third is in the face of the rock, concealed from the sight of allmen at the point where the valleys converge, at the base of the mount,from the cleft fifteen legal cubits.
"_To learn_ the whereabouts of the secret chamber of the Ark, O yeIsrael, measure from the hidden entrance up the face of the rock andover the mount with thine eyes set to the east two reeds and fourscorecubits and three, till thou comest to the gate of stone set in the rockwhich, when opened, will let forth the flood to admit thee from theValley of Jehoshaphat.
"_O hear me_, ye enemies of the Lord! Curses, yea, sixty times sixcurses shall be upon the head of any who dare to attempt to violate thesacred treasure-house of Israel.
"_Moreover the Lord_ hath performed the word that He spake, and Judahremaineth beneath the heel of the oppressor.
"_Now therefore these acts_ are not written in the book of thechronicles of Israel lest thine enemies search to recover the holythings.
"_Hearken O Lord_ God of Israel to the supplications of Thy servant. IfThy people be put to the worse before the enemy, because they havesinned against Thee, and shall return and confess Thy name, then hearThou from the heavens and bring them again unto the land which Thougavest to them and to their fathers.
"_Wherefore I beseech Thee_ to stay Thine hand, and seek not to discoverwhat is hidden until the Lord have given rest unto your brethren, aswell as unto you, and until they also possess the Land, which the Lordyour God hath given them.
"_For he who entereth therein_ shall be accursed. Cursed shalt thou bein the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shalt thoube when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out_The_ Lord shall send thee cursing, vexation and rebuke, in all thatthou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, anduntil thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings._Fear_ the Lord thy God.
"_These words am I commanded_ by Zeruiah the high priest to write in ourcaptivity in secret script, that only those of the faith shall know andshall understand."
And when the girl had finished typing, she raised her head, and staredat her father in abject wonder. Here was the complete solution of theproblem! The truth was written there!
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
IN THE NIGHT.
Laura, the parlour-maid, had been let in at the area-door by the cook,to whom she had made her excuses for the lateness of the hour, and hadcrept up to her room, fully satisfied at having assisted hergood-looking lover. She was, of course, in utter ignorance that "MrMiller" was the person to whom Miss Gwen's mysterious absence from homehad been due. Otherwise she certainly would not have fallen into thetrap.
Meanwhile, in the study, with the typed folios of the cipher before him,the old Professor sat making certain explanations to his daughter andanswering her eager questions.
"We ought to telegraph to Frank the first thing in the morning, dad!"she cried, when she had recovered from her excitement at learning thesecret.
"I have not yet decided upon my course of action, dear," was his slow,deliberate answer. "To-night we are dealing with this astounding recordof the authenticity of which there seems not the slightest doubt. Ihave been using the exact copy of the St Petersburg text of Ezekiel--the oldest known manuscript. It is evident from the word of Michaiahthe scribe, that, having invented the cipher, he altered certain wordsof the original text of Ezekiel with Ezekiel's knowledge and consent, inorder to include in the book this secret record."
"It agrees entirely with Biblical history, does it not?" asked the girl.
"Yes. Several hitherto uncertain facts are here explained. Forinstance, it is now made quite clear that Shishak, King of Egypt,restored to the Temple certain of the basins of gold made by Solomon.Again, Michaiah shows that none of the sacred vessels secreted wereafterwards used in the Temple. Those used in the second temple werecertainly those carried away by Nebuchadnezzar and restored by Cyrus."
Then rising he took from a cupboard a large roll-map of the environs ofJerusalem issued by the Palestine Exploration Fund, and both studied itvery closely.
"What is meant by the mount of Solomon's idolatry?" asked Gwen.
"It is now known as the Mount of the Offence," he answered. "Here itis--about half a mile almost due south of the temple mount. Sometimesit is called the Mount of Scandal, for upon it Solomon and some of hissuccessors built high places, altars to Moloch, to Ashtoreth, and toother strange gods. [1 Kings xi, 5-7.] I recollect the hill quitewell. On the summit is now a Benedictine Monastery, while the slopesare occupied by a Jewish cemetery. The Turks call it Baten el Hawa(Bottle of the Winds). The measurements given seem to be most explicit,the entrance to the chamber being on the west side of the extreme southof the mount, facing the sudden bend in the Valley of Hinnom. See,here," and he pointed to the spot upon the map. "And at the east side,at some spot to be determined by measurements, are the secretflood-gates by which the waters can be released. The `dry-room' isevidently situated above the water-tunnels, at such a height that thewaters never rise there."
"And can those ancient measures be worked out to modern measures?"
"Yes. We practically know almost exactly what was the reed, and whatwas the legal cubit of the days of Jehoiakim as compared with theordinary cubit. Surveyors will have no difficulty in finding the exactspot indicated."
"You do not think, dad, that after the restoration and rebuilding of theTemple that the treasures were recovered?"
"Certainly not. If so, we should certainly have had some record in HolyWrit of the Ark of the Covenant and the tablets. But there is none.Since a few days before Nebuchadnezzar's hosts entered Jerusalem, theArk has never been seen. My firm belief is that it is still in itsplace of concealment as stated by Michaiah the scribe."
"And what shall you do now, dad?" inquired the girl, her elbows upon thetable, as she looked up into his face. "You have solved a problem thatwill startle the whole world!"
"Yes, dear," he sighed, passing his hand across his brow. "It is soremarkable that I hardly know how to act. I must, of course, seeDiamond and Farquhar, and consult with them. One thing is quitecertain; for the present we must keep this matter a most profoundsecret. If our enemies were to gain wind of it, they would send out atonce and purchase the land for themselves."
"But they can't know, dad."
"Ah, dear! I'm--I'm suspicious. With such enormous possibilitiesbefore us, who knows that our secret enemies may not have bribed ourservants," he said. "For that reason, Gwen dear--and please forgiveme--fearing that there might be eaves-droppers, I purposely, whenexplaining to you the cipher this afternoon, rearranged and omitted someof the second portion of it, so that our secret could not possibly leakout."
"But surely, dad!" cried the girl. "You don't suspect Laura orMullingar, or Kate, being in the employ of our enemies, do you?"
"My child, it is best to be always wary in a matter such as this. Asyour friend Mr Mullet has already told you, they appear to be mostunscrupulous."
"I wonder where Mr Mullet is--why he doesn't write or telephone to me,as he promised."
"Don't distress yourself about him," urged the old Professor. "We holdthe secret, and for to-night at least that is sufficient."
And then, after gathering the typed sheets together he put a fastenerthrough them and locked the precious decipher carefully in one of thedrawers of his writing-table. Then a few moments later, it alreadybeing two o'clock in the morning, they both ascended to their rooms.
When upon the landing, the old man kissed his daughter tenderly on thebrow as was his habit, saying:
"Good-night, my child. I fear you must be very tired. But think!--wehave completed our task. We alone know the great secret which willconvulse the whole civilised world!"
In her own pretty room Gwen threw herself into the cosy chintz-coveredarmchair before the fire, and pondered deeply.
She was thinking of Frank--ever of him. Though she had been fond offlirtation, and though perhaps she had committed grave breaches o
f the_convenances_ before she had known young Farquhar, yet all had nowchanged. She would give her very life for him--for was she not his, andhis alone?
Over her spread the thought of the man who had posed as Frank's friend--that man who had laughed defiance in her face, the man who was in leaguewith her father's enemies. Who was he? What was he? she wondered.Then there rose before her the recollection of the man Mullet, the manwith the ugly past, as he himself had admitted, yet nevertheless devotedto his little daughter, and a gentleman. She longed to see him again--to introduce him to her lover, and to tell the latter the whole strangetruth.
To her, it seemed as though Mullet feared the man who had so cleverlyentrapped her, just as he was the "cat's-paw" of the bloated
The Great God Gold Page 40
