of the jar, but Denning insists that the explanation meant nothing whatever to him. To be sure, Denning was no student, he had probably never heard of the Cabala, nor of Abdul Alhazred or Joachim of Cordoba, but surely, in his youth he had read the "Arabian Nights". Even that should have given him a clue. Apparently not—he tells me that he refused Halpin's offer to buy the vase, simply because of a collector's vagary. He felt that, well, to use his own words: "If it was worth ten dollars to him, it was worth ten dollars to me."
And so, though Halpin increased the offer which he first made, Denning was obdurate. Halpin left with merely an invitation to come back at any time and examine the vase to his heart's content.
During the next three weeks,
Halpin did return, several
times. He copied down the inscription
on the blue band, made a wax
impression of the seal, photographed
the vase and even went so far as to
measure it and weigh it. And all
the time his interest increased and
his bids for the thing rose higher.
At last, unable to raise his offer
further, he was reduced to pleading
with Denning that he sell it, and at
this, Denning grew angry.
"I told him," says Denning, "I told him that I was getting sick and tired of his begging. I said I wasn't going to sell it to him and that, even if it cost me our friendship, that vase was going to stay mine. Then he started on another line. He wanted to open it and see what was inside.
"But I had a good excuse for not complying with that plea. He himself had told me of the interest that attached to the seal on the clay and I wasn't going to have that broken if I knew myself. I was so positive on this score that he gave in and apologized again. At least, I thought he gave in. I know different now, of course."
We all know different now. Halpin had decided to open the vase at any cost, and so had merely given up the idea of trying to buy it. We must not think, however, that he had been reduced to the status of a common thief in spite of his later actions. The young man's attitude was explainable to any one who can understand the viewpoint of a student of science. Here was an opportunity to study one of the most perplexing problems of occult art, and obstinacy, combined with ignorance, was trying to prevent it. He determined to circumvent Denning, no matter to what depths he had to stoop.
Thus it was that several nights
later Jim Denning was awakened,
sometime during the early morning
hours, by a slight, unusual noise on
the lower floor of his home. At first
but half awake, he lay and listlessly
pondered the situation. Had his
wife awakened and gone downstairs
for a midnight snack? Or had he
heard, perhaps, a mouse in the
kitchen? Could it be—a sleeping
sigh from his wife's bed made him
realize that it wasn't she and at the
same moment came a repetition of
the sound—a dull "clunk" as of meta!
striking muffled metal. Instantly
alert, he rose from his pillow,
stepped out of bed, fumbled for robe
and slippers and was tiptoeing down
the steps, stopping only long enough
to get his revolver from the drawer
in which he kept it.
From the landing he could see a dim light in the living room, and
