longat their old game of passing forged notes to Continental money-changers.
Asta, instead of existing upon the charity of a criminal and unwittinglyexchanging forged notes for genuine ones and gold, as she had done somany times, is now wealthy in her own right, while Mr Fryer hasreceived a very handsome legacy as executor. Cardew, fond of adventure,got six months' leave to assist in the excavations in Egypt, andrecently, on his return, has been here at Upton End on a visit, and hastold us much of interest concerning what has of late been found there.And as evidence of the genuineness of that half-faded record--penned bythe trusted general of Cleopatra whom she afterwards desired to kill inorder to protect her secret of her treasure, and preserved for so longin that bronze cylinder--there stand before me with the gold statuetteof Osiris beneath domes of glass upon a side-table in the librarywherein I am this evening writing, a canopic jar of alabaster and fourancient golden goblets varying from seven to ten inches in heightthickly encrusted with magnificent rubies, sapphires and emeralds--theactual cups which once held the wine drunk at those gorgeousbacchanalian feasts which the great queen gave to Antony, over whom sheexercised that fatal fascination.
They represent but a specimen of what has already been recovered and islater on to be divided between the Egyptian Government, the BritishMuseum and Asta herself. Though we are extremely careful to conceal thereal facts from the papers, extensive works of examination are at thismoment in progress, for it seems that the queen's enormous wealth wasburied hurriedly beneath stones in a watercourse which has ages agodried up. The action of the water scattered the loose gems, as, fromthe sifting of the sand each day, precious stones, cut and uncut, arenow being recovered.
Never in these our modern days of progress and discovery has such aflutter of excitement been caused in archaeological circles, andcertainly never has such a magnificent and authentic treasure, the lostmillion of Cleopatra, been located.
Arnold Edgecumbe, always attracted to the study of Egyptian archaeology,had devoted the last seventeen years of his broken life to studies inUpper Egypt, and, truly, the discovery he made in the tomb of Merenptahhas resulted in the recovery of great numbers of the gems and ornamentsactually worn by Cleopatra herself.
Every national museum in Europe has eagerly offered to purchasespecimens, hence the estate of the late Arnold Edgecumbe, the man socruelly misjudged and hunted down by the investing public, will begreatly enriched by the remarkable discovery, which, on that evening ofhis death, he predicted to me would astound this our prosaic modernworld.
Often have I congratulated myself upon my narrow escape from a suddenend on that night in the old French inn, for surely the cunningingenuity and truly devilish resourcefulness of Asta's foster-fatherfrom the moment when he so successfully cast the blame of fraud upon hisfriend Arnold Edgecumbe and caused him to flee to Egypt until that nightwhen he so nearly succeeded in taking the young girl's life, showed himto be a veritable master-criminal.
But the days of darkness, insecurity and despair are happily over. Theclouds have parted, and the sunshine of happiness now falls upon thedear, sweet girl who, eight months ago, knelt beside me at the altar ofthat grey, square-spired village church which, here as we sit in thesummer sunset, we can see peeping beyond the old elm avenue across thepark.
"Yes, my darling, I am at last truly happy," she whispers softly in myear, bending over to kiss me in reply to a question. "So happy that Icannot adequately describe what I feel amid this perfect peace."
And so, with her sweet lingering caress upon my lips, a kiss more fullof love and holy passion than ever Cleopatra gave Antony beside theNile, I embrace her with all the tenderness of my affection, with allthe strength of my very soul, and while so doing conclude this mystrange personal narrative, and write--
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The End.
The Lost Million Page 44