The Six Beans by Victor Bridges

"The Six Beans" by Victor Bridges A narrator describes his friendship with Professor Bonstettin, an eminent Egyptologist obsessed with his field to the exclusion of ordinary social concerns. The narrator rents a Chelsea cottage next to Bonstettin and they become acquainted. Bonstettin receives a mummy shipment from Egypt—an illegally exported high priest named Senineh from the twelfth dynasty. Inside the sarcophagus, Bonstettin discovers an ancient leather document with hieroglyphics and six mysterious black beans. Translation reveals the document claims the beans were divinely revealed to Senineh, granting users extraordinary willpower for hours after consumption. The narrator keeps one bean as a keepsake. When learning that Professor Edmundson will receive the Stanley Chair (an Egyptology professorship worth 800 pounds annually) through political connections rather than merit, Bonstettin becomes enraged. Despite his anger, he has experimentally consumed one of the beans and grows increasingly agitated, suggesting the beans may possess unusual properties. The OCR becomes garbled at the conclusion.