On the whole, I think that the
sooner you take the bean, the better."
Burton suddenly sat up in his chair.
"What are those sheets of paper you have on the table?" he asked
quickly.
"They are the sheets of paper left with the little flower-pot in the
room of Idlemay House," Mr. Waddington answered. "I was just looking
them through and wondering what language it was they were written in.
It is curious, too, that our friend should have only translated the last
few lines."
Burton rose from his chair and leaned over the table, looking at them
with keen interest.
"It was about those papers that I started out to come and see you," he
declared. "There must be some way by which we could make the action of
these beans more permanent. I propose that we get the rest of the pages
translated. We may find them most valuable."
Mr. Waddington was rather inclined to favor the idea.
"I cannot think," he admitted, "why it never occurred to us before.
Whom do you propose to take them to?"
"There is some one I know who lives a little way down in the country,"
Burton replied. "He is a great antiquarian and Egyptologist, and if any
one can translate them, I should think he would be able to. Lend me the
sheets of manuscript just as they are, and I will take them down to him
to-morrow.
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