"There is something peculiar about his finding the secret in one way and our finding it in another so shortly afterward," I said.
"The soothsayers of my people would call it a sign, a premonition," replied Nikka, with a melancholy smile.
"Of what?"
"Of the removal of whatever curse or inhibition has prevented the discovery of the treasure up to this time."
"Well, two men have died already since this last search was begun," answered Hugh, fumbling in the chest. "And who knows how many others have been killed on its account?"
He drew out a bundle wrapped in decaying velvet cloth. Within was a wrapping of silk, and under all a folded blank sheet of parchment enveloping two other documents. One was a parchment, tattered and worn, which had evidently been much handled. It was jaggedly cut at the top as though by a dull knife or some other instrument. Its surface was crowded with the same intricate Black Letter script in mediæval Latin as comprised the Instructions in the Charter Chest. The writing was badly faded, and a number of words in the lower right-hand corner had been smudged by dampness at some remote time.
The second document was a pencilled translation of the first in James Chesby's handwriting:
"The Great Palace—or as some call it, the Palace of the Bucoleon—is over against the Hippodrome and the Church of St. Sophia. In the Inner Court, which fronts upon the Bosphorus, there is a door under the sign of the Bull. Beyond the door is a hall. At the end of the hall there is a stair. At the foot of the stair there is a gate. Pass through the gate into the atrium which is off the Garden of the Cedars. In the Garden is the Fountain of the Lion. From the center of the Fountain take four paces west toward the wall of the atrium. Then walk three paces north. Underfoot is a red stone an ell square. Raise the ................................................
"... farewell, my son, and forget not the monks of Crowden Priory and the plight of Jerusalem.
"Thine in the love of Christ and the Sainted Cuthbert,