Detective and mystery stories, English; Horror tales, English
My particular friend, Ward Mortimer, was one of the best men of his day
at everything connected with Oriental archaeology. He had written
largely upon the subject, he had lived two years in a tomb at Thebes,
while he excavated in the Valley of the Kings, and finally he had
created a considerable sensation by his exhumation of the alleged mummy
of Cleopatra in the inner room of the Temple of Horus, at Philae. With
such a record at the age of thirty-one, it was felt that a considerable
career lay before him, and no one was surprised when he was elected to
the curatorship of the Belmore Street Museum, which carries with it the
lectureship at the Oriental College, and an income which has sunk with
the fall in land, but which still remains at that ideal sum which is
large enough to encourage an investigator, but not so large as to
enervate him.
There was only one reason which made Ward Mortimer's position a little
difficult at the Belmore Street Museum, and that was the extreme
eminence of the man whom he had to succeed. Professor Andreas was a
profound scholar and a man of European reputation. His lectures were
frequented by students from every part of the world, and his admirable
management of the collection intrusted to his care was a commonplace in
all learned societies. There was, therefore, considerable surprise
when, at the age of fifty-five, he suddenly resigned his position and
retired from those duties which had been both his livelihood and his
pleasure. He and his daughter left the comfortable suite of rooms
which had formed his official residence in connection with the museum,
and my friend, Mortimer, who was a bachelor, took up his quarters there.
On hearing of Mortimer's appointment Professor Andreas had written him
a very kindly and flattering congratulatory letter. I was actually
present at their first meeting, and I went with Mortimer round the
museum when the Professor showed us the admirable collection which he
had cherished so long. The Professor's beautiful daughter and a young
man, Captain Wilson, who was, as I understood, soon to be her husband,
accompanied us in our inspection. There were fifteen rooms, but the
Babylonian, the Syrian, and the central hall, which contained the
Jewish and Egyptian collection, were the finest of all. Professor
Andreas was a quiet, dry, elderly man, with a clean-shaven face and an
impassive manner, but his dark eyes sparkled and his features quickened
into enthusiastic life as he pointed out to us the rarity and the
beauty of some of his specimens. His hand lingered so fondly over
them, that one could read his pride in them and the grief in his heart
now that they were passing from his care into that of another.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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