The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1913-06-07

door. l must first go to my rooms to
make myself p~resentable. Heavens.
~Jacqueline, II you could know the re-
lief | feel at abandoning this mad
search. II has been a nightmare; but
now we shall go out into the blessed
sunshine again"
But. Dick" she said wistfully, you
will need TO plead very %eloquently this
afternoon TO convince me that I may
withdraw my word TO Duke da Sestos.
II only it bad been possible to find that
wretched casket. l shall look for you
after church"
] watched her disappear within the
doorway. In half an hour | had been
to my rooms and returned. | slipped
into a pew at the rear Of the church.
! wished to think-to dream. 1t seem
ed incredible that the search was end
ed. What would st. Hilary say when
he knew that / had abandoned It?
And. strange as it may seem, already
| was vaguely sorry. Could l watch
st. Hilary steadily going on with the
search and be quite Indifferent as to
liz 1aS@Co1 vi iioi hOa Il hCNCA
have regrets that l had not kept at 1t a
little longer? Then / looked at Jacque-
line kneeling devoutly a few pews in
front of me, and ! smiled joyfully.
No; with J%acqueline as my wife ] had
no need of the excitement of a fools
errand.
Out of the stiffness of my thoughts,
as IL from afar of, the text of the
preacher fell on my ears u~nheeding
and yet strangely receptive. The text
was twice repeated. 1t was sufficiently
fantastic in itself, but to me 1t was the
finger of fate.
1t was pointing to the hiding place Of
the Da Sestos casket.
This was the text:
Moreover, the king made q great
throne of ivory and overlaid the arms
of 1t with fine gold. The throne had
six steps, and the top of the throne
was round behind, and there were
stays on either side of the place of the
seat. and two lions stood beside the
stays"
At first, as l have said, the words fell
quite idly on my ears. Then. without
any effort on my part, a throne made
of ivory, its arms overlaid with fine
| tried to resume the thread Of my
thought again, but the vision OF the
throne of ivory with the two lions at
the side haunted my excited brain. All
at once, with a shock of surprise, |
knew why it stood before me with such
startling distinctness. The throne of
the automaton of the eighth hour was
of ivory. its arms were of gold, it had
six steps. and two lions crouched on
either side.
At first / was merely astonished at
the similarity of the throne of the BIZ
BILE and the throne of the Da Sestos
clock. But other scenes of the hours
sprang before my mind in review. I
remembered the hour of st. Mark and
the lion. the council of ten before the
gate, the sultan and the kneeling
slave. The scenes stopped abruptly
there. In a fash. almost without
thought. certainly without deliberate
reasoning. | had fathomed the secret
of the clock:
The scenes of the twelve hours were
not Venetian scenes. They were Bible
scenes disguised in an environment
that was Venetian.
l could parallel each of the three
hours that had occurred to me with
familiar stories Of the Bible. The
scene of the first hour. the figure of
st. Mark and the. lion, as we had
thought, vas really Samson and the
lion: the sultan and the kneeling slave
were David and the PROSTATE giant
Goliath. The doge receiving the news
of victory from the dove I'm the Cam
panile became Noah and the dove. But
the other scenes-would they be equal
ly clear?
| took the first scene that occurred
to me. that in which the ten disks ap-
pear in succession. with the gate In the
background. I took a Bible from the
rack of the pew and opened it eagerly
at the book of Genesis. My knowl-
edge of the Old Testament was not
profound. | turned the leaves over
quickly, scanning each page. I had to
look simply for a passage in which a
gate and ten men figured. became
unconscious of the reverent worship
ers about me. | was needless ever Of
good form. For half an hour l pa
tiently turned page after page. l had
reached the book of Judges and began
to despair. Was this theory that prom
Used so well to be discarded in its turn
like a dozen others? No; l found the
passage. 1t proved my theory to be a
fact beyond peradventure. The pas
sage was in the book of Ruth:
"Then went Boaz to the gate and
sat him there. and. behold. the kins-
man Of whom BoaZ spoke, came by,
unto whom he said. Ho. such a one,
turn aside. sit down here. And he
turned aside and sat down.
".And he took ten men of the elders