atest masters
of dead languages in Europe, though this no one would guess from his
appearance at the age of about forty-five. In build short and stout,
face round and high-coloured, hair and beard of a fiery red, eyes,
when they can be seen--for generally he wears a pair of large blue
spectacles--small and of an indefinite hue, but sharp as needles. Dress
so untidy, peculiar, and worn that it is said the police invariably
request him to move on, should he loiter in the streets at night. Such
was, and is, the outward seeming of my dearest friend, Professor Ptolemy
Higgs, and I only hope that he won't be offended when he sees it set
down in black and white.

That of his companion who was seated at the table, his chin resting on
his hand, listening to some erudite discourse with a rather distracted
air, was extraordinarily different, especially by contrast. A tall
well-made young man, rather thin, but broad-shouldered, and apparently
five or six and twenty years of age. Face clean-cut--so much so, indeed,
that the dark eyes alone relieved it from a suspicion of hardness; hair
short and straight, like the eyes, brown; expression that of a man of
thought and ability, and, when he smiled, singularly pleasant. Such was,
and is, Captain Oliver Orme, who, by the way, I should explain, is only
a captain of some volunteer engineers, although, in fact, a very able
soldier, as was proved in the South African War, whence he had then but
lately returned.

I ought to add also that he gave me the impression of a man not in
love with fortune, or rather of one with whom fortune was not in love;
indeed, his young face seemed distinctly sad. Perhaps it was this that
attracted me to him so much from the first moment that my eyes fell on
him--me with whom fortune had also been out of love for many years.

While I stood contemplating this pair, Higgs, looking up from the
papyrus or whatever it might be that he was reading (I gathered later
that he had spent the afternoon in unrolling a mummy, and was studying
its spoils), caught sight of me standing in the shadow.

"Who the devil are you?" he exclaimed in a shrill and strident voice,
for it acquires that quality when he is angry or alarmed, "and what are
you doing in my room?"

"Steady," said his companion; "your housekeeper told you that some
friend of yours had come to call."

"Oh, yes, so she did, only I can't remember any friend with a face and
beard like a goat. Advance, friend, an