The crisis is over. He will
live." "Oh! my God!" she cried, and fell on her knees beside the bed shaken
with a storm of sobbing. I sneaked out of the temple and smoked my first pipe in three days. I
was only half through it when I felt her at my side. "No, please continue smoking," she said, "I like it, really. I have
come to try and thank you." "You can't," I replied; "I'm not a man to overestimate his own
services, but this is the sort of thing that cannot be repaid by either
gold or words." "Oh!" she said. "You see," I went on, "I lied. It was to save his life--for your sake. The sight of your distress touched me. I am glad that he will live, of
course. Glad to have served you. But the fact remains, I am a liar." "Dr. Pinsent!" she cried. "Oh, I daresay I'll grow used to it," I interrupted cheerfully. "Perhaps I have only shed a superstition, after all. I confess to
an unwonted feeling of freedom, too. Undoubtedly I was shackled, in
a sense. Yet a convict chained for years feels naked, I am told,
when he gets, suddenly, his liberty. I can easily believe it. My own
experience--but enough; we leave the patient too long alone." She flitted off like a phantom and as noiselessly. I refilled my pipe. An hour later I found them both asleep, she seated on the camp-stool
leaning back against the tomb. Nature had been too strong for her,
poor girl. I felt towards her the brotherhood of vice. She, too, had
lied--in pretending a little while before--a hatred of tobacco. I took her quietly and gently in my arms and carried her to her own cot
in the inner cabin. She did not wake. Chapter IV

The Sarcophagus's Perfume


Towards morning my mind grew much easier. Sir Robert awoke and took a
few mouthfuls of liquid nourishment. But although too weak to speak,
he was sensible and the fever had left him. He fell asleep again
immediately. Soon afterwards my eyes fell on the sarcophagus. Its
great size affected me with wonder--and its construction. Why should
imperishable treasures, gold, silver, and precious stones be enclosed
in lead? Why not in stone? And the sarcophagus had been hermetically
sealed too, witness the chisel and saw marks on the lid, of Ottley's
making. I examined them attentively, then sat down and stared at the
sarcophagus again. It was coffin shaped. Why? If it had been intended
for a mere treasure chest surely--I was struck suddenly by a fact and
a remembrance. The sarcophagus manifestly measured four feet high
at least. And I remembered that in filling it with water for Sir
Robert's bath I had only had to fill eighteen inches in depth. What
if underneath the treasure it contained another chamber overlaid with
lead? There was room. I got afoot and measured the depth of water
on my arm. Eighteen, well, certainly not more than nineteen inches. I seized a bucket and began to bail the water out, having need to be
noiseless for the sleepers' sake. The task occupied the better part
of half an hour. By then morning had begun to pale the lamplight,
and I was weary. But I kept on, and finally mopped the interior of
the huge basin dry with a towel. Thereupon I examined the bottom
with the lamp. It did not show a single crevice. The lead was in a
solid and impervious sheet. Curious. But the difference between the
eighteen inches and the four feet remained to be accounted for. Was the
interspace filled with lead? If so--why such uneconomic expenditure of
a valuable mineral? The mystery interested me so much that my weariness
was forgotten. I felt that at any cost it must be solved forthwith. Casting about, I found a fine-pointed and razor-sharp chisel in the
drawer of Sir Robert Ottley's camp table. With this, I set to work. Climbing into the sarcophagus, I selected a spot, and using the weight
of my body in place of a hammer, I forced the chisel into the lead. It bit into the metal slowly but surely. One inch. One inch and a
half. Suddenly it slipped. I fell forward and was brought up by the
handle. The mystery was solved. I recovered my position and wiped my
forehead. Instantly a thin but strangely overpowering perfume filled my
nostrils. It resembled camphor, and violets, and lavender, and oil of
almonds, and a hundred other scents, but was truly like none of them. It created and compelled, however, a confused train of untranslatable
reflections which might have been memories. But God knows what they
were. I experienced a mysterious sensation of immeasurable antiquity. And wildly absurd as the idea appears set forth in sober language,
something assured me that I was thousands of years old or had lived
before--so long--so very long ago. I saw lights--the sound of chanting
voices and of rushing waters filled my ears. I seemed to be assisting
at a solemn ritual. Ghostly forces and dim spirit figures filled the
cave. The air was thick with incense fumes. My reason rocked and swung. Just in time I realised that I was becoming mysteriously anæsthetised. I held my breath and with a powerful effort leaped to the floor. Then
I carefully blocked up the chisel hole with my kerchief and staggered
into the open air. Very soon I was my own man again. Returning filled
with apprehension for the patient, I found nothing to alarm me. The
perfume had absolutely disappeared. Sir Robert was sleeping like a
babe. I took a nip of brandy and sitting down, gave myself to dreams
watching the sarcophagus. What was its secret? And what the secret
of Sir Robert Ottley's passionate interest in the corpse of Ptahmes
that had been potent enough to call him back to life from the very
brink of dissolution? But plainly I must wait to learn. For it would
not do to trifle with the perfume in the cavern. In that confined
space it might bring about the destruction of us all. Already it
had affected me. My head ached fearfully, and I knew that my blood
vessels were distended, and that my heart was still violently excited. My agitation was not all painful. There was an insidious pleasure
mingled with it, an intangible titillation of the nerves; but that
only alarmed me the more. The poisons that are most to be feared are
those which captivate the senses; they convey no warning to the body,
and betray the mind, however watchful, by effecting a paralysis of
will. Perhaps--unwittingly--I had been very near death. The notion
was disturbing. I began to regard the sarcophagus much in the light
of an infernal machine possessing dangerous potentialities for ill. I determined as soon as possible--that is to say, as soon as help
arrived--to have it removed from the sick room to the pylon. There at
least it would be less manifestly perilous; having the play of the
whole wide desert atmosphere in which to dissipate its noxious energies. A rustling sound dissolved my meditations. I glanced up and saw Miss
Ottley bending over her father. I slipped out and sought the Arab's
quarters. Soon I had a good fire alight and water on to boil. I rather
spread myself that morning.