“Therein lieth the secret. Mohammed ben Ishak—on whom may the Merciful have mercy!—was well learned in occult things, and it was he who translated it to me, for, as thou seest, it is likewise carved in Cufic. According to his rendering, this writing is a record of the Sultan Askiá, who states hereby that whomsoever believeth in the legend of his hidden treasure a thousand years after his decease, so shall he take the Crescent to the spot—which was indicated to thee by the dead imam—and then shall the whereabouts of the concealed jewels be revealed.”
“But to what unseen force dost thou attribute its marvellous power of producing an exteriorised image?”
“The inscription further states that so wealthy was the Sultan that he discarded his Great White Diadem, which was of purest gold and diamonds of the first water, and had caused to be constructed a strange semicircle of steel, tempered like a Damascus blade. This emblem of strength he wore upon his head instead of a crown, and it is this which we now know as the Crescent of Glorious Wonders.”
“His crown?” I exclaimed, in abject amazement.
“Yes. The inscription telleth us that the steel was treated in such a manner that when placed upon the head of one possessed of a more powerful will than his fellows, it would, in manner most remarkable, retain the thoughts of its wearer, and transfer them to the person who next assumed it. The Crescent was worn by Askiá at the time he concealed his treasure, and though a thousand years have elapsed since that day, yet, by placing it upon thy brow, unto thee there was transmitted the dead Sultan’s secret thoughts, which, reproducing the scene in thy mind, have enabled thee to unearth the jewels.”
“Extraordinary!” I ejaculated. “But could not another person have learned the clue to the Great Mystery by the same method?”
“No, not unless he knew the spot whereon to stand before he put the Crescent to the test. I myself have secretly tried it, but the cave wherein the Treasure lieth hidden hath never been revealed unto me. Only Mohammed ben Ishak knew in what direction or in what country to seek it. The Crescent was in my possession, and he alone could furnish the key to its secret.”
“Wonderful!” I said. “The story is astounding, and would be absolutely beyond belief were it not for the fact that I have already in my cabin below some of the jewels recovered from the dead Sultan’s hoard. The transference of thought by means of this crescent of magnetised steel, the horns of which acted as positive and negative poles, must be one of the many marvels which, though known to the ancients, have been lost to us for ages.”
I had read much of Dr Luys’ extraordinary discoveries regarding hypnotic suggestion, which seemed to deny the existence of free will, for the assertion that the will of one person could be implanted into that of another had been proved over and over again; yet the power to produce this mysterious rapport was, I felt certain, a strange and startling development of what the European scientific world now terms magnetism; in fact, nothing less than a confirmation of Dr Burq’s metalo-therapeutic theory that for so many years has puzzled the doctors of the Salpêtrière, and to the investigation of which Dr Chareot devoted so much earnest labour.
The love of the marvellous is one of the characteristics of the human race; and contemporary discoveries do not tend to diminish our inclination. Indeed, they extend the limits of the impossible, rendering us more credulous in regard to new ideas. Yet, were not many of the startling phenomena that have recently been discovered at the Charité known in the East ages ago; were not the facts that we believe new and miraculous, common knowledge at that time, and utilised in daily practice?