All that she arranged was in a
tomb high up in a rock, in a desert solitude, shut away from the world
by every conceivable means. She seems to have depended on this
isolation to insure against accident. Surely, here in another country
and age, with quite different conditions, she may in her anxiety make
mistakes and treat any of you—of us—as she did those others in times
gone past. Nine men that we know of have been slain by her own hand or
by her instigation. She can be remorseless if she will.”  It did not
strike me till afterwards when I was thinking over this conversation,
how thoroughly I had accepted the living and conscious condition of
Queen Tera as a fact. Before I spoke, I had feared I might offend Mr.
Trelawny; but to my pleasant surprise he smiled quite genially as he
answered me:

“My dear fellow, in a way you are quite right. The Queen did
undoubtedly intend isolation; and, all told, it would be best that her
experiment should be made as she arranged it. But just think, that
became impossible when once the Dutch explorer had broken into her
tomb. That was not my doing. I am innocent of it, though it was the
cause of my setting out to rediscover the sepulchre. Mind, I do not
say for a moment that I would not have done just the same as Van Huyn. I went into the tomb from curiosity; and I took away what I did, being
fired with the zeal of acquisitiveness which animates the collector. But, remember also, that at this time I did not know of the Queen’s
intention of resurrection; I had no idea of the completeness of her
preparations. All that came long afterwards. But when it did come, I
have done all that I could to carry out her wishes to the full. My
only fear is that I may have misinterpreted some of her cryptic
instructions, or have omitted or overlooked something. But of this I
am certain; I have left undone nothing that I can imagine right to be
done; and I have done nothing that I know of to clash with Queen Tera’s
arrangement. I want her Great Experiment to succeed. To this end I
have not spared labour or time or money—or myself. I have endured
hardship, and braved danger. All my brains; all my knowledge and
learning, such as they are; all my endeavours such as they can be, have
been, are, and shall be devoted to this end, till we either win or lose
the great stake that we play for.”

“The great stake?” I repeated; “the resurrection of the woman, and the
woman’s life? The proof that resurrection can be accomplished; by
magical powers; by scientific knowledge; or by use of some force which
at present the world does not know?”

Then Mr. Trelawny spoke out the hopes of his heart which up to now he
had indicated rather than expressed. Once or twice I had heard Corbeck
speak of the fiery energy of his youth; but, save for the noble words
of Margaret when she had spoken of Queen Tera’s hope—which coming from
his daughter made possible a belief that her power was in some sense
due to heredity—I had seen no marked sign of it. But now his words,
sweeping before them like a torrent all antagonistic thought, gave me a
new idea of the man. “‘A woman’s life!’  What is a woman’s life in the scale with what we
hope for! Why, we are risking already a woman’s life; the dearest life
to me in all the world, and that grows more dear with every hour that
passes. We are risking as well the lives of four men; yours and my
own, as well as those two others who have been won to our confidence. ‘The proof that resurrection can be accomplished!’  That is much. A
marvellous thing in this age of science, and the scepticism that
knowledge makes. But life and resurrection are themselves but items in
what may be won by the accomplishment of this Great Experiment. Imagine what it will be for the world of thought—the true world of
human progress—the veritable road to the Stars, the itur ad astra of
the Ancients—if there can come back to us out of the unknown past one
who can yield to us the lore stored in the great Library of Alexandria,
and lost in its consuming flames. Not only history can be set right,
and the teachings of science made veritable from their beginnings; but
we can be placed on the road to the knowledge of lost arts, lost
learning, lost sciences, so that our feet may tread on the indicated
path to their ultimate and complete restoration. Why, this woman can
tell us what the world was like before what is called ‘the Flood’; can
give us the origin of that vast astounding myth; can set the mind back
to the consideration of things which to us now seem primeval, but which
were old stories before the days of the Patriarchs. But this is not
the end! No, not even the beginning! If the story of this woman be
all that we think—which some of us most firmly believe; if her powers
and the restoration of them prove to be what we expect, why, then we
may yet achieve a knowledge beyond what our age has ever known—beyond
what is believed today possible for the children of men. If indeed
this resurrection can be accomplished, how can we doubt the old
knowledge, the old magic, the old belief! And if this be so, we must
take it that the ‘Ka’ of this great and learned Queen has won secrets
of more than mortal worth from her surroundings amongst the stars. This
woman in her life voluntarily went down living to the grave, and came
back again, as we learn from the records in her tomb; she chose to die
her mortal death whilst young, so that at her resurrection in another
age, beyond a trance of countless magnitude, she might emerge from her
tomb in all the fulness and splendour of her youth and power. Already
we have evidence that though her body slept in patience through those
many centuries, her intelligence never passed away, that her resolution
never flagged, that her will remained supreme; and, most important of
all, that her memory was unimpaired. Oh, what possibilities are there
in the coming of such a being into our midst! One whose history began
before the concrete teaching of our Bible; whose experiences were
antecedent to the formulation of the Gods of Greece; who can link
together the Old and the New, Earth and Heaven, and yield to the known
worlds of thought and physical existence the mystery of the Unknown—of
the Old World in its youth, and of Worlds beyond our ken!”

He paused, almost overcome. Margaret had taken his hand when he spoke
of her being so dear to him, and held it hard. As he spoke she
continued to hold it. But there came over her face that change which I
had so often seen of late; that mysterious veiling of her own
personality which gave me the subtle sense of separation from her. In
his impassioned vehemence her father did not notice; but when he
stopped she seemed all at once to be herself again. In her glorious
eyes came the added brightness of unshed tears; and with a gesture of
passionate love and admiration, she stooped and kissed her father’s
hand.