"The first Hugh!" exclaimed Hugh with a note of awe in his voice.
And indeed, it must have been a moving experience to view the flimsy relics of those two from whose loins he, himself, had sprung through the resistless life impulse prevailing over time and death down the procession of the centuries.
He hesitated a moment, and then reached out reverently and removed the iron box from the mailed breast. Handing the torch to me, he raised the dingy cover. Inside was a chest of ebony, bound with silver, sound and whole. It was unlocked. As Hugh lifted the lid, a sheet of paper fluttered out and Nikka caught it. Across the top was engraved "Castle Chesby," and it was covered with fine, cramped writing.
"It's Uncle James's record," said Hugh. "After the exultation of plumbing the mystery to be murdered like a dog! Poor old chap!"'
The note or record was whimsically brief and undated:
"Last Thursday evening, in studying Lady Jane's doggerel on the back of the Instructions, I suddenly perceived the cipher. It occurred to me that the verse on the over-mantel in the Gunroom must have some connection with this, and after several days' examination, I fell upon the secret. I say fell, advisedly. In my interest in the task, I had shut myself up, and refused luncheon, tea and dinner, and finally, late in the evening, I sank against the mantle-shelf, weak and half-fainting. My hands, groping for support, struck the sphinx's head and the monk's stomach. I felt them give, heard the flagstone fall. After that hunger was forgotten. I descended the chimney stairs and found my way here, the first Chesby to traverse the Prior's Vent since that singular old ancestress of mine so effectually concealed it, and with it, the clue to the treasure. I do not see now how I can fail to find the treasure, but I shall leave the missing half of the Instructions, together with this note, in Lady Jane's chest, so that, if I should fail, the information may be available for Hugh.
"JAMES CHESBY."
"This was what he tried to tell—at the last," said Hugh.
His voice choked.
"Poor old chap!"