seemed to single
out Miss Trelawny as different from all others concerned; and in a
mystery to be alone is to be suspected, ultimately if not immediately.
I thought it better not to say anything. In such a case silence is
indeed golden; and if I said nothing now I might have less to defend,
or explain, or take back later. I was, therefore, secretly glad that
his form of putting his argument did not require any answer from
me--for the present, at all events. Doctor Winchester did not seem to
expect any answer--a fact which, when I recognised it, gave my
pleasure, I hardly knew why. He paused for a while, sitting with his
chin in his hand, his eyes staring at vacancy, whilst his brows were
fixed. His cigar was held limp between his fingers; he had apparently
forgotten it. In an even voice, as though commencing exactly where he
had left off, he resumed his argument:

"The other horn of the dilemma is a different affair altogether; and if
we once enter on it we must leave everything in the shape of science
and experience behind us. I confess that it has its fascinations for
me; though at every new thought I find myself romancing in a way that
makes me pull up suddenly and look facts resolutely in the face. I
sometimes wonder whether the influence or emanation from the sick-room
at times affects me as it did the others--the Detective, for instance.
Of course it may be that if it is anything chemical, any drug, for
example, in vaporeal form, its effects may be cumulative. But then,
what could there be that could produce such an effect? The room is, I
know, full of mummy smell; and no wonder, with so many relics from the
tomb, let alone the actual mummy of that animal which Silvio attacked.
By the way, I am going to test him tomorrow; I have been on the trace
of a mummy cat, and am to get possession of it in the morning. When I
bring it here we shall find out if it be a fact that racial instinct
can survive a few thousand years in the grave. However, to get back to
the subject in hand. These very mummy smells arise from the presence
of substances, and combinations of substances, which the Egyptian
priests, who were the learned men and scientists of their time, found
by the experience of centuries to be strong enough to arrest the
natural forces of decay. There must be powerful agencies at work to
effect such a purpose; and it is possible that we may have here some
rare substance or combination whose qualities and