He glared at me indignantly.
“Can you sleep after what I have told you?” he demanded.
“I hope so, sir,” I replied, and turned away to call Joe to show the man to his room. He made no farther protest, but going away and looking rather thoughtful.
Bry found that the knife had merely inflicted a flesh wound on my arm, and promised it would give me little trouble. The bleeding had stopped, so my black surgeon washed the cut thoroughly, bandaged and plastered it quite professionally, and sent me to bed to sleep soundly until morning.
Really, I forgot all about the Professor, who looked the part of a savant much better than he acted it, it seemed to me.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE PROFESSOR’S SECRET
At breakfast Professor Van Dorn was silent and preoccupied, and as soon as the meal was over asked for a private interview with the person in authority aboard the Seagull. We went to the Captain’s room, a large cabin where all could be comfortably seated. None of us had much confidence in the stranger’s romantic assertions of the night before, but we were all curious to know what tale the man had to relate, and were disposed to listen. Archie’s eyes bunged out so far from his round face that I took pity on the boy and asked him to join us. Ned Britton came, too, for he had been present at Van Dorn’s rescue and we trusted him implicitly.
When we were seated and the Professor had assured himself we could not be overheard, he at once asked permission to relate the business that had brought him to Egypt and the strange experiences he had encountered here. We told him to fire away and we would hear his story.
“Gentlemen,” said he, “you must know that I hold the honorable chair of Egyptology in my university. Since my youth I have studied arduously the history of this most ancient people, from whom sprung the modern civilization of which we boast today.” He spoke pedantically, and I began to think he might be a real professor, after all. “To perfect my studies my college generously sent me here, three years ago, and soon after my arrival I became acquainted with Professor John Lovelace, whose famous works on ancient Egypt you have doubtless read.”
We had not read them, but we let the assertion pass.
“Over here,” continued the narrator, “he was usually called Lovelace Pasha, but he was not entitled to the distinction except in the imagination of the natives, who had a high respect for his intelligence and industry. At the time we met Lovelace he was searching diligently but secretly for a vast treasure, and he took me into his confidence and engaged me to assist him. You must know that in the sixth century before Christ Egypt was at its height of wealth and greatness; and the most important treasures were at that time in the possession of the priests of the great temple of Karnak. They consisted of wonderful gems, countless jewels and ornaments of gold and silver and, above all, a library of papyrus rolls relating the history of Egypt during that now unknown period between the sixth and twelfth dynasties.
“At this time, when the Egyptians had grown as proud and insolent as they were wealthy, that terrible Persian, Cambyses, invaded the country with a conquering host and steadily advanced up the Nile toward Karnak and Thebes, laying waste the country as he came and despoiling the temples of their wealth. The legends say that the priests of Karnak, terror stricken, threw all their treasure into the Sacred Lake which adjoins their temple, in order to keep it from falling into the hands of the invader; and, as the lake is bottomless, the treasure has never yet been recovered.
“Now, sirs, Professor Lovelace, a shrewd and far-seeing man, doubted the truth of this story. It was an undeniable fact that the great treasure of Karnak was hidden somewhere by the priests, and that Cambyses put all the holy men to the sword because they would not reveal their secret. Also it is historical that the treasure has not since been discovered, and that the conqueror was unable to lay hands upon it after all his efforts to do so. During the centuries that have passed the Sacred Lake has been
dragged many times, with the hope of finding the immense wealth of Karnak; but it is now known that the quicksands at the bottom of the lake would have swallowed it up instantly, so naturally all these attempts have proved absolute failures.
“My friend Lovelace, pondering on this queer story, came to believe that the wily priests had never thrown their treasure into the lake at all. No one knew better than they that to place it there was to lose it forever; furthermore, the most valuable part of the treasure consisted of the historic papyri — the bark rolls on which the ancient Egyptians inscribed their records. To place these in water would be to destroy them; thus the falsity of the tale was evident. It was clear, my friend decided, that the priests had hidden the treasure somewhere in the desert, near Karnak, where the shifting sands would leave no evidence of the place to betray it to the keen eyes of the Persian. But they spread the report that it had been cast into the lake, so if any traitor might be among the people the truth would not be revealed.
“Since Cambyses put every priest of Karnak to death, in his unreasoning anger, there was none to recover the treasure when the Persian was gone home again, from which Professor Lovelace conjectured that it still lay secure in its original hiding-place.
“But where was that hiding place? That was the question to be solved. For years he sought in the desert without success but with rare patience, and at just about the time I arrived in Egypt he obtained a clue to guide him.
“On one of the ruined temple walls, hidden away in an unimportant corner, is carved a diagram which to an ordinary observer appeared to mean nothing at all. But Lovelace studied it and came to the conclusion that the diagram described the spot where the treasure was hidden. There was a picture of a high arch, called in Egypt a pylon; and through this picture, from one corner diagonally across to another corner, a line was chiseled. This line extended far beyond the pylon, past a grove of three pictured palm trees, and then ended in a cross. Do you follow me, gentlemen?” with an eager, nervous glance into our faces.
Uncle Naboth nodded, but he looked bewildered. Archie’s face wore a perfectly blank expression. My father was smoking placidly and looking out of the cabin window. Said I:
“We are not very familiar with Egyptian history, Professor; but I think we catch the drift of your story. Pay out the cable, sir, and we’ll grasp what we can of it.”
He seemed relieved, saying:
“Very well, my boy. Egyptian history is very fascinating, but this is neither the time nor the place for me to instruct you in it. Still, it is necessary that you understand something of the importance of the proposition I am going to make you, and I will be as clear as possible in my descriptions. The arch, or pylon, referred to in the picture, had three square towers, to distinguish it from many others, and after searching long among the ruins of Karnak, which cover many acres, Lovelace Pasha and I found one which, though partly demolished, still had one of the characteristic towers left, with traces of the others. Taking these as our guide we drew an imaginary line from corner to corner, as in the diagram, and taking our compass we started out to follow this imaginary line across the desert. Three miles away we found, to our great joy, the group of palms, very ancient, without doubt, but still standing, and near to these was a small oasis watered by a tiny spring.
“The question now remaining was, how far beyond the three palms was the point marked on the diagram by the cross — the point where the treasure had been buried? We were obliged to work very cautiously, for at this oasis lived a small but fierce tribe of desert Arabs having for their shiek, or ruler, one Abdul Hashim — the same devil who nearly murdered me last night. The Arabs were curious to know what we were after, for they are great thieves and often steal the contents of an ancient tomb after some lucky excavator has discovered it. So we kept our secret from them, until finally they became so angry that they would have driven us away from their neighborhood had not Professor Lovelace secured an order from the Khedive granting him the privilege of excavating and exploring in certain sections of the desert for relics of Egy
pt’s ancient civilization. The Khedive will always grant these licenses, permitting the explorer to work at his own expense in the interests of science; but when a discovery has been made the laws oblige us to give or sell everything to the National Museum at Cairo, where they pay only the most insignificant prices because there is no other legal way in which one may dispose of ancient treasure or relics.
“But that absurd law did not concern us at the time; what we were eager for was to discover the hidden treasure of Karnak, and to avoid the hostile Arabs we worked mostly during the clear moonlit nights, when all the tribe were asleep. We had sand-augers made, with which we burrowed into the sand to the foundation of rock underneath, striving to find some obstruction to indicate where the treasure was buried. By means of our compass we were enabled to follow a straight line, and we worked slowly and carefully for a distance of five miles beyond the oasis, and then back again, without any definite result. Sometimes we would strike an obstruction and dig down only to find a point of rock or a loose boulder, and the task seemed to me, after a few months, to be endless and impracticable. But Lovelace would not give up. He was positive he was on the right track, and when I declared I had had enough of the job and was going back to Cairo, he became suspicious of me, and threatened to kill me if I deserted him.
“This was my first suspicion that his mind had become unbalanced.
“‘You know too much, Van Dorn, to be permitted to go away and blab my secrets to others,’ he said. I assured him I should keep a closed mouth, but the fellow was so crazy over his idea that he would not trust me. He was a big man, determined and masterful, and I had to obey him whether I wanted to or not. I stuck to the search, though I became afraid of my companion.
“Well, sirs, not to bother you with details which are to you unimportant, I will say that finally, after more than two years of patient search, we chanced upon the treasure. My auger one day stuck in the sand and could not be withdrawn. Digging down we found that the point had plunged into a bronze ring and become fast. Lovelace gave a howl of joy at sight of the ring, for he knew then that our search was ended.
“It was after midnight, with bright stars shining down to light us as we worked. We cleared away the sand to the depth of more than four feet, and found the ring, duly attached to a large block of granite that rested on the rock foundation.”
“Is there a layer of rock under the desert sands, then?” I inquired.
“Yes; in this section of the country,” was the answer. “Archeologists will tell you that originally the earth was covered by a vast table-land of solid rock such as we now call sandstone. The erosion of wind and weather caused bits of this rock to crumble. The simoons caught them and whirled them around, breaking off other particles of rock and crumbling them into sand. As ages passed the sand increased in volume, until now the desert is covered with it to a depth of from two to six feet, and sometimes even more. Often the winds blow this sand into billows, leaving the bare table-land of rock to be seen stretching for miles and miles.
“But to return to my story. The block of granite was heavy, measuring three by six feet on the surface and being more than two feet in thickness. Three bronze rings were imbedded in it, but pry and lift as we would we could not budge the huge stone an inch. It was evident that we must have help, so we covered up the stone again, marked the spot carefully, and went back to the Arab village.
“Next morning Lovelace bargained with the sheik, Abdul Hashim, for the use of two of his men to assist us. Also we were obliged to send to Luxor for four stout staves to use as levers. You may well imagine that all this excited the wonder of the Arabs, and I doubted if Lovelace would be able to keep his secret from them. However, he appeared to attach no importance to this danger, and the next evening we set out for our buried stone, accompanied by our assistants bearing the oaken staves. We quickly dug away the sand and cleared the stone, and then we four used the levers together and by straining our muscles to the utmost managed to lift the huge slab of granite until it stood on edge.
“Underneath was a rock cavity, carefully chiseled out by hand, and at first we saw only a mass of dried reeds brought from the Nile bank. Removing these we came upon heavy layers of rotted cloth, of the kind that was once used in Egypt for wrapping mummies. But after this padding was dragged away the treasure became visible and Lovelace’s hands shook with excitement while he examined it. First there were many rolls of papyrus, carefully swathed in bandages; then several Canopic jars of pure gold, each containing quarts of wonderful pearls, rubies and emeralds; and finally a vast collection of wrought jewelry, gold and silver ornaments, some packed in rude wooden boxes which were old and falling to decay and others scattered loosely over them and filling every crevice.
“Lovelace said not a word while we were examining this vast treasure, the most remarkable collection that has come down to us from antiquity. His face was white and set and except for the trembling of his hands he kept himself under perfect control. The eyes of the Arabs, however, glittered with cupidity, and I caught them exchanging significant glances.
“The Professor took a couple of handfuls of rubies and pearls and thrust them carelessly into his pockets. He selected a few golden ornaments of exquisite workmanship, and replaced all the rest of the treasure, with its padding, in the rock cavity. When this had been done he commanded us to replace the granite slab, which we did, tipping it forward so that it again covered the orifice. Our next task was to fill in the sand, and as a light breeze was blowing we knew that in an hour the desert would show no marks of the excavation we had so recently made. The levers we left lying beside the granite slab, buried deep in the sand.
“Lovelace now motioned the Arabs to return toward their village, and they set out eagerly enough, we following close behind them. But after we had proceeded a few hundred yards Lovelace Pasha drew his revolver and calmly shot both men dead.
“‘Now, Van Dorn,’ he said to me, ‘help me to bury this carrion.’
“Horrified as I was at the murderous act I hastened to obey, for there was something strange about the Professor that night — a steely, cruel gleam in his usually kindly eyes — that recalled my former suspicions and made me fear that his great discovery had actually driven him mad.
“Silently we dug away the sand where the men had fallen and covered them up, smoothing the surface afterward as well as we were able. We proceeded to the village.
“‘Where are my children?’ demanded the sheik, sternly-
“‘Gone away on a far errand,’ said Lovelace.
“It was true enough, but Abdul Hashim was dissatisfied and suspicious. We slept late the next morning, and meantime the sheik had sent spies upon our trail. The jackals had dug up the bodies of the murdered Arabs and had half devoured them when their comrades reached the spot.
“It was open war between the tribe and us. We occupied a small stone house at the edge of the village. It had but one door and no windows, being merely a bare room thatched with palm leaves. When we heard the tribe running toward us with wild cries we knew the climax had arrived. Lovelace stood in the doorway and kept the Arabs at bay with his revolvers, but he did not know how long he would be able to hold out. He gave me the gems and gold ornaments and told me to escape and make my way to Luxor for help. I was instructed to put the treasure into the bank, gather a rescue party, and return as speedily as possible. Luxor was distant only four miles across the desert.
“While the Arabs were watching in front of the house I stood on the Professor’s shoulders, broke through the thatch at the rear, and dropped from the top of the stone wall to the sands beneath. While he returned to the entrance to distract their attention by a shot, I darted away toward Luxor and was soon safe from pursuit, even had I chanced to be observed.
“I performed my errand quickly and returned with a detachment of mounted police lent me by the governor of the city, for Professor Lovelace was a well-known explorer and under the protection of the Khedive. We arrived too late. I found on
ly the Professor’s dead body, terribly mutilated by the knives of the Arabs. They had tricked him in some way during my absence, and so obtained their revenge.
“Abdul Hashim calmly told the officers that Lovelace Pasha had gone mad, and was slain by them in selfdefense. He pointed to two dead men and several wounded to prove the truth of his assertion. I told another story, as you may imagine, but with no hint of the treasure. Shortly afterward I had the satisfaction of inducing the governor to raze Abdul Hashim’s village to the ground, so that not one of the rude stones remained upon another, while the tribe was driven farther into the desert to seek new quarters.
“Fortunately I had not banked the sample treasure we had taken, not wishing to delay my friend’s rescue, so that now I found myself the sole possessor of any knowledge relating to the great discovery. It has remained my personal secret until this hour, when I have confided it to you, gentlemen, in order to induce you to assist me.”
He paused, as if the tale was ended, and for a time we, his listeners, remained silent and thoughtful. The story had impressed me, for one, greatly, and it had seemed to ring true until he came to that row with the Arabs. There were some unlikely statements about the death of Lovelace and Van Dorn’s peculiar escape from the village, but I reflected that my ignorance of the ways of this people might well account for any seeming improbabilities that lurked in the story.
CHAPTER SIX
THE TREASURE OF THE ANCIENTS
UNCLE Naboth was the first to speak.
“Tell me, sir,” said he, “why you have selected us to receive your confidence.”
“I had two reasons,” replied Van Dorn. “One is that I am afraid. I left Luxor and traveled to Cairo, trying to think of a way to secure the treasure for myself. At Cairo I was shot at from a window and narrowly escaped death. I came on here to Alexandria, as secretly as I could. Last night I was set upon by a band of Arabs, among whom I recognized the terrible Abdul Hashim. Had you not appeared at the same instant I would certainly have been killed. It seems as if Providence had decreed that we should meet. You have a swift vessel, bound for America, and I have a great treasure to be secured and transported home. Assist me in this emergency and your reward shall be greater than you could gain from a dozen voyages.”
Complete Works of L. Frank Baum Page 671
