The Argosy, Vol. 76, No. 3 — page 148: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

618 Professor Errol’s eyes narrowed to pin-points and his fingers nervously combed his long beard. “And you say,” he burst forth ex- citedly, “that Emlen said that this museum has been looking for this box for fifty years? Sir, there is only one box that the British Museum has sought for fifty years, and that box it has not sought in the spirit of a col- lector, but of a benefactor to the hu- man race.” The two men who were seated at the table, attracted by the unusual ex- citement in fhe professor’s voice, stopped their work and looked at him interestedly. ‘“Come into my private office, if you please, Mr.—er—er—Oakes.”’ He led the way into a little office at the rear of the building. Allowing Oakes and Marjorie to precede him through the doorway, he paused long enough to say to the two men at the table: “T trust you will pardon me for leaving you in this way, gentlemen. I will return in a few moments. Ef- fendi Hashid,” he said to the young Turkish officer who was busily en- gaged in copying some extracts from the copy of the Koran that Sir Rich- ard Burton brought from Mecca at the peril of his life, and which is the pride of the museum to this day, “ you will find that the quotation that you seek is not original with Mohammed. It is antedated by another to the same effect in the “Night Thoughts of: Selid Kham,” and the idea that he writes of so eloquently is referred to by Pry- carnes, who wrote in Greek in 7II B.c., thirteen hundred years before Mohammed.” The ‘Turkish officer voiced his thanks profusely. Professor Errol turned to the other inmate of the room. “ Sefior Cardona, I am only sorry that I have not been able to put my hands on that monograph on sacred ‘relics on which you place so much weight. It is a rare and very valuable THE ARGOSY. treatise. If you will kindly remain, here I will probably have something of great interest to tell you in a short time. Now, if you please, Mr. Oakes.” jAnd he led the way to the inner office. “We frequently have enthusiasts come here for information of the most intimate personal character that they cannot otherwise obtain. That young Turkish officer whom you saw me speak to has been here for the past two weeks, trying to discover from what original sources the Koran was de- rived. It is remarkable that most of our religious truths have come from the East. The Koran, for instance, is very largely a reproduction of the Book of Heaven, that was old when even China was young, and yet I can think of no way that Mohammed could have heard of it. “The ‘other gentleman, Sefior Car- dona, the middle-aged “one, is a Mexi- can who has spent years in the study of sacred relics. He has given me much information about them. You, Mr. Oakes, who, I understand, have ‘been in Manila, have you ever heard of the statue of Our Lady of Antip- olo?” “ Nuestra Sefiora de Antipolo? Of course.’ Oakes nodded interestedly. “ There is not an American who has ever been in the archipelago who has not heard of that famous statue, be- fore which every woman who longs for a child prays during the long fiesta that lasts during the first three weeks in May; the famous statue whose first home was Acapulco, in Mexico, whence it was sent with the great Spanish galleons sailing west across the wild Pacific waste to insure a calm voyage and a safe return to the plate fleets of King Philip. “He has told me a great deal of the first trip that that statue made when the fleet of Alcazar went ashore on Timar and the crew drifted north on a raft and, first of all Spaniards, land- ed on the lost island of Cipango— which we now call Japan—and how COMicdoo S CO@