ing the room in total darkness until there burst out
suddenly a bright orange red light immediately above one of the trays.

We all gathered round to watch, as Polton--the high priest of these
mysteries--drew from the black envelope a colossal sheet of bromide
paper, laid it carefully in the tray and proceeded to wet it with a
large brush which he had dipped in a pail of water.

"I thought you always used plates for this kind of work," said Dr.
Norbury.

"We do, by preference; but a six-foot plate would be impossible, so I
had a special paper made to the size."

There is something singularly fascinating in the appearance of a
developing photograph; in the gradual, mysterious emergence of the
picture from the blank, white surface of plate or paper. But a
skiagraph, or X-ray photograph, has a fascination all its own. Unlike
the ordinary photograph, which yields a picture of things already seen,
it gives a presentment of objects hitherto invisible; and hence, when
Polton poured the developer on the already wet paper, we all craned
over the tray with the keenest curiosity.

The developer was evidently a very slow one. For fully half a minute
no change could be seen in the uniform surface. Then, gradually,
almost insensibly, the marginal portion began to darken, leaving the
outline of the mummy in pale relief. The change, once started,
proceeded apace. Darker and darker grew the margin of the paper until
from slaty gray it had turned to black; and still the shape of the
mummy, now in strong relief, remained an enlongated patch of bald
white. But not for long. Presently the white shape began to be tinged
with gray, and, as the color deepened, there grew out of it a paler
form that seemed to steal out of the enshrouding gray like an
apparition, spectral, awesome, mysterious. The skeleton was coming
into view.

"It is rather uncanny," said Dr. Norbury. "I feel as if I were
assisting at some unholy rite. Just look at it now!"

The gray shadow of the cartonnage, the wrappings and the flesh was
fading away into the background and the white skeleton stood out in
sharp contrast. And it certainly was rather a weird spectacle.

"You'll lose the bones if you develop much farther," said Dr. Norbury.

"I must let the bones darken," Thorndyke replied, "in case there are
any metallic objects. I have three more papers in the envelope."

The white shape of the skeleton now began to gray over and, as Dr.
Norbury had s