"Yes," he said, sinking wearily into a chair, though his voice almost
cracked with excitement. "I changed the distances in every instance
permitted by the text. As it stands now, the papyrus is utterly
worthless. I acted for the best, yes? A secret known to more than one
ceases to be a secret. But I am tired of pretense, and you shall have
the truth, though it carries with it a confession of ghastly failure. I
do not know what good fortune Alfieri has blundered into at Suleiman's
Well, and I admit that the place offered my own last chance. Yet, if he
has found the treasure, it was not because of the papyrus, but despite
it. Here are photographs of every section in their present form," and
he produced some prints from a pocket-book.
"You were taught some Greek at school, Mr. Royson? Very well. Look at
the passages which are faintly underlined, and you will, see where I
have altered whole phrases, converted tens of miles into hundreds, and
hundreds of paces into thousands. And that is the document which
Alfieri obtained at Marseilles.
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