r in deciphering the papyrus, that he determined to complete his
reading before we proceeded further. It contained directions for
performing a certain process. This process had reference to the mummy
of the child."

"Do I understand--?"

"Already, you are discrediting the story! Ah! I can see it! but let me
finish. Unaided, we performed this process upon the embalmed body of
the child. Then, in accordance with the directions of that dead
magician--that accursed, malignant being, who thus had sought to
secure for himself a new tenure of evil life--we laid the mummy,
treated in a certain fashion, in the King's Chamber of the Meydum
Pyramid. It remained there for thirty days; from moon to moon--"

"You guarded the entrance?"

"You may assume what you like, Rob; but I could swear before any jury,
that no one entered the pyramid throughout that time. Yet since we
were only human, we may have been deceived in this. I have only to
add, that when at the rising of the new moon in the ancient Sothic
month of Panoi, we again entered the chamber, a living baby, some six
months old, perfectly healthy, solemnly blinked up at the lights which
we held in our trembling hands!"

Dr. Cairn reseated himself at the table, and turned the chair so that
he faced his son. With the smouldering cigar between his teeth, he
sat, a slight smile upon his lips.

Now it was Robert's turn to rise and begin feverishly to pace the
floor.

"You mean, sir, that this infant--which lay in the
pyramid--was--adopted by Sir Michael?"

"Was adopted, yes. Sir Michael engaged nurses for him, reared him here
in England, educating him as an Englishman, sent him to a public
school, sent him to--"

"To Oxford! Antony Ferrara! What! Do you seriously tell me that this
is the history of Antony Ferrara?"

"On my word of honour, boy, that is all I know of Antony Ferrara. Is
it not enough?"

"Merciful God! it is incredible," groaned Robert Cairn.

"From the time that he attained to manhood," said Dr. Cairn evenly,
"this adopted son of my poor old friend has passed from crime to
crime. By means which are beyond my comprehension, and which alone
serve to confirm his supernatural origin, he has acquired--knowledge.
According to the Ancient Egyptian beliefs the _Khu_ (or magical
powers) of a fully-equipped Adept, at the death of the body, could
enter into anything prepared for its reception. According to these
ancient beliefs, then, the _Khu_ of the high priest