  Excerpt from 'The Celestial Crossroads'
The professor fished in his trouser pocket and found a handkerchief with which to dab his eyes. Putting his glasses back on, he cleared his throat and spoke in a thin emotional voice. "Sorry. So sorry about that. Don't know what came over me. Don’t know what's come over me since I met you both last week. Been acting like a madman, dashing all over the countryside, turning my history books upside down, not sleeping at night from the anticipation."
"Anticipation of what?" I asked him gently. He was clearly upset and remorseful about something.
"Of finding the Holy Grail, of course. Ever since you mentioned it to me at Wayland's Smithy, I've been excited as a damned child promised a bicycle for Christmas. Hardly slept, hardly slept."
"But that's natural. We got excited too, didn't we, Dom, when we first discovered the clues?"
Dom nodded, his face emotionless, as if he was waiting for something.
The professor continued. "But, my dear, I have done a very dishonest thing, and your friend here somehow knows it."
I smiled at my friend. "Dom knows everything, professor, even the very depths of your soul."
"So it would seem, my dear, so it would seem." He cleared his throat again and pushed the glasses along his nose before pulling a wallet out of the inside pocket of his checked jacket. "I think I should give this to you."
I took the piece of paper he handed me and read the writing on it. It was another verse, and clearly the final one in the series.
"Meander hence where four roads met,
Follow one, oak bough to get.
Hang from where it can be seen,
Thence to castle, linen clean.
The devil roams the king's near tower
Where good and evil fight for power.
The seven isles now must ye search,
Near Galilee, entombed next the Old Church.
Here I sayeth with great pleasure,
Now ye will have found the treasure."
I glanced up at Dom and then at the professor. "Where did you get this from?"
He looked down at the table guiltily. "In the museum with the other verse. There were two composing sticks, not just the one, but in my greed I thought to give you only the first one while I worked on them both so I could find the Holy Grail before you." He poked the tip of his finger under his glasses and wiped away a stray tear. "I thought with my knowledge of the area it would be very easy to crack the clues, but as you can see, I've only got to the same place as you."
"You haven't had the universe helping you," I said cryptically. He gave me a puzzled frown, and I smiled. One day he would understand.
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