Collection of stories: "The Sphinx Emerald," "Red Sky Over Thebe," "The Last Pharaoh," "Master of the World," "The Son of Julius Caesar," "The Eye of the Sun," "Assassination at Christmas," "The Justice of Amru," "Swordsmen of Saladin," "Leopards Are For England," "The King's Jewel," "A Task for Leonardo," "The Reward of Nostradamus," "Richelieu Raids a Tomb," "Jewels Have a Long Life," "Lady in Chain Mail," "The Bride of the Sphinx" and "The Passing of the Sphinx Emerald."
A strange jewel that wrought mischief and magic as it passed from hand to hand down the ages starts its strange eventful dramatic history here in Ancient Egypt
The Sphinx Emerald passed into other handsto reappear centuries later when conquering Cambyses came storming into Egypt with his Persian legions
That strange bewitching jewel, the Sphinx Emerald, plays another part in world drama when a Mata Hari betrays the Egyptians, and Artaxerxes of Persia storms up the Nile to take over the ancient kingdom of the Pharaohs
Alexander of Macedon had conquered most of the world, and his legions were rolling toward Carthage whena wily little priest strangely presented to him the Sphinx Emerald
Steel clashed and bugles blared in the Antioch of December 362 and the strange Sphinx Emerald flashed again to potent life
Fanatic followers of Mohammed stormed out of Arabia in the seventh century to slaughter the Greek troops of the Great Eastern Empire and conquer Egypt and again the strange Sphinx Emerald came to the scene to play its part in the unrolling historic drama
In the Twelfth Century an intrigue at the court of the great Sultan Saladin brings forth the Sphinx Emerald to play its strange magic role
That malign and magic jewel the Sphinx Emerald comes on the scene to play its part in a stirring drama of the Crusades
The strange Sphinx Emerald which Richard had brought home to England from the Crusades was the property of Edward III in this year 1349a year of triumph because of victory; of terror because of pestilence. And when a beautiful woman coveted the jewel, its tragic power came again to life
The incomparable Leonardo da Vinci had great plans for the magic Sphinx Emeraldbut though the King of France was his friend, he had also made a bitter enemy
Catherine de Medici coveted the Sphinx Emerald. And when the King gave it as a reward to his physician, Doctor NĂ´tredame rode in dire peril of his life
The malign magic of the Sphinx Emerald works its spell anew in one of the famous dramas of history
Are the things we love ever ours? The old Moor thought not: "I bought them! They were given me! They are mine!" he mocked. "Yet when you diewhat? They are just so much gravel to you, then."
From the hand of a dead Mameluke after the battle of the Pyramids, a civilian scientist with Napoleon's army took the Sphinx Emerald and though the Mameluke's militant daughter offered to buy back the gem at a price high indeed, swift tragedy followed
Now almost in our own day the Sphinx Emerald turns up in Cairo to work its malign magic in a memorable drama
In Santa Fe, the story of this malign and magic jewel, which began in Ancient Egypt, comes to its strange conclusion.