Page:The Master of Mysteries (1912).djvu/333

 hand on Second Avenue, things went gorgeously with me. One of my mosos put me on to an abandoned claim, an old gold-mine that had been lost for years. In a month I sold out my interests for thirty thousand dollars. Every one in the place became my friend. I found an old schoolmate who insisted on my going into partnership with him, and—on the train coming north, I met the nicest girl in the world!"

He sank back in his cot with a smile. "Now my luck's come back," he added, "I'm going to present the opal to my sister Helen and see what it'll do for her."

"But one thing I don't understand," said Astro. "Did you get nothing but this opal from the grave?"

Merrington did not notice the incongruity of the remark, apparently. "Oh, I forgot!" he exclaimed. "That was a funny thing, too! You know Ptolemy's hand had been buried with him. Something had mummified it, somehow, while the rest of the body was pretty far gone,—nothing, really, but bones and a few tendons. Well, I thought I'd take the dried hand as a relic of poor old Ptolemy. It was ghastly; but I didn't know but that would bring luck, too. But no doubt that was what queered me, after all. I wonder what became of it?"

"You'll find that at the detective bureau, too," said Astro. "If I were you, I'd give it decent and honorable burial."

"I will!" said Merrington. "And by to-morrow afternoon I'm going to appear and surprise my sister. I hope she hasn't worried about me."

"But I always thought opals were unlucky," said Va-