Short Fiction M. R. James (good book recommendations TXT) š
- Author: M. R. James
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RDIIEAMRLESIPVSPODSEEIRSETTAAESGIAVNNR
FTEEAILNQDPVAIVMTLEEATTOHIOONVMCAAT.H.Q.E.
āDo you see it? āDecem millia auri reposita sunt in puteo in atā āā ā¦ā (Ten thousand [pieces] of gold are laid up in a well inā āā ā¦), followed by an incomplete word beginning at. So far so good. I tried the same plan with the remaining letters; but it wouldnāt work, and I fancied that perhaps the placing of dots after the three last letters might indicate some difference of procedure. Then I thought to myself, āWasnāt there some allusion to a well in the account of Abbot Thomas in that book the āSertumā?ā Yes, there was: he built a puteus in atrio (a well in the court). There, of course, was my word atrio. The next step was to copy out the remaining letters of the inscription, omitting those I had already used. That gave what you will see on this slip:
RVIIOPDOOSMVVISCAVBSBTAOTDIEAMLSIVSPDEERSETAEGIANRFEEALQDVAIMLEATTHOOVMCA.H.Q.E.
āNow, I knew what the three first letters I wanted wereā ānamely, rioā āto complete the word atrio; and, as you will see, these are all to be found in the first five letters. I was a little confused at first by the occurrence of two iās, but very soon I saw that every alternate letter must be taken in the remainder of the inscription. You can work it out for yourself; the result, continuing where the first āroundā left off, is this:
ārio domus abbatialis de Steinfeld a me, Thoma, qui posui custodem super ea. Gare Ć qui la touche.ā
āSo the whole secret was out:
āTen thousand pieces of gold are laid up in the well in the court of the Abbotās house of Steinfeld by me, Thomas, who have set a guardian over them. Gare Ć qui la touche.ā
āThe last words, I ought to say, are a device which Abbot Thomas had adopted. I found it with his arms in another piece of glass at Lord Dā āøŗās, and he drafted it bodily into his cipher, though it doesnāt quite fit in point of grammar.
āWell, what would any human being have been tempted to do, my dear Gregory, in my place? Could he have helped setting off, as I did, to Steinfeld, and tracing the secret literally to the fountainhead? I donāt believe he could. Anyhow, I couldnāt, and, as I neednāt tell you, I found myself at Steinfeld as soon as the resources of civilization could put me there, and installed myself in the inn you saw. I must tell you that I was not altogether free from forebodingsā āon one hand of disappointment, on the other of danger. There was always the possibility that Abbot Thomasās well might have been wholly obliterated, or else that someone, ignorant of cryptograms, and guided only by luck, might have stumbled on the treasure before me. And thenāā āthere was a very perceptible shaking of the voice hereā āāI was not entirely easy, I need not mind confessing, as to the meaning of the words about the guardian of the treasure. But, if you donāt mind, Iāll say no more about that untilā āuntil it becomes necessary.
āAt the first possible opportunity Brown and I began exploring the place. I had naturally represented myself as being interested in the remains of the abbey, and we could not avoid paying a visit to the church, impatient as I was to be elsewhere. Still, it did interest me to see the windows where the glass had been, and especially that at the east end of the south aisle. In the tracery lights of that I was startled to see some fragments and coats-of-arms remainingā āAbbot Thomasās shield was there, and a small figure with a scroll inscribed āOculos habent, et non videbuntā (They have eyes, and shall not see), which, I take it, was a hit of the Abbot at his Canons.
āBut, of course, the principal object was to find the Abbotās house. There is no prescribed place for this, so far as I know, in the plan of a monastery; you canāt predict of it, as you can of the chapter-house, that it will be on the eastern side of the cloister, or, as of the dormitory, that it will communicate with a transept of the church. I felt that if I asked many questions I might awaken lingering memories of the treasure, and I thought it
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