y as you can. Mr. Trelawny wants to
see us all there at once. Hurry!"

I jumped up and ran down to the cave. All were there except Margaret,
who came immediately after me carrying Silvio in her arms. When the
cat saw his old enemy he struggled to get down; but Margaret held him
fast and soothed him. I looked at my watch. It was close to eight.

When Margaret was with us her father said directly, with a quiet
insistence which was new to me:

"You believe, Margaret, that Queen Tera has voluntarily undertaken to
give up her freedom for this night? To become a mummy and nothing
more, till the Experiment has been completed? To be content that she
shall be powerless under all and any circumstances until after all is
over and the act of resurrection has been accomplished, or the effort
has failed?" After a pause Margaret answered in a low voice:

"Yes!"

In the pause her whole being, appearance, expression, voice, manner had
changed. Even Silvio noticed it, and with a violent effort wriggled
away from her arms; she did not seem to notice the act. I expected
that the cat, when he had achieved his freedom, would have attacked the
mummy; but on this occasion he did not. He seemed too cowed to
approach it. He shrunk away, and with a piteous "miaou" came over and
rubbed himself against my ankles. I took him up in my arms, and he
nestled there content. Mr. Trelawny spoke again:

"You are sure of what you say! You believe it with all your soul?"
Margaret's face had lost the abstracted look; it now seemed illuminated
with the devotion of one to whom is given to speak of great things.
She answered in a voice which, though quiet, vibrated with conviction:

"I know it! My knowledge is beyond belief!" Mr. Trelawny spoke again:

"Then you are so sure, that were you Queen Tera herself, you would be
willing to prove it in any way that I might suggest?"

"Yes, any way!" the answer rang out fearlessly. He spoke again, in a
voice in which was no note of doubt:

"Even in the abandonment of your Familiar to death--to annihilation."

She paused, and I could see that she suffered--suffered horribly.
There was in her eyes a hunted look, which no man can, unmoved, see in
the eyes of his beloved. I was about to interrupt, when her father's
eyes, glancing round with a fierce determination, met mine. I stood
silent, almost spellbound; so also the other men. Something was going
on before us which we did not understand!

W