Pointing to these characters, I asked Higgs if he could read them.
"Read them?
Of course," he answered, producing a magnifying glass.
"Can't you?
No, I remember; you never were good at anything more than fifty years old.

Hullo! this is early Hebrew.

Ah! I've got it," and he read: "'The gift of Solomon the ruler--no, the Great One--of Israel, Beloved of Jah, to Maqueda of Sheba-land, Queen, Daughter of Kings, Child of Wisdom, Beautiful.' "That's the writing on your ring, Adams--a really magnificent thing.
'Queen of Sheba--Bath-Melachim, Daughter of Kings,' with our old friend Solomon chucked in.

Splendid, quite splendid!"-- and he touched the gold with his tongue, and tested it with his teeth.

"Hum--where did you get this intelligent fraud from, Adams ?" "Oh!" I answered, laughing, "the usual thing, of course.