tally styled his bringing to life.

The disappearance of the sun roused him to the fact that he had work to
do. Taking a spear and a broad-bladed sword from the weapons Critch had
left, Burt went inside the hut. Here he set to work energetically
digging the hole for the final resting place of Ta-En-User, the High
Priest of Maat. The tramped earthen floor was easily broken up by means
of the spear, and as the dusk settled down over the forest Burt finished
a shallow hole sufficient to hold the mummy.

"It's kind o' hard lines," he thought, wiping his dripping face as he
returned outside. "Here old Ta was wrapped up carefully three thousand
years back, meaning to lie quiet forever. He don't more than get
comfortably settled down when along come the white dwarfs to rouse him
up, and they carry him clear over here. Then he settles down once more,
and we come along and finish him. If he'd been buried right in the first
place--why, if they'd done things different three thousand years back
there wouldn't be any Pongo!"

Burt was roused from his rather intricate calculations by a particularly
savage mosquito settling on his ear. Having disposed of the insect,
Burt daubed his face and hands with what remained of the palm oil. Then
he beat down the grass at a spot where he could see between two of the
tusks and settled down to wait. He was uneasy at the idea that the lion
might return at any moment, and felt not the slightest temptation to
drop off to sleep.

The swift tropical night settled down over the forest, and soon Burt
could make out the glow of the village fires. After what seemed an age
he heard the sound of chanting mingled with the throb of the tom-toms.
This continued for half an hour, then ceased. A few moments later a
moving light appeared at the zareba gate, followed by others. Burt
guessed that these were torches, and knew that the time was at hand.

More and more torches poured out of the gate, until by their light Burt
could make out fairly well all that took place. It seemed that the
entire tribe was leaving the village. At the head of the procession
stalked Mbopo, with Critch beside him. Burt could see his chum carrying
something wrapped in a skin, and knew this was the mummy. Then came the
two brothers of Mbopo, carrying the golden _ankh_ between them on a
spear, while a third man bore the mummy-case. Behind marched the
bodyguard of the chief, the rest of the tribe following in a mob.

At the point whe