第3章 The Mysterious Parchment(1)

"I DECLARE,"cried my uncle,striking the table fiercely with his fist,"I declare to you it is Runic-and contains some wonderful secret,which I must get at,at any price."I was about to reply when he stopped me.

"Sit down,"he said,quite fiercely,"and write to my dictation."I obeyed.

"I will substitute,"he said,"a letter of our alphabet for that of the Runic:we will then see what that will produce.Now,begin and make no mistakes."The dictation commenced with the following incomprehensible result:

mm.rnlls esreuel seecJde sgtssmf unteief niedrke kt,samn atrateS Saodrrn emtnaeI nuaect rrilSa Atvaar .nscrc ieaabs ccdrmi eeutul frantu dt,iac oseibo KediiYScarcely giving me time to finish,my uncle snatched the document from my hands and examined it with the most rapt and deep attention.

"I should like to know what it means,"he said,after a long period.

I certainly could not tell him,nor did he expect me to-his conversation being uniformly answered by himself.

"I declare it puts me in mind of a cryptograph,"he cried,"unless,indeed,the letters have been written without any real meaning;and yet why take so much trouble?Who knows but I may be on the verge of some great discovery?"My candid opinion was that it was all rubbish!But this opinion Ikept carefully to myself,as my uncle's choler was not pleasant to bear.All this time he was comparing the book with the parchment.

"The manuscript volume and the smaller document are written in different hands,"he said,"the cryptograph is of much later date than the book;there is an undoubted proof of the correctness of my surmise.[An irrefragable proof I took it to be.]The first letter is a double M,which was only added to the Icelandic language in the twelfth century-this makes the parchment two hundred years posterior to the volume."The circumstances appeared very probable and very logical,but it was all surmise to me.

"To me it appears probable that this sentence was written by some owner of the book.Now who was the owner,is the next important question.Perhaps by great good luck it may be written somewhere in the volume."With these words Professor Hardwigg took off his spectacles,and,taking a powerful magnifying glass,examined the book carefully.

On the fly leaf was what appeared to be a blot of ink,but on examination proved to be a line of writing almost effaced by time.

This was what he sought;and,after some considerable time,he made out these letters:

(See illustration.)

"Arne Saknussemm!"he cried in a joyous and triumphant tone,"that is not only an Icelandic name,but of a learned professor of the sixteenth century,a celebrated alchemist."I bowed as a sign of respect.

"These alchemists,"he continued,"Avicenna,Bacon,Lully,Paracelsus,were the true,the only learned men of the day.They made surprising discoveries.May not this Saknussemm,nephew mine,have hidden on this bit of parchment some astounding invention?Ibelieve the cryptograph to have a profound meaning-which I must make out."My uncle walked about the room in a state of excitement almost impossible to describe.