 CHAPTER XIV During my waiting for the summons to Mr. Trelawney's room, which I knew would come, the time was long and lonely. Under the first few moments of emotional happiness at Margaret's joy I somehow felt apart and alone, and for a little time the selfishness of a lover possessed me. But it was not for long. Margaret's happiness was all to me, and in the conscious sense of it I lost my base herself. Margaret's last words as the door closed on them gave the key to the whole situation as it had been and as it was. These two proud, strong people, though father and daughter, had only come to know each other when the girl was grown up. Margaret's nature was of that kind which matures early. The pride and strength of each, and the reticence which was their corollary, made a barrier at the beginning. Each had respected the other's reticence too much thereafter, and the misunderstanding grew to habit. And so these two loving hearts, each of which yearned for sympathy from the other, were kept apart. But now all was well, and in my heart of hearts I rejoiced that at last Margaret was happy. Whilst I was still musing on the subject and dreaming dreams of a personal nature, the door was open and Mr. Trelawney beckoned to me. "'Come in, Mr. Ross,' he said cordially, but with a certain formality which I dreaded. I entered the room and he closed the door again. He held out his hand and I put mine in it. He did not let it go, but still held it as he drew me over toward his daughter. Margaret looked from me to him and back again, and her eyes fell. When I was close to her Mr. Trelawney let go my hand, and looking his daughter straight in the face said, "'If things are as I fancy, we shall not have any secrets between us. Malcolm Ross knows so much of my affairs already that I take it he must either let matters stop where they are and go away in silence, or else he must know more. Margaret, are you willing to let Mr. Ross see your wrist?' She threw one swift look of appeal in her eyes, but even as she did so she seemed to make up her mind. Without a word she raised her right hand so that the bracelet of spreading wings which covered the wrist fell back, leaving the flesh bare. Then an icy chill shot through me. On her wrist was a thin red jagged line from which seemed to hang red stains like drops of blood. She stood there, a veritable figure of patient pride. Oh, but she looked proud. Through all her sweetness, all her dignity, all her high-souled negation of self which I had known and which never seemed more marked than now, through all the fire that seemed to shine from the dark depths of her eyes into my very soul, pride shone conspicuously. The pride that has faith, the pride that is born of conscious purity, the pride of a veritable queen of old time, when to be royal was to be the first and greatest and bravest in all high things. As we stood thus for some seconds, the deep, grave voice of her father seemed to sound a challenge in my ears. What do you say now? My answer was not in words. I caught Margaret's right hand in mine as it fell, and holding it tight whilst with the other I pushed back the golden cincture, stooped and kissed the wrist. As I looked up at her, but never letting go her hand, there was a look of joy on her face such as I dream of when I think of heaven. Then I faced her father. You have my answer, sir. His strong face looked gravely sweet. He only said one word as he laid his hand on our clasped ones whilst he bent over and kissed his daughter. Good! We were interrupted by a knock at the door. An answer to an impatient come in from Mr. Trelawney, Mr. Korbeck entered. When he saw us grouped he would have drawn back, but in an instant Mr. Trelawney had sprung forth and dragged him forward. As he shook him by both hands he seemed a transformed man. All the enthusiasm of his youth, of which Mr. Korbeck had told us, seemed to have come back to him in an instant. So you have got the lamps, he almost shouted. My reasoning was right after all. Come to the library where we will be alone and tell me all about it. And while he does it, Ross," said he, turning to me, �Do you, like a good fellow, get the key from the safe deposit so that I may have a look at the lamps?� Then the three of them, the daughter lovingly holding her father's arm, went into the library whilst I hurried off to Chansary Lane. When I returned with the key I found them still engaged in the narrative. But Dr. Winchester, who had arrived soon after I left, was with them. Mr. Trelawney, unhearing from Margaret of his great attention and kindness, and how he had under much pressure to the contrary, steadfastly obeyed his written wishes, had asked him to remain and listen. �It will interest you, perhaps� he said, �to learn the end of the story.� We all had an early dinner together. We sat after it a good while, and then Mr. Trelawney said, �Now, I think we had all better separate and go quietly to bed early. We may have much to talk about tomorrow, and tonight I want to think.� Dr. Winchester went away, taking, with a courteous forethought, Mr. Corbeck with him and leaving me behind. When the others had gone, Mr. Trelawney said, �I think it will be well if you too will go home for to-night. I want to be quite alone with my daughter. There are many things I wish to speak of to her and to her alone. Perhaps even to-morrow I will be able to tell you also of them. But in the meantime there will be less distraction to us both if we are alone in the house.� I quite understood and sympathized with his feelings. But the experiences of the last few days were strong on me, and with some hesitation I said, �But may it not be dangerous? If you knew as we do, to my surprise Margaret interrupted me. There will be no danger, Malcolm. I shall be with Father.� As she spoke she clung to him in a protective way. I said no more, but stood up to go at once. Mr. Trelawney said heartily, �Come as early as you please, Ross. Come to breakfast. After it you and I will want to have a word together.� He went out of the room quietly, leaving us together. I clasped and kissed Margaret's hands, which she held out to me, and then drew her close to me and our lips met for the first time. I did not sleep much that night. Happiness on the one side of my bed and anxiety on the other kept sleep away. But if I had anxious care, I had also happiness which had not equal in my life or ever can have. The night went by so quickly that the dawn seemed to rush on me, not stealing as is its want. Before nine o'clock I was at Kensington. All anxiety seemed to float away like a cloud as I met Margaret and saw that already the pallor of her face had given to the rich bloom which I knew. She told me that her father had slept well and that he would be with us soon. �I do believe,� she whispered, �that my dear and thoughtful father has kept back on purpose, so that I might meet you first and alone.� After breakfast Mr. Trelawney took us into the study, saying as he passed in, �I have asked Margaret to come too.� �When we were seated,� he said gravely, �I told you last night that we might have something to say to each other. I daresay that you may have thought that it was about Margaret and yourself. Isn't that so?� �I thought so. �Well, my boy, that is all right. Margaret and I have been talking, and I know her wishes.� She held out his hand. When I rung it and had kissed Margaret, who drew her chair close to mine so that we could hold hands as we listened, he went on, but with a certain hesitation it could hardly be called nervousness, which was new to me. �You know a good deal of my hunt after this mummy and her belongings, and I daresay you have guessed a good deal of my theories. But these at any rate I shall explain later, concisely and categorically, if it be necessary. What I want to consult you about now is this. Margaret and I disagree on one point. I am about to make an experiment, the experiment which is to crown all that I have devoted twenty years of research and danger and labor to prepare for. Through it we may learn things that have been hidden from the eyes and the knowledge of men for centuries, for scores of centuries. I do not want my daughter to be present, for I cannot blind myself to the fact that there may be danger in it, great danger, and of an unknown kind. I have, however, already faced very great dangers, and of an unknown kind, and so has that brave scholar who has helped me in the work. As to myself I am willing to run any risk, for science and history and philosophy may benefit, and we may turn one old page of a wisdom unknown in this prosaic age. But for my daughter to run such a risk I am loath. Her young, bright life is too precious to throw lightly away, now especially when she is on the very threshold of new happiness. I do not wish to see her life given as her dear mother's was. He broke down for a moment and covered his eyes with his hands. In an instant Margaret was beside him, clasping him close and kissing him, and comforting him with loving words. Then, standing erect with one hand on his head, she said, Father, mother did not bid you stay beside her even when you wanted to go on that journey of unknown danger to Egypt, though that country was then upset from end to end with war and the dangers that follow war. You have told me how she left you free to go as you wished, though that she thought of danger for you and feared it for you is proved by this. She held up her wrist with the scar that seemed to run blood. Now mother's daughter does as mother would have done herself. Then she turned to me, Malcolm, you know I love you, but love is trust and you must trust me in danger as well as in joy. You and I must stand beside Father in this unknown peril. Together we shall come through it, or together we shall fail. Together we shall die. That is my wish, my first wish to my husband that is to be. Do you not think that as a daughter I am right? Tell my father what you think. She looked like a queen stooping to plead. My love for her grew and grew. I stood up beside her and took her hand and said, Mr. Trelawney, in this Margaret and I are one. He took both our hands and held them hard. Presently he said with deep emotion, it is as her mother would have done. Mr. Korbeck and Dr. Winchester came exactly at the time appointed and joined us in the library. At my great happiness I felt our meeting to be a very solemn function, for I could never forget the strange things that had been and the idea of the strange things which might be was with me like a cloud pressing down on us all. From the gravity of my companions I gathered that each of them also was ruled by some such dominating thought. Instinctively we gathered our chairs into a circle around Mr. Trelawney who had taken the great armchair near the window. Margaret sat by him on his right and I was next to her. Mr. Korbeck was on his left with Dr. Winchester on the other side. After a few seconds of silence Mr. Trelawney said to Mr. Korbeck, You have told Dr. Winchester all up to the present as we arranged? Yes, he answered, so Mr. Trelawney said. And I have told Margaret, so we all know. Then turning to the doctor he asked, And am I to take it that you, knowing all as we know it who have followed the matter for years, wish to share in the experiment which we hope to make? His answer was direct and uncompromising. Certainly! Why, when this matter was fresh to me, I offered to go on with it to the end. Now that it is of such strange interest I would not miss it for anything which you could name. Be quite easy in your mind, Mr. Trelawney. I am a scientist and an investigator of phenomena. I have no one belonging to me or dependent on me. I am quite alone and free to do what I like with my own, including my life. Mr. Trelawney bowed gravely and turning to Mr. Korbeck said, I have known your ideas for many years past, old friend, so I need ask you nothing. As to Margaret and Malcolm Ross they have already told me their wishes in no uncertain way. He paused a few seconds, as though to put his thoughts or his words in order, then he began to explain his views and intentions. He spoke very carefully, seeming always to bear in mind that some of us who listened were ignorant of the very root and nature of some things touched upon, and explaining them to us as he went on. The experiment which is before us is to try whether or not there is any force, any reality in the old magic. There could not possibly be more favorable conditions for the test, and it is my own desire to do all that is possible to make the original design effective. That there is some such existing power I firmly believe. It might not be possible to create or arrange or organize such a power in our own time, but I take it that if in old times such a power existed, it may have some exceptional survival. After all, the Bible is not a myth, and we read there that the sun stood still at a man's command, and that an ass, not a human one, spoke. And if the witch at Endor could call up to solve the spirit of Samuel, why may not there have been others with equal powers, and why may not one among them survive? Indeed, we are told in the book of Samuel that the witch of Endor was only one of many, and her being consulted by Saul was a matter of chance. He only sought one among the many whom he had driven out of Israel, all those that had familiar spirits and the wizards. This Egyptian queen, Tara, who reigned nearly two thousand years before Saul, had a familiar and was a wizard too. See how the priests of her time and those after it tried to wipe out her name from the face of the earth, and put a curse over the very door of her tomb so that none might ever discover the lost name. I, and they succeeded so well that even Manethel, the historian of the Egyptian kings, writing in the tenth century before Christ, with all the lore of the priesthood for forty centuries behind him, and with possibility of access to every existing record, could not even find her name. Did it strike any of you in thinking of the late events who or what her familiar was? There was an interruption, for Dr. Winchester struck one hand loudly on the other as he ejaculated. The cat! The mummy cat! I knew it! Mr. Trelawney smiled over at him. You are right. There is every indication that the familiar of the wizard queen was that cat which was mummied when she was, and was not only placed in her tomb, but was laid in the sarcophagus with her. That was what bit into my wrist, what cut me with sharp claws. He paused. Margaret's comment was a purely girlish one. Then my poor Sylvia was acquitted. I am glad! Her father stroked her hair and went on. This woman seems to have had an extraordinary foresight. Foresight far, far beyond her age and the philosophy of her time. She seems to have seen through the weakness of her own religion, and even prepared for emergence into a different world. All her aspirations were for the north, the point of the compass whence blew the cool invigorating breezes that make life a joy. From the first her eyes seemed to have been attracted to the seven stars of the plow from the fact, as recorded in the hieroglyphics in her tomb, that at her birth a great arrow-light fell, from whose heart was finally extracted that jewel of seven stars which she regarded as the talisman of her life. It seems to have so far ruled her destiny that all her thought and care circled round it. The magic coffer, so wondrously wrought with seven sides, we learned from the same source, came from the arrow-light. Seven was to her a magic number, and no wonder, with seven fingers on one hand and seven toes on one foot. With a talisman of a rare ruby with seven stars in the same position as in that constellation which ruled her birth, each star of the seven having seven points, in itself a geological wonder, it would have been odd if she had not been attracted by it. Again she was born, we learn in the steely of her tomb, in the seventh month of the year, the month beginning with the inundation of the Nile, of which month the presiding goddess was Hathor, the goddess of her own house, of the Antephs of the Theban line, the goddess who in various forms symbolizes beauty and pleasure and resurrection. Again in this seventh month, which by later Egyptian astronomy began on October 28, and ran to the 27th of our November, on the seventh day the pointer of the plow just rises above the horizon of the sky at Thebes. In a marvelously strange way, therefore, are grouped into this woman's life these various things. The number seven, the pole star with the constellation of seven stars, the god of the month, Hathor, who is her own particular god, the god of her family, the Antephs of the Theban dynasty, whose king's symbol it was, and whose seven forms ruled love and the delights of life and resurrection. If ever there was ground for magic, for the power of symbolism carried in domestic use, for a belief in finite spirits, in an age which knew not the living god, it is here. Remember too that this woman was skilled in all the science of her time. Her wise and cautious father took care of that, knowing that by her own wisdom she must ultimately combat the intrigues of the hierarchy. Bear in mind that in Old Egypt the science of astronomy began, and was developed to an extraordinary height, and that astrology followed astronomy in its progress. And it is possible that in the later developments of science with regard to light rays we may yet find that astrology is on a scientific basis. Our next wave of scientific thought may deal with this. I shall have something special to call your minds to on this point presently. Bear in mind also that the Egyptians' new sciences, of which today, despite all our advantages, we are profoundly ignorant. SpaceX, for instance, an exact science with the builders of the temples of Karnac, of Luxor, of the Pyramids, is today a mystery to Bell and Kelvin and Edison and Marconi. Again, these old miracle workers probably understood some practical way of using other forces, and amongst them the forces of light that at present we do not dream of. But of this matter I shall speak later. That magic coffer of Queen Tara is probably a magic box in more ways than one. It may, possibly it does, contain forces that we want not of. We cannot open it. It must be closed from within. How then was it closed? It is a coffer of solid stone, of amazing hardness, more like a jewel than an ordinary marble, with a lid equally solid, and yet all is so finely wrought that the finest tool made today cannot be inserted under the flange. How was it wrought to such perfection? How was the stone so chosen that those translucent patches match the relations of the seven stars of the constellation? How is it, or from what cause, that when the starlight shines on it it glows from within? That when I fix the lamps in similar form the glow grows greater still, and yet the box is irresponsive to ordinary light, however great? I tell you that that box hides some great mystery of science. We shall find that the light will open it in some way, either by striking on some substance, sensitive in a peculiar way to its effect, or in releasing some greater power. I only trust that in our ignorance we may not so bungle things as to do harm to its mechanism, and so deprive the knowledge of our time of a lesson handed down, as by a miracle, through nearly five thousand years. In another way, too, there may be hidden in that box secrets which, for good or ill, may enlighten the world. We know from their records, and inferentially also, that the Egyptians studied the properties of herbs and minerals for magic purposes, white magic as well as black. We know that some of the wizards of old could induce from sleep dreams of any given kind. That this purpose was mainly affected by hypnotism, which was another art or science of old Nile, I have little doubt. But still they must have had a mastery of drugs that is far beyond anything we know. With our own pharmacopeia we can, to a certain extent, induce dreams. We may even differentiate between good and bad, dreams of pleasure or disturbing and harrowing dreams. But these old practitioners seem to have been able to command at will any form or color of dreaming, could work round any given subject or thought in almost any was required. In that coffer which you have seen may rest a very armory of dreams. Indeed some of the forces that lie within it may have been already used in my household. Again there was an interruption from Dr. Winchester. But if in your case some of these imprisoned forces were used, what set them free at the opportune time, or how? Besides, you and Mr. Korbeck were once before put into a trance for three whole days when you were in the Queen's tomb for the second time. And then, as I gathered from Mr. Korbeck's story, the coffer was not back in the tomb, though the mummy was. Surely in both these cases there must have been some active intelligence awake and with some other power to wield. Mr. Trelani's answer was equally to the point. There was some active intelligence awake, I am convinced of it, and it wielded a power which it never lacks. I believe that on both those occasions hypnotism was the power wielded. And wherein is that power contained? What view do you hold on the subject? Dr. Winchester's voice vibrated with the intensity of his excitement as he leaned forward, breathing hard, and with eyes staring. Mr. Trelani said solemnly, In the mummy of the Queen Tara. I was coming to that presently. Perhaps we had better wait till I clear the ground a little. What I hold is that the preparation of that box was made for a special occasion, as indeed were all the preparations of the tomb and all belonging to it. Queen Tara did not trouble herself to guard against snakes and scorpions in that rocky tomb cut in the sheer cliff face, a hundred feet above the level of the valley, and fifty feet down from the summit. Her precautions were against the disturbances of human hands, against the jealousy and hatred of the priests, who, had they known of her real aims, would have tried to baffle them. From her point of view she made all ready for the time of resurrection, whenever that might be. I gather from the symbolic pictures in the tomb that she so far differed from the belief of her time that she looked for a resurrection in the flesh. It was doubtless this that intensified the hatred of the priesthood, and gave them an acceptable cause for obliterating the very existence, present and future, of one who had outraged their theories and blasphemed their gods. All that she might require, either in the accomplishment of the resurrection or after it, were contained in that almost hermetically sealed suite of chambers in the rock. In the great sarcophagus which, as you know, is of a size quite unusual, even for kings, was the mummy of her familiar, the cat, which from its great size I take to be a sort of tiger cat. In the tomb, also in a strong receptacle, where the canopic jar is usually containing those internal organs which are separately embalmed, but which in this case had no such contents. So that I take it there was in her case a departure in embalming, and that the organs were restored to the body, each in its proper place, if indeed they had ever been removed. If this surmise be true we shall find that the brain of the queen either was never extracted in the usual way, or if so taken out, that it was duly replaced instead of being enclosed within the mummy wrappings. Finally, in the sarcophagus there was the magic coffer in which her feet rested. Mark you also, the care taken in the preservance of her power to control the elements. According to her belief, the open hand outside the wrappings controlled the air, and the strange jewel stone with the shining stars controlled fire. The symbolism inscribed in the soles of her feet gave sway over land and water. About the star stone I shall tell you later, but whilst we are speaking of the sarcophagus, Mark how she guarded her secret in case of grave-wrecking or intrusion. None could open her magic coffer without the lamps, for we know now that ordinary light will not be effective. The great lid of the sarcophagus was not sealed down, as usual, because she wished to control the air. But she hid the lamps, which in structure belonged to the magic coffer, in a place where none could find them except by following the secret guidance which she had prepared for only the eyes of wisdom. And even here she had guarded against chance discovery by preparing a bolt of death for the unwary discoverer. To do this she had applied the lesson of the tradition of the avenging guard of the treasures of the pyramid, built by her great predecessor of the Fourth Dynasty of the Throne of Egypt. You have noted, I suppose, how there were, in the case of her tomb, certain deviations from the usual rules. For instance the shaft of the mummy-pit, which is usually filled up solid with stones and rubbish, was left open. Why was this? I take it that she had made arrangements for leaving the tomb, when after her resurrection she should be a new woman with a different personality, and less inured to the hardships that in her first existence she had suffered. So far as we can judge of her intent all things needful for her exit into the world had been thought of, even to the iron chain described by Van Hine close to the door and the rock by which she might be able to lower herself to the ground. That she expected a long period to elapse was shown in the choice of material. An ordinary rope would be rendered weaker or unsafe in process of time, but she imagined, and rightly, that the iron would endure. What her intentions were when once she trod the open earth of fresh we do not know, and we never shall, unless her own dead lips can soften and speak. CHAPTER XIV Now as to the star jewel. As she manifestly regarded as the greatest of her treasures. On it she had engraven words which none of her time dared to speak. In the old Egyptian belief it was held that there were words which, if used properly, for the method of speaking them was as important as the words themselves, could command the lords of the upper and the lower worlds. The Hikau, or word of power, was all important in certain ritual. On the jewel of seven stars, which, as you know, is carved into the image of a scarab, are engraven in hieroglyphic two such Hikau, one above the other underneath. But you will understand better when you see it. Wait here. Do not stir. As he spoke he rose and left the room. Our great fear-forum came over me, but I was in some strange way relieved when I looked at Margaret. Whenever there had been any possibility of danger to her father she had shown great fear for him. Now she was calm and placid. I said nothing, but waited. In two or three minutes Mr. Trelawney returned. He held in his hand a little golden box. As he resumed his seat he placed before him on the table. We all leaned forward as he opened it. On a lining of white satin lay a wondrous ruby of immense size, almost as big as the top joint of Margaret's little finger. It was carven, it could not possibly have been its natural shape, but jewels do not show the working of the tool, into the shape of a scarab with its wings folded and its legs and feelers pressed back to its sides. Shining through its wondrous pigeons-blood color were seven different stars, each of seven points, in such position that they reproduced exactly the figure of the plow. There could be no possible mistake as to this in the mind of anyone who had ever noted the constellation. On it were some hieroglyphic figures, cut with the most exquisite precision, as I could see when it came to my turn to use the magnifying glass, which Mr. Trelawney took from his pocket and handed to us. When we all had seen it fully, Mr. Trelawney turned it over so that it rested on its back in a cavity made to hold it in the upper half of the box. The reverse was no less wonderful than the upper, being carved to resemble the underside of the beetle. It too had some hieroglyphic figures cut on it. Mr. Trelawney resumed his lecture as we all sat with our heads close to this wonderful jewel. As you see there are two words, one on the top, the other underneath. The symbols on the top represent a single word, composed of one syllable prolonged with its determinatives. You know, all of you I suppose, that the Egyptian language was phonetic, and that the hieroglyphic symbol represented the sound. The first symbol here, the ho, means mare, and the two pointed ellipses, the prolongation of the final R, mare. The sitting figure with the hand to its face is what we call the determinative of thought, and the role of papyrus that of abstraction. Thus we get the word mare, love in its abstract, general, and fullest sense. This is the Hikau which can command the upper world. Margaret's face was a glory, as she said in a deep low ringing tone. Oh, but it is true! How the old wonder-worker's guessed it, Almighty Truth! Then a hot blush swept her face and her eyes fell. Her father smiled at her lovingly as he resumed. The symbolization of the word on the reverse is simpler, though the meaning is more obstruous. The first symbol means men, abiding, and the second, ab, the heart. So that we get abiding of heart, or, in our own language, patience. And this is the Hikau to control the lower world. He closed the box, and, motioning us to remain as we were, he went back to his room to replace the jewel in the safe. When he had returned and resumed his seat, he went on. That jewel, with its mystic words, and which Queen Tara held under her hand in the sarcophagus, was to be an important factor, probably the most important, in the working out of the act of her resurrection. From the first I seemed by a sort of instinct to realize this. I kept the jewel within my great safe, once none could extract it, but even Queen Tara herself with her astral body. Her astral body? What is that, Father? What does that mean? There was a keenness in Margaret's voice as she asked the question which surprised me a little. But Trelani smiled a sort of indulgent parental smile, which came through his grim salinity like sunshine through a rifted cloud, as he spoke. The astral body, which is a part of Buddhist belief, long subsequent to the time I speak of, and which is an accepted fact of modern mysticism, had its rise in ancient Egypt, at least so far as we know. It is that the gifted individual can, at will, quick as thought itself, transfer his body whithersoever he chooses, by the disillusion and reincarnation of particles. In the ancient belief there were several parts of a human being. You may as well know them, so that you will understand matters relative to them or dependent on them as they occur. First, there is the ka, or double, which, as Dr. Budge explains, may be defined as an abstract individuality of personality which was imbued with all the characteristic attributes of the individual it represented, and possessed an absolutely independent existence. It was free to move from place to place on earth, at will, and it could enter into heaven and hold converse with the gods. Then there was the ba, or soul, which dwelt in the ka, and had the power of becoming corporeal or incorporeal at will. It had both substance and form. It had power to leave the tomb. It could revisit the body in the tomb, and could reincarnate it and hold converse with it. Again there was the ku, the spiritual intelligence, or spirit. It took the form of a shining, luminous, intangible shape of the body. And again there was the sekim, or power of a man, his strength, or vital force, personified. These were the kebit, or shadow, the ren, or name, the kat, or physical body, and ab, the heart, in which life was seated, went to the full making up of a man. Thus you will see that if this division of functions, spiritual and bodily, ethereal and corporeal, ideal and actual, be accepted as exact, there are all the possibilities and capabilities of corporeal transference, guided always by an unprisonable will or intelligence. As he paused I murmured the lines from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. The Magnus Zoroaster met his own image walking in the garden. Mr. Trelawney was not displeased. Quite so, he said in his quiet way, Shelley had a better conception of ancient beliefs than any of our poets. With a voice changed again he resumed his lecture, for so it was to some of us. There is another belief of the ancient Egyptian which you must bear in mind, that regarding the Ushoptwi figures of Osiris, which were placed with the dead to its work in the Underworld. The enlargement of this idea came to a belief that it was possible to transmit, by magical formulae, the soul and qualities of any living creature to a figure made in its image. This would give a terrible extension of power to one who held the gift of magic. It is from a union of these various beliefs and their natural corollaries that I have come to the conclusion that Queen Tara expected to be able to affect her own resurrection, when and where and how she would. That she may have held before her a definite time for making her effort is not only possible, but likely. I shall not stop now to explain it, but shall enter upon the subject later on. With a soul with the gods, a spirit which could wander the earth at will, and a power of corporeal transference, or an astral body, there need be no bounds or limits to her ambition. The belief is forced upon us that for these forty or fifty centuries she lay dormant in her tomb, waiting, waiting with that patience which could rule the gods of the Underworld, for that love which could command those of the upper world. For she may have dreamt we know not, but her dream must have been broken when the Dutch explorer entered her sculptured cavern, and his follower violated the sacred privacy of her tomb by his rude outrage in the theft of her hand. That theft, with all that followed, proved to us one thing, however, that each part of her body, though separated from the rest, can be a central point, or a rallying place for the items or particles of her astral body. That hand in my room could ensure her instantaneous presence in the flesh, and its equally rapid disillusion. Now comes the crown of my argument. The purpose of the attack on me was to get the safe open, so that the sacred jewel of seven stars could be extracted. That immense door of the safe could not keep out her astral body, which, or any part of it, could gather itself as well within as without the safe. And I doubt not that in the darkness of the night that mummied hand sought often the talisman jewel, and drew new inspiration from its touch. But despite all its power the astral body could not remove the jewel through the chinks of the safe. The ruby is not astral, and it could only be moved in the ordinary way by the opening of the doors. To this end the queen used her astral body and the fierce force of her familiar to bring to the keyhole of the safe the master key which debarred her wish. For years I have suspected, nay, have believed as much, and I too guarded myself against powers of the netherworld. I, too, waited in patience till I should have gathered together all the factors required for the opening of the magic coffer and the resurrection of the mummied queen. He paused, and his daughter's voice came out sweet and clear and full of intense feeling. Father, in the Egyptian belief, was the power of resurrection of a mummied body a general one, or was it limited? That is, could it achieve resurrection many times in the course of ages, or only once in that one final? There was but one resurrection, he answered. There were some who believed that this was to be a definite resurrection of the body into the real world. But in the common belief the spirit found joy in the Elysian fields, where there was plenty of food and no fear of famine, where there was moisture and deep-rooted reeds, and all the joys that are to be expected by the people of an arid land and burning climb. Then Margaret spoke with an earnestness which showed the conviction of her inmost soul. To me, then, it is given to understand what was the dream of this great and far-thinking and high-sold lady of old, the dream that held her soul in patient waiting for its realization through the passing of all those tens of centuries, the dream of a love that might be, a love that she felt she might, even under new conditions, herself evoke, the love that is the dream of every woman's life, of the old and of the new, pagan or Christian, under whatever son, in whatever rank or calling, however may have been the joy or pain of her life in other ways. Oh, I know it! I know it! I am a woman, and I know a woman's heart. What were the lack of food or the plenitude of it? What were feast or famine to this woman, born in a place with the shadow of the crown of the two Egypts on her brows? What were reedy morasses or the tinkle of running water to her, whose barges could sweep the great Nile from the mountains to the sea? What were petty joys and absence of petty fears to her, the raising of whose hand could hurl armies, or draw to the water-stares of her palaces the commerce of the world? At whose word rose temples filled with all the artistic beauty of the times of old, which it was her aim and pleasure to restore? Under whose guidance the solid rock yawned into the sepulchre that she designed? Surely, surely such a one had nobler dreams. I can feel them in my heart. I can see them with my sleeping eyes. And if she spoke she seemed to be inspired, and her eyes had a faraway look as though they saw something beyond mortal sight. And then the deep eyes filled up with unshed tears of great emotion. The very soul of the woman seemed to speak in her voice, whilst we who listened sat entranced. I can see her in her loneliness and in the silence of her mighty pride, dreaming her own dream of things far different from those around her. Of some other land, far, far away under the canopy of the silent night, lit by the cool, beautiful light of the stars, a land under that northern star, whence blew the sweet winds that cooled the feverish desert air, a land of wholesome greenery, far, far away, where were no scheming and malignant priesthood whose ideas were to lead to power through gloomy temples and more gloomy caverns of the dead through an endless ritual of death, a land where love was not base but a divine possession of the soul, where there might be some one kindred spirit which could speak to hers through mortal lips like her own, whose being could merge with hers in a sweet communion of soul to soul, even as their breaths could mingle in the ambient air. I know the feeling, for I have shared it myself. I may speak of it now, since the blessing has come into my own life. I may speak of it since it enables me to interpret the feelings, the very longing soul of that sweet and lovely queen so different from her surroundings, so high above her time, whose nature, put into a word, could control the forces of the underworld, and the name of whose aspiration, though but graven on a starlit jewel, could command all the powers and the pantheon of the High Gods. And in the realization of that dream she will surely be content to rest. We men sat silent as the young girl gave her powerful interpretation of the design or purpose of the woman of old. Her every word and tone carried with it the conviction of her own belief. The loftiness of her thoughts seemed to uplift us all as we listened. Her noble words, flowing in musical cadence and vibrant with internal force, seemed to issue from some great instrument of elemental power. Even her tone was new to us all, so that we listened as to some new and strange being from a new and strange world. Her father's face was full of delight. I knew now its cause. I understood the happiness that had come into his life on his return to the world that he knew from that prolonged sojourn in the world of dreams. To find in his daughter, whose nature he had never till now known, such a wealth of affection, such a splendor of spiritual insight, such a scholarly imagination, such the rest of his feeling was of hope. The two other men were silent unconsciously. One man had had his dreaming, for the other his dreams were to come. For myself I was like one in a trance. Who was this new radiant being who had won to existence out of the mist and darkness of our fears? Love has divine possibilities for the lover's heart. The wings of the soul may expand at any time from the shoulders of the beloved one, who then may sweep into angel form. I knew that in my Margaret's nature were divine possibilities of many kinds. When under the shade of the overhanging willow tree on the river, I had gazed into the depths of her beautiful eyes. I had thenceforth a strict belief in the manifold beauties and excellences of her nature. But this soaring and understating spirit was indeed a revelation. My pride, like her father's, was outside myself. My joy and rapture were complete and supreme. When we had all got back to earth again in our various ways, Mr. Trelawney, holding his daughter's hand in his, went on with his discourse. Now as to the time at which Queen Tara intended her resurrection to take place. We are in contact with some of the higher astronomical calculations in connection with true orientation. As you know the stars shift their relative positions in the heavens. But though the real distances traversed are beyond all ordinary comprehension, the effects as we see them are small. Nevertheless they are susceptible of measurement. Not by years, indeed, but by centuries. It was by this means that Sir John Herschel arrived at the date of the building of the Great Pyramid, a date fixed by the time necessary to change the star of the true north from Draconis to the pole star, and since then verified by later discoveries. There can be no doubt whatever that astronomy was an exact science with the Egyptians at least a thousand years before the time of Queen Tara. Now the stars that go to make up a constellation change in process of time, their relative positions, and the plow is a notable example. The changes in the position of stars in even forty centuries is so small as to be hardly noticeable by an eye not trained to minute observances, but they can be measured and verified. Did you, or any of you, notice how exactly the stars in the ruby correspond to the position of the stars in the plow, or how the same holds with regard to the translucent places in the magic coffer? We all assented. He went on. You are quite correct. They correspond exactly. And yet when Queen Tara was laid in her tomb, neither the stars in the jewel nor the translucent places in the coffer corresponded to the position of the stars in the constellation as they then were. We looked at each other as he paused. A new light was breaking upon us. With a ring of mastery in his voice he went on. Do you not see the meaning of this? Does it not throw a light on the intention of the Queen? She who was guided by augury and magic and superstition naturally chose a time for her resurrection which seemed to have been pointed out by the High Gods themselves who had sent their message on a thunderbolt from other worlds. When such a time was fixed by supernal wisdom, would it not be the height of human wisdom to avail itself of it? Thus it is, hear his voice deepened and trembled with the intensity of his feeling. That to us and our time is given the opportunity of this wondrous peep into the old world such as has been the privilege of none other of our time, which may never be again. From first to last the cryptic writing and symbolism of that wondrous tomb of that wondrous woman is full of guiding light. And the key of the many mysteries lies in that most wondrous jewel which she held in her dead hand over the dead heart which she hoped and believed would beat again in a newer and nobler world. There are only loose ends now to consider. It has given us the true inwardness of the feeling of the other queen. He looked at her fondly and stroked her hand as he said it. For my own part I sincerely hope she is right, for in such case it will be a joy, I am sure, to all of us to assist at such a realization of hope. But we must not go too fast or believe too much in our present state of knowledge. The voice that we hearken for comes out of time strangely other than our own, when human life counted for little and when the morality of the time made little account of the removing of obstacles in the way to achievement of desire. We must keep our eyes fixed on the scientific side and wait for the developments on the psychic side. Now as to this stone box which we call the Magic Coffer. As I have said I am convinced that it opens only in obedience to some principle of light or the exercise of some of its forces at present unknown to us. There is here much ground for conjecture and for experiment, for as yet the scientists have not thoroughly differentiated the kinds and powers and degrees of light. Without analyzing various rays we may, I think, take it for granted that there are different qualities and powers of light, and this great field of scientific investigation is almost virgin soil. We know as yet so little of natural forces that imagination needs set no bounds to its flights in considering the possibilities of the future. Within but a few years we have made such discoveries as two centuries ago would have sent the discoverers to the flames. The liquefaction of oxygen, the existence of radium, of helium, of polonium, of argon, the different powers of Vrenchin and cathode and becquerel rays. And as we may finally prove that there are different kinds and qualities of light so we may find that combustion may have its own powers of differentiation, that there are qualities in some flames nonexistent in others. It may be that some of the essential conditions of substance are continuous even in the destruction of their bases. Last night I was thinking of this and reasoning that as there are certain qualities in some oils which are not in others so there may be certain similar or corresponding qualities or powers in the combinations of each. I suppose we have all noticed some time or other that the light of colza oil is not quite the same as that of paraffin or that the flames of coal gas and whale oil are different. They find it so in the lighthouses. All at once it occurred to me that there might be some special virtue in the oil which had been found in the jars when Queen Tara's tomb was opened. These had not been used to preserve the intestines as usual so they must have been placed there for some other purpose. I remembered that in Van Hine's narrative he had commented on the way the jars were sealed. This was lightly, though effectually. They could be opened without force. The jars were themselves preserved in a sarcophagus which, though of immense strength and hermetically sealed, could be opened easily. Accordingly I went at once to examine the jars. A little, a very little of the oil still remained, but it had grown thick in the two and a half centuries in which the jars had been open. Still it was not rancid, and on examining it I found it was cedar oil and that it still exhaled something of its original aroma. This gave me the idea that it was to be used to fill the lamps. Whoever had placed the oil in the jars and the jars in the sarcophagus knew that there might be shrinkage in process of time even in vases of alabaster and fully allowed for it, for each of the jars would have filled the lamps half a dozen times. With part of the oil remaining I made some experiments, therefore which may give useful results. You know, doctor, that cedar oil, which was much used in the preparation and ceremonials of the Egyptian dead, has a certain refractive power which we do not find in other oils. For instance we use it on the lenses of our microscopes to give additional clearness of vision. Last night I put some in one of the lamps and placed it near a translucent part of the magic coffer. The effect was very great. The glow of light within was fuller and more intense than I could have imagined, where an electric light similarly placed had little, if any, effect. I should have tried others of the seven lamps, but that my supply of oil ran out. This, however, is on the road to rectification. I have sent for more cedar oil and expect to have before long an ample supply. Whatever may happen from other causes our experiment shall not at all events fail from this. We shall see. We shall see. Dr. Winchester had evidently been following the logical process of the other's mind, for his comment was, I do hope that when the light is effective in opening the box the mechanism will not be impaired or destroyed. His doubt as to this gave anxious thought to some of us. CHAPTER XVI. In the evening Mr. Trelani took again the whole party into the study. When we were all attention he began to unfold his plans. I have come to the conclusion that for the proper carrying out of what we will call our great experiment we must have absolute and complete isolation. Isolation not merely for a day or two, but for as long as we may require. Here such a thing would be impossible. The needs and habits of a great city with its ingrained possibilities of interruption would, or might, quite upset us. Telegrams, registered letters, or express messengers would alone be sufficient, but the great army of those who want to get something would make disaster certain. In addition the occurrences of the last week have drawn police attention to this house. Even if special instructions to keep an eye on it have not been issued from Scotland Yard or the District Station, you may be sure that the individual policeman on his rounds will keep it well under observation. Besides, the servants who have discharged themselves will before long begin to talk. They must, for they have, for the sake of their own characters, to give some reason for the termination of a service which has, I should say, a position in the neighborhood. The servants of the neighbors will begin to talk, and perhaps the neighbors themselves. Then the active and intelligent press will, with its usual zeal for the enlightenment of the public, and its eye to increase of circulation, get hold of the matter. When the reporter is after us we shall not have much chance of privacy. Even if we were to bar ourselves in we should not be free from interruption, possibly from intrusion. Neither would ruin our plans, and so we must take measures to effect a retreat carrying all our impedimenta with us. For this I am prepared. For a long time past I have foreseen such a possibility, and have made preparation for it. Of course I had no foreknowledge of what has happened, but I knew something would, or might, happen. For more than two years past my house in Cornwall has been made ready to receive all the curios which are preserved here. When Corbic went off on his search for the lamps I had the old house at Keelian made ready. It is fitted with electric light all over, and all the appliances for manufacture of the light are complete. I had perhaps better tell you, for none of you, not even Margaret knows anything of it, that the house is absolutely shut out from public access, or even from view. It stands on a little rocky promontory behind a steep hill, and except from the sea cannot be seen. Of old it was fenced in by a high stone wall, for the house which it succeeded was built by an ancestor of mine in the days when a great house far away from the centre had to be prepared to defend itself. Here then is a place so well adapted to our needs that it might have been prepared on purpose. I shall explain it to you when we are all there. This will not be long, for already our movement is in train. I have sent word to Marvin to have all preparation for our transport ready. He is to have a special train which is to run at night so as to avoid notice. We shall go a number of carts and stone wagons, with sufficient men and appliances to take all our packing cases to Paddington. We shall be away before the Argus-Eid pressman is on the watch. We shall today begin our packing up, and I dare say that by tomorrow night we shall be ready. In the outhouses I have all the packing cases which were used for bringing the things from Egypt, and I am satisfied that, as they were sufficient for the journey across the desert and down the Nile to Alexandria and thence on to London, they will serve without fail between here and Kilian. We four men, with Margaret to hand us such things as we may require, will be able to get the things packed safely, and the carriers men will take them to the trucks. Today the servants go to Kilian, and Mrs. Grant will make such arrangements as may be required. She will take a stock of necessaries with her so that we will not attract local attention by our daily needs, and will keep us supplied with perishable food from London. Thanks to Margaret's wise and generous treatment of the servants who decided to remain, we have got a staff on which we can depend. They have been already cautioned to secrecy so that we need not fear gossip from within. Indeed, as the servants will be in London after their preparations at Kilian are complete, there will not be much subject for gossip, in detail at any rate. As however we should commence the immediate work of packing it once, we will leave over the after-proceedings till later when we have leisure. Accordingly we set about our work. After Mr. Trelawney's guidance, and aided by the servants, we took from the out-houses great packing cases. Some of these were of enormous strength, fortified by many thicknesses of wood, and by iron bands and rods with screw-ends and nuts. We placed them throughout the house, each close to the object which it was to contain. When this preliminary work had been affected, and there had been placed in each room and in the hall great masses of new hay, cotton waste, and paper, the servants were sent away. Then we set about packing. No one, not accustomed to packing, could have the slightest idea of the amount of work involved in such a task as that in which we were engaged. For my own part I had had a vague idea that there were a large number of Egyptian objects in Mr. Trelawney's house, but until I came to deal with them seriatim I had little idea of either their importance, the size of some of them, or of their endless number. Far into the night we worked. At times we used all the strength which we could muster on a single object. Again we worked separately, but always under Mr. Trelawney's immediate direction. He himself, assisted by Margaret, kept an exact toll of each piece. It was only when we sat down, utterly wearied, to a long delayed supper that we began to realize that a large part of the work was done. Only a few of the packing cases, however, were closed, for a vast amount of work still remained. We had finished some of the cases, each of which held only one of the great sarcophagi. The cases which held many objects could not be closed till all had been differentiated and packed. I slept that night without movement or without dreams, and on our comparing notes in the morning I found that each of the others had had the same experience. By dinnertime next evening the whole work was complete and all was ready for the carriers who were to come at midnight. A little before the appointed time we heard the rumble of carts. Then we were shortly invaded by an army of workmen, who seemed by sheer force of numbers to move without effort, in an endless procession, all our prepared packages. A little over an hour sufficed them, and when the carts had rumbled away we all got ready to follow them to Paddington. Silvio was of course to be taken as one of our party. Before leaving we went in a body over the house which looked desolate indeed. As the servants had all gone to Cornwall there had been no attempt at tidying up. Every room and passage in which we had worked, and all the stairways, were strewn with paper and waste and marked with dirty feet. The last thing which Mr. Trelawney did before coming away was to take from the great safe the ruby with the seven stars. As he put it safely into his pocket-book, Margaret, who had all at once seemed to grow deadly tired, and stood beside her father pale and rigid, suddenly became all aglow as though the sight of the jewel had inspired her. She smiled at her father approvingly, as she said, You are right, father. There will not be any more trouble to-night. She will not wreck your arrangements for any cause. I would stake my life upon it. She, or something, wrecked us in the desert when we had come from the tomb in the valley of the sorcerer, was the grim comment of Korbeck, who was standing by. Margaret answered him like a flash. Ah! she was then near her tomb from which for thousands of years her body had not been moved. She must know that things are different now. How must she know? asked Korbeck keenly. If she has that astral body that father spoke of, surely she must know. How can she fail to, with an invisible presence and an intellect that can roam abroad even to the stars in the worlds beyond us? She paused and her father said solemnly, It is on that supposition that we are proceeding. We must have the courage of our convictions and act on them to the last. Margaret took his hand and held it in a dreamy kind of way as we filed out of the house. She was holding it still when he locked the hall door and when we moved up the road to the gateway, whence we took a cab to Paddington. When all the goods were loaded at the station, the whole of the workmen went on to the train. This took also some of the stone wagons used for carrying the cases with the great sarcophagi. Ordinary carts and plenty of horses were to be found at Waterton, which was our station for chelion. Mr. Trelawney had ordered a sleeping carriage for our party. As soon as the train had started, we all turned into our cubicles. That night I slept sound. There was over me a conviction of security which was absolute and supreme. Margaret's definite announcement, there will not be any trouble to-night, seemed to carry assurance with it. I did not question it, nor did anyone else. It was only afterwards that I began to think as to how she was so sure. The train was a slow one, stopping many times and for considerable intervals. As Mr. Trelawney did not wish to arrive at Westerton before dark, there was no need to hurry, and arrangements had been made to feed the workmen at certain places on the journey. We had our own hamper with us in the private car. All that afternoon we talked over the great experiment, which seemed to have become a definite entity in our thoughts. Mr. Trelawney became more and more enthusiastic as the time wore on. Hope was with him becoming certainty. Dr. Winchester seemed to become imbued with some of his spirit, though at times he would throw out some scientific fact which would either make an impasse to the other's line of argument, or would come as an arresting shock. Mr. Korabeck, on the other hand, seemed slightly antagonistic to the theory. It may have been that whilst the opinions of the others advanced, his own stood still, but the effect was an attitude which appeared negative, if not wholly one of negation. As for Margaret she seemed to be in some way overcome. Where it was some new phase of feeling with her, or else she was taking the issue more seriously than she had yet done. She was generally more or less distraught, as though sunk in a brown study. From this she would recover herself with a start. This was usually when there occurred some marked episode in the journey, such as stopping at a station, or when the thunderous rumble of crossing a viaduct woke the echoes of the hills or cliffs around us. On each such occasion she would plunge into the conversation, taking such a part in it as to show that whatever had been her abstracted thought, her senses had taken in fully all that had gone on around her. Towards myself her manner was strange. Sometimes it was marked by a distance, half shy, half haughty, which was new to me. At other times there were moments of passion in look and gesture which almost made me dizzy with delight. Little, however, of a marked nature transpired during the journey. There was but one episode which had in it any element of alarm, but as we were all asleep at the time it did not disturb us. We only learned of it from a communicative guard in the morning. Whilst running between dollish and tame mouth the train was stopped by a warning given by someone who moved a torch to and fro right on the very track. The driver had found on pulling up that just ahead of the train a small landslip had taken place, some of the red earth from the high bank having fallen away. It did not, however, reach to the metals and the driver had resumed his way, none too well pleased at the delay. To use his own words the guard thought, there was too much ballet caution on this ear-line. We arrived at Westerton about nine o'clock in the evening. Carts and horses were in waiting and the work of unloading the train began at once. Our own party did not wait to see the work done as it was in the hands of competent people. We took the carriage which was in waiting and, through the darkness of the night, sped on to Kilian. We were all impressed by the house as it appeared in the bright moon light, a great gray stone mansion of the Jacobian period, vast and spacious standing high over the sea on the very verge of a high cliff. When we had swept round the curve of the avenue cut through the rock and come out on the high plateau on which the house stood, the crash and murmur of waves breaking against rock far below us came with an invigorating breath of moist sea air. We understood then, in an instant, how well we were shut out from the world on that rocky shelf above the sea. Within the house we found all ready. Mrs. Grant and her staff had worked well and all was bright and fresh and clean. We took a brief survey of the chief rooms and then separated to have a wash and to change our clothes after our long journey of more than four and twenty hours. We had supper in the great dining room on the south side, the walls of which actually hung over the sea. The murmur came up muffled, but it never ceased. As the little promontory stood well out into the sea, the northern side of the house was open and the due north was in no way shut out by the great mass of rock, which, reared high above us, shut out the rest of the world. Far off across the bay we could see the trembling lights of the castle and here and there, along the shore, the faint light of a fissure's window. For the rest the sea was a dark blue plain with an occasional flicker of light as the gleam of starlight fell on the slope of a swelling wave. When supper was over we all adjourned to the room which Mr. Trelawney had set aside as his study, his bedroom being close to it. As we entered the first thing I noticed was a great safe, somewhat similar to that which stood in his room in London. When we were in the room Mr. Trelawney went over to the table and taking out his pocket-book, laid it on the table. As he did so he pressed down on it with the palm of his hand. A strange pallor came over his face. With fingers that trembled he opened the book, saying as he did so, It's bulk does not seem the same. I hope nothing has happened. All three of us men crowded round close. Margaret alone remained calm. She stood erect and silent and still as a statue. She had a faraway look in her eyes as though she did not either know or care what was going on around her. With a despairing gesture Trelawney threw open the pouch of the pocket-book wherein he had placed the jewel of seven stars. As he sank down in the chair which stood close to him he said in a hoarse voice, My God! it is gone! Without it the great experiment can come to nothing! His words seemed to wake Margaret from her introspective mood. An agonized spasm swept her face, but almost in the instant she was calm. She almost smiled as she said, You may have left it in your room, Father. Perhaps it has fallen out of the pocket-book whilst you were changing. Without a word we all hurried into the next room through the open door between the study and the bedroom. And then a sudden calm fell on us like a cloud of fear. There on the table lay the jewel of seven stars shining and sparkling with lurid light as though each of the seven points of each of the seven stars gleamed through blood. Timidly we each looked behind us and then at each other. Margaret was now like the rest of us. She had lost her statuette calm. All the introspective rigidity had gone from her and she clasped her hands together till the knuckles were white. Without a word Mr. Trelawney raised the jewel and hurried with it into the next room. As quietly as he could he opened the door of the safe with the key fastened to his wrist and placed the jewel within. When the heavy doors were closed and locked he seemed to breathe more freely. Somehow this episode, though a disturbing one in many ways, seemed to bring us back to our old selves. Since we had left London we had all been overstrained and this was a sort of relief. Another step in our strange enterprise had been affected. The change back was more marked in Margaret than in any of us. Perhaps it was that she was a woman whilst we were men. Perhaps it was that she was younger than the rest. Perhaps both reasons were effective each in its own way. At any rate the change was there and I was happier than I had been through the long journey. All her buoyancy, her tenderness, her deep feeling seemed to shine forth once more. Now and again as her father's eyes rested on her his face seemed to light up. Whilst we waited for the carts to arrive Mr. Trelawney took us through the house, pointing out and explaining where the objects which we had brought with us were to be placed. In one respect only did he withhold confidence. The positions of all those things which had connection with the great experiment were not indicated. The cases containing them were to be left in the outer hall for the present. By the time we had made the survey the carts began to arrive and the stir and bustle of the previous night were renewed. Mr. Trelawney stood in the hall beside the massive iron-bound door and gave instructions as to the placing of each of the great packing cases. Those containing many items were placed in the inner hall where they were to be unpacked. In an incredibly short time the whole consignment was delivered and the men departed with a ducerre for each giving through their foremen which made them effusive in their thanks. Then we all went to our own rooms. There was a strange confidence over us all. I do not think that any one of us had a doubt as to the quiet passing of the remainder of the night. The faith was justified, for on our reassembling in the morning we found that all had slept well and peaceably. During that day all the curios, except those required for the great experiment, were put into the places designed for them. Then it was arranged that all the servants should go back with Mrs. Grant to London on the next morning. When they had all gone Mr. Trelawney, having seen the door's lock, took us into the study. "'Now,' said he when we were seated, I have a secret to impart. But according to an old promise which does not leave me free, I must ask you each to give me a solemn promise not to reveal it. For three hundred years, at least, such a promise has been exacted from every one to whom it was told, and more than once life and safety were secured through loyal observance of the promise. Even as it is I am breaking the letter, if not the spirit of the tradition, for I should only tell it to the immediate members of my family.' We all gave the promise required. Then he went on. There is a secret place in this house, a cave, natural originally but finished by labour, underneath this house. I will not undertake to say that it has always been used according to the law. During the bloody assize more than a few Cornishmen found refuge in it, and later, and earlier, it formed, I have no doubt whatever, a useful place for storing contraband goods. Say pole and pen, I suppose you know, have always been smugglers, and their relations and friends and neighbours have not held back from the enterprise. For all such reasons a safe hiding place was always considered a valuable possession, and as the heads of our house have always insisted on preserving the secret, I am in honour bound to it. Later on, if all be well, I shall of course tell you, Margaret, and you too, Ross, under the conditions that I am bound to make. He rose up and we all followed him. Leaving us in the outer hall, he went away alone for a few minutes, and returning beckoned us to follow him. In the inside hall we found a whole section of an outstanding angle moved away, and from the cavity saw a great hole dimly dark and the beginning of a rough staircase cut in the rock. As it was not pitch dark there was manifestly some means of lighting it naturally, so without pause we followed our host as he descended. After some forty or fifty steps cut in a winding passage we came to a great cave whose further end tapered away into blackness. It was a huge place, dimly lit by a few irregular slits of eccentric shape. Manifestly these were faults in the rock which could readily allow the windows to be disguised. Close to each of them was a hanging shutter which could be easily swung across by means of a dangling rope. The sound of the ceaseless beat of the waves came up muffled from far below. Mr. Trelawney at once began to speak. This is the spot which I have chosen, as the best I know, for the scene of our great experiment. In a hundred different ways it fulfills the conditions which I am led to believe are primary with regard to success. Here we are, and shall be, as isolated as Queen Tara herself would have been in her rocky tomb in the valley of the Sorcerer and still in a rocky cavern. For good or ill we must here stand by our chances and abide by results. If we are successful we shall be able to let in on the world of modern science such a flood of light from the old world as will change every condition of thought and experiment and practice. If we fail then even the knowledge of our attempt will die with us. For this and all else which may come I believe we are prepared. He paused. No one spoke, but we all bowed our heads gravely in acquiescence. He resumed, but with a certain hesitancy. It is not yet too late. If any of you have a doubt or misgiving, for God speak it now. Whoever it may be can go thence without let or hindrance. The rest of us can go on our way alone. Again he paused and looked keenly at us in turn. We looked at each other, but no one quailed. For my own part, if I had had any doubt as to going on, the look on Margaret's face would have reassured me. It was fearless. It was intense. It was full of a divine calm. Mr. Trelawney took a long breath and in a more cheerful as well as in a more decided tone went on. As we are all of one mind the sooner we get the necessary matters in train the better. Let me tell you that this place, like all the rest of the house, can be lit with electricity. We could not join the wires to the mains lest our secret should become known, but I have a cable here which we can attach in the hall and complete the circuit. As he was speaking he began to ascend the steps. From close to the entrance he took the end of a cable. This he drew forward and attached to a switch in the wall. Then turning on a tap he flooded the whole vault and staircase below with light. I could now see from the volume of light streaming up into the hallway that the hole beside the staircase went direct into the cave. Above it was a pulley and a mass of strong tackle with multiplying blocks of the Smeaton order. Mr. Trelawney, seeing me looking at this, said, correctly interpreting my thoughts, Yes, it is new. I hung it there myself on purpose. I knew we should have to lower great weights, and as I did not wish to take too many into my confidence, I arranged a tackle which I could work alone if necessary. We set to work at once, and before nightfall had lowered, unhooked, and placed in the positions designated for each by Trelawney all the great sarcophagi and all the curios and other matters which we had taken with us. It was a strange and weird proceeding, the placing of those wonderful monuments of a bygone age in that green cavern, which represented in its cutting and purpose in up-to-date mechanism and electric lights both the old world and the new. But as time went on I grew more and more to recognize the wisdom and correctness of Mr. Trelawney's choice. I was much disturbed when Silvio, who had been brought into the cave in the arms of his mistress, and who was lying asleep on my coat which I had taken off, sprang up when the cat-mummy had been unpacked and flew at it with the same ferocity which he had previously exhibited. The incident showed Margaret in a new phase and one which gave my heart a pang. She had been standing quite still at one side of the cave leaning on a sarcophagus in one of those fits of abstraction which had of late come upon her, but on hearing the sound and seeing Silvio's violent onslaught she seemed to fall into a positive fury of passion. Her eyes blazed and her mouth took a hard, cruel tension which was new to me. Distinctively she stepped toward Silvio as if to interfere in the attack. But I too had stepped forward and as she caught my eye a strange spasm came upon her and she stopped. Its intensity made me hold my breath and I put up my hand to clear my eyes. When I had done this she had on the instant recovered her calm and there was a look of brief wonder on her face. With all her old grace and sweetness she swept over and lifted Silvio just as she had done on former occasions and held him in her arms, petting him and treating him as though he were a little child who had erred. As I looked a strange fear came over me. The Margaret that I knew seemed to be changing and in my inmost heart I prayed that the disturbing cause might soon come to an end. More than ever I longed at that moment that our terrible experiment should come to a prosperous termination. When all had been arranged in the room as Mr. Trelani wished, he turned to us one after another till he had concentrated the intelligence of us all upon him. Then he said, All is now ready in this place. We must only wait the proper time to begin. We were silent for a while. Dr. Winchester was the first to speak. What is the proper time? Have you any approximation, even if you are not satisfied as to the exact day? He answered at once, After the most anxious thought I have fixed on July 31st. May I ask why that date? He spoke his answer slowly. In terror was ruled in great degree by mysticism, and there are so many evidences that she looked for resurrection that naturally she would choose a period ruled over by a god specialized to such a purpose. Now the fourth month of the season of inundation was ruled by Hermachis, this being the name for Ra, the sun god, at his rising in the morning, and therefore typifying the awakening or arising. This arising is manifestly to physical life, since it is of the mid-world of human daily life. Now as this month begins on our 25th July, the seventh day would be July 31st. For you may be sure that the mystic queen would not have chosen any day but the seventh or some power of seven. I dare say that some of you have wondered why our preparations have been so deliberately undertaken. This is why. We must be ready in every possible way when the time comes, but there was no use in having to wait round for a needless number of days. And so we waited only for the 31st of July, the next day but one when the great experiment would be made. End of Chapter 16, Recording by Roger Maline