evilishly; for a moment he
thought that his plane had crashed, and that he was lying in the
wreckage. Then he tried to move his hands, and found that he couldn't.
They were bound. His eyes opened.

He discovered that he was lying flat on the ice, hands tied behind his
back. Somebody was moaning softly. It was the girl. She too was tied.
Wes tried to sit up; and a hand grasped his shoulder tightly and
yanked him to his feet.

The big warrior who had felled him, his bloody sword still in hand,
stared closely at the American, and fingered his fur jacket curiously.
Presently he muttered a few words in some strange tongue. When Craig
did not reply, he again spat out the words, his dark brows bunching
malevolently. And this time Wes understood part of what he said.

He was speaking ancient Egyptian!

That proved it. These three, who but half an hour before were dead and
entombed in the ice, _were_ Egyptians. Trying to cope with his
returning bewilderment, Craig racked his brains for remnants of the
difficult language. And finally said laboriously:

"Who--who art thou?"

A torrent of words broke from the warrior. Only a few were
understandable.

"Shabako--Pharaoh Shabako!" And he repeated Craig's question: "Who art
thou?"

The girl was sitting up now, and peering at the American. Her eyes
were still tear-filled, for the dead body of the young man was at her
side. She cried out a warning, and Craig caught most of it.

"Be careful, Stranger! He will slay thee as he slew Inaros!"

"Answer me! Who art thou?" repeated the warrior angrily. His patience
was short; he played with the hilt of his sword.

"I come," said Wesley Craig slowly, groping for words, "from a far
country. I found the three of you in this ice--dead. I brought thee
back to life."

* * * * *

There was an astounded silence. Then the man who called himself
Shabako deliberately cuffed his prisoner on the cheek. "Blasphemer!"
he roared. "To claim the powers of the gods! Thou shall die for that!
Yea, the ice entrapped me when I was about to slay the guilty
Inaros--but our mighty god Aten restored me to life! Enough! The
priests shall deal with thee!"

He jerked the trembling girl to Craig's side, and with a prick of his
sword in their backs made them go forward. The American was too
bewildered to think evenly. Why, the god Aten was the Sun God!--the
divinity Egypt worshipped in five hundred B.C.? How had these
warm-blo