ehind some boulder or other,
for she simply rose out of the ground. She stood there and stared at me
too--bang in the face. She was turned towards the sunset--what was left
of it in the west--and her black eyes shone like--ugh! I can't describe
it--it was shocking."

"She spoke?"

"She said five words--and her voice--it'll make you laugh--it was
metallic like a gong: 'You are in danger here.' That's all she said. I
simply turned and cleared out as fast as ever I could. But I had to go
on foot. My donkey had followed its boy long before. I tell you--smile
as you may--my blood was all curdled for an hour afterwards."

Then he explained that he felt some kind of explanation or apology was
due, since the couple lodged in his own hotel, and how he approached the
man in the smoking-room after dinner. A conversation resulted--the man
was quite intelligent after all--of which only one sentence had remained
in his mind.

"Perhaps you can explain it, Felix. I wrote it down, as well as I could
remember. The rest confused me beyond words or memory; though I must
confess it did not seem--well, not utter rot exactly. It was about
astrology and rituals and the worship of the old Egyptians, and I don't
know what else besides. Only, he made it intelligible and almost
sensible, if only I could have got the hang of the thing enough to
remember it. You know," he added, as though believing in spite of
himself, "there _is_ a lot of that wonderful old Egyptian religious
business still hanging about in the atmosphere of this place, say what
you like."

"But this sentence?" Henriot asked. And the other went off to get a
note-book where he had written it down.

"He was jawing, you see," he continued when he came back, Henriot and
his wife having kept silence meanwhile, "about direction being of
importance in religious ceremonies, West and North symbolising certain
powers, or something of the kind, why people turn to the East and all
that sort of thing, and speaking of the whole Universe as if it had
living forces tucked away in it that expressed themselves somehow when
roused up. That's how I remember it anyhow. And then he said this
thing--in answer to some fool question probably that I put." And he read
out of the note-book:

"'You were in danger because you came through the Gateway of the West,
and the Powers from the Gateway of the East were at that moment rising,
and therefore in direct opposition to you.'"

Then came the followi