Immediately you quitted your lodgings in Soho this evening,
my emissary entered your room by means of a master key and brought away
your trunks. No one saw him, for he was invisible; and no one saw your
trunks depart, for he made them invisible, too. They are at this moment
in this house. You doubt me?" "Yes," I cried. "I doubt you; produce them!" "I am too comfortable to move," smiled Belleville. "But here is
something I found at the bottom of one of them." As he spoke he took from his breast pocket the mummy hand poor Weldon
had given me. I could not suppress an exclamation. He had spoken truly
then. Belleville tossed the hand upon a table. "I was rather glad to
get it back," he said. "Not that it really mattered; but I wondered who
had found it. Did Weldon still cling to it after he was dead?" "You scoundrel!" I cried. "It was you--really then? You pushed him over
the platform?" He laughed. "In person, no, but by direction, yes." Then he
became serious. "But let us avoid personalities, if you please. We each possess an ugly temper, I believe; and mine is sometimes
uncontrollable. Do you agree?" "Proceed!" said I. He bowed ironically. "There is but little more to tell you now. You
know almost all you need to know, and enough, I feel sure, to enable
you to anticipate your fate." "You intend to murder me, I suppose?" "Exactly. But it depends on yourself whether you shall have a painless
death or no. If you will do what I require you shall have the choice
between aconite and morphia. If you refuse, well,"--he pursed up his
lips--"you'll live longer, Pinsent; yes, you'll live longer--but
frankly, old chap, you won't like it. I hate you, you know, and I am
a surgeon, and you are there and I am here; I repeat, I hate you. And
I am not only a surgeon, I am a skilful surgeon. I am, besides, a
vivisectionist. That is one of my hobbies. And I'll keep you alive as
long as possible. For let me yet again assure you I _hate--you--hate
you, hate you_!" There was no doubt of it. He hated me. The emotion was infectious. I
hated him. I had before; but I now realised how much. After one long
glance into his gloating eyes I lowered mine and asked in a voice I
strove to render civil: "What is it you want me to do for you?" "I want you to play the part of a friendly disembodied ghostly
match-maker." "I fail to understand you." "Naturally. But listen. I intend to render you invisible. When that is
done I shall bring Miss Ottley here. She knows your voice. You will
speak to her. Do you see daylight now?" "I begin." "That is well. You will inform the lady that you are dead, but that
your spirit is held in durance vile at my command. Like all other
women, she is at heart deeply superstitious. She will believe what
you say and she will conceive a prodigious respect for my power and
ability. You will assure her that I control your fate and that you can
only obtain deliverance from unimaginably awful tortures at the price
of her consenting to become immediately my wife. Well?" "A pretty plot," said I. "I felt certain it would earn your admiration," he returned. "I marvel at your candour!" "My dear Pinsent," he said, smiling, "complete candour is the privilege
of the all-powerful, and that am I--at least in your regard. I can
perfectly afford to be perfectly frank with you, because I can compel
you to serve me even should you decide to disobey me." "Indeed, and how?" "The thing is as simple as A, B, C. If you are so foolish as to
refuse to play the part I have assigned, I shall render you three
parts--instead of entirely invisible. I shall make your bonds, however,
entirely invisible. You will then be put to certain electrical tortures
of my invention, and I shall invite Miss Ottley to observe the
spectacle of a soul in pain. I confess I should prefer you to behave
like a sensible ghost and talk to her in the manner I have indicated;
but you must admit that in the alternative she will, nevertheless, be
forced to a conclusion flattering alike to my ambition and my pride." "Is it possible that you are all the heartless scoundrel you pretend? Can you really find pleasure in the notion of winning the woman you are
presumed to love--by a trick so infamous and despicable?" "Yes, Pinsent, yes." "You must be animated by a devil." "On the contrary, my dear enemy, I am just an ordinary human being who
has been seduced by the most extraordinary temptation that has ever
been offered to a living being. A power has been placed at my disposal
which puts me on a level with the immortal gods of ancient Greece. In
deciding to make use of it, I have adopted their ideas of morality,
almost, as it were, perforce. I now make a cult of my convenience,
and a religion of the indulgence of my instincts. I intend henceforth
to kill always what I hate, to possess what I love, to seize what I
covet, and to enjoy what I desire. Miss Ottley dislikes and despises
me. That has irritated my vanity to such an extent that it is necessary
to my happiness that I should convert her dislike into subjection, her
contempt into the unbounded reverence of fear. When she becomes my wife
I shall be the master of her millions--her father is on the point of
dissolution--and I shall be the tyrant of her person. I shall rule her
with a rod of iron terror. That domination will give me a far greater
joy than the vulgar pleasure of reciprocated passion. And not the least
part of it will dwell in the reflection that you, my dear enemy, will
have so largely and so unwillingly contributed to the gratification of
my sweet will. Now you have all the facts before you. My cards are all
exposed. It is for you to make up your mind what you will do. Don't
decide immediately! There is no hurry. Think the matter over. As I am
rather weary" (he yawned in my face), "I shall now leave you to your
meditations till the morning. Good-night." He rose, bowed to me with mock politeness and moved over to the door. A
moment later he had gone, and with him the light vanished. I was left
in the profoundest darkness, and my thoughts were nearly as colourless
and sombre as the gloom in which I sat. Chapter XXV

The Mummy Talks


The sensation of awakening informed me of the surprising fact that I
had fallen asleep. I was rather proud under the circumstances that I
had been able to do so. Probably I had slept for a long while, too,
for the laboratory was lighted up, and it was evident that it had been
carefully dusted in the interval. There was a sound of sweeping behind
my chair, but strain as I would I could not turn my head to see who was
my companion. "I say," I called out. "I am thirsty. Fetch me a glass of
water, will you?" The sweeping stopped. Presently steps approached my chair. They passed
it, and next second I saw the giant Arab of the cave temple at Rakh,
the wretch who had attempted to strangle me at my camp, and whom I had
released from the sarcophagus of Ptahmes on the Nile.