breath, and mingled with daily meat and drink. So be it!--They were
parodies of humanity who should live on a purer diet or inhale a rarer
atmosphere.

All the lights in the great hall, except the altar lamp, were burnt
out, and the place was very dusky. Nurse went straight towards the
secret door, looking neither to the right nor left; while Helwyse, who
did not suspect its existence, was prying into each dark nook and
corner. An inarticulate exclamation from the woman arrested him. She
was standing behind the altar, close to the clock. As he approached
she pointed to the wall. She had found the key in the lock, but dared
not be first to brave the sight of what might be within. She appealed
to the strength of the man, yet with a morbid jealousy of his
precedence.

Helywse saw the key, and, turning it, the seeming-solid wall disclosed
a door, opening outwards, a single slab of massive granite. Within all
was dark, and there was no sound. Was anything there?

He looked round to address Nurse, but her appearance checked him. She
was staring into the darkness; he could feel her one-eyed glance pass
him, fastening on something beyond. He moved to let the lamplight
enter the doorway; and then in the illuminated square that fell on the
floor he saw Manetho's upturned face. The fallen priest lay with one
arm doubled under him, the other thrown across his breast. Nurse
stared at her broken idol, motionless, with stertorous breathing.

But was Manetho dead? Helwyse, the physician, stepped across the
threshold, and stooped to examine the body. The dumb creature followed
and lay down, animal-like, close beside the deity of her worship.
Presently the physician said,--

"There's life in him, but he's hurt internally. We must find a way to
move him from here."

"Life!"--the woman heard, nor cared for more. Her dry fixedness gave
way with a gasp, and she broke into hysteric tears, rocking herself
backwards and forwards, crooning over the insensible body, or stooping
to kiss it. She had no sense nor heed for the lover of her youth.

"Could such a creature have been his wife? even his mistress?"
questioned Helwyse of himself. But he spoke out sharply:--

"You must stop this. He must be revived at once. Go and make ready a
bed, and I will carry him to it."

As he spoke, a silent shadow fell across the body, and Gnulemah stood
in the doorway. Balder's first impulse was to motion her away from a
spectacle so unsuited to her eyes