They arethat his daughter should inherit the whole of his very substantialfortune, but in the event of her death while unmarried it was to go toHarford himself, in recognition of his friendship and of his kindness toMiss Asta. Now if Nicholson had married her, the money would havepassed beyond his control. Therefore, aided, no doubt, by Earnshaw andhis wife, they killed him by a method which fully bears out my estimateof the craft and cunning of my client's late partner. Edgecumbe, notlong before his death, had somehow become aware of the existence of thehuge spider, kept as a pet, and having suspicions as to what use itmight be put to, warned you of it with his last effort. Nicholson,against whom it is more than probable an unsuccessful attempt was madeone night while sleeping at the Hall, also discovered Harford's secret.He intended to reveal it to you, but was attacked, and succumbed beforehe could call upon you. Harford next feared lest you might proposemarriage to his ward, hence the fact that he carried his pet to theContinent with him, and you saw the terrible `Hand' and narrowly escapedits fatal grip on that night in the old French inn. Yes, Mr Kemball,"Fryer added, "depend upon it that Harford played his last card when heallowed the terrible spider to pass into Miss Asta's bedroom. Heintended that she should die, and that Arnold Edgecumbe's fortune shouldbe his--a plot which would, alas! have been successfully accomplished,had your suspicions not been providentially aroused."
A sudden call from the locksmith caused us to return hastily to Fryer'sroom, and there we saw that the top of the ancient cylinder had beenfiled entirely off.
"There's something inside, sir," said the man, addressing the solicitor."Perhaps you'd like to take it out yourself."
And Mr Fryer drew forth a portion of an ancient leather thong, attachedto which was a large old seal of clay with an ancient Egyptian cartoucheimpressed upon it.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
WHAT THE CYLINDER CONTAINED.
Mr Fryer then took the cylinder in his hand, and with eager fingersfirst drew forth a piece of modern paper about six inches long, foldedlengthways many times. When he opened it I saw that parts of it werebrown as though scorched, while it bore at its base one of the longgreen stamps used in the Consular service, obliterated together withattesting signatures.
At a glance he recognised its nature.
"Why!" he exclaimed. "This is a fresh will signed a year ago before theBritish Consul-General at Naples! Ah!" he went on, reading it swiftly."I see. His disillusion regarding Harford, whom he believed to be hisfriend, caused him to revoke his previous will, and by the terms of thishe leaves his entire fortune, as well as what may accrue from theenclosed knowledge, unconditionally to his daughter Asta, but in theevent of her death, it is to go to found a sanatorium for the treatmentof destitute consumptive patients."
"Then he must certainly have had suspicions of Harford!"
"Without a doubt. In order to warn Asta of the existence of that deadlyspider, and probably to make other provisions for her, he came toEngland from Egypt, but unfortunately died on the day prior to her callat the hotel. When he wrote to me he, no doubt, felt a presage ofimminent death, for he knew well that he suffered from heart-affectionand might expire quite suddenly. He intended, by making this new willin secret and placing it in your hands, that should Asta expiremysteriously, the assassin would receive a shock at finding that themoney did not revert to him after all. And see," he said. "Read whatis written here."
I peered over his shoulder and read the lines of small but clearhandwriting at the foot of the document, evidently penned after it hadbeen completed at the Consulate.
"Memorandum made by me this Fourth day of February, 1909:--In case ofthe sudden or mysterious death of my dear daughter Asta before theopening of this cylinder, I desire that the circumstances of her deathbe fully investigated. The man Harford, alias Harvey Shaw, in whosecharge I injudiciously placed my beloved daughter, keeps as pet aspecimen of the lycosa tarantula of Ecuador, which is most venomous anddangerous, and will attack human beings when they are asleep. InEcuador and Peru, on account of its size and formation, it is known as`The Death Hand.' Inquiries I have made show that a bite causesinflammation of the brain, so that medical men in South America are veryfrequently deceived. I have suspicions that the man Harford intends touse his pet for purposes of secret assassination, and hereby place mystrong convictions upon record for my above-named executor, Mr CyrilFryer, to use at his own will and discretion. Signed by me, ArnoldEdgecumbe."
"By Jove!" I said. "That's a pretty plain allegation."
"Yes, and not far short of the truth," replied my friend. "With thesesuspicions in his mind I wonder what could have been the nature of hisletter to Harford which you delivered at Totnes Station?"
"It was addressed in the name of Dawnay."
"One of the names he used--one of his actual Christian names. It isevident, however, that, in it, he gave Harford no cause to suspect thathe was aware of the existence of the strange pet, otherwise he would nothave made that too successful attempt upon Nicholson."
"Yes, but by its delivery he knew that its writer was dead," I said."Your client, perhaps, acted with some indiscretion in sending it. Itat once placed Asta in peril."
"He had a motive, no doubt--but it imperilled Asta. Yet if he had notsent it you would never have met the young lady, or been instrumental inexposing the clever and ingenious plot from which she has so narrowlyescaped with her life," the solicitor remarked.
The locksmith had been paid and retired. So we were again alonetogether.
"The wording of this latest will is peculiar," Mr Fryer went on. "Itrefers to `all that may accrue from the enclosed knowledge.' Whatenclosed knowledge, I wonder?"
And taking up the cylinder he again looked into it. "Why, there'ssomething else here?" he exclaimed, and inserting a long steelletter-opener he succeeded in drawing forth a small roll of ancientbrown papyri which, very tender and crumbling, was covered by puzzlingEgyptian hieroglyphics.
"This, in all probability," he exclaimed, "is what the cylinderoriginally contained when he discovered it in the tomb of the GreatMerenptah. We must obtain a translation."
"Yes," I cried eagerly. "Let us take it to the British Museum.Professor Stewart will be able to decipher it at once."
So, replacing the papyri in its bronze case, we took it with us in ataxi, and half an hour later sat in the room of the professor, the sameeminent Egyptologist whom I had seen on my previous visit there.
The great scholar put on his spectacles very leisurely, and with greatcare opened the crumbled relic out before him as he sat at this tableand placed a sheet of glass over it.
Then for a long time he pored closely over the queer, crude drawings.At last he broke the silence as he looked up at us through his roundglasses, saying--
"This, I may as well tell you, is one of the most remarkable andinteresting records that have ever come out of Egypt, and, like thepapyri which I deciphered for Mr Arnold, and which was foundaccompanying this cylinder, it is in the hieroglyphics in use during theperiod after Alexander the Great had delivered Egypt and it was ruled byPtolemy and his descendants. Ptolemy the First, you will remember,perhaps, reigned from 323 to 285 B.C., and was succeeded by twelve otherkings of his dynasty. The famous Cleopatra was daughter of Ptolemy theEleventh, and in 43 B.C. became Queen of Egypt. Here we have before us,upon this piece of papyri, a most important record concerning thatfamous woman. This was written at Thebes by one Sanehat, or Sa-nehat,son of the sycamore, a general and a royal favourite in the year andmonth of Antony's death. Listen, and I will decipher one or twoextracts to show you its purport," and carefully wiping his spectaclesthe celebrated Egyptologist readjusted them; and then, examining thehalf-faded lines of hieroglyphics, said--
"The opening is a long one in which Sanehat, son of the sycamore--probably from his having been born or living at some place where therewas a celebrated sacred sycamore--describes the love between Cleopatraand Antony, and the great treasures of the wonderful palace of thePtolemies, which stood about
in the centre of the shore of the easternbay of Alexandria. He relates how Antony and Octavian foughtdesperately for the possession of the world at the Battle of Actium, andhow, after that wonderful royal banquet which Athenaeus has alreadydescribed to us in his writings, Antony sank deeper and deeper in theflood of his wild passion for Cleopatra. We have the Queen's marvellousbeauty, her fascinations--her limbs like gold and her hair like lapislazuli, so precious in Egypt in those days--and her sins here describedby the hand of one who was her most trusted general--and who, by theway, is mentioned in at least two other records of this period, one nowpreserved at St Petersburg, and the other at Berlin, published infacsimile in the _Denkmaler_ of Lepsius. It tells us of the gorgeouslife led by this most
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