Free 2021 by Martin Wiseman Page A

the far end counter asked them.
    ‘It’s more what we can do for you !’ muttered Jack the oldest member of their group.
    ‘Yeah, show the man the cup and scroll inside it, Hank’ insisted one of the others as Hank promptly just marched up and banged the cup containing the tightly wrapped scroll down hard onto the counter.
    ‘Yeah, Buddy, we found this cup thing, it has a scroll inside it. We wondered if you might like to take it off our hands?’ smiled Jack.
    ‘By ‘take’ he means ‘buy’ of course’ corrected Marvin, another member of their group.
    ‘We wondered w hat it’s worth?’ added Dan, the group’s fourth member.
    ‘Well then, Gentleman, let’s take a closer look’ smiled the shop owner as he put an eyeglass over his eye as he studied the large metal cup before he began to carefully unclasp the scroll’s metal fixing before gently unwrapping it all across the countertop.
    ‘ It’s interesting, Gentleman, where exactly did you find it?’ asked the shopkeeper curiously.
    ‘Near the Great Pyramid’ replied one of the Americans.
    ‘Yeah, about ten miles in that direction’ smiled Hank ‘ooo, my head hurts’ he added as he now grabbed his head.
    ‘He means about ten miles W est of here of course’ nodded Jack.
    ‘Well I’m sorry to tell you this, Ge ntlemen, but these types of things are found all over the Giza site. Most of them are just basic instructions for the stone engravers, not much more than that, and there are thousands of these found all over the site every year. I’ll take them off your hands for say twenty Dollars if you like though, as they may interest one of the tourists’ the shop’s owner concluded.
    The Americans though, weren’t at all impressed with that offer.
    ‘Come on, Bud, you can do better th an that ’ laughed Marvin.
    ‘OK, Gentlemen, you Americans drive a hard bargain. Forty Dollars then’ the shop owner smiled.
    ‘Jack, I think I can see another place a few hund red yards up the road’ Hank called out as he now leaned out of the shop’s front ‘come on, let’s try up there’ he called out to them.
    Then as Jack grabbed the cup and scroll back and they all began to stroll off again the trader suddenly shouted after them.
    ‘OK , GENTLEMEN! I’LL GIVE YOU TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS!’ Then as he saw the Americans all look at each other and then shake their heads he quickly added ‘ EACH !’
    They now all looked at each other and smiled.
    ‘That’s more like it, Buddy ’ smiled Hank as they all went back to hand over the cup and scroll and collect their cash.
    After paying them all off in American Dollars the shopkeeper then carefully stored the cup and scroll away, before politely waving them all goodbye.
    ‘Please, come again, Gentleman , if you find anything else’ he smiled as he watched them all stroll off into the busy bazaar.
    The moment they were out of sight he quickly cl osed up his shop and then locked its front doors!
    He then took the metal cup containing the scroll into his back office to examine them both more closely.
    He laid the scroll out carefully as he studied its hieroglyphs with his eyeglass over his eye.
    ‘Oh, my God!’ he uttered as he suddenly realised he might have something of a new discovery in his possession.
    He immediately telephoned a buyer he knew who worked at the British Museum in London.
    ‘BRIAN !’ he almost shouted in his excitement ‘I’ve just discovered the most amazing find, found at the site of the Great Pyramid itself’ I swear, it’s GENUINE, Brian’ he told him almost bursting with excitement.
    ‘Slow down, Yaseem, tell me what you’ve found again ?’ asked his friend in London.
    ‘It’s a metal cup with a scroll hidden inside it, Brian, they contain writing in ancient Hebrew’ Yaseem announced again.
    ‘The language of the Bible, the Old Testament by the sound of it’ nodded the Englishman. ‘It sounds like you’ve got quite a find there, Yaseem.’
    ‘Would you like to buy