British Government would no doubt accept it as a gift, just as it
would with equal alacrity accept the veritable signature of Homer,
which we also possess in another retreat of ours on the Isle of
Lemnos. But our treasures are neither for giving nor selling, and
with respect to this original 'Esdras,' it will certainly never
pass out of our hands."

"And what of the other missing sixty-nine books?" asked Alwyn.

"They may possibly be somewhere in the world,--two of them, I
know, were buried in the coffin of one of the last princes of
Chaldea,--perhaps they will be unearthed some day. There is also a
rumor to the effect that Esdras engraved his 'Last Prophecy' on a
small oval tablet of pure jasper, which he himself secreted, no
one knows where. But to come to the point of immediate issue, ...
shall I find out and translate for you the allusions to the 'field
of Ardath' contained in this present volume?"

"Do!" said Alwyn, eagerly, at once returning the book to Heliobas,
who, seating himself at the table, began carefully looking over
its ivory pages--"I am all impatience! Even without the vision I
have had, I should still feel a desire to see this mysterious
Field for its own sake,--it must have some very strange
associations to be worth specifying in such a particular manner!"

Heliobas answered nothing--he was entirely occupied in examining
the small, closely engraved characters in which the ancient record
was written; the crimson afterglow of the now descended sun flared
through the window and sent a straight, rosy ray on his bent head
and white robes, lighting to a more lustrous brilliancy the golden