"Now if I tie down old Griffin the secret will be mine," he remarked aloud. "I've already `wired' to Gwen, so she'll expect me at eight, and no doubt tell her father."

At five o'clock Sir George's red "Mercedes" came round to the front of the house to take Frank into Peterborough, and half an hour later he was in the "up-Scotsman" speeding towards King's Cross, bearing with him the secret which he felt confident was to set the whole world by the ears.

He dropped his bag at his rooms in Half Moon Street, had a wash and a snack to eat at his club, the New Universities, round in St James's Street, and then drove in a taxi-cab to a large, rather comfortable house in Pembridge Gardens, that turning exactly opposite Notting Hill Gate Station.

Standing behind the neat maid-servant who opened the door was a tall, dark-haired, handsome girl not yet twenty, slim, narrow-waisted, and essentially dainty and refined.

"Why, Frank!" she cried, rushing towards him. "What's all this excitement. I'm so interested. Dad has been most impatient to see you.

After your letter the day before yesterday, he's been expecting you almost every hour."

"Well, the fact is, Gwen, I couldn't get the business through," he said with a laugh. "We had terms to arrange--and all that."

"Terms of what?" asked the girl, as he linked his arm in hers and they walked together into the long, well-furnished dining-room.

"I'll tell you all about it presently, dear," he replied.

"About the secret?" she asked anxiously. "Dad showed me your letter.

It is really intensely interesting--if what you suspect be actually the truth."

"Interesting!" he echoed. "I should rather think it is. It's a thing that will startle the whole civilised world in a few days. And the curious and most romantic point is that we can't find out who was the original holder of the information. He died in Paris, refusing to give his real name, or any account of himself. But there," he added, "I'll tell you all about it later on. How is my darling?"

And he bent until their lips met in a long, fervent caress.

Her arms were entwined about his neck, for she loved him with the whole strength of her being, and her choice was looked upon with entire favour by her father. Frank Farquhar was a rising man, the adopted candidate for a Yorkshire borough, while from his interest in Sir George Gavin's successful publications he derived a very handsome income for a man of his years.

"I've been longing for your return, dearest," she murmured in his ear as he kissed her. "It seems ages ago since you left town."

"Only a month. I went first to Perthshire, where I had to speak at some Primrose League meetings. Then I had business in both Newcastle and Manchester, and afterwards I went to Horsford to see my sister. I was due to stay there another fortnight, but this strange discovery brings me up to consult your father."

"He's upstairs in the study. We'd better go up at once. He's dying to see you," declared the bright-eyed girl, who wore a big black silk bow in her hair. She possessed a sweet innocent face, a pale soft countenance indicative of purity of soul. The pair were, indeed, well matched, each devoted to the other; he full of admiration of her beauty and her talents, and she proud of his brilliant success in journalism and literature.

At the throat of her white silk blouse she wore a curious antique brooch, an old engraved sapphire which Sir Charles Gaylor, a friend of Dr Griffin, had some years ago brought from the excavation he had made in the mound of Nebi-Yunus, near Layard's researches in the vicinity of Nineveh. The rich blue gleamed in the gaslight, catching Frank's eye as he ascended the stair, and he remarked that she was wearing what she termed her "lucky brooch," a gem which had no doubt adorned some maiden's breast in the days of Sennacherib or Esarhaddon.

The first-floor front room, which in all other houses in Pembridge Gardens was the drawing-room, had in the house of Professor Griffin been converted into the study--a big apartment lined with books which, for the most part, were of "a dry-as-dust" character.

As they entered, the Professor, a short, stout, grey-haired man in round steel-framed spectacles, raised himself from his armchair, where he had been engrossed in an article in a German review.

"Ah! my dear Farquhar!" he cried excitedly. "Gwen told me that you were on your way--but there, you are such a very erratic fellow that I never know when to expect you."

"I generally turn up when least expected," laughed the young man, with a side-glance at the girl.

"Well, well," exclaimed the man in spectacles; "now what is all this you've written to me about? What `c.o.c.k-and-bull' story have you got hold of now--eh?"

"I briefly explained in my letter," he answered. "Isn't it very remarkable? What's your opinion?"

"Ah! you journalists!" exclaimed the old professor reprovingly. "You've a lot to answer for to the unsuspecting public."

"I admit that," laughed Frank. "But do you really dismiss the matter as a `c.o.c.k-and-bull' story?"

"That is how I regard it at the moment--without having been shown anything."

"Then I can show you everything," was Farquhar's prompt reply. "I have it all with me--at least all that remains of it."

The old man smiled satirically. As Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, Dr Arminger Griffin was not a man to accept lightly any theory placed before him by an irresponsible writer such as he knew Frank Farquhar to be.

He suspected a journalistic "boom" to be at the bottom of the affair, and of all things he hated most in the world was the halfpenny press.

Frank had first met Gwen while he had been at college, and had often been a visitor at the professor's house out on Grange Road, prior to his retirement and return to London. He knew well in what contempt the old man held the popular portion of the daily press, and especially the London evening journals. Therefore he never sought to obtrude his profession when in his presence.

"Well?" said the old gentleman at last, peering above his gla.s.ses. "I certainly am interested in the story, and I would like to examine what you've brought. Burnt papers--aren't they?"

"Yes."

"H'm. Savours of romance," sniffed the professor. "That's why I don't like it. The alleged secret itself is attractive enough, without an additional and probably wholly fict.i.tious interest."

Frank explained how the fragments had fallen into his hands, and the suggestion which Doctor Diamond had made as to the possibility of a financial value of the secret.

"My dear Frank," replied the professor, "if it were a secret invention, a new pill, or some scented soap attractive to women, it might be worth something in the City. But a secret such as you allege,"--and he shrugged his shoulders ominously without concluding his sentence.

"Ah!" laughed the young man. "I see you're sceptical. Well, I don't wonder at that. Some men of undoubted ability and great knowledge declare that the Bible was not inspired."

"I am not one of those," the professor hastened to declare.

"No, Frank," exclaimed the girl. "Dad is not an agnostic. He only doubts the genuineness of this secret of yours."

"He condemns the whole thing as a `c.o.c.k-and-bull' story, without first investigating it!" said Farquhar with a grin. "Good! I wonder whether your father will be of the same opinion after he has examined the fragments of the dead man's ma.n.u.script which remain to us?"

"Don't talk of the dead man's ma.n.u.script!" exclaimed the old professor impatiently, "even though the man is dead, it's in typewriting, you say--therefore there must exist somebody who typed it. He, or she, must still be alive!"

"By Jove!" gasped the young man quickly, "I never thought of that! The typing is probably only a copy of a written ma.n.u.script. The original may still exist. And in any case the typist would be able to supply to a great degree the missing portions of the doc.u.ment."

"Yes," said the other. "It would be far more advantageous to you to find the typist than to consult me. I fear I can only give you a negative opinion."

CHAPTER SIX.

GIVES EXPERT OPINION.

Frank Farquhar was cleverly working his own game. The Professor had scoffed at the theory put forward by Diamond, therefore he was easily induced to give a written undertaking to regard the knowledge derived from the half-burnt ma.n.u.script as strictly confidential, and to make no use of it to his own personal advantage.

"I have to obtain this," the young man explained, "in the interests of Diamond, who, after all, is possessor of the papers. He allowed me to have them only on that understanding."

"My dear Frank," laughed the great Hebrew scholar, "really all this is very absurd. But of course I'll sign any doc.u.ment you wish."

So amid some laughter a brief undertaking was signed, "in order that I may show to Diamond," as Frank put it.

"It's really a most businesslike affair," declared Gwen, who witnessed her father's signature. "The secret must be a most wonderful one."

"It is, dear," declared her lover. "Wait and hear your father's opinion. He is one of the very few men in the whole kingdom competent to judge whether the declaration is one worthy of investigation."