. Neither did
I relish the idea that he would probably persuade me to assist him in
unravelling the threads of all his discoveries.
With considerable impatience I awaited the letter which should tell me
that the explorers had reached the temple of the queen-goddess, and,
when it came, I was relieved to learn that my uncle was in no way
disappointed. In fact, it was evident that he was in the seventh heaven
of joy, and had no intention of leaving the place until he had
overhauled every nook and corner. They had entered the temple, as Faris
and I had done, by the tunnelled way, and had found everything just as
we had left it. Our tower of escape still stood against the side wall;
Raspul's corpse, shrivelled and dried up, lay on the bench on which we
had placed it, and the image, or statue, of Sophana looked down serenely
on the debris scattered around her feet. No man had been near the place
since that awful night, for Faris said that the tribes had become aware
of the murder of the seer in his temple, and knowing that his corpse
still remained unburied, feared to visit the spot. Even his own Aeniza
refused to pitch their camp nearer than a mile from the ruins. The
rosary of the seer had been found, but beyond saying that the beads
composing it were highly interesting, my uncle did not enter into
details.
In thus describing the events of my last days in the City of the
Caliphs, I have found it impossible to refrain from mentioning the great
things that my father and uncle were doing, whilst I remained, an
unwilling prisoner, at the base of operations. These matters, however,
are so intimately connected with my quest of the Golden Girdle, that I
do not think that any apology for their introduction into my story is
needed. Still, I hesitate to forestall my uncle's own account of his
wonderful discoveries, which, I have little doubt, when made known to
the world, will be found to rival those of the early Babylonian
explorers; and with the exception of quoting from one more of his
letters, I shall throw no further light on his doings.
The letter in question arrived after I had been without news for a
fortnight, and just as I had made up my mind that something was amiss. I
had, indeed, gone so far as to suggest to Edwards that he and I should
start off for Hillah, and thence try to reach Katib. Many were the
papers which accompanied my uncle's letter, which, though written in
great haste, was of considerable length. It opened with instructions
about the new bundle of papers, and more particularly about the
negatives sent for development; then it disclosed information which
made my heart thump and my fingers twitch with nervous excitement. The
contents of his letter, said my uncle, were on no account whatever to be
revealed to anyone, except to Edwards, and to him only on the condition
that he swore to keep the secret. This is what he wrote:--
"I could not send in news last week, as we were much too busy
to think of anything beyond the work in hand. How sorry we are
that you were not with us to share our triumph; for triumph it
assuredly is! We have had, Walter, the most astounding stroke
of luck. The temple itself and its extraordinary surroundings
have given me the greatest joy, and had the beautiful statue of
the goddess been the only thing that I could remove, I should
have been more than satisfied. Yet we have found other things,
and your father, whose greed is terrible, is in ecstasies over
our undreamt-of success.
"You will remember the small chamber, into which, as Sheik
Faris tells me, the Seer retired to change his clothes. That
was his private dwelling-room, and we found little of interest
in it until, about ten days ago, on sounding the walls, I
thought that one of them rang hollow. I examined it more
carefully, and after a while I discovered a tiny metal knob,
similar to the one on the wall door by which we had gained
access to the temple. I held my finger on it, and the wall
began to move. Then in my eagerness I pushed it with my
shoulder, to find myself at the entrance to a large and dark
dungeon. I have no time now to describe fully what that dungeon
contained, and I cannot say whether it was the store-house of
Raspul, or of many generations of priests. But whoever amassed
the wealth that lay therein cannot have acquired it honestly in
one lifetime, nor yet in twenty, and for what purpose it should
have been kept there is incomprehensible. There were wooden
boxes filled with gold mohurs, Turkish gold coins, English
sovereigns, and even 'spade' guineas; the wood of the boxes in
many instances crumbled away with age, and the coins trickling
through. Of silver coins there were pagodas, kerans, rupees,
and money from almost every country, piled in great heaps in
the corners of the chamber. Not a little rare and antique
jewellery also, and gems cut, uncut, and engraved; besides
pearls representing the produce of Bahrein for a decade or
more. I do not attempt to estimate the value of our find,
though your father talks of six figures. The intrinsic value is
to me nothing. I have as much of this world's goods as I wish
for. Your father will, of course, take his share; my share will
be divided equally between yourself and your friend the doctor;
while the share which belongs by right to Sheik Faris, he
refuses to take, and he desires me to say that he gives it all
to his 'brother the magician,' to whom it will be of greater
use than to himself.
"Ever since we made this wondrous discovery, we have been
engaged day and night in packing the treasure, only our three
selves and Sedjur being in the secret. The Aeniza, who refused
to enter the ruins, are aware that we intend to remove portions
of the temple and other parts of the ruins, and so that they
shall not suspect the nature of the loads which the camels will
take away, we have sewn up the gold and other valuables in
small pieces of camel cloth, binding fragments of stones around
each package. The statue of the goddess we hope to bring away
also; but it is doubtful if there are sufficient camels to
carry all the silver. However, we can well spare some of it.
"Sheik Faris has arranged that, in order to avoid all
difficulties with the Turkish authorities, he will convey
everything across the desert, to a certain small bay in the
Gulf, not far from Kuwait, where, he tells me, we shall be able
to hire large boats used for shipping smuggled horses, and so
get the goods on board our steamer, without any trouble. He and
a hundred and fifty horsemen start with the camels to-morrow
night; and we, accompanied by Sedjur and fifty men, return at
the same time towards Hillah, where we shall pick up the
zaptiehs, and ere many days we shall be with you again in
Baghdad.
"We must leave Bussorah in the steamer which departs next
Monday three weeks, so that we may be off the appointed place
at the time at which Faris calculates to arrive there. He
assures me that there can be no possibility of failure on his
part; for he says that the man who carries Shahzadi's shoe can
never fail!
"I can write no more now, as there are still many things to be
seen to. It would be well if you were to prepare to leave
Baghdad shortly after our arrival. I have every confidence in
the noble and generous Faris, whom I hold in the highest
esteem. He is now seated in my tent, and bids me remind you of
the prophecy of Raspul: _Wealth untold cometh to the man whose
mare shall carry the iron with which Shahzadi was shod!_"
"And also," said Edwards, "to the man who recovered the Golden Girdle of
the Great Queen."