To my surprise,
he looked up at me with an expression of great interest. "That is really very curious," he said. "I have never thought it worth
while to look into the old geographers, and I daresay I have missed a
good deal. Ah, that is the passage, is it. It seems a shame to rob you
of your entertainment, but I really think I must carry off the book." The next day the professor called to me to come to the study. I found
him sitting at a table in the full light of the window, scrutinizing
something very attentively with a magnifying-glass. "Ah, Miss Lally," he began, "I want to use your eyes. This glass is
pretty good, but not like my old one that I left in town. Would you
mind examining the thing yourself, and telling me how many characters
are cut on it?" He handed me the object in his hand, and I saw that it was the black
seal he had shown me in London, and my heart began to beat with the
thought that I was presently to know something. I took the seal, and
holding it up to the light checked off the grotesque dagger-shaped
characters one by one. "I make sixty-two," I said at last. "Sixty-two? Nonsense; it's impossible. Ah, I see what you have done, you
have counted that and that," and he pointed to two marks which I had
certainly taken as letters with the rest. "Yes, yes," Professor Gregg went on; "but those are obvious scratches,
done accidentally; I saw that at once. Yes, then that's quite right. Thank you very much, Miss Lally." I was going away, rather disappointed at my having been called in merely
to count a number of marks on the black seal, when suddenly there
flashed into my mind what I had read in the morning. "But, Professor Gregg, I cried, breathless, the seal, the seal. Why, it
is the stone Hexecontalithos that Solinus writes of; it is Ixaxar." "Yes," he said, "I suppose it is. Or it maybe a mere coincidence. It
never does to be too sure, you know, in these matters. Coincidence
killed the professor." I went away puzzled by what I had heard, and as much as ever at a loss
to find the ruling clew in this maze of strange evidence. For three days
the bad weather lasted, changing from driving rain to a dense mist, fine
and dripping, and we seemed to be shut up in a white cloud that veiled
all the world away from us. All the while Professor Gregg was darkling
in his room, unwilling, it appeared, to dispense confidences or talk of
any kind, and I heard him walking to and fro with a quick, impatient
step, as if he were in some way wearied of inaction. The fourth morning
was fine, and at breakfast the professor said briskly:--

"We want some extra help about the house; a boy of fifteen or sixteen,
you know. There are a lot of little odd jobs that take up the maids'
time, which a boy could do much better." "The girls have not complained to me in any way," I replied. "Indeed,
Anne said there was much less work than in London, owing to there being
so little dust." "Ah, yes, they are very good girls. But I think we shall do much better
with a boy. In fact, that is what has been bothering me for the last two
days." "Bothering you?" I said in astonishment, for as a matter of fact the
professor never took the slightest interest in the affairs of the house. "Yes," he said, "the weather, you know. I really couldn't go out in that
Scotch mist; I don't know the country very well, and I should have lost
my way. But I am going to get the boy this morning." "But how do you know there is such a boy as you want anywhere about?" "Oh, I have no doubt as to that. I may have to walk a mile or two at the
most, but I am sure to find just the boy I require." I thought the professor was poking, but though his tone was airy enough
there was something grim and set about his features that puzzled me. He
got his stick, and stood at the door looking meditatively before him,
and as I passed through the hall he called to me. "By the way, Miss Lally, there was one thing I wanted to say to you. I
daresay you may have heard that some of these country lads are not over
bright; idiotic would be a harsh word to use, and they are usually
called 'naturals,' or something of the kind, I hope you won't mind if
the boy I am after should turn out not too keen-witted; he will be
perfectly harmless, of course, and blacking boots doesn't need much
mental effort." With that he was gone, striding up the road that led to the wood; and I
remained stupefied, and then for the first time my astonishment was
mingled with a sudden note of terror, arising I knew not whence, and all
unexplained even to myself, and yet I felt about my heart for an instant
something of the chill of death, and that shapeless, formless dread of
the unknown that is worse than death itself. I tried to find courage in
the sweet air that blew up from the sea, and in the sunlight after rain,
but the mystic woods seemed to darken around me; and the vision of the
river coiling between the reeds, and the silver gray of the ancient
bridge, fashioned in my mind symbols of vague dread, as the mind of a
child fashions terror from things harmless and familiar. Two hours later Professor Gregg returned. I met him as he came down the
road, and asked quietly if he had been able to find a boy. "Oh, yes," he answered; "I found one easily enough. His name is Jervase
Cradock, and I expect he will make himself very useful. His father has
been dead for many years, and the mother, whom I saw, seemed very glad
at the prospect of a few shillings extra coming in on Saturday nights. As I expected, he is not too sharp, has fits at times, the mother said;
but as he will not be trusted with the china, that doesn't much matter,
does it? And he is not in any way dangerous, you know, merely a little
weak." "When is he coming?" "To-morrow morning at eight o'clock. Anne will show him what he has to
do, and how to do it. At first he will go home every night, but perhaps
it may ultimately turn out more convenient for him to sleep here, and
only go home for Sundays." I found nothing to say to all this. Professor Gregg spoke in a quiet
tone of matter-of-fact, as indeed was warranted by the circumstance; and
yet I could not quell my sensation of astonishment at the whole affair. I knew that in reality no assistance was wanted in the housework, and
the professor's prediction that the boy he was to engage might prove a
little "simple," followed by so exact a fulfilment, struck me as bizarre
in the extreme. The next morning I heard from, the housemaid that the
boy Cradock had come at eight, and that she had been trying to make him
useful. "He doesn't seem quite all there, I don't think, miss," was her
comment; and later in the day I saw him helping the old man who worked
in the garden. He was a youth of about fourteen, with black hair and
black eyes, and an olive skin, and I saw at once from the curious
vacancy of his expression that he was mentally weak.