ce. He was anything but a coward, but he was thinking of Niti--and
what if a knife-stab left her undefended? But to his amazement, although
they were both looking straight at him, the expression of neither face
changed in the slightest. They had not seen him. The Queen had answered
his prayer. He was no longer in the world of three dimensions, and so he
was invisible to all dwellers in it. For him, then, there was evidently
no danger--but Niti----?
They moved along to the next door. That was hers. The woman put her hand
on the knob and turned it. To his horror, the door opened. She had
forgotten to lock it. They both crept in, and he followed them boldly
enough now, knowing what he did. The ray leapt rapidly about the room
till it fell on the bed with its pale blue silken coverlet, and then on
the pillow, on which rested the head of the sleeping, breathing image of
the long-dead Queen.
With a half-stifled gasp the man shrank back and dropped the lamp, and
the Professor heard him say to the woman in a shuddering whisper:
"By the High Gods, Neb-Anat, it is a miracle! Do you not see her? It is
she--the Queen--alive again, as the ancient prophecy said she should be.
What magic have these heathens used?"
"Yes," replied the woman, whispering lower, "truly it is the Queen, and
she is alive and sleeping--no doubt passing from the sleep of death
through the sleep of life to life again. Now, O Pent-Ah, is our task
much harder, yet will its accomplishment be all the more glorious for
you and me, and greatly will our Lord reward us if we can restore to his
keeping, not the ravished mummy of Nitocris, but the Queen herself,
warm and breathing and beautiful, as she was in the ancient days of the
great Rameses."
"I'll be hanged if you do!" said the Professor to himself, "not, at
least, if Her Majesty's legacy to me is worth anything. Abduct my
daughter at the dead of night, would you, you scoundrels? We'll see
about that. If you don't leave this house as thoroughly frightened as
ever you were in your lives, I know nothing about the fourth dimension."
Meanwhile he heard them both groping about the floor after the lamp. The
woman found it, and pressed the button. The ray fell on the man's face,
and he saw that the olive of his skin had turned to a ghastly grey. His
eyes were wide open, and his mouth and nostrils were working with
intense excitement. Then the woman turned the ray on Niti's face again.
"They will wake her if
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