from the Shades. In short, your story, man, your
story."

I drew the ring he had noticed off my hand, a thick band of rather
light-coloured gold of a size such as an ordinary woman might wear upon
her first or second finger, in which was set a splendid slab of
sapphire engraved with curious and archaic characters. Pointing to these
characters, I asked Higgs if he could read them.

"Read them? Of course," he answered, producing a magnifying glass.
"Can't you? No, I remember; you never were good at anything more than
fifty years old. Hullo! this is early Hebrew. Ah! I've got it," and he
read:

"'The gift of Solomon the ruler--no, the Great One--of Israel, Beloved
of Jah, to Maqueda of Sheba-land, Queen, Daughter of Kings, Child of
Wisdom, Beautiful.'

"That's the writing on your ring, Adams--a really magnificent thing.
'Queen of Sheba--Bath-Melachim, Daughter of Kings,' with our old friend
Solomon chucked in. Splendid, quite splendid!"--and he touched the gold
with his tongue, and tested it with his teeth. "Hum--where did you get
this intelligent fraud from, Adams?"

"Oh!" I answered, laughing, "the usual thing, of course. I bought it
from a donkey-boy in Cairo for about thirty shillings."

"Indeed," he replied suspiciously. "I should have thought the stone in
it was worth more than that, although, of course, it may be nothing
but glass. The engraving, too, is first-rate. Adams," he added with
severity, "you are trying to hoax us, but let me tell you what I thought
you knew by this time--that you can't take in Ptolemy Higgs. This
ring is a shameless swindle; but who did the Hebrew on it? He's a good
scholar, anyway."

"Don't know," I answered; "wasn't aware till now that it was Hebrew. To
tell you the truth, I thought it was old Egyptian. All I do know is
that it was given, or rather lent, to me by a lady whose title is Walda
Nagasta, and who is supposed to be a descendant of Solomon and the Queen
of Sheba."

Higgs took up the ring and looked at it again; then, as though in a fit
of abstraction, slipped it into his waistcoat pocket.

"I don't want to be rude, therefore I will not contradict you," he
answered with a kind of groan, "or, indeed, say anything except that
if any one else had spun me that yarn I should have told him he was
a common liar. But, of course, as every schoolboy knows, Walda
Nagasta--that is, Child of Kings in Ethiopic--is much the same as
Bath-Melachim--that is, Daughter of Kings in Hebr