ondered if, amid those mountains of
erudition surrounding him, there was any wisdom so strange, and so
awful, as that of Antony Ferrara.

He soon found the information for which he was looking, and having
copied it into his notebook, he left the reading-room. Then, as he was
recrossing the hall near the foot of the principal staircase, he
paused. He found himself possessed by a sudden desire to visit the
Egyptian Rooms, upstairs. He had several times inspected the exhibits
in those apartments, but never since his return from the land to whose
ancient civilisation they bore witness.

Cairn was not pressed for time in these days, therefore he turned and
passed slowly up the stairs.

There were but few visitors to the grove of mummies that afternoon.
When he entered the first room he found a small group of tourists
passing idly from case to case; but on entering the second, he saw
that he had the apartment to himself. He remembered that his father
had mentioned on one occasion that there was a ring in this room which
had belonged to the Witch-Queen. Robert Cairn wondered in which of the
cases it was exhibited, and by what means he should be enabled to
recognise it.

Bending over a case containing scarabs and other amulets, many set in
rings, he began to read the inscriptions upon the little tickets
placed beneath some of them; but none answered to the description,
neither the ticketed nor the unticketed. A second case he examined
with like results. But on passing to a third, in an angle near the
door, his gaze immediately lighted upon a gold ring set with a strange
green stone, engraved in a peculiar way. It bore no ticket, yet as
Robert Cairn eagerly bent over it, he knew, beyond the possibility of
doubt, that this was the ring of the Witch-Queen.

Where had he seen it, or its duplicate?

With his eyes fixed upon the gleaming stone, he sought to remember.
That he had seen this ring before, or one exactly like it, he knew,
but strangely enough he was unable to determine where and upon what
occasion. So, his hands resting upon the case, he leant, peering down
at the singular gem. And as he stood thus, frowning in the effort of
recollection, a dull white hand, having long tapered fingers, glided
across the glass until it rested directly beneath his eyes. Upon one
of the slim fingers was an exact replica of the ring in the case!

Robert Cairn leapt back with a stifled exclamation.

Antony Ferrara stood before him!