The Great God Gold

by William Le Queux

morning had been so dark that hehad been compelled to use the electric light upon his study table, andduring the whole morning he had been engaged upon that same futiletask--the problem of the cipher.

  With the Hebrew text of Ezekiel open before him, and sheets ofmanuscript paper upon the blotting-pad, he had been absorbed for hoursin his cabalistic calculations which, to the uninitiated, would conveynothing. They appeared to be elementary sums of addition andsubtraction--sums consisting of ordinary numericals combined withletters of the Hebrew alphabet.

  And curiously enough, in a back bedroom in the Waldorf Hotel, inAldwych, the white-bearded old German, Erich Haupt, who only theprevious night had returned from the Continent, sat making almostsimilar calculations. Before him also he had a copy of the HebrewBible, and was taking sentences haphazard from Ezekiel xix, thelamentation for the Princes of Israel under the parable of the lion'swhelps taken in a pit.

  Early in the morning he had rung up Sir Felix on the telephone besidethe bed, announcing his arrival, and obtaining an appointment for laterin 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, rathergloomy study, had tried and tried again, yet always in vain. He was acalm, patient man, knowing well that in cryptography the first elementtowards success is utmost patience.

  It was noon. The fog had not lifted, and Bayswater was plunged in thesemi-darkness of the London "pea-souper."

  Gwen was out. She was trying on a new evening frock at Whitley's--adainty creation in pale blue chiffon ordered specially for a dance whichLady Duddington was giving in Grosvenor Street in a few days' time.

  Alone, his grey head bent on the zone of shaded light upon the bigwriting-table, the Professor had ever since breakfast time been puttinga new cipher theory to the test.

  All the thirty odd numerical ciphers known to the ancients he hadapplied to certain chapters of the Book of Ezekiel, but each one invain. The result was mere chaos. The ancients employed numerousmethods of cryptography besides the numerical cipher, among them beingthe use of superfluous words where the correspondents agreed that onlysome of the words, at equal distances apart, was necessary to form themessage; by misplaced words; by vertical and diagonal reading; byartificial word grouping; by transposing the letters; by substitution ofletters; or by counterpart tabulations with changes at every letter inthe message, according to a pre-arranged plan.

  All these, however, he had, in face of the reading of the scrap of themanuscript of the dead discover of the secret, long ago dismissed.

  He held the firm opinion--perhaps formed on account of that crumpledpaper found at the Bodleian--that the cipher was a numerical one, andbased upon some variation of the numerical value of the "waw" sign, orthe number six.

  He now fully recognised how very cleverly old Erich Haupt hadendeavoured to put him off the scent. The German was a very crafty oldfellow, whose several discoveries, though not altogether new, had evokedconsiderable interest in academic circles in Europe. He was author ofseveral learned studies in the Hebrew text, as well as the renowned workupon the Messianic Prophecies, and without a doubt now that he hadpossessed himself of the dead professor's discovery he intended to takeall the credit to himself. Indeed it was his intention to pose as theactual discoverer.

  Continuing his work in silence and without interruption Griffin had beenmaking a long and elaborate calculation when, very soon after the littleSheraton clock upon the mantelshelf had chimed noon, he started up witha cry of surprise and stared across at the long old-fashioned bookcaseopposite.

  Next moment his head was bent to the paper before him, as he rapidlytraced numerals and Hebrew characters, for he wrote the ancient languageas swiftly as he wrote English.

  "Yes!" he whispered, as though in fear of his own voice. "It actuallybears 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 anotherhalf-hour he remained busy with his calculations, gradually evolving aHebrew character after each calculation until he had written a line.Then aloud he read the Hebrew to himself, afterwards translating it intoEnglish thus:

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

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

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

  He was naturally a quiet man whom nothing could disturb, but now soexcited had he become that his hand shook and trembled and he was unableto 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 ofthat brief hour, become the greatest Hebrew scholar in Europe, the manwho would announce to the world the most interesting discovery of theage!

  He gazed around that silent restful room, like a man in a dream. Hissuccess hardly seemed true. Where was Haupt, he wondered? Would hisingenuity and patience lead him to that same goal whereby he could readthe 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 hearthrugbefore the blaring fire, reflected deeply.

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

  Haupt fortunately did not possess any of that manuscript which wasevidently a written explanation of the mode of deciphering the message.Hence he would not be aware that the "waw" sign formed the basis ofcalculation necessary. But he, Arminger Griffin, had elucidated aproblem of which bygone generations of scholars had never dreamed, andIsrael would, if the secret were duly kept, recover the sacred relics ofher wonderful temple.

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

  After some pondering he resolved to make no announcement to Diamond orto Farquhar, both of whom he knew were away in the country, until he hadmade 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 tohimself. "But they will soon realise that Arminger Griffin has patienceand ability to solve one of the most intricate problems ever presentedto any scholar. We can now openly defy our enemies--whoever they are.Before midnight I shall be in possession of the whole of the secretrecord contained in the book of the Prophet, and if I do not turn it toadvantage it will not be my fault. That man Mullet evidently fears tocall upon me. Ah! his friends little dream that I have solved theproblem--that success now lies in my hands alone."

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

  Then he touched the electric bell, and Laura, the tall, dark-hairedparlour-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 thatsomething unusual had occurred.

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

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

  "Holmboe says that the cipher exists in nine chapters," he remarkedaloud to himself. "I wonder which of the forty-eight chapters healludes to! Now let's
see," he went on, slowly turning over the leavesof the Hebrew text, "the book of Ezekiel's prophecy is divided intoseveral parts. The first contains chapters i-xxiv, which are propheciesrelating to Israel and Judah, in which he foretells and justifies thefall of Jerusalem. The second is chapters xxv-xxxii, containingdenunciations of the neighbouring nations; the third is chaptersxxxiii-xxxix, which gives predictions of the restitution and union ofJudah and Israel, and the last, chapter xl-xlviii, visions of the idealtheocracy and its institutions. Now the question is in which of thoseparts is hidden the record?"

  The few words of the cipher which he had been able to read werecontinued in chapter xxiv, beginning at verse 6; "Wherefore thus saiththe 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 nolot fall upon it. For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it uponthe top of a rock; she