n
the British Museum, and had rooms in Hart Street. When I came, he was
all on fire with excitement. I had not seen him in such a glow since
before the news of his wife's death. He took me at once into his room.
The window blinds were down and the shutters closed; not a ray of
daylight came in. The ordinary lights in the room were not lit, but
there were a lot of powerful electric lamps, fifty candle-power at
least, arranged on one side of the room. The little bloodstone table
on which the heptagonal coffer stands was drawn to the centre of the
room. The coffer looked exquisite in the glare of light which shone on
it. It actually seemed to glow as if lit in some way from within.

"'What do you think of it?' he asked.

"'It is like a jewel,' I answered. 'You may well call it the
'sorcerer's Magic Coffer', if it often looks like that. It almost
seems to be alive.'

"'Do you know why it seems so?'

"'From the glare of the light, I suppose?'

"'Light of course,' he answered, 'but it is rather the disposition of
light.' As he spoke he turned up the ordinary lights of the room and
switched off the special ones. The effect on the stone box was
surprising; in a second it lost all its glowing effect. It was still a
very beautiful stone, as always; but it was stone and no more.

"'Do you notice anything about the arrangement of the lamps?' he asked.

"'No!'

"'They were in the shape of the stars in the Plough, as the stars are
in the ruby!' The statement came to me with a certain sense of
conviction. I do not know why, except that there had been so many
mysterious associations with the mummy and all belonging to it that any
new one seemed enlightening. I listened as Trelawny went on to explain:

"'For sixteen years I have never ceased to think of that adventure, or
to try to find a clue to the mysteries which came before us; but never
until last night did I seem to find a solution. I think I must have
dreamed of it, for I woke all on fire about it. I jumped out of bed
with a determination of doing something, before I quite knew what it
was that I wished to do. Then, all at once, the purpose was clear
before me. There were allusions in the writing on the walls of the tomb
to the seven stars of the Great Bear that go to make up the Plough; and
the North was again and again emphasized. The same symbols were
repeated with regard to the "Magic Box", as we called it. We had
already noticed those peculiar t