The Quest of Julian Day Read Online Free PDF Page B

date-farmer in the Oasis and there lived out the rest of his life.’
    â€˜Did he give any indication as to where the army actually foundered?’ I asked.
    â€˜Yes,’ replied Sir Walter. ‘He recorded the position of certain stars at that season, based of course, not on Greenwich because Greenwich did not exist then, but on the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, which was the Egyptian astronomical zero.’
    The deck was quiet. I tried to make my voice sound natural as I said, ‘That’s a very valuable secret to possess’.
    â€˜It is indeed, since the greatest treasure in gold and jewels the world has ever known must still lie abandoned there. Even Harry and Clarissa don’t know the actual site as yet because I only took the top half of the tablet to England in order to secure financial backing for my expedition. Sylvia has the other half in Cairo. That’s why she remained there all through this summer; and without both portions nobody could learn where this enormous treasure lies.’
    â€˜I’d give my eyes to join you on this trip,’ I said, ‘so you can rely on me to do my utmost to get my business through in time.’
    â€˜I thought you would,’ he smiled, ‘and we shall be delighted to have you. Harry and Clarissa have seen the top half of the tablet already, of course, but it would probably interest you to have a look at it. As it’s packed up in linen and sacking it will take a little time to unwrap, but if you care to come down to my cabin in about ten minutes I’ll show it to you, and give you a translation of the hieroglyphics on it.’
    â€˜That’s awfully kind of you, sir,’ I said as he stood up, and, saying good night to the Belvilles, I walked as far as the companion-way with him.
    I left him there and went into the lavatory. Ten minutes later I knocked on the door of his stateroom. There was no reply so I pushed it open and stepped in. I could see no tablet nor any package which might have contained it; and although Sir Walter was there he could not speak to me.
    He lay dead, sprawled face-downwards on the floor, and a dark patch of blood oozed up through his dinner-jacket, round the knife that was buried up to the hilt in his back.

3
Death in the ‘Hampshire’
    My eyes were riveted on the hilt of the big knife that stuck out between Sir Walter Shane’s shoulder-blades and the pool of blood welling up all round it. I had no impulse to turn him over and see if he were really dead. Although I could not see his face, which was twisted away from me, I knew instinctively that he was beyond all human help.
    In all my twenty-seven years I had only once before seen a dead man. That was at the age of eleven, when Uncle Herbert had taken me up for a last glimpse of my father. His kind, familiar face had been no more frightening in death than in life; but this was different. I felt a little sick and swallowed hard.
    I was still standing in the open doorway of Sir Walter’s stateroom and stepped back on to the deck meaning to shout, but checked myself in time. The Captain would not thank me for bringing a crowd of curious passengers on the scene. Entering the cabin again, I closed the door and rang for the steward.
    While I waited there I tried to collect my thoughts. It was obvious that Sir Walter had been murdered, and the reason was not far to seek. Someone had killed him to gain possession of the portion of the tablet which gave the position in the Libyan Desert where Cambyses’ army had foundered; the key to the vast treasure that he had been going out to Egypt with the Belvilles to seek.
    I looked swiftly round for some package which might contain the ancient slab of stone. It would be, I felt sure, a pretty bulky object, two of three feet square at least and probably several inches thick. I peered under the bed and took a quick look in the private bathroom next door, but I could see nothing which might be the