He took no count of time, so wholly engrossed was he in his work. The assistant-keeper entered prior to his departure at four o’clock when the department closed, and began bustling about, hoping that the “dry-as-dust” old fellow, being disturbed, might abandon his work for that day.
But nothing interrupted him in making his rapid copying of those Hebrew characters that had been written before the birth of Christ.
Presently, in sheer despair, the assistant-keeper remarked:
“That’s rather heavy work for you, Professor, isn’t it?”
“No. Not exactly,” was the old man’s quick reply without looking up, “I am about to make a most interesting investigation; therefore, I dare not employ any copyist. He might so easily make mistakes.”
“An investigation!” echoed the younger man. “Why, curiously enough for the past three days we’ve had a man here copying that same book for some mysterious purpose. He finished only yesterday afternoon. But he refused to tell me the reason he was making the copy other than that he, like yourself, was making some investigations. He used the same expression as yourself, curiously enough.”
“Another searcher!” gasped the Professor, laying down his pen, and staring at the speaker. “Another investigator of the original of the Book of Ezekiel! Who was he? What was he like?” demanded the old man quickly, his face blanched in an instant.
“I don’t know who he was, for we’ve never seen him here before. He was an old gentleman, a foreigner evidently—and a scholar, for he wrote the Hebrew characters almost as quickly and accurately as you yourself.”
Professor Arminger Griffin sat back in his chair, his mouth open, staring into space.
Was it possible that some one else besides himself had obtained knowledge of the great secret, and was actively engaged upon investigations!