"Haggard, H Rider- Queen Sheba's Ring" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haggard H. Rider)

QUEEN SHEBA'S RING

by H. Rider Haggard




CHAPTER I

THE COMING OF THE RING

Every one has read the monograph, I believe that is the right word, of
my dear friend, Professor Higgs--Ptolemy Higgs to give him his full
name--descriptive of the tableland of Mur in North Central Africa, of
the ancient underground city in the mountains which surrounded it, and
of the strange tribe of Abyssinian Jews, or rather their mixed
descendants, by whom it is, or was, inhabited. I say every one
advisedly, for although the public which studies such works is usually
select, that which will take an interest in them, if the character of
a learned and pugnacious personage is concerned, is very wide indeed.
Not to mince matters, I may as well explain what I mean at once.

Professor Higgs's rivals and enemies, of whom either the brilliancy of
his achievements or his somewhat abrupt and pointed methods of
controversy seem to have made him a great many, have risen up, or
rather seated themselves, and written him down--well, an individual
who strains the truth. Indeed, only this morning one of these
inquired, in a letter to the press, alluding to some adventurous
traveller who, I am told, lectured to the British Association several
years ago, whether Professor Higgs did not, in fact, ride across the
desert to Mur, not upon a camel, as he alleged, but upon a land
tortoise of extraordinary size.

The innuendo contained in this epistle has made the Professor, who, as
I have already hinted, is not by nature of a meek disposition,
extremely angry. Indeed, notwithstanding all that I could do, he left
his London house under an hour ago with a whip of hippopotamus hide
such as the Egyptians call a /koorbash/, purposing to avenge himself
upon the person of his defamer. In order to prevent a public scandal,
however, I have taken the liberty of telephoning to that gentleman,
who, bold and vicious as he may be in print, is physically small and,
I should say, of a timid character, to get out of the way at once. To
judge from the abrupt fashion in which our conversation came to an
end, I imagine that the hint has been taken. At any rate, I hope for
the best, and, as an extra precaution, have communicated with the
lawyers of my justly indignant friend.

The reader will now probably understand that I am writing this book,
not to bring myself or others before the public, or to make money of
which I have no present need, or for any purpose whatsoever, except to