the great Queen had arranged!"

"But," I answered, "that can hardly be. All that she arranged was in a
tomb high up in a rock, in a desert solitude, shut away from the world
by every conceivable means. She seems to have depended on this
isolation to insure against accident. Surely, here in another country
and age, with quite different conditions, she may in her anxiety make
mistakes and treat any of you--of us--as she did those others in times
gone past. Nine men that we know of have been slain by her own hand or
by her instigation. She can be remorseless if she will." It did not
strike me till afterwards when I was thinking over this conversation,
how thoroughly I had accepted the living and conscious condition of
Queen Tera as a fact. Before I spoke, I had feared I might offend Mr.
Trelawny; but to my pleasant surprise he smiled quite genially as he
answered me:

"My dear fellow, in a way you are quite right. The Queen did
undoubtedly intend isolation; and, all told, it would be best that her
experiment should be made as she arranged it. But just think, that
became impossible when once the Dutch explorer had broken into her
tomb. That was not my doing. I am innocent of it, though it was the
cause of my setting out to rediscover the sepulchre. Mind, I do not
say for a moment that I would not have done just the same as Van Huyn.
I went into the tomb from curiosity; and I took away what I did, being
fired with the zeal of acquisitiveness which animates the collector.
But, remember also, that at this time I did not know of the Queen's
intention of resurrection; I had no idea of the completeness of her
preparations. All that came long afterwards. But when it did come, I
have done all that I could to carry out her wishes to the full. My
only fear is that I may have misinterpreted some of her cryptic
instructions, or have omitted or overlooked something. But of this I
am certain; I have left undone nothing that I can imagine right to be
done; and I have done nothing that I know of to clash with Queen Tera's
arrangement. I want her Great Experiment to succeed. To this end I
have not spared labour or time or money--or myself. I have endured
hardship, and braved danger. All my brains; all my knowledge and
learning, such as they are; all my endeavours such as they can be, have
been, are, and shall be devoted to this end, till we either win or lose
the great stake that we play for."

"The great stake?" I repeat