The Great God Gold Part 38

"Yes!" he whispered, as though in fear of his own voice. "It actually bears the test--the only one that has borne it through a whole sentence!

Can it be possible that I have here the actual key?" For another half-hour he remained busy with his calculations, gradually evolving a Hebrew character after each calculation until he had written a line.

Then aloud he read the Hebrew to himself, afterwards translating it into English thus:

"...the house of Togarmah, of the north quarters..."

The old man rose from his chair, pale and rigid, staring straight through the window at the yellow sky.

"At last!" he gasped to himself. "Success at last! Holmboe's secret is mine--_mine_!"

He was naturally a quiet man whom nothing could disturb, but now so excited had he become that his hand shook and trembled and he was unable to trace the Hebrew characters with any degree of accuracy.

He walked to the window, and looked out into the foggy road below.

He, Arminger Griffin, though Regius Professor, had, in the course of that brief hour, become the greatest Hebrew scholar in Europe, the man who would announce to the world the most interesting discovery of the age!

He gazed around that silent restful room, like a man in a dream. His success hardly seemed true. Where was Haupt, he wondered? Would his ingenuity and patience lead him to that same goal whereby he could read the hidden record?

Pausing at his table he recalculated the sum upon the sheet of paper.

No. He had made no mistake. There was the decipher in black and white, quite clear and quite intelligible!

He stretched his arms above his head, and standing upon the hearthrug before the blaring fire, reflected deeply.

The declaration of the dead professor was true, after all. The cipher did exist in Ezekiel, therefore there was little doubt that the treasure of Israel would be discovered through his instrumentality.

Haupt fortunately did not possess any of that ma.n.u.script which was evidently a written explanation of the mode of deciphering the message.

Hence he would not be aware that the "waw" sign formed the basis of calculation necessary. But he, Arminger Griffin, had elucidated a problem of which bygone generations of scholars had never dreamed, and Israel would, if the secret were duly kept, recover the sacred relics of her wonderful temple.

His face was blanched with suppressed excitement. How should he act?

After some pondering he resolved to make no announcement to Diamond or to Farquhar, both of whom he knew were away in the country, until he had made a complete decipher of the whole of the secret record.

He intended to launch the good news upon them as a thunderclap.

"They both regard me as a `dry-as-dust' old fossil," he laughed to himself. "But they will soon realise that Arminger Griffin has patience and ability to solve one of the most intricate problems ever presented to any scholar. We can now openly defy our enemies--whoever they are.

Before midnight I shall be in possession of the whole of the secret record contained in the book of the Prophet, and if I do not turn it to advantage it will not be my fault. That man Mullet evidently fears to call upon me. Ah! his friends little dream that I have solved the problem--that success now lies in my hands alone."

Crossing again to the table he slowly turned over the folios of the text of Ezekiel which he had been using, glancing at it here and there.

Then he touched the electric bell, and Laura, the tall, dark-haired parlour-maid, answered.

"Is Miss Gwen in?" he inquired.

"No, sir. She's not yet returned."

"When she comes, please say I wish to see her at once."

"Very well, sir," was the quiet response of the well-trained maid who, by the expression upon her master's face, instantly recognised that something unusual had occurred.

She glanced at him with a quick interest, and then retired, closing the door softly after her.

The Professor, reseating himself at his table, pushed his scanty grey hair off his brow, and again readjusting his big round spectacles settled down to continue his intensely interesting work of discovery.

"Holmboe says that the cipher exists in nine chapters," he remarked aloud to himself. "I wonder which of the forty-eight chapters he alludes to! Now let's see," he went on, slowly turning over the leaves of the Hebrew text, "the book of Ezekiel's prophecy is divided into several parts. The first contains chapters i-xxiv, which are prophecies relating to Israel and Judah, in which he foretells and justifies the fall of Jerusalem. The second is chapters xxv-x.x.xii, containing denunciations of the neighbouring nations; the third is chapters x.x.xiii-x.x.xix, which gives predictions of the rest.i.tution and union of Judah and Israel, and the last, chapter xl-xlviii, visions of the ideal theocracy and its inst.i.tutions. Now the question is in which of those parts is hidden the record?"

The few words of the cipher which he had been able to read were continued in chapter xxiv, beginning at verse 6; "Wherefore thus saith the Lord G.o.d; Woe to the b.l.o.o.d.y city, to the pot whose sc.u.m is therein, and whose sc.u.m not gone out of it! bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it. For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the top of a rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust," etc, down to the end of verse 27. If those twenty-two verses only contained eight words of the hidden record, then it was apparent that the Professor had a greater task before him than he imagined.

Gwen, in emerging from Whiteley's into Westbourne Grove, had met a young naval officer she knew. He was home on leave, therefore she had strolled leisurely with him down Queen's Road and along Bayswater Road, in preference to taking a cab. A couple of years before, when she was still a mere girl and he only an acting sub-lieutenant, they had been rather attached to each other. He was, of course, unaware of her engagement to Frank Farquhar, and she did not enlighten him, but allowed him to chatter to her as they walked westward. His people lived in Porchester Terrace, and he had lately been at sea for a year with the Mediterranean Fleet, he told her.

The yellow obscurity was now rapidly clearing as, at the corner of Pembridge Gardens, he raised his hat and with some reluctance left her.

Then she hurried in, just as the luncheon gong was sounding, and had only time to take off her hat and coat to be in her place at table. Her father was most punctual at his meals. He believed in method at all times, and carried method and the utmost punctuality into all his daily habits.

When he entered the dining-room the girl saw, from his preoccupied expression, that something had occurred.

She, however, made no inquiry before the servant, while he on his part, though bursting with the good news, resolved to keep his information until they had had their meal and retired into the study together.

Then he would explain to her, and show her the amazing result.

Therefore she chatted merrily, telling him how sweet her new gown looked, and gossiping in her own sweet engaging way--with that girlish laughter and merriment which was the suns.h.i.+ne of the old scholar's otherwise dull and colourless existence.

Little did she dream, he thought, as he sat at table, of the staggering announcement which he was about to make to her.

He had solved the problem!

CHAPTER THIRTY.

CLOSED DOORS.

"Will you come up with me into the study, dear?" asked the Professor, in as quiet a voice as he could, when they had finished luncheon.

"I have a letter to write, dad," replied the girl in excuse. "I'll come in and sit with you before tea."

"But I want to speak to you, dear," he said. "I want to tell you something. Come with me now." Rather surprised at her father's somewhat strained and unusual demeanour, the girl ascended the stairs to the book-lined room, and when the door was closed the old man crossed to where she stood, and said:

"Gwen, congratulate me, child."

"Upon what, dad?" she said, looking into his face, surprised.

"I have discovered the key to the cipher!"

The girl started. Then with a wild cry she threw her arms about her father's neck, kissed him pa.s.sionately, and with tears of joy welling in her eyes, congratulated him.

"What will Frank say!" she exclaimed breathlessly. "How delighted he'll be! Why, dad, we shall discover the position of the hiding-place of the sacred relics, after all!"

Her enthusiasm was unbounded. Her father who had worked so hard by night and by day upon those puzzling cryptic numericals, was at last successful.

"Can you really read the cipher?" she asked quickly.