ewell."

"Thou hast heard, O Cleopatra," I said solemnly; "now search thy heart;
judge thou, and for thine own sake judge justly."

She bent her head in thought.

"I fear to do this thing," she said presently. "Let us hence."

"It is well," I said, with a lightening of the heart, and bent down to
lift the wooden lid. For I, too, feared.

"And yet, what said the writing of the Divine Menkau-ra?--it was
emeralds, was it not? And emeralds are now so rare and hard to come by.
Ever did I love emeralds, and I can never find them without a flaw."

"It is not a matter of what thou dost love, Cleopatra," I said; "it is a
matter of the need of Khem and of the secret meaning of thy heart, which
thou alone canst know."

"Ay, surely, Harmachis; surely! And is not the need of Egypt great?
There is no gold in the treasury, and how can I defy the Roman if I have
no gold? And have I not sworn to thee that I will wed thee and defy the
Roman; and do I not swear it again--yes, even in this solemn hour, with
my hand upon dead Pharaoh's heart? Why, here is that occasion of which
the Divine Menkau-ra dreamed. Thou seest it is so, for else Hat-shepsu
or Rameses or some other Pharaoh had drawn forth the gems. But no; they
left them to come to this hour because the time was not yet come. Now it
must be come, for if I take not the gems the Roman will surely seize on
Egypt, and then there will be no Pharaoh to whom the secret may be
told. Nay, let us away with fears and to the work. Why dost look so
frightened? Having pure hearts, there is naught to fear, Harmachis."

"Even as thou wilt," I said again; "it is for thee to judge, since if
thou judgest falsely on thee will surely fall the curse from which there
is no escape."

"So, Harmachis, take Pharaoh's head and I will take his----Oh, what an
awful place is this!" and suddenly she clung to me. "Methought I saw
a shadow yonder in the darkness! Methought that it moved toward us and
then straightway vanished! Let us be going! Didst thou see naught?"

"I saw nothing, Cleopatra; but mayhap it was the Spirit of the Divine
Menkau-ra, for the spirit ever hovers round its mortal tenement. Let us,
then, be going; I shall be right glad to go."

She made as though to start, then turned back again and spoke once more.

"It was naught--naught but the mind that, in such a house of Horror,
bodies forth those shadowy forms of fear it dreads to see. Nay, I must
look upon these emeralds; indeed, if I d