r days of absolute negation of life without
being weakened by it somehow.

As the hours crept by, the time passed more and more slowly. The other
men seemed to get unconsciously a little drowsy. I wondered if in the
case of Mr. Trelawny and Mr. Corbeck, who had already been under the
hypnotic influence of the Queen, the same dormance was manifesting
itself. Doctor Winchester had periods of distraction which grew longer
and more frequent as the time wore on.

As to Margaret, the suspense told on her exceedingly, as might have
been expected in the case of a woman. She grew paler and paler still;
till at last about midnight, I began to be seriously alarmed about her.
I got her to come into the library with me, and tried to make her lie
down on a sofa for a little while. As Mr. Trelawny had decided that
the experiment was to be made exactly at the seventh hour after sunset,
it would be as nearly as possible three o'clock in the morning when the
great trial should be made. Even allowing a whole hour for the final
preparations, we had still two hours of waiting to go through, and I
promised faithfully to watch her and to awake her at any time she might
name. She would not hear of it, however. She thanked me sweetly and
smiled at me as she did so; but she assured me that she was not sleepy,
and that she was quite able to bear up. That it was only the suspense
and excitement of waiting that made her pale. I agreed perforce; but I
kept her talking of many things in the library for more than an hour;
so that at last, when she insisted on going back to her father's room I
felt that I had at least done something to help her pass the time.

We found the three men sitting patiently in silence. With manlike
fortitude they were content to be still when they felt they had done
all in their power. And so we waited.

The striking of two o'clock seemed to freshen us all up. Whatever
shadows had been settling over us during the long hours preceding
seemed to lift at once; and we went about our separate duties alert and
with alacrity. We looked first to the windows to see that they were
closed, and we got ready our respirators to put them on when the time
should be close at hand. We had from the first arranged to use them
for we did not know whether some noxious fume might not come from the
magic coffer when it should be opened. Somehow, it never seemed to
occur to any of us that there was any doubt as to its opening.

T