第2章

You will laugh at me when I say it, but one day it will be proved to you beyond a doubt, that my sixty-fifth or sixty-sixth lineal ancestor was an Egyptian priest of Isis, though he was himself of Grecian extraction, and was called Kallikrates.His father was one of the Greek mercenaries raised by Hak-Hor, a Mendesian Pharaoh of the twenty-ninth dynasty, and his grandfather, I believe, was that very Kallikrates mentioned by Herodotus.In or about the year 339before Christ, just at the time of the final fall of the Pharaohs, this Kallikrates (the priest) broke his vows of celibacy and fled from Egypt with a princess of royal blood who had fallen in love with him, and was finally wrecked upon the coast of Africa, somewhere, as I believe, in the neighbourhood of where Delagoa Bay now is, or rather to the north of it, he and his wife being saved, and all the remainder of their company destroyed in one way or another.Here they endured great hardships, but were at last entertained by the mighty queen of a savage people, a white woman of peculiar loveliness, who, under circumstances which I cannot enter into, but which you will one day learnt if you live, from the contents of the box, finally murdered my ancestor, Kallikrates.

His wife, however, escaped, how I know not, to Athens, bearing a child with her, whom she named Tisisthenes, or the Mighty Avenger.Five hundred years or more afterwards the family migrated to Rome under circumstances of which no trace remains, and here, probably with the idea of preserving the idea of vengeance which we find set out in the name of Tisisthenes, they appear to have pretty regularly assumed the cognomen of Vindex, or Avenger.Here, too, they remained for another five centuries or more, till about 770 A.D., when Charlemagne invaded Lombardy, where they were then settled, whereon the head of the family seems to have attached himself to the great Emperor, and to have returned with him across the Alps, and finally to have settled in Brittany.Eight generations later his lineal representative crossed to England in the reign of Edward the Confessor, and in the time of William the Conqueror was advanced to great honor and power.From that time till the present day I can trace my descent without a break.Not that the Vinceysfor that was the final corruption of the name after its bearers took root in English soilhave been particularly distinguishedthey never came much to the fore.Sometimes they were soldiers, sometimes merchants, but on the whole they have preserved a dead level of respectability, and a still deader level of mediocrity.From the time of Charles II.till the beginning of the present century they were merchants.

About 1790 my grandfather made a considerable fortune out of brewing, and retired.In 1821 he died, and my father succeeded him, and dissipated most of the money.Ten years ago he died also, leaving me a net income of about two thousand a year.Then it was that I undertook an expedition in connection with that,"and he pointed to the iron chest, "which ended disastrously enough.On my way back I traveled in the South of Europe, and finally reached Athens.There Imet my beloved wife, who might well also have been called the 'Beautiful', like my old Greek ancestor.

There I married her, and there, a year afterwards, when my boy was born, she died."He paused awhile, his head sank upon his hand, and then continued, "My marriage had diverted me from a project which Icannot enter into now.I have no time, HollyI have no time! One day, if you accept my trust, you will learn all about it.After my wife's death I turned my mind to it again.But first it was necessary, or, at least, I conceived that it was necessary, that Ishould attain to a perfect knowledge of Eastern dialects, especially Arabic.It was to facilitate my studies that I came here.Very soon, however, my disease developed itself, and now there is an end of me." And, as though to emphasize his words, he burst into another terrible fit of coughing.

I gave him some more whiskey, and after resting he went on, "I have never seen my boy, Leo, since he was a tiny baby.I never could bear to see him, but they tell me that he is a quick and handsome child.In this envelope," and he produced a letter from his pocket addressed to myself, "I have jotted down the course Iwish followed in the boy's education.It is a somewhat peculiar one.At any rate, I could not intrust it to a stranger.Once more, will you undertake it?""I must first know what I am to undertake," Ianswered.

"You are to undertake to have the boy, Leo, to live with you till he is twenty-five years of agenot to send him to school, remember.On his twenty-fifth birthday your guardianship will end, and you will then, with the keys that I give you now" (and he placed them on the table), "open the iron box, and let him see and read the contents, and say whether or not he is willing to undertake the quest.There is no obligation on him to do so.Now, as regards terms.My present income is two thousand two hundred a year.