Chapter Twenty Nine.Which Solves a Problem.That day had been an eventful one at Pembridge Gardens. Indeed, the event of the great scholar, Arminger Griffin’s life had occurred.It happened in this way. The January morning had been so dark that he had been compelled to use the electric light upon his study table, and during the whole morning he had been engaged upon that same futile task—the problem of the cipher.With the Hebrew text of Ezekiel open before him, and sheets of manuscript paper upon the blotting-pad, he had been absorbed for hours in his cabalistic calculations which, to the uninitiated, would convey nothing. They appeared to be elementary sums of addition and subtraction—sums consisting of ordinary numericals combined with letters of the Hebrew alphabet.And curiously enough, in a back bedroom in the Waldorf Hotel, in Aldwych, the white-bearded old German, Erich Haupt, who only the previous night had returned from the Continent, sat making almost similar calculations. Before him also he had a copy of the Hebrew Bible, and was taking sentences haphazard from Ezekiel xix, the lamentation for the Princes of Israel under the parable of the lion’s whelps taken in a pit.Early in the morning he had rung up Sir Felix on the telephone beside the bed, announcing his arrival, and obtaining an appointment for later in the day.Both scholars, unknown to each other, were busy upon the same problem, each hoping for success and triumph over the other.Through weeks and weeks Griffin, seated in his big, silent, rather gloomy study, had tried and tried again, yet always in vain. He was a calm, patient man, knowing well that in cryptography the first element towards success is utmost patience.It was noon. The fog had not lifted, and Bayswater was plunged in the semi-darkness of the London “pea-souper.”Gwen was out. She was trying on a new evening frock at Whitley’s—a dainty creation in pale blue chiffon ordered specially for a dance which Lady Duddington was giving in Grosvenor Street in a few days’ time.Alone, his grey head bent on the zone of shaded light upon the big writing-table, the Professor had ever since breakfast time been putting a new cipher theory to the test.All the thirty odd numerical ciphers known to the ancients he had applied to certain chapters of the Book of Ezekiel, but each one in vain. The result was mere chaos. The ancients employed numerous methods of cryptography besides the numerical cipher, among them being the use of superfluous words where the correspondents agreed that only some of the words, at equal distances apart, was necessary to form the message; by misplaced words; by vertical and diagonal reading; by artificial word grouping; by transposing the letters; by substitution of letters; or by counterpart tabulations with changes at every letter in the message, according to a pre-arranged plan.All these, however, he had, in face of the reading of the scrap of the manuscript of the dead discover of the secret, long ago dismissed.He held the firm opinion—perhaps formed on account of that crumpled paper found at the Bodleian—that the cipher was a numerical one, and based upon some variation of the numerical value of the “wāw” sign, or the number six.He now fully recognised how very cleverly old Erich Haupt had endeavoured to put him off the scent. The German was a very crafty old fellow, whose several discoveries, though not altogether new, had evoked considerable interest in academic circles in Europe. He was author of several learned studies in the Hebrew text, as well as the renowned work upon the Messianic Prophecies, and without a doubt now that he had possessed himself of the dead professor’s discovery he intended to take all the credit to himself. Indeed it was his intention to pose as the actual discoverer.Continuing his work in silence and without interruption Griffin had been making a long and elaborate calculation when, very soon after the little Sheraton clock upon the mantelshelf had chimed noon, he started up with a cry of surprise and stared across at the long old-fashioned bookcase opposite.Next moment his head was bent to the paper before him, as he rapidly traced numerals and Hebrew characters, for he wrote the ancient language as swiftly as he wrote English.“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 manuscript which was evidently a written explanation of the mode of deciphering the message. Hence he would not be aware that the “wāw” 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-xxxii, containing denunciations of the neighbouring nations; the third is chapters xxxiii-xxxix, which gives predictions of the restitution and union of Judah and Israel, and the last, chapter xl-xlviii, visions of the ideal theocracy and its institutions. 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 God; Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therein, and whose scum 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 sunshine 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!
That day had been an eventful one at Pembridge Gardens. Indeed, the event of the great scholar, Arminger Griffin’s life had occurred.
It happened in this way. The January morning had been so dark that he had been compelled to use the electric light upon his study table, and during the whole morning he had been engaged upon that same futile task—the problem of the cipher.
With the Hebrew text of Ezekiel open before him, and sheets of manuscript paper upon the blotting-pad, he had been absorbed for hours in his cabalistic calculations which, to the uninitiated, would convey nothing. They appeared to be elementary sums of addition and subtraction—sums consisting of ordinary numericals combined with letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
And curiously enough, in a back bedroom in the Waldorf Hotel, in Aldwych, the white-bearded old German, Erich Haupt, who only the previous night had returned from the Continent, sat making almost similar calculations. Before him also he had a copy of the Hebrew Bible, and was taking sentences haphazard from Ezekiel xix, the lamentation for the Princes of Israel under the parable of the lion’s whelps taken in a pit.
Early in the morning he had rung up Sir Felix on the telephone beside the bed, announcing his arrival, and obtaining an appointment for later in the day.
Both scholars, unknown to each other, were busy upon the same problem, each hoping for success and triumph over the other.
Through weeks and weeks Griffin, seated in his big, silent, rather gloomy study, had tried and tried again, yet always in vain. He was a calm, patient man, knowing well that in cryptography the first element towards success is utmost patience.
It was noon. The fog had not lifted, and Bayswater was plunged in the semi-darkness of the London “pea-souper.”
Gwen was out. She was trying on a new evening frock at Whitley’s—a dainty creation in pale blue chiffon ordered specially for a dance which Lady Duddington was giving in Grosvenor Street in a few days’ time.
Alone, his grey head bent on the zone of shaded light upon the big writing-table, the Professor had ever since breakfast time been putting a new cipher theory to the test.
All the thirty odd numerical ciphers known to the ancients he had applied to certain chapters of the Book of Ezekiel, but each one in vain. The result was mere chaos. The ancients employed numerous methods of cryptography besides the numerical cipher, among them being the use of superfluous words where the correspondents agreed that only some of the words, at equal distances apart, was necessary to form the message; by misplaced words; by vertical and diagonal reading; by artificial word grouping; by transposing the letters; by substitution of letters; or by counterpart tabulations with changes at every letter in the message, according to a pre-arranged plan.
All these, however, he had, in face of the reading of the scrap of the manuscript of the dead discover of the secret, long ago dismissed.
He held the firm opinion—perhaps formed on account of that crumpled paper found at the Bodleian—that the cipher was a numerical one, and based upon some variation of the numerical value of the “wāw” sign, or the number six.
He now fully recognised how very cleverly old Erich Haupt had endeavoured to put him off the scent. The German was a very crafty old fellow, whose several discoveries, though not altogether new, had evoked considerable interest in academic circles in Europe. He was author of several learned studies in the Hebrew text, as well as the renowned work upon the Messianic Prophecies, and without a doubt now that he had possessed himself of the dead professor’s discovery he intended to take all the credit to himself. Indeed it was his intention to pose as the actual discoverer.
Continuing his work in silence and without interruption Griffin had been making a long and elaborate calculation when, very soon after the little Sheraton clock upon the mantelshelf had chimed noon, he started up with a cry of surprise and stared across at the long old-fashioned bookcase opposite.
Next moment his head was bent to the paper before him, as he rapidly traced numerals and Hebrew characters, for he wrote the ancient language as swiftly as he wrote English.
“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 manuscript which was evidently a written explanation of the mode of deciphering the message. Hence he would not be aware that the “wāw” 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-xxxii, containing denunciations of the neighbouring nations; the third is chapters xxxiii-xxxix, which gives predictions of the restitution and union of Judah and Israel, and the last, chapter xl-xlviii, visions of the ideal theocracy and its institutions. 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 God; Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therein, and whose scum 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 sunshine 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 passionately, 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.“Yes, dear,” was her father’s response. “I have already deciphered part of the extraordinary statement.”“Then we must telegraph to Frank,” she said. “He is down at Horsford, visiting his sister and seeing Doctor Diamond at the same time.”“No, not yet, my child,” he replied quietly. “Let me complete the work before we announce the good news to our friends. I have told you, because I knew you would be gratified.”“Why, of course I am, dad,” replied the girl eagerly. “It will greatly enhance your reputation, besides preserving the sacred relics to the Jews. Our opponents had other intentions. Their efforts are directed towards causing annoyance and bringing ridicule upon the Hebrew race. But,” she added, her arm still affectionately around his neck, “how did you accomplish it, dad?”“Sit down, dear, and I’ll explain to you,” he said, pointing to the armchair near his writing-table, while he took his writing-chair, and drew towards him the open Hebrew text of Ezekiel.“You see,” he commenced, “for some weeks I have been applying all the known numerical ciphers to this text, but without result. More than once I was able to read a couple or three words, and believed that I had discovered the key. But, alas! I found it to fail inevitably before I could establish a complete sentence. I was about to relinquish the problem as either impossible of solution, or as a theory without basis, when this morning, almost as a last resource and certainly without expecting any definite result, I applied a variation of the Apocalyptic Number, which though appearing in the Book of Revelation, (Revelations, xiii, 13) was no doubt known at a much earlier period. In the text of Ezekiel xvii, the first and second verses: ‘And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, put forth a riddle and speak a parable unto the house of Israel;’ I had long recognised certain signs by which I had suspicion that there was a hidden meaning, and again in verses 14, 16 and 16, ending with the words ‘even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die.’“To my utter amazement I found, by applying the numbers 666—the Hebrew ‘wāw’ sign three times repeated, that I could read an intelligible sentence which was nothing less than a portion of the cipher exactly as quoted by Holmboe! Since my discovery I have been hard at work, and have deciphered many ominous sentences.”“Then there is no doubt whatever now that the cipher record exists in the writings of the prophet?”“Not the slightest.”“But I don’t quite understand how you arrived at the key, dad?” she said. “Explain to me, for, as you know, I’m all curiosity.”“Well, as you don’t know Hebrew, dear, I’ll try and explain it as clearly as I can,” he said. “Each Hebrew letter has its own numerical value, as you know,A-lephrepresenting 1,Bêth2,Gi-mel3, and so on toYodh10, and the nine tens to 100, orQoph, to 400, represented by the last of the twenty-two consonants,Tâw. The fact that Holmboe mentioned ‘wāw,’ or the number 6, in his manuscript, first caused me to believe that he did so as a blind, because this also signified ‘hook’ and was the sign of evil. I applied it diligently in nearly two hundred places in the Book of Ezekiel, but without a single success. I used other numbers, indeed most of the combinations of the twenty-two consonants, especially the one of three and thirty-three which was one of the earliest numerical ciphers. You know well how diligently I worked, and how unsuccessful I have been until to-day.”“I know, dad,” exclaimed the pretty girl, “but I confess I can hardly follow you, even now.”“Well, listen,” he said. “The Apocalyptic Number is 666, and its interpretation rests upon the fact that in Hebrew, as well as in Greek, the letters of the alphabet did service for numbers. Hence, a writer, while avoiding a direct mention of some person or thing, could yet indicate the same by a number which was the sum of the various values comprising the name. First establishing the point where the actual message commences, which I may as well explain is at Ezekiel, x, 8; ‘And there appeared in the cherubim the form of a man’s hand under their wings,’ I took the first ‘wāw’ or 6 sign, then the eleventh letter, being the sixth of sixty-six, then the sixty-sixth letter, and afterwards the six hundred and sixty-sixth letter. Following this, I made the additions which are known to the Greeks and also to the Hebrews, working it out thus: The fiftieth letter, the two-hundredth letter, the sixth letter, the fiftieth letter, the hundredth letter, the sixtieth letter and the two-hundredth letter—making in all six hundred and sixty-six. The Hebrew signs of each I wrote down in a line, and having divided them into words, I found to my amazement, that I was reading the secret record alleged by the dead professor!”“But, surely, dad, that is a most ingenious cipher!” remarked his daughter.“Most intricate, I assure you. By sheer good fortune I discovered the starting-point.”“What led you to it?”“A slight, almost unnoticeable deviation of the present Hebrew text from the St. Petersburg codex. I had never before noticed it, and it only arrested my attention because I was studying the subject so very closely.”“And after making the additions of 666, how did you proceed?” urged the girl.He paused for a few seconds as though in hesitation.“By starting at the first ‘wāw’ sign and repeating my key. Sometimes, in a whole chapter, there is not a word of cipher, but following the numbers with regularity it reappears in the next. It is a most marvellous and most cunningly concealed record accounting, of course, for the number of superfluous and rather incongruous words in the writings of the prophet.”“Was it written in the text—or placed there afterwards?” she asked.“Placed there afterwards, without a doubt,” was the Professor’s quick reply. “Holy writ was inspired, of course, but some temple priest, an exile in Babylon probably, worked out the cipher and placed the record in the text in order that it might be there preserved and the existence of the treasure be known to coming generations of Jews who would be then aware of the existence of their war-chest.”“It really is a most amazing discovery, dad dear,” declared the girl much excited. “When you publish it the whole world will be startled!”“Yes, my dear,” was the old fellow’s response, as he ran his fingers through his scanty grey hair. “We have here before us,” and he placed his hand upon the open Hebrew text, “a secret explained which is surely the greatest and most remarkable of any discovered in any age.”The girl, rising from her chair, saw upon the manuscript paper on her father’s blotting-pad, a number of lines of hastily-written Hebrew words.“Is that part of the deciphered record?” she inquired, greatly interested.“Yes, dear.”“Oh, do read them to me, dad,” she cried, “I’m dying to learn exactly the purport of this message hidden through so many generations!”“No, Gwen,” was the old man’s calm response, “not until I have worked out the whole. Then you shall, my child, be the first to have knowledge of the secret of Israel. And remember it is my wish that you write nothing to Farquhar regarding it. We must keep our knowledge to ourselves—very closely to ourselves, remember. Erich Haupt must have no suspicion of my success. Otherwise we may even yet be forestalled.”“I quite see the danger, dad,” remarked his daughter, “but I’m so interested, do go on with your task and show me how it is accomplished.”“Very well,” he said, smiling and humouring her. “You see here, at this mark,” and he showed her a pencilled line upon the Hebrew text, “that is where I halted for luncheon. Now we go on to the next sign of six. See, here it is—in the next line. Now we count the eleventh letter,” and he wrote it down in Hebrew. Then he counted the sixty-sixth, the six hundredth and sixty-sixth, the fiftieth, the two-hundredth, and so on until he had a number of Hebrew signs ranged side by side. Presently he said, pointing to them:“Here you are! The English translation to this is ‘...yourselves, and wonder, for unto thee, O children of Israel...’”“Really, dad!” exclaimed the girl, highly excited. “It’s most remarkable!”“Yes,” he admitted. “I confess that until now I held the same idea that every Jewish Rabbi holds—namely that no secret cipher can exist in our inspired writings.”“But you have now proved it beyond question!” she declared.“Yes. But startling as it may be, we must preserve our secret, dear. There are others endeavouring to learn the trend of my investigations, recollect. We may have spies upon us, for aught we know,” he added in a low tone, glancing at her with a significant look.“How long do you expect it will take before you are in full possession of the whole of the secret statement?” she asked.“Many hours, my dear. Perhaps many days—how can I tell. Holmboe says it runs through only nine chapters. Therefore it should end with chapter xxvi. But as far as I can gather I believe I shall find further cryptic statements in the later chapters. There are certain evidences of these in chapter xxxvii, 16, in chapter xxxix, 18, 19 and 20, and again in chapter xliv, 5. Therefore, I anticipate that my task may be a rather long one. The counting and recounting to ensure accuracy occupies so much time. The miscounting of a single letter would throw everything out and prevent the record being recovered, as you will readily foresee. Hence, it must be done with the greatest precision and patience.”“But, dad—this is most joyful news!” declared the girl excitedly, “I’m most anxious to telegraph to Frank.”“Not until the secret is wholly ours, my dear. Remember we must keep the key a most profound secret to ourselves.”“Of course, dad,” the girl answered, “I quite see that this information must not be allowed to pass to our enemies.”Little did father or daughter imagine that, within their own quiet household, was a spy—the maid Laura, suborned by Jim Jannaway.When the pair had entered the study she had crept silently up to the door, and listened intently for the one fact which Jannaway had instructed her to listen—the means by which the cipher could be unravelled.She was a shrewd, intelligent girl, and the inducement which the good-looking adventurer had held out to her was such that the Professor’s explanation to his daughter impressed itself upon her memory.She recollected every word, and still stood listening, able to hear quite distinctly, until there seemed no further information to be gathered. Then she descended the stairs, and made certain memoranda of the text at which to commence, and the mode by which the decipher could be made.Half an hour later she made an excuse to the cook that she wished to go out to buy some hairpins, and then despatched a telegram to the name and address which her generous and good-looking “gentleman” had given her.Meanwhile Gwen still sat with her father at his writing-table watching him slowly taking from the text of the Book of Ezekiel the full and complete record that had been hidden from scholars through all the ages—the record which was to deliver back to the house of Israel her most sacred possessions.The light of the short afternoon faded, the electric light was switched on, tea was served by the faithless maid-servant, and dinner had been announced.But the Professor worked on, regardless and oblivious of everything. He was far too occupied, and Gwen was also too excited to dress and descend to dinner. Therefore, Laura served the meal upon a tray.All was silence save the Professor’s dry monotonous voice as he counted aloud the letters of the Hebrew text, recounted them to reassure himself, and then set down a Hebrew character as result.Thus from after luncheon until midnight—through the time indeed that Diamond was so patiently watching the big house in Berkeley Square—the work of solving the problem went slowly on.Gwen sat and watched her father’s Hebrew manuscript grow apace, until it covered many quarto pages. Now and then she assisted in counting the letters, verifying her father’s addition.Then at last, just after the old-fashioned clock upon the mantelshelf had chimed twelve, the old scholar raised his grey head with a sigh, and wiping his glasses, as was his habit, said:“Sit down, dear, and write the English translation at my dictation. I think we now have it quite complete.”
“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 passionately, 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.
“Yes, dear,” was her father’s response. “I have already deciphered part of the extraordinary statement.”
“Then we must telegraph to Frank,” she said. “He is down at Horsford, visiting his sister and seeing Doctor Diamond at the same time.”
“No, not yet, my child,” he replied quietly. “Let me complete the work before we announce the good news to our friends. I have told you, because I knew you would be gratified.”
“Why, of course I am, dad,” replied the girl eagerly. “It will greatly enhance your reputation, besides preserving the sacred relics to the Jews. Our opponents had other intentions. Their efforts are directed towards causing annoyance and bringing ridicule upon the Hebrew race. But,” she added, her arm still affectionately around his neck, “how did you accomplish it, dad?”
“Sit down, dear, and I’ll explain to you,” he said, pointing to the armchair near his writing-table, while he took his writing-chair, and drew towards him the open Hebrew text of Ezekiel.
“You see,” he commenced, “for some weeks I have been applying all the known numerical ciphers to this text, but without result. More than once I was able to read a couple or three words, and believed that I had discovered the key. But, alas! I found it to fail inevitably before I could establish a complete sentence. I was about to relinquish the problem as either impossible of solution, or as a theory without basis, when this morning, almost as a last resource and certainly without expecting any definite result, I applied a variation of the Apocalyptic Number, which though appearing in the Book of Revelation, (Revelations, xiii, 13) was no doubt known at a much earlier period. In the text of Ezekiel xvii, the first and second verses: ‘And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, put forth a riddle and speak a parable unto the house of Israel;’ I had long recognised certain signs by which I had suspicion that there was a hidden meaning, and again in verses 14, 16 and 16, ending with the words ‘even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die.’
“To my utter amazement I found, by applying the numbers 666—the Hebrew ‘wāw’ sign three times repeated, that I could read an intelligible sentence which was nothing less than a portion of the cipher exactly as quoted by Holmboe! Since my discovery I have been hard at work, and have deciphered many ominous sentences.”
“Then there is no doubt whatever now that the cipher record exists in the writings of the prophet?”
“Not the slightest.”
“But I don’t quite understand how you arrived at the key, dad?” she said. “Explain to me, for, as you know, I’m all curiosity.”
“Well, as you don’t know Hebrew, dear, I’ll try and explain it as clearly as I can,” he said. “Each Hebrew letter has its own numerical value, as you know,A-lephrepresenting 1,Bêth2,Gi-mel3, and so on toYodh10, and the nine tens to 100, orQoph, to 400, represented by the last of the twenty-two consonants,Tâw. The fact that Holmboe mentioned ‘wāw,’ or the number 6, in his manuscript, first caused me to believe that he did so as a blind, because this also signified ‘hook’ and was the sign of evil. I applied it diligently in nearly two hundred places in the Book of Ezekiel, but without a single success. I used other numbers, indeed most of the combinations of the twenty-two consonants, especially the one of three and thirty-three which was one of the earliest numerical ciphers. You know well how diligently I worked, and how unsuccessful I have been until to-day.”
“I know, dad,” exclaimed the pretty girl, “but I confess I can hardly follow you, even now.”
“Well, listen,” he said. “The Apocalyptic Number is 666, and its interpretation rests upon the fact that in Hebrew, as well as in Greek, the letters of the alphabet did service for numbers. Hence, a writer, while avoiding a direct mention of some person or thing, could yet indicate the same by a number which was the sum of the various values comprising the name. First establishing the point where the actual message commences, which I may as well explain is at Ezekiel, x, 8; ‘And there appeared in the cherubim the form of a man’s hand under their wings,’ I took the first ‘wāw’ or 6 sign, then the eleventh letter, being the sixth of sixty-six, then the sixty-sixth letter, and afterwards the six hundred and sixty-sixth letter. Following this, I made the additions which are known to the Greeks and also to the Hebrews, working it out thus: The fiftieth letter, the two-hundredth letter, the sixth letter, the fiftieth letter, the hundredth letter, the sixtieth letter and the two-hundredth letter—making in all six hundred and sixty-six. The Hebrew signs of each I wrote down in a line, and having divided them into words, I found to my amazement, that I was reading the secret record alleged by the dead professor!”
“But, surely, dad, that is a most ingenious cipher!” remarked his daughter.
“Most intricate, I assure you. By sheer good fortune I discovered the starting-point.”
“What led you to it?”
“A slight, almost unnoticeable deviation of the present Hebrew text from the St. Petersburg codex. I had never before noticed it, and it only arrested my attention because I was studying the subject so very closely.”
“And after making the additions of 666, how did you proceed?” urged the girl.
He paused for a few seconds as though in hesitation.
“By starting at the first ‘wāw’ sign and repeating my key. Sometimes, in a whole chapter, there is not a word of cipher, but following the numbers with regularity it reappears in the next. It is a most marvellous and most cunningly concealed record accounting, of course, for the number of superfluous and rather incongruous words in the writings of the prophet.”
“Was it written in the text—or placed there afterwards?” she asked.
“Placed there afterwards, without a doubt,” was the Professor’s quick reply. “Holy writ was inspired, of course, but some temple priest, an exile in Babylon probably, worked out the cipher and placed the record in the text in order that it might be there preserved and the existence of the treasure be known to coming generations of Jews who would be then aware of the existence of their war-chest.”
“It really is a most amazing discovery, dad dear,” declared the girl much excited. “When you publish it the whole world will be startled!”
“Yes, my dear,” was the old fellow’s response, as he ran his fingers through his scanty grey hair. “We have here before us,” and he placed his hand upon the open Hebrew text, “a secret explained which is surely the greatest and most remarkable of any discovered in any age.”
The girl, rising from her chair, saw upon the manuscript paper on her father’s blotting-pad, a number of lines of hastily-written Hebrew words.
“Is that part of the deciphered record?” she inquired, greatly interested.
“Yes, dear.”
“Oh, do read them to me, dad,” she cried, “I’m dying to learn exactly the purport of this message hidden through so many generations!”
“No, Gwen,” was the old man’s calm response, “not until I have worked out the whole. Then you shall, my child, be the first to have knowledge of the secret of Israel. And remember it is my wish that you write nothing to Farquhar regarding it. We must keep our knowledge to ourselves—very closely to ourselves, remember. Erich Haupt must have no suspicion of my success. Otherwise we may even yet be forestalled.”
“I quite see the danger, dad,” remarked his daughter, “but I’m so interested, do go on with your task and show me how it is accomplished.”
“Very well,” he said, smiling and humouring her. “You see here, at this mark,” and he showed her a pencilled line upon the Hebrew text, “that is where I halted for luncheon. Now we go on to the next sign of six. See, here it is—in the next line. Now we count the eleventh letter,” and he wrote it down in Hebrew. Then he counted the sixty-sixth, the six hundredth and sixty-sixth, the fiftieth, the two-hundredth, and so on until he had a number of Hebrew signs ranged side by side. Presently he said, pointing to them:
“Here you are! The English translation to this is ‘...yourselves, and wonder, for unto thee, O children of Israel...’”
“Really, dad!” exclaimed the girl, highly excited. “It’s most remarkable!”
“Yes,” he admitted. “I confess that until now I held the same idea that every Jewish Rabbi holds—namely that no secret cipher can exist in our inspired writings.”
“But you have now proved it beyond question!” she declared.
“Yes. But startling as it may be, we must preserve our secret, dear. There are others endeavouring to learn the trend of my investigations, recollect. We may have spies upon us, for aught we know,” he added in a low tone, glancing at her with a significant look.
“How long do you expect it will take before you are in full possession of the whole of the secret statement?” she asked.
“Many hours, my dear. Perhaps many days—how can I tell. Holmboe says it runs through only nine chapters. Therefore it should end with chapter xxvi. But as far as I can gather I believe I shall find further cryptic statements in the later chapters. There are certain evidences of these in chapter xxxvii, 16, in chapter xxxix, 18, 19 and 20, and again in chapter xliv, 5. Therefore, I anticipate that my task may be a rather long one. The counting and recounting to ensure accuracy occupies so much time. The miscounting of a single letter would throw everything out and prevent the record being recovered, as you will readily foresee. Hence, it must be done with the greatest precision and patience.”
“But, dad—this is most joyful news!” declared the girl excitedly, “I’m most anxious to telegraph to Frank.”
“Not until the secret is wholly ours, my dear. Remember we must keep the key a most profound secret to ourselves.”
“Of course, dad,” the girl answered, “I quite see that this information must not be allowed to pass to our enemies.”
Little did father or daughter imagine that, within their own quiet household, was a spy—the maid Laura, suborned by Jim Jannaway.
When the pair had entered the study she had crept silently up to the door, and listened intently for the one fact which Jannaway had instructed her to listen—the means by which the cipher could be unravelled.
She was a shrewd, intelligent girl, and the inducement which the good-looking adventurer had held out to her was such that the Professor’s explanation to his daughter impressed itself upon her memory.
She recollected every word, and still stood listening, able to hear quite distinctly, until there seemed no further information to be gathered. Then she descended the stairs, and made certain memoranda of the text at which to commence, and the mode by which the decipher could be made.
Half an hour later she made an excuse to the cook that she wished to go out to buy some hairpins, and then despatched a telegram to the name and address which her generous and good-looking “gentleman” had given her.
Meanwhile Gwen still sat with her father at his writing-table watching him slowly taking from the text of the Book of Ezekiel the full and complete record that had been hidden from scholars through all the ages—the record which was to deliver back to the house of Israel her most sacred possessions.
The light of the short afternoon faded, the electric light was switched on, tea was served by the faithless maid-servant, and dinner had been announced.
But the Professor worked on, regardless and oblivious of everything. He was far too occupied, and Gwen was also too excited to dress and descend to dinner. Therefore, Laura served the meal upon a tray.
All was silence save the Professor’s dry monotonous voice as he counted aloud the letters of the Hebrew text, recounted them to reassure himself, and then set down a Hebrew character as result.
Thus from after luncheon until midnight—through the time indeed that Diamond was so patiently watching the big house in Berkeley Square—the work of solving the problem went slowly on.
Gwen sat and watched her father’s Hebrew manuscript grow apace, until it covered many quarto pages. Now and then she assisted in counting the letters, verifying her father’s addition.
Then at last, just after the old-fashioned clock upon the mantelshelf had chimed twelve, the old scholar raised his grey head with a sigh, and wiping his glasses, as was his habit, said:
“Sit down, dear, and write the English translation at my dictation. I think we now have it quite complete.”
Chapter Thirty One.Exposes the Conspiracy.While Professor Griffin had been so busily engaged deciphering the concluding portion of the secret record, a strange scene was in progress at Sir Felix Challas’s, in Berkeley Square.First, Jim Jannaway had arrived and had held a short consultation in the library with the red-faced Baronet, afterwards quickly leaving. Then, from the Waldorf Hotel, summoned by telephone, came old Erich Haupt, bustling and full of suppressed excitement.Soon afterwards, the well-dressed Jim had returned, and had waited in momentary expectancy, ready to dart out into the hall on hearing the sound of cab wheels.At last they were heard and the man-servant opened the door to Laura, tall, dark-haired and rather good-looking parlour-maid at Pembridge Gardens.In the well-carpeted hall she recognised the man who had taken her out to dinner and the theatre on several occasions, and advanced excitedly to meet him.“Oh! Laura!” he cried. “I’m so glad you’ve come. I had your ‘wire,’ and you got my message in reply, of course? You must see the gov’nor. This is his house, and I want you to tell him how the Professor is solving that puzzle.” Then, lowering his voice, he added. “There’s a pot of money in it for both of us, dear, if you keep your wits about you. You recollect what I promised you last Tuesday, don’t you?”The girl sniggered and nodded. She was a giddy young person, whose head had been turned by the admiration of that good-looking man who called himself “Miller,” and who said he was a lawyer’s clerk. He had promised to become engaged to her and to marry her, provided they could get only a good round sum from “the gov’nor” for the information she could, with such ease, supply.This had placed the girl upon the constant alert, with the present result.Her nonchalant admirer led the way across the hall to the library, pushed upon the door, and introduced her to the two men therein—Challas, fat and prosperous, and Haupt, white-bearded and bespectacled.Then, when the door was closed and she had seated herself, Challas—or “Mr Murray,” as he had been introduced—asked:“I believe you’re Laura, and you are parlour-maid at Professor Griffin’s, aren’t you?”“Yes, sir,” replied the girl, timidly, picking at her neat black skirt.“Well, sir,” explained Jim, bearing out his part of lawyer’s clerk, “some time ago I explained to my young lady here, what we particularly wanted to know, and she’s kept both eyes and ears open. To-day she’s learned something, it seems.”“What is it?” inquired old Erich, in a deep tone, with his strong German accent.“Let the young lady explain herself,” urged the man introduced as “Murray,” and they all sat silent.“Well, sir,” the girl faltered, a moment later. “You see it was like this. After luncheon to-day the Professor, who’d been very hard at work as usual all the morning, took Miss Gwen up to the study to speak to her privately; I listened, and I heard all their conversation. He told her how he’d solved the problem of the cipher.”“Solved it!” ejaculated the old German, staring at her through his spectacles.“Yes, sir,” the girl went on. “He told Miss Gwen that he’d tried and tried, but always failed. But he had taken the—well, sir, I think he called it the apoplectic number.”The German laughed heartily.“I know,” he said. “You mean the Apocalyptic Number,fräulein—the number 666.”“That’s it, sir,” she said, a little flurried, while Jim exchanged significant glances with Challas. “He commences at the tenth chapter of Ezekiel, eighth verse, and—and—” Then she fumbled in her pocket, producing a piece of crumpled paper to which she referred. “He takes the first sign of 6,” she went on, “then the eleventh letter, the sixty-sixth letter, and the six hundred and sixty-sixth letter. After this, the fiftieth letter, the two-hundredth letter, the sixth letter, the fiftieth letter, the hundredth letter, the sixtieth letter, and the two-hundredth letter—making six hundred and sixty-six in all. He writes down each of the Hebrew letters, and then reads them off like a book.”“Wait—ah! wait!” urged the old German. “Let us have that again,fräulein,” and crossing to Sir Felix’s big mahogany writing-table, he opened the Hebrew text of Ezekiel upon it. “Where do you say the Professor commences—at the tenth chapter, eighth verse—eh? Good!” and he hastily found the reference. “Now?”“Just tell this gentleman,” urged Jim, “tell him exactly what you heard.”“Well, starting with the eighth verse, he commences with what he termed the first ‘wāw’ sign.”“Zo! that’s the equivalent of the number 6,” Haupt remarked.“Then the eleventh letter.”The old professor counted and wrote down the letter in question in Hebrew characters.“The sixty-sixth,” said the girl.The old man counted sixty-six, while Sir Felix and Jannaway watched with intense, almost breathless interest. Here was the secret, snatched from their dreaded opponent, Arminger Griffin!“And now the six hundred and sixty-sixth,” the girl went on, apparently thoroughly at home with the strangely assorted trio.This took some time to count, but presently it was accomplished, and the girl time after time gave the old professor directions—the fiftieth letter, the two-hundredth letter, and so on.“Well?” asked Challas, a few moments later, unable to repress his excitement any longer. “Do you make anything out of it?”The old man was silent. He was carefully studying the Hebrew characters he had written down.“Yes!” he gasped. “It is the secret—the great secret!” And he started up, exclaiming, “At last! at last—thanks tofräuleinhere—we have the key!”“And we can actually read the cipher?” cried Challas.“Most certainly,” responded the old scholar. “The secret is ours! Marvellous, how Griffin discovered it.”“Confound Griffin!” exclaimed Jim Jannaway. “We have to thank Laura, here, for our success! She ought to be well rewarded.”“And so she shall,” declared the man, whom the girl knew as “Mr Murray.”“It’s late to-night, and we want Erich to get on at once with the decipher. Besides, the young lady, no doubt, wishes to get back home. Bring her to me to-morrow, or next day—and she shall be well rewarded.”“Thank you very much, sir,” was the silly girl’s gratified reply, as she looked triumphant into the face of the cunning man who had declared his love for her.The truth was that, having obtained that most valuable information, the trio wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible. Therefore, with excuses that the household at Pembridge Gardens would be suspicious if she returned too late, they bundled her almost unceremoniously outside, Jim hailing a hansom for her, paying the man, and telling him to drive to Notting Hill Gate Station.Then, when he re-entered, he exclaimed with a laugh to the Baronet, “That was a cheap ‘quid’s’ worth of information, wasn’t it—eh?”“Cheap, my dear boy? Why, it’s placed us absolutely on top. The treasure, if it still remains there, is ours!”“Ah! not too hasty! Not too hasty!” exclaimed the old German in his deep guttural voice, and raising his head from the table. “Up to a certain point, it is all right, but—”“But what?” the others gasped, in the same breath.“Well, there’s something wanting, alas! Or else the girl has made a great mistake. After the addition of the numbers to 666, all goes entirely wrong!”“Goes wrong!” they echoed breathlessly, with one accord.“Yes. The further reading is quite unintelligible,” he declared, speaking with his strong Teutonic accent.“The girl seemed quite certain about it!” exclaimed Jim, exchanging glances with Challas.“Quite,” the other remarked, blandly.“Well, my dear sirs!” exclaimed Haupt, pointing to his lines of hastily-written Hebrew. “The commencement of the record is here, plain enough. It commences, ‘Remember and forget not, O Israel. Not for thy righteousness—’ But after taking the two-hundredth letter I can discover nothing. Commencing again at six only results in nothing, while a repetition of the fiftieth and the consequent addition is equally futile. No! The confounded girl has made some mistake—and we are once more at a standstill. You see that one false number throws out the whole. The cipher is one of the most ingenious ever conceived.”“But, my dear Haupt, you know the basis, and where it commences! You will surely succeed!” Challas cried, frantically.The old man shook his head very dubiously.“As I have already told you,” he responded in his deep voice, “a single misplaced number throws it all out. We are again at an absolute deadlock—and must remain as ignorant as we were before.”“But have you made every possible effort?” asked Jim Jannaway, with eager face, as he bent over the old man’s shoulders.“I have tried all the combinations of the Apocalyptic Number, but they are futile!” replied the old German, laying down his pen, and blinking through his glasses.“Then the girl has failed us after all,” remarked Challas in a low, hard voice. “Griffin has deciphered the record and we’re absolutely ‘in the cart.’”“I won’t give up!” declared Jannaway. “I’m hanged if I will! This may be one of Charlie’s tricks, remember! He may have learnt the truth and got hold of Laura to put us on the wrong scent.”“He may—curse him!” muttered Sir Felix. “Why didn’t he take my warning and get away abroad?”“Because he’s quite as cute as we are. He knows full well that while he remains in England circumstances will continue to be propitious. So he lives quietly down in Kent, with both eyes very much open.”Already Jim Jannaway’s ingenious mind was active; already he was devising a way out of the awkwardcul-de-sacin which they now found themselves.“What are we to do?” inquired Sir Felix, with his dark brows knitted at this sudden failure of all his elaborate plans.“Leave it to me,” replied the good-looking scoundrel, with the utmost confidence. “Let Erich remain quietly within reach—not, however, at the Waldorf—and allow me to carry out the scheme in my own way.”“I cannot think why the girl made such a mistake,” Challas remarked very disappointedly. “I admit the solution was complicated, but you saw that she was clever enough to write it down.”“She listened behind a closed door. She may have misunderstood,” Jim remarked.“Or, what is much more likely,” remarked the German, “Griffin, who has the reputation of being a very shrewd man, does not trust his daughter, and purposely misled her in explaining his secret.”“No, I don’t think that,” said Jannaway. “Griffin trusts the girl, even though she’s quite young, absolutely and implicitly.”And thus the three desperate schemers agreed to leave matters in the hands of the most daring and unscrupulous of men, Jim Jannaway, unconscious that the exterior of the mansion was being watched independently by two persons, Doctor Diamond, and a thin-faced, ill-clad woman, who, noticing the Doctor’s keen interest in the place, glanced at him full of surprise and wonder.
While Professor Griffin had been so busily engaged deciphering the concluding portion of the secret record, a strange scene was in progress at Sir Felix Challas’s, in Berkeley Square.
First, Jim Jannaway had arrived and had held a short consultation in the library with the red-faced Baronet, afterwards quickly leaving. Then, from the Waldorf Hotel, summoned by telephone, came old Erich Haupt, bustling and full of suppressed excitement.
Soon afterwards, the well-dressed Jim had returned, and had waited in momentary expectancy, ready to dart out into the hall on hearing the sound of cab wheels.
At last they were heard and the man-servant opened the door to Laura, tall, dark-haired and rather good-looking parlour-maid at Pembridge Gardens.
In the well-carpeted hall she recognised the man who had taken her out to dinner and the theatre on several occasions, and advanced excitedly to meet him.
“Oh! Laura!” he cried. “I’m so glad you’ve come. I had your ‘wire,’ and you got my message in reply, of course? You must see the gov’nor. This is his house, and I want you to tell him how the Professor is solving that puzzle.” Then, lowering his voice, he added. “There’s a pot of money in it for both of us, dear, if you keep your wits about you. You recollect what I promised you last Tuesday, don’t you?”
The girl sniggered and nodded. She was a giddy young person, whose head had been turned by the admiration of that good-looking man who called himself “Miller,” and who said he was a lawyer’s clerk. He had promised to become engaged to her and to marry her, provided they could get only a good round sum from “the gov’nor” for the information she could, with such ease, supply.
This had placed the girl upon the constant alert, with the present result.
Her nonchalant admirer led the way across the hall to the library, pushed upon the door, and introduced her to the two men therein—Challas, fat and prosperous, and Haupt, white-bearded and bespectacled.
Then, when the door was closed and she had seated herself, Challas—or “Mr Murray,” as he had been introduced—asked:
“I believe you’re Laura, and you are parlour-maid at Professor Griffin’s, aren’t you?”
“Yes, sir,” replied the girl, timidly, picking at her neat black skirt.
“Well, sir,” explained Jim, bearing out his part of lawyer’s clerk, “some time ago I explained to my young lady here, what we particularly wanted to know, and she’s kept both eyes and ears open. To-day she’s learned something, it seems.”
“What is it?” inquired old Erich, in a deep tone, with his strong German accent.
“Let the young lady explain herself,” urged the man introduced as “Murray,” and they all sat silent.
“Well, sir,” the girl faltered, a moment later. “You see it was like this. After luncheon to-day the Professor, who’d been very hard at work as usual all the morning, took Miss Gwen up to the study to speak to her privately; I listened, and I heard all their conversation. He told her how he’d solved the problem of the cipher.”
“Solved it!” ejaculated the old German, staring at her through his spectacles.
“Yes, sir,” the girl went on. “He told Miss Gwen that he’d tried and tried, but always failed. But he had taken the—well, sir, I think he called it the apoplectic number.”
The German laughed heartily.
“I know,” he said. “You mean the Apocalyptic Number,fräulein—the number 666.”
“That’s it, sir,” she said, a little flurried, while Jim exchanged significant glances with Challas. “He commences at the tenth chapter of Ezekiel, eighth verse, and—and—” Then she fumbled in her pocket, producing a piece of crumpled paper to which she referred. “He takes the first sign of 6,” she went on, “then the eleventh letter, the sixty-sixth letter, and the six hundred and sixty-sixth letter. After this, the fiftieth letter, the two-hundredth letter, the sixth letter, the fiftieth letter, the hundredth letter, the sixtieth letter, and the two-hundredth letter—making six hundred and sixty-six in all. He writes down each of the Hebrew letters, and then reads them off like a book.”
“Wait—ah! wait!” urged the old German. “Let us have that again,fräulein,” and crossing to Sir Felix’s big mahogany writing-table, he opened the Hebrew text of Ezekiel upon it. “Where do you say the Professor commences—at the tenth chapter, eighth verse—eh? Good!” and he hastily found the reference. “Now?”
“Just tell this gentleman,” urged Jim, “tell him exactly what you heard.”
“Well, starting with the eighth verse, he commences with what he termed the first ‘wāw’ sign.”
“Zo! that’s the equivalent of the number 6,” Haupt remarked.
“Then the eleventh letter.”
The old professor counted and wrote down the letter in question in Hebrew characters.
“The sixty-sixth,” said the girl.
The old man counted sixty-six, while Sir Felix and Jannaway watched with intense, almost breathless interest. Here was the secret, snatched from their dreaded opponent, Arminger Griffin!
“And now the six hundred and sixty-sixth,” the girl went on, apparently thoroughly at home with the strangely assorted trio.
This took some time to count, but presently it was accomplished, and the girl time after time gave the old professor directions—the fiftieth letter, the two-hundredth letter, and so on.
“Well?” asked Challas, a few moments later, unable to repress his excitement any longer. “Do you make anything out of it?”
The old man was silent. He was carefully studying the Hebrew characters he had written down.
“Yes!” he gasped. “It is the secret—the great secret!” And he started up, exclaiming, “At last! at last—thanks tofräuleinhere—we have the key!”
“And we can actually read the cipher?” cried Challas.
“Most certainly,” responded the old scholar. “The secret is ours! Marvellous, how Griffin discovered it.”
“Confound Griffin!” exclaimed Jim Jannaway. “We have to thank Laura, here, for our success! She ought to be well rewarded.”
“And so she shall,” declared the man, whom the girl knew as “Mr Murray.”
“It’s late to-night, and we want Erich to get on at once with the decipher. Besides, the young lady, no doubt, wishes to get back home. Bring her to me to-morrow, or next day—and she shall be well rewarded.”
“Thank you very much, sir,” was the silly girl’s gratified reply, as she looked triumphant into the face of the cunning man who had declared his love for her.
The truth was that, having obtained that most valuable information, the trio wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible. Therefore, with excuses that the household at Pembridge Gardens would be suspicious if she returned too late, they bundled her almost unceremoniously outside, Jim hailing a hansom for her, paying the man, and telling him to drive to Notting Hill Gate Station.
Then, when he re-entered, he exclaimed with a laugh to the Baronet, “That was a cheap ‘quid’s’ worth of information, wasn’t it—eh?”
“Cheap, my dear boy? Why, it’s placed us absolutely on top. The treasure, if it still remains there, is ours!”
“Ah! not too hasty! Not too hasty!” exclaimed the old German in his deep guttural voice, and raising his head from the table. “Up to a certain point, it is all right, but—”
“But what?” the others gasped, in the same breath.
“Well, there’s something wanting, alas! Or else the girl has made a great mistake. After the addition of the numbers to 666, all goes entirely wrong!”
“Goes wrong!” they echoed breathlessly, with one accord.
“Yes. The further reading is quite unintelligible,” he declared, speaking with his strong Teutonic accent.
“The girl seemed quite certain about it!” exclaimed Jim, exchanging glances with Challas.
“Quite,” the other remarked, blandly.
“Well, my dear sirs!” exclaimed Haupt, pointing to his lines of hastily-written Hebrew. “The commencement of the record is here, plain enough. It commences, ‘Remember and forget not, O Israel. Not for thy righteousness—’ But after taking the two-hundredth letter I can discover nothing. Commencing again at six only results in nothing, while a repetition of the fiftieth and the consequent addition is equally futile. No! The confounded girl has made some mistake—and we are once more at a standstill. You see that one false number throws out the whole. The cipher is one of the most ingenious ever conceived.”
“But, my dear Haupt, you know the basis, and where it commences! You will surely succeed!” Challas cried, frantically.
The old man shook his head very dubiously.
“As I have already told you,” he responded in his deep voice, “a single misplaced number throws it all out. We are again at an absolute deadlock—and must remain as ignorant as we were before.”
“But have you made every possible effort?” asked Jim Jannaway, with eager face, as he bent over the old man’s shoulders.
“I have tried all the combinations of the Apocalyptic Number, but they are futile!” replied the old German, laying down his pen, and blinking through his glasses.
“Then the girl has failed us after all,” remarked Challas in a low, hard voice. “Griffin has deciphered the record and we’re absolutely ‘in the cart.’”
“I won’t give up!” declared Jannaway. “I’m hanged if I will! This may be one of Charlie’s tricks, remember! He may have learnt the truth and got hold of Laura to put us on the wrong scent.”
“He may—curse him!” muttered Sir Felix. “Why didn’t he take my warning and get away abroad?”
“Because he’s quite as cute as we are. He knows full well that while he remains in England circumstances will continue to be propitious. So he lives quietly down in Kent, with both eyes very much open.”
Already Jim Jannaway’s ingenious mind was active; already he was devising a way out of the awkwardcul-de-sacin which they now found themselves.
“What are we to do?” inquired Sir Felix, with his dark brows knitted at this sudden failure of all his elaborate plans.
“Leave it to me,” replied the good-looking scoundrel, with the utmost confidence. “Let Erich remain quietly within reach—not, however, at the Waldorf—and allow me to carry out the scheme in my own way.”
“I cannot think why the girl made such a mistake,” Challas remarked very disappointedly. “I admit the solution was complicated, but you saw that she was clever enough to write it down.”
“She listened behind a closed door. She may have misunderstood,” Jim remarked.
“Or, what is much more likely,” remarked the German, “Griffin, who has the reputation of being a very shrewd man, does not trust his daughter, and purposely misled her in explaining his secret.”
“No, I don’t think that,” said Jannaway. “Griffin trusts the girl, even though she’s quite young, absolutely and implicitly.”
And thus the three desperate schemers agreed to leave matters in the hands of the most daring and unscrupulous of men, Jim Jannaway, unconscious that the exterior of the mansion was being watched independently by two persons, Doctor Diamond, and a thin-faced, ill-clad woman, who, noticing the Doctor’s keen interest in the place, glanced at him full of surprise and wonder.
Chapter Thirty Two.Reveals the Cipher Record.In the study at Pembridge Gardens, the silence only broken by the solemn ticking of the little Sheraton clock, Professor Griffin’s calm, even voice was slowly dictating to Gwen the translation from the Hebrew of the cipher record into English.The girl, as her father’s amanuensis, had long ago become quite an expert with the typewriter, and in order to make a clear copy she had seated herself at the machine, her slim, white fingers deftly touching the keys.“If you are ready dear, we’ll begin,” said the old man, drawing his folios of scribbled Hebrew towards him.“I’m quite ready, dad,” she assured him, pulling her skirt around her at the little table by his side upon which the typewriter was fixed.“Very well, then. I’ll translate slowly. Forgive me if I hesitate, child, for some of it may perhaps be difficult to put into intelligible or Biblical English. It is really a most astounding statement by a scribe of the Temple.”Then, after a brief pause, he began to dictate to her the hidden record, which was as follows:“Remember and forget not, O Israel. Notfor thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess thy land, but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God shall drive them out before thee.“Thou shalt lovethe Lord thy God and keep His charge, His statutes and His commandments.“Andknow ye this day why this secret record is written, that it may be preserved unto the just...Thelapse of years are nearing its filling.Therelief of the Doom will come, in spite of all.Thepeople’s right is nearing.Theperiod of the Blood-debts, and that of the Suppression will lose its power, and Israel shall be restored (here follow seven words undecipherable).“...Asthe Lord God was against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, Gomer and all his bands, the house of Togarmah, of the north quarters, so shall He be against all the enemies of Israel that spread over the land.ForHe will make His Holy name known in the midst of His people Israel, and will not let them pollute His Holy name any more; and the heathen shall know that He is the Lord, the Holy One in Israel...“And the desolateplaces of the Land shall become populated, Jerusalem the city shall be restored, the sanctuary shall be set up, and the children of Israel shall be gathered there from the four corners of the earth where they will be found scattered.“Be thou prepared, and prepare thyself, for the Lord God will make a covenant of peace with His chosen people; it shall be a peace everlasting and His tabernacle shall be set in the midst of them for evermore, even upon Mount Moriah.“Stayyourselves, and wonder, for unto thee, O children of Israel, are the greater treasures of Solomon’s Temple still preserved.Andthus it is therein written in a book that is sealed, so that the wicked of Babylon and the enemies of Israel shall not know.VerilyI say unto you the Ark of the Covenant, and the tablets, and the rod of Aaron, and the other sacred objects which Solomon placed in the house of the Lord are still with thee, O Israel, until the wastes be builded, the cities inhabited and the Lord God cometh again unto the mountains of Jerusalem... for your own ways— and the Lord will build up the ruined places—“Know ye the truthconcerning the sacred treasures of Israel, the vessels out of the house of the Lord.Inthe third year of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, cameth one night into Jerusalem one Hashbbiah, a secret messenger from Antioch, who seeking Zeruiah, the high priest, told him in private that Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, had advanced upon the hosts of Pharaoh-Necho at Carchemish and defeated him, and that the King of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained unto the King of Egypt.“NowZeruiah, a man full of learning, remembered the prayer of Solomon, and saw that the prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem was to be fulfilled, and that Judah was to be led into captivity by the Babylonians...Andhe went out upon the mountain alone and prayed unto the Lord.Andthe Lord directed him to take counsel of six priests, of whom one was the prophet Ezekiel, to decide how the sacred things of the house of the Lord should be held from the hands of the despoiler.“And to one of the priests, Uzziah, son of Haziah who came from Gaza, was revealed a hiding-place outside the gates of Jerusalem, beyond the valley of Jehoshaphat, where the treasures could be concealed beneath the earth in a dry-room, in connection with a series of water-tunnels, which could be emptied only by those who knew the secret gate of the waters.“And the ears of Zeruiahthe high priest, heard a voice behind him saying: ‘This is the way, walk ye in it. Place the treasures of the house of Jehovah therein, and seal them with the waters, so that no man shall know.’“Soat night he went with Uzziah onto the place that was revealed, which is on the side of the mount.“Andhe saw that it had been used by thieves in the days when Rehoboam was king, and that its entrance had since been unknown to any man.“And returning tothe inner court of the Temple in darkness of night he went into the Holy Place and called unto him Baruch, the son of Neriah, Sherebbiah, the scribe, Ezekiel the priest, and the five other priests.Andtogether both that night and the next and through many nights did they carry forth the most treasured objects of the Temple down into the valley, letting no man know that they were being taken from the house of the Lord.“For since the beginningof the world men have not seen such great treasure as was in the darkness removed from the house of Jehovah, from the defenceless city upon which the judgment of God was set.Woeunto Jerusalem for Nebuchadnezzar was hastening upon the City of Judah, and the hour of her destruction was approaching.“And they took fromthe Holy of Holies the Ark of the Covenant, together with the stone tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, the pot of manna and the staff of Aaron and the two cherubims of fine gold, the Urim and Thummim with two rubies of great size and a multitude of other gems set around them... And of the other treasures of the house of the Lord did they bring forth; of basons of pure gold made by Solomon which Shishak, King of Egypt had restored, three thousand and forty; of the chargers of gold eight hundred and two; of the candlesticks of gold from the oracle four; of the lamps of gold six hundred and ten, of the tongs of gold six hundred, and of the smaller tablets of gold four score and five; of spoons of gold two thousand; of censers of gold one thousand and forty-six, and of the bowls which Solomon commanded to be made of the gold of Ophir two thousand and seventy...Furthermoreof the gems and precious stones of Solomon they took seven ox-loads of fine gold, three talents together with the archives of the Temple in secret; so that of the vessels of gold there remained only about six thousand and these Nebuchadnezzar afterwards carried off to Babylon, where they were dedicated unto his god Belus—“It came even to passthat when the King of Babylon and his host searched for the other holy vessels of the Temple they found them not, for they knew not their hiding-place, and none knew save the priests and the two scribes.Whereforeafterwards in my captivity in Babylon, I, Michaiah the scribe, invented this secret writing by which the place of concealment of the tablets of Moses should not be lost. Secure shall they remain, with the great treasure, the war-chest of the house of Israel, until the coming of the Messiah, who alone may open their place of concealment, in order that He may furnish proof of the faith.Hehath chosen Jerusalem that His name may be there.“And be it now knownunto you in what place to seek for the chamber of the sacred Ark.Atthe lower platform of the brazen altar of the Temple turn thy face to the southward, and measure four reeds and thirty-three legal cubits, unto the north end of the Pool of Siloh.Thence, to the sunrise, measure one thousand and fifty cubits unto the highest point on the mount of Solomon’s idolatry.Faceunto the south-west, and measure ten-score cubits and four, down to the hillside to the face of stone.Fromthe cleft fifteen cubits.“Moreover, at the gateof the Priests at the north-west corner of the sanctuary, face the south-east, and pace four hundred and three cubits unto the centre of the tomb in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and thence to the south nine reeds and three-score cubits, which bringest thee unto the same wall of rock, fifteen cubits from the cleft.“And the distancefrom En-rogel is, to the north-east, of cubits three hundred and ninety-four, where the entrance faceth directly the bend of the Valley of Hinnom.“Of the three entrances, two are impassable. Know ye therefore that the third is in the face of the rock, concealed from the sight of all men at the point where the valleys converge, at the base of the mount, from the cleft fifteen legal cubits.“To learnthe whereabouts of the secret chamber of the Ark, O ye Israel, measure from the hidden entrance up the face of the rock and over the mount with thine eyes set to the east two reeds and fourscore cubits and three, till thou comest to the gate of stone set in the rock which, when opened, will let forth the flood to admit thee from the Valley of Jehoshaphat.“O hear me, ye enemies of the Lord! Curses, yea, sixty times six curses shall be upon the head of any who dare to attempt to violate the sacred treasure-house of Israel.“Moreover the Lordhath performed the word that He spake, and Judah remaineth beneath the heel of the oppressor.“Now therefore these actsare not written in the book of the chronicles of Israel lest thine enemies search to recover the holy things.“Hearken O LordGod of Israel to the supplications of Thy servant. If Thy people be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against Thee, and shall return and confess Thy name, then hear Thou from the heavens and bring them again unto the land which Thou gavest to them and to their fathers.“Wherefore I beseech Theeto stay Thine hand, and seek not to discover what is hidden until the Lord have given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you, and until they also possess the Land, which the Lord your God hath given them.“For he who entereth thereinshall be accursed. Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest outTheLord shall send thee cursing, vexation and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings.Fearthe Lord thy God.“These words am I commandedby Zeruiah the high priest to write in our captivity in secret script, that only those of the faith shall know and shall understand.”And when the girl had finished typing, she raised her head, and stared at her father in abject wonder. Here was the complete solution of the problem! The truth was written there!
In the study at Pembridge Gardens, the silence only broken by the solemn ticking of the little Sheraton clock, Professor Griffin’s calm, even voice was slowly dictating to Gwen the translation from the Hebrew of the cipher record into English.
The girl, as her father’s amanuensis, had long ago become quite an expert with the typewriter, and in order to make a clear copy she had seated herself at the machine, her slim, white fingers deftly touching the keys.
“If you are ready dear, we’ll begin,” said the old man, drawing his folios of scribbled Hebrew towards him.
“I’m quite ready, dad,” she assured him, pulling her skirt around her at the little table by his side upon which the typewriter was fixed.
“Very well, then. I’ll translate slowly. Forgive me if I hesitate, child, for some of it may perhaps be difficult to put into intelligible or Biblical English. It is really a most astounding statement by a scribe of the Temple.”
Then, after a brief pause, he began to dictate to her the hidden record, which was as follows:
“Remember and forget not, O Israel. Notfor thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess thy land, but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God shall drive them out before thee.
“Thou shalt lovethe Lord thy God and keep His charge, His statutes and His commandments.
“Andknow ye this day why this secret record is written, that it may be preserved unto the just...Thelapse of years are nearing its filling.Therelief of the Doom will come, in spite of all.Thepeople’s right is nearing.Theperiod of the Blood-debts, and that of the Suppression will lose its power, and Israel shall be restored (here follow seven words undecipherable).
“...Asthe Lord God was against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, Gomer and all his bands, the house of Togarmah, of the north quarters, so shall He be against all the enemies of Israel that spread over the land.ForHe will make His Holy name known in the midst of His people Israel, and will not let them pollute His Holy name any more; and the heathen shall know that He is the Lord, the Holy One in Israel...
“And the desolateplaces of the Land shall become populated, Jerusalem the city shall be restored, the sanctuary shall be set up, and the children of Israel shall be gathered there from the four corners of the earth where they will be found scattered.
“Be thou prepared, and prepare thyself, for the Lord God will make a covenant of peace with His chosen people; it shall be a peace everlasting and His tabernacle shall be set in the midst of them for evermore, even upon Mount Moriah.
“Stayyourselves, and wonder, for unto thee, O children of Israel, are the greater treasures of Solomon’s Temple still preserved.Andthus it is therein written in a book that is sealed, so that the wicked of Babylon and the enemies of Israel shall not know.VerilyI say unto you the Ark of the Covenant, and the tablets, and the rod of Aaron, and the other sacred objects which Solomon placed in the house of the Lord are still with thee, O Israel, until the wastes be builded, the cities inhabited and the Lord God cometh again unto the mountains of Jerusalem... for your own ways— and the Lord will build up the ruined places—
“Know ye the truthconcerning the sacred treasures of Israel, the vessels out of the house of the Lord.Inthe third year of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, cameth one night into Jerusalem one Hashbbiah, a secret messenger from Antioch, who seeking Zeruiah, the high priest, told him in private that Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, had advanced upon the hosts of Pharaoh-Necho at Carchemish and defeated him, and that the King of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained unto the King of Egypt.
“NowZeruiah, a man full of learning, remembered the prayer of Solomon, and saw that the prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem was to be fulfilled, and that Judah was to be led into captivity by the Babylonians...Andhe went out upon the mountain alone and prayed unto the Lord.Andthe Lord directed him to take counsel of six priests, of whom one was the prophet Ezekiel, to decide how the sacred things of the house of the Lord should be held from the hands of the despoiler.
“And to one of the priests, Uzziah, son of Haziah who came from Gaza, was revealed a hiding-place outside the gates of Jerusalem, beyond the valley of Jehoshaphat, where the treasures could be concealed beneath the earth in a dry-room, in connection with a series of water-tunnels, which could be emptied only by those who knew the secret gate of the waters.
“And the ears of Zeruiahthe high priest, heard a voice behind him saying: ‘This is the way, walk ye in it. Place the treasures of the house of Jehovah therein, and seal them with the waters, so that no man shall know.’
“Soat night he went with Uzziah onto the place that was revealed, which is on the side of the mount.
“Andhe saw that it had been used by thieves in the days when Rehoboam was king, and that its entrance had since been unknown to any man.
“And returning tothe inner court of the Temple in darkness of night he went into the Holy Place and called unto him Baruch, the son of Neriah, Sherebbiah, the scribe, Ezekiel the priest, and the five other priests.Andtogether both that night and the next and through many nights did they carry forth the most treasured objects of the Temple down into the valley, letting no man know that they were being taken from the house of the Lord.
“For since the beginningof the world men have not seen such great treasure as was in the darkness removed from the house of Jehovah, from the defenceless city upon which the judgment of God was set.Woeunto Jerusalem for Nebuchadnezzar was hastening upon the City of Judah, and the hour of her destruction was approaching.
“And they took fromthe Holy of Holies the Ark of the Covenant, together with the stone tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, the pot of manna and the staff of Aaron and the two cherubims of fine gold, the Urim and Thummim with two rubies of great size and a multitude of other gems set around them... And of the other treasures of the house of the Lord did they bring forth; of basons of pure gold made by Solomon which Shishak, King of Egypt had restored, three thousand and forty; of the chargers of gold eight hundred and two; of the candlesticks of gold from the oracle four; of the lamps of gold six hundred and ten, of the tongs of gold six hundred, and of the smaller tablets of gold four score and five; of spoons of gold two thousand; of censers of gold one thousand and forty-six, and of the bowls which Solomon commanded to be made of the gold of Ophir two thousand and seventy...Furthermoreof the gems and precious stones of Solomon they took seven ox-loads of fine gold, three talents together with the archives of the Temple in secret; so that of the vessels of gold there remained only about six thousand and these Nebuchadnezzar afterwards carried off to Babylon, where they were dedicated unto his god Belus—
“It came even to passthat when the King of Babylon and his host searched for the other holy vessels of the Temple they found them not, for they knew not their hiding-place, and none knew save the priests and the two scribes.Whereforeafterwards in my captivity in Babylon, I, Michaiah the scribe, invented this secret writing by which the place of concealment of the tablets of Moses should not be lost. Secure shall they remain, with the great treasure, the war-chest of the house of Israel, until the coming of the Messiah, who alone may open their place of concealment, in order that He may furnish proof of the faith.Hehath chosen Jerusalem that His name may be there.
“And be it now knownunto you in what place to seek for the chamber of the sacred Ark.Atthe lower platform of the brazen altar of the Temple turn thy face to the southward, and measure four reeds and thirty-three legal cubits, unto the north end of the Pool of Siloh.Thence, to the sunrise, measure one thousand and fifty cubits unto the highest point on the mount of Solomon’s idolatry.Faceunto the south-west, and measure ten-score cubits and four, down to the hillside to the face of stone.Fromthe cleft fifteen cubits.
“Moreover, at the gateof the Priests at the north-west corner of the sanctuary, face the south-east, and pace four hundred and three cubits unto the centre of the tomb in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and thence to the south nine reeds and three-score cubits, which bringest thee unto the same wall of rock, fifteen cubits from the cleft.
“And the distancefrom En-rogel is, to the north-east, of cubits three hundred and ninety-four, where the entrance faceth directly the bend of the Valley of Hinnom.
“Of the three entrances, two are impassable. Know ye therefore that the third is in the face of the rock, concealed from the sight of all men at the point where the valleys converge, at the base of the mount, from the cleft fifteen legal cubits.
“To learnthe whereabouts of the secret chamber of the Ark, O ye Israel, measure from the hidden entrance up the face of the rock and over the mount with thine eyes set to the east two reeds and fourscore cubits and three, till thou comest to the gate of stone set in the rock which, when opened, will let forth the flood to admit thee from the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
“O hear me, ye enemies of the Lord! Curses, yea, sixty times six curses shall be upon the head of any who dare to attempt to violate the sacred treasure-house of Israel.
“Moreover the Lordhath performed the word that He spake, and Judah remaineth beneath the heel of the oppressor.
“Now therefore these actsare not written in the book of the chronicles of Israel lest thine enemies search to recover the holy things.
“Hearken O LordGod of Israel to the supplications of Thy servant. If Thy people be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against Thee, and shall return and confess Thy name, then hear Thou from the heavens and bring them again unto the land which Thou gavest to them and to their fathers.
“Wherefore I beseech Theeto stay Thine hand, and seek not to discover what is hidden until the Lord have given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you, and until they also possess the Land, which the Lord your God hath given them.
“For he who entereth thereinshall be accursed. Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest outTheLord shall send thee cursing, vexation and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings.Fearthe Lord thy God.
“These words am I commandedby Zeruiah the high priest to write in our captivity in secret script, that only those of the faith shall know and shall understand.”
And when the girl had finished typing, she raised her head, and stared at her father in abject wonder. Here was the complete solution of the problem! The truth was written there!