bsorbing desire was for more light; for freedom to break
through the prison walls of flinty skin and have one peep at earth and
sun. Then, remembering how I had stolen our most potent embalming fluid
and used it on my own body, I attributed continued imprisonment to its
preservative properties and looked upon myself as my own jailer.

As the soul grew, reason discarded this thought and fixed upon my
imprisonment as punishment for disbelief. Seemingly, ages went by; the
soul passed through a period of great remorse; remorse grew to
repentance, and repentance to hope and faith.

Then my soul seemed to fill the whole mummied frame and gained strength
until it acquired the power of motion. I could shift position and look
out upon the valley of Aur-Aa, now called Nilus, where, as time passed,
I saw the maturity and wane of Egyptian power and the iron hand of Rome
reach out in conquest.

The vandal hand of a conquering Roman tore loose the stone portal of the
tomb, and mummy and imprisoned soul were carried across the great sea
and with other husks of former life exhibited in the triumph of
Octavius; then placed in a museum to be gazed upon by the curious of
Rome.

One night robbers broke into the room, thinking the dead carried their
treasures with them, and unwound our grave cloths. My soul pounded and
tore at its case, hoping pantingly that they might break the parchment
shell; but all they did was to remove a string of turquoise and porphyry
beetle-shaped beads. When morning came the mummies were rewrapped and
returned to the exhibit slab.

As the crowds passed by, if one, perchance, looked into my sunken eyes,
the soul, watching hungrily beneath, looked out with an intensity and
read his very inmost mind and most secret thought; and some there were
who seemed to know the meaning of my look.

When I read thoughts of doubt, such as I had known in life, I sought
with utmost soul strength to convey to them some warning and some hope;
and as I struggled thus, there came rifts of light into my prison as
from a higher life.

One day a noble Roman youth came strolling by with a companion and,
stooping, gazed upon my form.

"See, Marcus! How much better preserved this man of ancient Egypt is
than the others. Look! In his sunken eyes you may discern a glimmer as
of intense life; of consciousness; I feel his look, as though he read me
through and through and would speak in advice or warning."

"Oh! Come on! You have eate