Vernon King swept his torch in an arc around the chamber, the extreme confines of which were shrouded in shadow.
"I am no fiscal expert, my dear boy. It would take committee of jewelers to assess those chests alone. As for the gold, I have seen the Treasury vaults in Washington, and gold mounts up fast when you run into the thousands of pounds avoirdupois. Just as a wild guess, I might hazard a minimum of $100,000,000, £20,000,000 at normal exchange."
"But it can't be!" I protested, the sweat beading my forehead at the thought. "Why, it's ridiculous. They didn't have wealth on such a scale in those days."
"Not at all, Jack," returned my uncle, his scholar's pride aroused. "You must remember that you are viewing here the hoard accumulated by a Roman Emperor, one of the last rulers before the definite initiation of the Empire's final collapse. It was then still by far the richest country of which we have any record. According to Benjamin of Tudela, the Jewish traveler of the Twelfth Century, the revenue received by the Emperor from the city of Constantinople by itself amounted to 7,300,000 numismata, or in the neighborhood of $20,000,000.
"Benjamin and other later authorities, Andreades, Paparrhegopulos, Kalligas, assert the revenue derived from the remainder of the Empire to have represented five times this sum. At the most moderate computation, the total revenue of the Empire must have exceeded $120,000,000. It was probably very much more. In addition, the wealth of the individual citizens and nobles was enormous. The Emperor Andronicus, with whose efforts we have to deal here, had two years to milk the country's wealth. During those two years, he not only absorbed the taxes, but confiscated the wealth of more nobles than any ruler prior to that period.
"I should not be greatly surprised if the contents of this chamber was discovered to exceed $125,000,000. Andronicus was possessed with a mania for accumulating a treasure for rebuilding the Empire. If he—"
"If you aren't very lucky, Hugh, you are going to lose all this stuff just because you were lucky enough to find it," said Nikka's voice behind us.
We turned to confront him. Kara's dark, passionate face was at his shoulder. Her eyes drank in the picture, and she stood on her tip-toes to whisper in Nikka's ear.
"No thank you, my dear," he answered drily. "She suggests that I give her my knife, and that between us we clean up you people. Oddly enough, she is not alone in possessing that idea. Who do you suppose is upstairs?"
"Mrs. Hilyer," I exclaimed.