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notes he had made still tangible and visible upon his untidy table.
His annoyance and disappointment were naturally very great. He made a
second call (equally ineffectual) upon the Great Portland Street dealer,
and he resorted to advertisements in such periodicals as were likely to
come into the hands of a bric-a-brac collector. He also wrote letters
to The Daily Chronicle and Nature, but both those periodicals,
suspecting a hoax, asked him to reconsider his action before they
printed, and he was advised that such a strange story, unfortunately so
bare of supporting evidence, might imperil his reputation as an
investigator. Moreover, the calls of his proper work were urgent. So
that after a month or so, save for an occasional reminder to certain
dealers, he had reluctantly to abandon the quest for the crystal egg,
and from that day to this it remains undiscovered. Occasionally,
however, he tells me, and I can quite believe him, he has bursts of
zeal, in which he abandons his more urgent occupation and resumes the
search.
Whether or not it will remain lost for ever, with the material and
origin of it, are things equally speculative at the present time. If
the present purchaser is a collector, one would have expected the
enquiries of Mr. Wace to have reached him through the dealers. He has
been able to discover Mr. Cave's clergyman and "Oriental"--no other than
the Rev. James Parker and the young Prince of Bosso-Kuni in Java. I am
obliged to them for certain particulars. The object of the Prince was
simply curiosity--and extravagance. He was so eager to buy, because Cave
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