I took after them hot foot, caught them and drove them
back to work, to find that my companions in the meanwhile had helped
themselves. Dr. Belleville, however, entered a moment later, and at a
nod from me the trembling Soudanese became his abject slaves. Dr. Belleville had something to say. "The negroes are frightened of
you," he began. "They fancy I have the evil eye." "Humph!" cried the Doctor. "Talk German--they understand English. It's
not that." "What then?" "Sir Robert Ottley sent one of them to you--with a message--last night. He returned this morning with three ribs broken. He is lying in the
hospital tent now--in a high fever." "A tall, thin man--the eyes set far apart in the skull?" I asked. Dr. Belleville shook his head. "No. Short, thick-set, snub-featured,
but a giant in strength." "How did he explain his accident?" "That unwittingly he angered you." "The man is a liar," I declared indignantly. "I had a set-to with
a skulking rogue last night. That is true enough. But the fellow I
encountered and threw was taller than myself." The Doctor shrugged his shoulders. "It was a dark night, I believe." Then a minute later--"Ottley is much annoyed. This Meeraschi was an
excellent subject. Ottley was experimenting with him." "How?" "Hypnotically." I glanced at the others, but they were talking apart. "Ottley sent me a message?" I asked, returning to the Doctor. "Yes," replied Belleville between mouthfuls. He was gulping down his
lunch like a wolf in a hurry. "He wants you," he went on. "Needless to say I received no message." "Needless?" repeated Belleville. "And you here?" The tone was so insulting that I arose and walked quietly out of the
tent. The sun was blazing hot. I thought of the cool cave temple and
wandered towards it. Why not see Sir Robert at once? Why not, indeed. Two black sentinels guarded the middle pylon, skulking in the shadow of
a column. When I approached they stood bolt upright. They were armed
with rifles. They barred the way. "Ottley!" I shouted. "Ottley!" and once again "Ottley!" At the third the little baronet's face appeared in the stone doorway. "Oh! Pinsent," he said, and stared at me. I read doubt in his glance,
some fear and anger and uneasiness. But there was much else I could not
read. His skin was as yellow as old parchment, and he did not look a
well man by any means. "It is roasting--here," I observed. He swallowed audibly, as a woman does recovering from tears. "Ah,
well," he said. "Come in--here." The blacks vastly relieved, it appeared, lowered their arms and gave me
passage. Sir Robert, however, still blocked the door. I traversed the
pylon and stood before him. "We can talk here," said he. But I had no mind to be treated like that. I looked him in the face
and talked to him like this: "I am not welcome. I can see it. But it
matters nothing to me. I have rights. I gave you back your life. You
made me a promise. You broke your promise. That relieves me of any need
to be conventional. I am curious. I intend to satisfy my curiosity. Invite me into the cavern and show me what you have there to be seen. Or I shall put you aside and help myself. I can do so. Your blacks do
not frighten me, armed or unarmed. As for you, pouf! Now choose!" "Dr. Pinsent," said Sir Robert. (He was shaking like an aspen.) "In
about ten minutes my dragoman is setting out for Cairo. If you will
be good enough to bear him company he will hand you at the end of the
journey my cheque for a thousand pounds." "I ought to have told you," I murmured, "that it is a point of honour
with me to keep my word." "Two thousand," said Sir Robert. "At all costs," said I. "Five thousand!" he cried. "You rich little cad!" I growled, and looked into the muzzle of a
revolver. Sir Robert's eyes, seen across the sights, glittered like a maniac's. "Go away!" he whispered. "Go--or----"

I thought of an old, old policeman trick and assumed an expression of
sudden horror. "Take care," I cried. "Look out--he will get you." The baronet swung around, gasping and ghastly. In a second I had him by
the wrist. "What was it?" he almost shrieked. "A policeman's trick," I answered coldly, and disarmed him. "Curse you! Curse you!" he howled, and doubling his fists, he rushed
at me, calling on his blacks the while. The latter gave me momentary
trouble. But it was soon over. I propped them up like lay figures
against the columns, facing each other, afterwards, and extracted the
charges from their guns. Looking over the sand, I saw Miss Ottley
and Dr. Belleville and the Captain walking under umbrellas towards
the tanks. I felt glad not to have disturbed them. Sir Robert had
disappeared within the cavern. I followed him. He had put on a large
masque which entirely covered his face, and he was fumbling with
the screw stopper of a huge glass jar at the farthest corner of the
cavern. The sarcophagus had been overturned. It now rested in the
centre of the cavern, bottom upwards. And on the flat, leaden surface
of the bottom was stretched out, stiff and stark, the naked body of a
tall, brown-skinned man. The body glistened as if it had been rubbed
with oil. It was almost fleshless, but sinews and tendons stood out
everywhere like tightened cords. One might almost have taken it for a
mummy. It had, however, an appearance of life--or rather, of suspended
animation, for it did not move. I wondered and stepped closer to
examine it. I looked at the face, and recognised the Arab who had
attacked me on the previous night, the Arab who had frightened Miss
Ottley and myself more than once. His mouth was tight shut; his eyes
were, however, open slightly. He did not seem to breathe. I put my
finger on his cheek, and pressed. The flesh did not yield. I ran
my eyes down his frame and uttered a cry. Three of his ribs were
broken. Then I felt his pulse; it was still. The wrist was as rigid as
steel--the arm, too--nay, the whole man. "He is dead," I exclaimed at
last, and looked at Sir Robert. The little baronet was re-stoppering
the glass jar, but he held a glass in one hand half filled with some
sort of liquid. Presently he approached me--but most marvellously
slowly. [Illustration: The Living Mummy

I felt his pulse

_Face Page 88_]

"This man is dead," I said to him. "He attacked me last night. I threw
him and perhaps broke his ribs. But I did not kill him, for he fled. How comes it he is dead?" Sir Robert, for answer, threw at my feet the contents of the jar. Then
I understood why he wore the masque. The cavern was filled with the
fumes of the deadly perfume of the sarcophagus on instant. One sniff
and my senses were rocking. I held my breath, but in spite of that the
cavern swung round me with vertiginous rapidity. It seemed best to retire. I did so, but how I hardly know. Somehow
or another I reached the pylon, passed the blacks and stepped upon
the sand. About fifty paces off I saw a beautiful grove of palm trees
suddenly spring up out of the desert. Such magic was most astonishing.