so I think did someone else in his day."

"What did she say to you?" I asked, for by now I was interested enough.
Who wouldn't be when old Potts took to describing beautiful women?

"It's a little difficult to tell you for she spoke in a strange tongue,
and I had to translate it in my head, as it were. But this is the gist
of it. That you were to have that chest and what was in it. There's a
writing there, she says, or part of a writing for some has gone--rotted
away. You are to read that writing or to get it read and to print it so
that the world may read it also. She said that 'Hubert' wishes you to
do so. I am sure the name was Hubert, though she also spoke of him with
some other title which I do not understand. That's all I can remember,
except something about a city, yes, a City of Gold and a last great
battle in which Hubert fell, covered with glory and conquering. I
understood that she wanted to talk about that because it isn't in the
writing, but you interrupted and of course she's gone. Yes, the price is
£50 and not a farthing less, but you can pay it when you like for I know
you're as honest as most, and whether you pay it or not, you must have
that chest and what's in it and no one else."

"All right," I said, "but don't trust it to the carrier. I'll send a
cart for it to-morrow morning. Lock it now and give me the key."



In due course the chest arrived, and I examined the bundle for the other
contents do not matter, although some of them were interesting. Pinned
inside the shawl I found a paper, undated and unsigned, but which from
the character and style of the writing was, I should say, penned by a