rmise, Mr. Smith, though I
find it hard to believe. But--I don't think this is the handiwork of
your Chinese doctor." He fixed his gaze upon the sarcophagus.

Smith stared at him in surprise. "What do you mean, Sir Lionel?"

The famous traveler continued to look towards the sarcophagus with
something in his blue eyes that might have been dread.

"I received a wire from Professor Rembold to-night," he continued.
"You were correct in supposing that no one but Strozza knew of my
absence. I dressed hurriedly and met the professor at the Traveler's.
He knew that I was to read a paper next week upon"--again he looked
toward the mummy case--"the tomb of Mekara; and he knew that the
sarcophagus had been brought, untouched, to England. He begged me not
to open it."

Nayland Smith was studying the speaker's face.

"What reason did he give for so extraordinary a request?" he asked.

Sir Lionel Barton hesitated.

"One," he replied at last, "which amused me--at the time. I must
inform you that Mekara--whose tomb my agent had discovered during my
absence in Tibet, and to enter which I broke my return journey to
Alexandria--was a high priest and first prophet of Amen--under the
Pharaoh of the Exodus; in short, one of the magicians who contested in
magic arts with Moses. I thought the discovery unique, until Professor
Rembold furnished me with some curious particulars respecting the death
of M. Page le Roi, the French Egyptologist--particulars new to me."

We listened in growing surprise, scarcely knowing to what this tended.

"M. le Roi," continued Barton, "discovered, but kept secret, the tomb
of Amenti--another of this particular brotherhood. It appears that he
opened the mummy case on the spot--these priests were of royal line,
and are buried in the valley of Biban-le-Moluk. His Fellah and Arab
servants deserted him for some reason--on seeing the mummy case--and he
was found dead, apparently strangled, beside it. The matter was hushed
up by the Egyptian Government. Rembold could not explain why. But he
begged of me not to open the sarcophagus of Mekara."

A silence fell.

The strange facts regarding the sudden death of Page le Roi, which I
now heard for the first time, had impressed me unpleasantly, coming
from a man of Sir Lionel Barton's experience and reputation.

"How long had it lain in the docks?" jerked Smith.

"For two days, I believe. I am not a superstitious man, Mr. Smith, but
neither is Profess