ranslucent spaces in the stone of the
box. You remember the hieroglyphic writing had told that the jewel
came from the heart of an aerolite, and that the coffer was cut from it
also. It might be, I thought, that the light of the seven stars,
shining in the right direction, might have some effect on the box, or
something within it. I raised the blind and looked out. The Plough was
high in the heavens, and both its stars and the Pole Star were straight
opposite the window. I pulled the table with the coffer out into the
light, and shifted it until the translucent patches were in the
direction of the stars. Instantly the box began to glow, as you saw it
under the lamps, though but slightly. I waited and waited; but the sky
clouded over, and the light died away. So I got wires and lamps--you
know how often I use them in experiments--and tried the effect of
electric light. It took me some time to get the lamps properly placed,
so that they would correspond to the parts of the stone, but the moment
I got them right the whole thing began to glow as you have seen it.

"'I could get no further, however. There was evidently something
wanting. All at once it came to me that if light could have some
effect there should be in the tomb some means of producing light, for
there could not be starlight in the Mummy Pit in the cavern. Then the
whole thing seemed to become clear. On the bloodstone table, which has
a hollow carved in its top, into which the bottom of the coffer fits, I
laid the Magic Coffer; and I at once saw that the odd protuberances so
carefully wrought in the substance of the stone corresponded in a way
to the stars in the constellation. These, then, were to hold lights.

"'Eureka!' I cried. 'All we want now is the lamps.'" I tried placing
the electric lights on, or close to, the protuberances. But the glow
never came to the stone. So the conviction grew on me that there were
special lamps made for the purpose. If we could find them, a step on
the road to solving the mystery should be gained.

"'But what about the lamps?' I asked. 'Where are they? When are we to
discover them? How are we to know them if we do find them? What--"

"He stopped me at once:

"'One thing at a time!' he said quietly. 'Your first question contains
all the rest. Where are these lamps? I shall tell you: In the tomb!'

"'In the tomb!' I repeated in surprise. 'Why you and I searched the
place ourselves from end to end; an