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.I could never appreciate people who own wonderful things simply for the sake of ownership!”So there it was; I found myself compared with Bannister Brown-Farley, a rather unscrupulous explorer-adventurer type, infamous for his smuggling of stolen foreign antiques into England! And so I sat abashed, immersed in guts and gore, Loftsson’s book on my lap, for the rest of the journey…After changing at York we were in Scarborough by 7:00 P.M., and we took a taxi to the Queen’s Hotel where Crow knew Sorlson to be staying.We found him in the bar, well into his fifth or sixth drink, and it was plain that Benjamin Sorlson was not a particularly happy man.He did not see us approach and started inordinately when Crow took him by the arm.“Titus Crow!” he exclaimed after a moment’s hesitation.“And Henri de Marigny, too.It’s good to see you—both of you!”Sorlson was a small but stocky man, unlike the popular image of his Norwegian ancestors, with gray eyes, sandy hair, and gangling arms.As he welcomed us to the bar and ordered drinks I could see that the hands at the ends of those long arms were visibly trembling.Crow, too, at first sight, had picked up the man’s obvious nervousness.My friend became immediately concerned, I could see that, but he hid his worry for the moment in a question:“The stone, Benjamin—you’ve really found it?”“I have,” Sorlson answered.“Indeed I have! The directions in Henri’s book were, as you yourself told me, quite explicit.” He turned to me and grinned, a forced grin I thought, then asked Crow: “Well, what’s your next step, Titus? Are you going to shop me to the Royal Archaeological Society or something like that? It won’t make any difference, you know—‘finders keepers,’ and all that.”“You just don’t want to understand, do you, Benjamin? Man, you’re already shopped—and to a far greater power than any Archaeological Society, believe me!” Crow’s eyes narrowed as they studied the other’s face.“But then, perhaps I’m wrong—perhaps you are beginning to understand after all!”“Eh? What d’you mean, Crow?”“I mean, Benjamin, that the bar’s scarcely open but already you seem well on your way to getting drunk.I don’t remember you for a drinking man? Secondly, you should be cock-a-hoop over your coup here—but the fact is you look more than a trifle worried.Been having any dreams during your stay, by any chance?”“Dreams?” Sorlson visibly flinched at the word.“Why, yes I have, these last two or three nights—since I found the stone, in fact—but that’s hardly surprising, is it? All that rot you fed me about curses and so on…”“But that was three months ago, Benjamin,” Titus quietly reminded him.“And in any case—you’ve seen the inscriptions for yourself now.What did you make of them?”“Plenty of time for translations later, Titus; and anyway, what if the stone does carry a—curse?” He tried to make light of it and reached up to clap Crow on the shoulder.“I’ll never fail to be amazed at how any man as intelligent as you are can believe in such—”“I’ve heard all that before, my friend,” Crow harshly cut him off, “but it doesn’t alter the fact that this curse is real and extant! Man, I can sense these things, and so can de Marigny here.For God’s sake, why don’t you just take our word for it? Leave the stone where it is, Benjamin—leave it completely alone!”Sorlson turned his eyes away.“It’s a bit late for that, Titus.”“What’s that?” I broke in.“What’s that you say, Benjamin?”“You mean you’ve…already—?” Crow let the question hang, his voice falling to a whisper on the last word.“I have, yes—I’ve had the stone moved!”“How did you do it?” Crow sounded tired, as if all of his energy had gone out of him in a moment.“I mean, I remember that the stone stood almost eight feet tall, and there was plenty of it bedded in the ground, too.It must have weighed almost—four tons?”“Just over three and a half, in fact.I hired three men and an ex-army truck fitted with pulleys and tackle.We dug around the base of the stone and then hoisted it aboard.That was about 5:30 this afternoon.They should be well on their way to London by now.”Titus Crow’s eyes were suddenly bleak, his face drawn and grey as he asked: “And the tomb? Is that why you yourself stayed back here in Scarborough?” He waited on Sorlson’s answer.“No, no—I found the cleft in the cliff, of course,” Sorlson eventually answered, “but—”“But something stopped you; is that it, Benjamin?”“The truth is…yes, Crow.And you’re right about those dreams I’ve been having.They’ve…they’ve worried me.It’s not natural for me to dream—not that sort of dream, at any rate…”Sorlson paused, tossed back his drink and turned from the bar.“I’m simply not willing to take any more chances, that’s all.The stuff in the cleft can wait—Gory-Axe’s bones, his armor and weapons.” Yet even as he spoke a greedy light glittered in the archaeologist’s eyes.“Benjamin,” Crow quietly said, “I’ve only just realized.For a long time now I’ve called you friend—but it wasn’t the man I admired, only the mind.Now I’m not even sure about that.Why, you’re nothing but a thief, a ghoul, a looter of tombs.I just—”“No, Titus, you’re wrong about me,” Sorlson broke in.“And if it means that much to you, why—I’ll put the stone back again.They can always build a museum round it, I suppose!”“Do you mean it, Benjamin?” I asked.“Yes—yes, I do, Henri.But it’s not truly out of ‘the-goodness-of-my-heart,’ as it were
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