Table of Contents
Round the Fire.
The Story of Cleopatra's Needle.
Ivanka the Wolf-Slayer.
In Nature's Workshop.
From Behind the Speaker's Chair.
Drawing a Badger.
A Common Crystal.
A Peep into "Punch."
Miss Cayley's Adventures.
A Town in the Tree-Tops.
Aunt Sarah's Brooch.
A Record of 1811.
Animal Actualities.
The Memory-Saver.
Curiosities.
(See page 133.)
THE STRAND MAGAZINE.
Vol. xvii. FEBRUARY, 1899. No. 98.
Round the Fire.
IX.—THE STORY OF THE JEW'S BREAST-PLATE.
By A. Conan Doyle.
y particular friend Ward Mortimerwas one of the best menof his day at everything connectedwith Oriental archæology.He had writtenlargely upon the subject, hehad lived two years in a tomb at Thebes,while he had excavated in the Valley of theKings, and finally he had created a considerablesensation by his exhumation of thealleged mummy of Cleopatra in the innerroom of the Temple of Horus, at Philæ.With such a record at the age of thirty-one,it was felt that a considerable career laybefore him, and no one was surprised whenhe was elected to the curatorship of theBelmore Street Museum, which carries withit the lectureship at the Oriental College, andan income which has sunk with the fall inland, but which still remains at that idealsum which is large enough to encourage aninvestigator, and not so large as to enervatehim.
There was only one reason which madeWard Mortimer's position a little difficult atthe Belmore Street Museum, and that wasthe extreme eminence of the man whom hehad to succeed. Professor Andreas was aprofound scholar and a man of Europeanreputation. His lectures were frequented bystudents from every part of the world, andhis admirable management of the collectionintrusted to his care was a common-place inall learned societies. There was, therefore,considerable surprise when, at the age offifty-five, he suddenly resigned his positionand retired from those duties which had beenboth his livelihood and his pleasure. H