WELL OF GOLD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22954, 4 February 1938, Page 17

WELL OF GOLD

By BENTLEY RIDGE

(COPYfIIGHT)

CHAPTER XVll.—(Continued) He spoke as though he were short of breath. And Lynne could well believe it. It required the greatest offort in both of thom to sit down in front of their tent for ten minutes, eating tinned beef and biscuits, so that tho men might think their behaviour just as usual. At last Julian went into tho tont to got the sack; ho rolled it into a bundle under his arm, and thoy strolled back to tho scene of excavations. Without appearance of undue haste thoy lowered themselves into tho fourfoot depth of the well-basin, and thero, out of sight of the llyats, thoy set to work. Lynne waited breathlessly, while he plunged his arm into the cavity; in a moment he drew it out again, dripping. In his hand was a dull, streaky, blackish object, hollow, and about six inches high, with a flattened base. For a moment ho held it in his trembling hand and thoy starod at it. "It's a cup!" said Lynne, snatching up the sack, and in a moment tho object was in, and hidden. Julian thrust his arm into tho hole again and as he brought out the objects Ljnn took them from him and slipped them into the sack. It soomod to her, as she took them from him, with the blood beating behind her eyes and a queer dreamlike quality about the silence and tho hot, still sunshine, that the things wore as heavy as load. Julian bont still lower, thrust his arm in to the shoulder and gasped breathlessly: "I can feel tho other sido of the hole —there's only ono block missing. I ought to bo able to got thom all from herel" He brought out another dripping cup, this time with a handle on either side of the rim. Five of them were double handled, and on some of them Lynne had glimpsed traces of conventional carving as she passed thom into tho sack. Thero were thirty-two altogether. Julian thrust about in the hole, brought out piocos of stone, a riijg half rusted away, and a" length of chain. Blood was pouring from a cut in his hand when he finally withdrew his arm, and said: "That's all I There's nothing else there I" Hurriedly and carefully he tumbled the cups togothor in the bottom of the sack, closed tho mouth, and stood up. He looked across tho sand, and savr the llyats lying and sitting about their encampment. "Go on!" ho said to Lynne, and told hor jerkily, as thoy climbed out of the well; "Don't walk straight away from here. Stop on tho way and piok up bits of stono from the rubble and put them in the sack. They'll think that's what we've got in it." i They loitered round tho woll, picking up piece# of stono and putting them in tii© sack; and then at last they both walked back to tho tont. There, in its stifling shelter, thoy examined their find; something acid in the water which had crept into the hole in which they had lain for so long, had corroded the surface of the cups, but Julian scraped the blackened motal with the blade of j his knife, and showed Lynne the dull gleam of the gold. They set the cups in a row and looked at them. Lynne was conscious of her grimed face and Btained hands, of her dishevelled hair full of the white dust of the desert, it was only when she noticed the jubilation in hor stepbrother's face, tho wild triumph, and the gleam of greed in bis oyes, that she realised that she too, no doubt, had much tho same expression as she sat and gazed in wonder at their find. The fancied sound of a step outside brought Julian to his senses with a start; and in a moment, with sweeping, grasping hands, ho was gathering up the cups and tumbling them into the sack again. He crouched thero, clutching it, watching tho flap of tho tent, with such a desperate look that Lynne laughed. "We are a pair of conspirators!" sho said. "There's no one there —and if there wero, it wouldn't mattor! Guthrie can't take the cups from us now—we've found them, and they're ours!" "No; no —of course not!" said Julian, echoing her laugh in an odd mirthless way. Ho pulled the sack over to the campbed, pushed it underneath, dropping tho blanket so as to hido it, and sat down on the bed. "Phow! What a day!" he said, mopping his brow. "And we haven't by any means finished. What we have to do is to get the things packed up without tho llyats seeing them; and then we'll get a camel convoy from Memshi and tako them down to Kashan. I'll got them delivered, as geological specimens, to some agents I know there —tho Parker Jarvis Company —and then sent on by air to Enzili. Once we got them there, there'll be no more trouble of getting them to England." "But why to EnziliP" asked Lynne. "Couldn't wo take thom to Tehran—and take them back with us to London ourselves?" Julian paused with a far-away look in his eyes, as though he had hardly heard what sho said, before he replied: "Tako them to England with us—you say? No. my dear Lynne, that would never do. Once wo go down to Tehran taking this load with us, Guthrie will be sure that we've found something. He'll bo hard on our heels, he'll probably get to London by air days before I we do, and let tho press have his own | version of the finding of the cups before j wo even arrivo. I'm not going to givo him a ohanco to have anything to say ' about tho business at all! It's going 1 to be my find, and I shall spring it on the world. I'm going to get the cups to London beforo he oven knows that this is really Praemnon and not Diaia!" Lynne had nothing to say against this, She had no doubt that he was right. She remained in the tent, lying on the camp-bed, ton so with her consciousness of the contents of th(> sack underneath. What a glamour and romance there was about those aged treasures, brought out all dripping and black as the darkness itself, into the light of day! Empires had arisen and fallen, nations come into boing and vanished, and history had told such a long, long story, since tho stones had been lowered over the hiding place of the cups, to shut them awav from the sun. She did not care, as Julian seemed to care, about getting them away to London. That the cups were found was enough, Sho did not \ynnt to go quarrelling with Guthrie over the matter; whatever else she might think of him, she did believe that he would truly appreciate the finding of this treasure for itself. > • .... However, when later on, Julian began j making arrangements to smuggle them

A STORY OF A SEARCH FOR TREASURE, A QUEST THAT LEADS TO ADVENTURE AND ROMANCE

away, she was infected by his desire to conceal their discovery until it could bo sprung upon the world as theirs —and theirs alone. There was an excitement about the secrecy of his preparation*. Ho sent five of the men down to Shasti to water the camels; while tho remaining two he despatched to Memshi with a request to tho headman of the village to prepare to send a caravan at Kasluin at daybreak next morning. The Ilyats left; and as soon as they were out of sight, 110 and Lynne set to work. Thoy brought a box of wot clny into the tent, and sitting in its shelter, took tho precious cups out of the sack. With the wet clay thoy coated each cup until it was hidden in a solid cylinder of clay. Thoso they sot to dry in a row in tho scorching afternoon sun outside tho tent; and while Julian kopt a careful watch over them, Lynne wont collecting the dry, straw-like brush of tho dead hoa-sci'ub. B.v the tiino nightfall carnc, and with it the Ilyats back from the wells at Shasti, the cups in their clay cylinders were neatly packed between layers of dry brush into four ammunition boxes; nailing tho lids down on the boxes was not yot done, and Julian purposely summoned Zoani to do this. A few chips and. pieces from tho blocks of tho excavated well .deposited in tho boxes with tho lumps of clay, were calculated to convince the Ilyats that here was nothing but those stones for which archaeologists had their ludicrous enthusiasm. They might then be better trusted, Juian thought, not to spread tales to tho contrary in tho locality. After this was done they remained in camp for tho night at Praemnon; and soon after sunrise tho camel convoy camo up from Memshi. They wore three days'journey from Kashan. The ammunition boxes, which were exceedingly heavy, woro placed 0110 on each saddle of tho pack camels. Meanwhile, Julian gave minute instructions to Zoani and tho other Ilyats about clearing and sorting the debris of the excavated woll; ho strictly forbade any further removal of the remaining throe sides of the well; and leaving the men at work to act as a blind should anyone from Guthrie's camp come to investigate, ho and Lynno set off with the camel drivers from Momshi.

CHAPTER XVIII. HAW Bit INC 8 THE NEWS In the clear morning they rode out across the wide bright, wastes of the undulating country;' they made a slight detour so as mot to pass within sight of Kel-el-abir, where Guthrie was encamped, and the hlow progress of the camels, winding along the valleys and over the slopes took them out of familiar country. On one occasion, when they came to the- summit of a ridge and saw bolow them a great plain of salt, Lynne cried out in astonishment at its blazing whiteness. They crossed it; the camels licked the crystalline brilliance as they passed. All the time as they rotle slowly on under the clear blue sky, Lynne saw ahead of her, and ahead of Julian, who rode in front of her, the swaying loads on the backs of the four pack camels, bearing the treasure which even now it seemed like a dream to have found. Sometimes as sht\ rode, she thought about Phillip Guthrie. Now they had beaten him, she felt much better toward him; but she felt that it was very unlikely that he would find it in his heart to forgive herself and Julian for having won! The day wore on, arid soon it was afternoon; the slow but ruthless motion of the camel began to be a torture to Lynne; and she began to long for nightfall, when they were due to arrive at the wells which were tho first of the regular stopping places of the caravans to Kashan. * ♦ • • • Meanwhile, behind thorn at Praemnon where Zoani and his men were still working at the well, Julian's t convoy had not been gone an hour, before Haffi rode into the oamp. Ho looked at what they were doing to the well. Zoani, who regarded his master's enemies as, temporarily, at any rate, his own, warned him away: Haffi retreated, with contemptuous words. Tho Ilyat whom ho particularly wanted to seo, followed him, and under the curious eye of Zoani, they bad a short conversation, Tho llyat told Haffi tho route the camel drivers from Memshi were going to take to the border, and in answer to Haffi's questions was able to give a detailed description of the four ammunition boxes that the Englishman and his sister had taken with them. "They had much stone in them," said tho Ilyat. "And they were very heavy. Two men wero needed to lift each one." "Did you seo inside them?" asked Haffi. "I did, for I brought Zoani the nails to nail the lids. They had stones, and lumps of clay, and many dried bunches of tho hoa," replied tho man. "You have done very well," said Haffi. "I will not pay you here, for the pig over thero iji watching. But I will see you to-morrow at tho well in Shastil" Ho turned his camel round, and moved away as Zoani approached. "What does ho want? 1 ' asked Zoani of tho Ilyat. "Of what are you talkm "I sold him a saddle, master," replied tho Ilyat. "And we wero talking of that." Haffi, meanwhile, turned his camel s head toward Kel-el-abir, and an hour's trotting brought him into Guthrie's camp. Guthrie and Cartwright talked to him in the mess-tent. "Well?" said Guthrie impatiently, "Yes," said Haffi. "They have gone —they are on their way down to Kashan with camels from Memshi, and the men are wtill working at the well at Diala." Ho told them about the four ammunition boxes, and the Ilyat's des« cription of them. "Stones and lumps of clay I said Cartwright to Guthrie. "They may be just ordinary specimens after all!" " Is it likely that Ormond would {send ordinary specimens to Kashan?" said Guthrie. "We know that Ormond is not an archaeologist, and has no interest in archaeology! No, Cartwright, there's more in it—more in tho boxes, in fact —than that!" lie asked liaffii exact details of tho caravan route to Kashan J Haffi told him, and explained: " To-night they will stop at tho wells at Magas." "Is thero a vjllago there?" " No —no people. It is just a valley with water in it." Guthrie went outside tho tent, and Cartwright followed him, Guthrie was frowning, but after a moment's thought ho turned to his companion with an air of resolution, " Well —Jim, my lad —we're going to see inside those boxes! Ammunition boxes! He would use Shaley's way of packing his specimens! Thank goodness wo have some! Get four out of the store tent, and tell tho men to take the tarpaulins off the tractor and fill her up ready to start, And wait! Get a box of Verey lights from the store tent!" " Verey lights!" said Cartwright in astonishment. There rvero half a dozen boxes of Verey lights in the stores, which had been procured with the idea that exploring partioii, going out from camp, should be equipped with them for use at night to help them if they lost their bearings. But they had never yet been used. (To be continued daily)