Across the Cameroons

ause it's romantic, and also melodramatic--that is to say, it is concerned with death. It came into my possession nine years ago, when I was presiding judge a

ls like bloodhounds. In Sierra Leone he turned upon his tormentors and killed two of them. He was brought before me on a charge of murder, and I had no option but to sentence him to death. The day before he was hanged he wished to see me, and I vis

was responsible for the most ancient religion in the world. He was the first of the Magi, or the Wise Men of the East, and it was

s, who conquered Egypt, and thus spread their influence across the Red Sea into Africa. To-day, among the hills that surround Lake Chad, ther

ent the sage with jewels and precious stones. These were first given as alms, to enable him t

was embalmed in Egypt and conveyed by a party of Ethiopians into the very hea

de, bright yellow in colour, and of about the size of a saucer. On both sides of the stone various signs and symbols have been cut. On one side, from the centre, nine radii div

usands of years--they have terrorized northern and central Africa. They were feared by the ancient Egyptians, who built walls around the

oaster', for it is here that the sage is supposed to have been buried. The bones of Zoroaster, as well as the jewels, are said to lie in a vault cut in the living rock; and the Sunstone is the key which opens the entranc

s of a Persian historian, and that description led me to suspect that the very thing was in my o

ing forward with his elbows on the table and his chin upon a hand. Von Harden

into these so-called 'Caves of Zoroast

iled, and sh

so bloodthirsty, their country so mountainous, and their valleys so infertile, that hitherto no one has ever interfered with their affairs. Like all the Arabs, they are a nation of robbers and

see the Sunston

ou both down to the bungalow to-morrow morning, or-

on Hardenberg, "to keep such a v

binet. Moreover, you must remember that nobody knows of its value. No thief would e

y there as well?"

ient to have my cashbox at hand. But it seldom contains more than twenty p

g of the treasure of Zoroaster, "that it should have exi

rab descent, though they are not followers of the Prophet. The sun-worshippers are extremely devout. No pries

berg, "no Mohammedan or heathen, ha

the secret. That is why, when the Sunstone was sto

. He was silent for a moment,

ou have solved the

uddenly found myself in the Caves of Zoroaster, with th

at his uncle. When he spoke, it was in the voice of a man wh

r like to see i

ercoats, and conducted by the Judge, who carried a lantern, they

ses was a library. The four walls were stacked with books, but the overflow of these was so great that many were piled upon chairs and in odd corners of the room. In the centre of the floor-sp

business to leave my cash-box open. The truth is, I was so

Sunstone?" aske

here," said

a large stone and laid it on the table in the light of the lamp. His two nephew

the Judge. On the other was a great deal of writing in the same primitive langu

known language. Indeed, I would never have been able to make head or tail of it had I not been a scholar of Sanskrit. This writing

say?" asked

lock, which works on the same principle as the modern Bramah lock--a very ancient device. It consists of nine enormous wheels. The outside, or tyre, of each of these wheels is adorned with hundreds of c

eemed so romantic and so astonishing that it was almost impossible t

this discovery," he asked,

se to keep the affair a secret whilst I continue my researches. There are several points upon which t

Hardenberg, "you don't inten

ps," said the Judge, "I will make the result of my inves

they went to bed that night von Hardenberg to

u make of i

nstone?" a

me, if the old gentleman wanted to,

y la

t money," said he. "He looks at the whole

the Prussian. "No doub

rned and went slo