Frank Farquhar had been at the Hotel Angleterre in Copenhagen, the hotel
with the prettiest winter-garden in Europe, for four days.
They had been four days of constant activity. As guide, he had the
resident correspondent of the morning newspapers of which he was one of
the directors, and he had already satisfied himself that, in the Danish
capital, there was but one first-class Hebrew scholar, namely Professor
Axel Anderson, of the Royal University.
Copenhagen he found a bright pleasant little city full of life and
movement, the shops gay and the streets thronged by well-dressed people.
In ignorance of what had befallen Gwen, he was thoroughly enjoying
himself, even though he saw that his visit could have no satisfactory
result as far as the quest for the authorship of the mysterious document
was concerned.
One morning he had called by appointment upon Professor Anderson at his
pleasant house in the Norrevoldgade and sat down to chat. The
Professor, a well-preserved, rather stout man of about forty-five, with
a fair beard, spoke English quite well.
“As far as I am aware,” he said, “there are only two professors of
Hebrew in Denmark beside myself. They are close personal friends of
mine, and I feel sure that neither of them entertains any unusual theory
concerning the Book of Ezekiel, or they would have consulted me. Of
course, we have a good many scholars come to Copenhagen to study the
Northern and Oriental codices in the Royal Library here. Hence I have
become acquainted with many of the chief professors of Hebrew. Have you
consulted Professor Griffin in London? He is one of the first
authorities upon the matter in which you are interested.”
“Yes, I happen to know him,” responded the young man.
“And what is his opinion?”
“A negative one.”
“Ah! Then most probably this typewritten manuscript you tell me about
was some baseless theory of an irresponsible crank. I would accept
Griffin’s opinion before that of anybody else. There is only one other
man of perhaps equal knowledge--old Erich Haupt, of Leipzig. He is a
great Hebrew authority, as well as a recognised expert in cryptography.”
“What is your opinion broadly upon the matter?” Farquhar asked.
“Well, candidly, I believe the theory to be without foundation,”
answered the Danish scholar. “I do not believe in the existence of a
cipher in the Hebrew scriptures. There is nothing cryptic about the
sacred record. As regards the vessels of gold and silver from Solomon’s
temple, they were restored by Cyrus. It is true that an ancient
Talmudic tradition exists to the effect that the Ark of the Covenant,
together with the pot of manna, the flask of anointing oil and Aaron’s
staff that budded are still hidden beneath the temple mount at
Jerusalem. And my opinion is that your half-destroyed document is
simply based upon this ancient tradition with which every Jew in
Christendom is acquainted.”
“But, Professor,” exclaimed the other, “I know that you yourself are an
authority upon cryptography. Have any ciphers been discovered in the
original of the Book of Ezekiel?”
“Well, yes,” was the Dane’s answer as he stirred himself in his
armchair, and reaching his hand to a bookcase took down a Hebrew-Danish
Bible. Then turning to Ezekiel, he said: “There is certainly something
in the Hebrew of the thirty-sixth chapter which has puzzled scholars
through many centuries. It begins at verse 16: ‘Moreover the word of
the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man--’ Now in the constant
repetition of ‘Son of man’ certain scholars declare they have discovered
a numerical cipher. In the first verse of this chapter we have, ‘Son of
man, prophesy unto the mountains.’ In the third verse of the following
one he asks: ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ Again in verse 9 of
the same chapter, he says: ‘Prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind.’
And in verse 11, still addressing him by the same title, he tells the
prophet: ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.’ By
the title ‘Son of man’ Ezekiel is so often addressed, ‘Son of man’ is so
constantly sounded in his ears and ours, that it forces on our attention
that God deals with man through the instrumentality of men, and by men
communicates his will to men. Hence certain cryptographers have set to
work and formed the theory of a hidden meaning in all this.”
“But is the actual cipher known?” asked Frank, at once excited.
“Certainly. It was deciphered by Bamberg, of Paris, forty years ago.
But the secret message had no bearing whatsoever upon the lost vessels
of Solomon’s temple,” was the Professor’s reply.
“What was the message?” inquired the young Englishman.
“Well--the alleged message which Bamberg deciphered commenced in the
thirty-sixth chapter beginning at verse xvi. The passage has peculiar
claims upon the attention of any one searching for cryptic writings.
Addressed in the first instance to the Jews, and applicable, in the
first instance, to their condition, it presents a remarkable summary of
gospel doctrines, and that in a form approaching at least to systematic
order. In the seventeenth verse we have man sinning: ‘Son of man, when
the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their
own way and by their doings.’ In the eighteenth verse we have man
suffering: ‘Wherefore, I poured my fury upon them.’ In the twenty-first
verse man appears an object of mercy: ‘but I had pity.’ In the
twenty-second verse man is an object of free mercy--mercy without merit:
‘I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel.’ In the twenty-fourth
verse man’s salvation is resolved on: ‘I will bring you into your own
land.’ In the twenty-fifth verse man is justified: ‘Then will I
sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean.’ In the
twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh verses man is renewed and sanctified: ‘A
new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you;
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give
you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause
you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them.’
In the twenty-eighth verse man is restored to the place and privileges
which he forfeited by his sins: ‘Ye shall be my people, and I will be
your God.’ ‘This land that was desolate is become like the garden of
the Lord.’ We have our security for these blessings in the assurance of
the thirty-sixth verse: ‘I, the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it;’
and we are directed to the means of obtaining them in the declaration of
the thirty-seventh verse: ‘I will yet for this be inquired of by the
house of Israel, to do it for them.’”
“And in these verses the French professor discovered a hidden message?”
“Yes. It read curiously, and was most difficult to decipher. But
according to Bamberg it was an additional declaration of God’s kindness
to man. God was named as ‘the God of Salvation,’ and ‘the author and
finisher of man’s faith.’ It consisted briefly in an exhortation to
those who discovered the cipher to read, and to believe. But as for the
hiding-place of the treasure of Israel being therein designated--well,
even Bamberg, whom half the scholars of Europe denounced as a crank, had
never dreamed of such a thing. No, Mr Farquhar,” he added, “you may
rest assured that the remarkable screed never emanated from a Hebrew
scholar in Denmark. Perhaps it might have come from Gothenburg,” he
laughed; “more than one hare-brained theory has come from over there!”
Anderson was a Dane, and the Danes have no love for the Swedes.
“You mentioned some one in Leipzig. Who is he?” asked Farquhar.
“Oh! Haupt--Erich Haupt,” replied the other. “He’s Professor of Hebrew
at the University, and author of several well-known books. His
‘Christology of the Old Testament’ is a standard work. Besides Griffin
in London, he is, I consider, the only other man in Europe competent to
give an opinion upon the problem you have put before me.”
“How can I find him?”
“You’ll no doubt find him in Leipzig.”
Frank felt that this German was a man to be consulted, yet he was
anxious to pursue the inquiry he had started in Denmark. The man who
had died in Paris, and had been so careful to destroy his secret, had
been a Dane, and he felt that the originator of the remarkable theory
must have been a Dane himself. Briefly this was what Farquhar
explained, but Professor Anderson assured him that no such theory could
have come out of Denmark without his knowledge.
“Search in Gothenburg, or in Stockholm, if you like,” he answered with a
smile. “My own idea is that the unfortunate man was deceived by some
‘cock-and-bull’ story, probably an attempt to raise money in order to
carry out a scheme to recover the treasure of Solomon. He believed the
story of the existence of the temple treasure, and in order that no
other person should obtain knowledge of the secret destroyed it before
his death.”
“But who was the discoverer of the secret?” asked the Englishman.
“Who can tell,” remarked the Danish professor, shrugging his shoulders.
“Perhaps it was only some ingenious financial swindle. You have surely
had many such in London in recent years. You call them in English, I
believe, ‘wild-cat’ schemes.”
“There are many ‘wild-cat’ schemes in the City of London at the present
moment,” Frank remarked with a laugh, “but I guarantee that none is so
extraordinary as this.”
“Probably not,” laughed the Dane. “I confess that, to me, the whole
thing seems like a fairy tale.”
“Then you don’t discern any foundation in fact?”
“Only of tradition--the Old Testament tradition that the treasures are
still hidden in the temple mount. Yet, in opposition to this, we have
another tradition to the effect that the vessels of Solomon’s temple
were used in Persia four hundred years after the captivity. Mention is
made of this in a Persian manuscript preserved in your British Museum in
London. I forget the number, but it can easily be looked up in the
catalogue of Oriental manuscripts.”
“You believe that statement authentic?”
“As authentic as any statement in the ancient records,” was his reply.
“But I would suggest that you consult Haupt. He knows more of Hebrew
cryptograms and ciphers than any one else on the Continent of Europe.
What does Professor Griffin think?”
“He’s inclined to treat the whole theory with levity.”
Professor Anderson smiled.
“Of course,” he said. “Supposed ciphers in certain books of the Old
Testament are many. And as you know quite well, a cipher may be
invented to fit any message or record desired. Your Baconian theory in
regard to Shakespeare was sufficient proof of that.”
“Then in your opinion no real cipher exists in the Book of Ezekiel?”
asked the Englishman.
“The Bible was inspired,” was his reply. “If so, there is no cipher in
it except what cryptographers invent.”
Frank Farquhar was silent. His inquiries in the Danish capital had
nearly carried him into a _cul-de-sac_.
The dead man was, according to his own story, a Dane. But what more
natural than that he had received the extraordinary manuscript from
Germany, or from Sweden?
“To me,” remarked the Professor, “the situation of the man who died in
Paris was this. Either he himself was the inventor of the whole story
or else he had paid something for it and was trying to dispose of it to
some financier or other.”
“Doctor Diamond, my friend who attended him before his death, says that
the man was evidently a scholar.”
“Then possibly he was the inventor,” remarked Anderson decisively. “But
if he was a scholar he was certainly unknown to us. Therefore we may be
permitted to doubt his _bonâ-fides_. My advice to you is to find
Haupt.”
“Yes, Professor,” answered the young man, “I will.”
And an hour later he sent a long telegram to the Doctor at Horsford,
while that same afternoon he received a brief telegraphic message from
Professor Griffin, asking him to return to London at once.
His belief was that the great expert had found some clue, and he left
that same evening direct for London, by way of Kiel, Hamburg and
Flushing.