* 
 
 
 CYr?yiU> r C 1 *AV? V TX\/T AT> 
 . BRYSON TAILOR 

 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO 
 
 1
 
 y 7 " fi,
 
 IN THE DWELLINGS 
 OF THE WILDERNESS
 
 BY 
 
 C. BRYSON TAYLOR 
 
 There are more things in heaven and earth, 
 
 Horatio, 
 Than are dreamt of in our philosophy." 
 
 HAMLET I. v. 
 
 WITH DECORATIONS IN COLOUR 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 1904
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1904, 
 
 BY 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 Published April, 1904 
 
 Decorations in colour by the Decorative Designers 
 Cover and initials by Bertha Stuart
 
 To 
 
 My Mother
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 I. IN THE DARK BACKWARD AND ABYSM or 
 
 TIME i 
 
 II. THE DOOR WHICH WAS CALLED FORBIDDEN 19 
 
 III. WITHIN THE TOMB 47 
 
 IV. "THE WOMAN TEMPTED ME" . . 65 
 V. A TOUCH or THE SUN .... 87 
 
 VI. THE ONE WHO WENT AWAY . . .107 
 
 VII. THE OTHER WHO RETURNED . . 139 
 
 VIII. AT THE ELEVENTH Hou . . . . 157
 
 In the Dwellings of the 
 Wilderness 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 I n tbe 2>arfc JBachwara and abgsm of Cfme 
 
 EANE came out of his 
 tent, lighting a particu- 
 larly unclean briar, and 
 strolled over to where 
 
 Merritt lay flat on his back, his hands 
 behind his head, staring out over the 
 desert into the painted sunset sky. Off 
 to the right were the excavations, gap- 
 ing like raw wounds in the monotone
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 of brown desert sand; huge mounds 
 of out-flung earth, monstrous and gro- 
 tesque, deep pits and chasms with slop- 
 ing ridges and embankments ; in the great 
 mound called by the Arabs the Mound of 
 the Lost City, which overtopped and dom- 
 inated all the rest, wide trenches, long and 
 deep, cutting far into the hidden heart of 
 it, by which men had ascended from and 
 descended to what lay below. To the 
 left were the small army of labourers, 
 camped behind one of the smaller un- 
 tapped mounds, intent upon their meagre 
 supper of parched corn. The bluish 
 smoke of a fire rose from behind a jutting 
 breastwork of earth where Ibraheem, the 
 overseer, was making the thick, fragrant 
 coffee of his land. Already the loneliness 
 of coming night was upon the earth; al- 
 
 2
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 ready the sun had dipped below the des- 
 ert's rim, and the fierce colour of the sky 
 was fading. Away to the east, behind 
 the camps, far to the edge of the world, 
 the shadow of darkness was racing with 
 swift, silent strides. 
 
 Deane sat down beside Merritt's pros- 
 trate figure. He was tall, and deep- 
 chested, and thin-flanked, with a certain 
 gravity about him which made him appear 
 older than his years. His eyes were brown 
 and quiet, his hair a brownish red, re- 
 markably stiff and wiry ; about his mouth 
 were faint lines of humour. Merritt, 
 short and thin and tough as whit-leather, 
 grey of hair and keen of face, moved a 
 hand from beneath his head, tilted back 
 the hat that hid his face, and looked up at 
 Deane. 
 
 3
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 " Where's Holloway ? " he inquired. 
 
 " He took his camera early this after- 
 noon and said he was going to get some 
 views of what we've uncovered of the 
 North Temple," Deane replied. " Seems 
 to me we ought to find more tablets in 
 there somewhere well-preserved ones. 
 This place is modern compared with some 
 of the sites of other cities we've come 
 across." 
 
 He eyed the excavations with interest, 
 eager to probe the depths of their ancient 
 mystery. Also he wished that Holloway 
 would return. Holloway was young and 
 ardently imaginative, and one could talk 
 to him about the spell of fascination 
 which this mighty grave held for one, the 
 thoughts of greatness risen and passed 
 away and lost which it conjured up. One 
 4
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 could not easily talk to Merritt thus, be 
 cause Merritt was an old hand at the busi- 
 ness, eminently practical and hard as 
 rocks, and matter-of-fact to his finger- 
 ends, apt to confuse sentiment with 
 sentimentality and consequently de- 
 spise it. 
 
 The sun sank below the horizon and 
 swiftly the world grew dark. From the 
 men's camp came a mournful chant, sub- 
 dued, and heard as from far away, and 
 the measured thump of a drum. At inter- 
 vals a donkey raised his voice, after the 
 manner of a saw-shrieking its way through 
 wood. With the darkness came the stars, 
 leaping into the black arch of heaven, 
 great and of a number beyond all count- 
 ing; the night-wind turned the heat of 
 the day to sudden coolness, sweeping 
 5
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 softly among the ruins. The mounds of 
 earth, softened in outline by the darkness, 
 loomed vast and shadowlike, melting into 
 the sombre mystery of the night. Mingled 
 with the chant of the natives and the occa- 
 sional hee-haw of the donkeys was the 
 fretful bleating of goats, destined for the 
 masters' food. Around the jutting earth- 
 work a faint gleam of light shone from 
 the overseer's fire. Over all the night 
 brooded, swallowing sound and motion in 
 its immensity. 
 
 " Those brutes would work like cattle 
 all day and sing like bullfrogs all night," 
 Merritt said suddenly. He heaved him- 
 self on an elbow and shouted for 
 Ibraheem. Soon this one came stalk- 
 ing from his fire, a blot against the 
 
 night. 
 
 6
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 " Why are the men so noisy to-night ? " 
 Merritt wished to know. 
 
 " Ney pray for well-luck, saar," Ibra- 
 heem said, answering Merritt's Arabic 
 with proud English, fluent and execrable, 
 and an accent all his own. " Nis defunct 
 citee is not good to be disturbed. Lord- 
 God, He curse it in way back sometimes, 
 and ne men are grief-ful and fearing of 
 um ghos'. Ghos', yaas. Vurry igno- 
 runt men." 
 
 " Oh, that's it, is it? " Merritt, losing 
 interest, settled again to the ground. 
 " Well, tell them they need not be afraid 
 of ghosts. The last one died of old age a 
 good thousand years ago." 
 
 " Vurry good, saar ! " Ibraheem said, 
 conceiving this the most correct and Eng- 
 lish response to make. Merritt and his 
 7
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 men were the first Americans he had met, 
 otherwise he would have said "All right." 
 He fell back into the shadows; and by 
 degrees the chant died to a whimper and a 
 whine, and ceased. 
 
 " We'll get to the east wing of the pal- 
 ace to-morrow, don't you think ? " Deane 
 inquired. 
 
 Merritt stretched comfortably on 
 the warm ground and cast his hat 
 aside. 
 
 " I should think so." His voice became 
 slow, hushed to accord with the quiet of 
 the night. " The palace where those old 
 people lived and died two thousand years 
 ago. Fancy what this place must have 
 looked like then, the centre and heart of a 
 civilisation that throbbed with pulses as 
 keen as ours. Tell you what, Deane, it 
 8
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 gives me a queer feeling at the roots of 
 my hair every time I come to a closed door 
 or open a buried tomb. * Think of it, old 
 man ; take it home to you and live on it ! 
 Yours is the first foot to cross that thresh- 
 old, the first hand to pick up tablet or jar 
 or potsherd since those old folks left it.' 
 That's what I say to myself every time. 
 They died, or were killed off somehow, 
 and they left their city behind them, de- 
 serted." Merritt's voice grew slower, 
 with long pauses between his sentences. 
 He seemed not talking to Deane at all. 
 " Then the courtyards began to fill with 
 dust and sand, just a thin layer at first, 
 you know, with all the colours good and 
 bright, and the walls standing. Then 
 weeds began to grow between the stones, 
 and the gardens went to jungle and the 
 9
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 layer of dust deepened. By and by a wall 
 fell . . . out here in the loneliness, a 
 dead city left to its fate. . . . Wild 
 beasts made the halls their lair, and mon- 
 keys chattered in this very palace we are 
 going to see to-morrow, and lizards slept 
 on the steps in the sun. . . . And 
 more walls fell, and the sand crept up 
 around them, and there was never a voice 
 to break the stillness, nor a sound except 
 the dropping of a stone. Then by degrees 
 the face of the world changed, and the 
 earth, like an ocean wave, rose until the 
 city was covered, and there were only mis- 
 shapen mounds to show that life had been 
 there. And the city was dead am! btfrred, 
 waking" for us, just us three from the 
 other end of the world, to lay it open to 
 
 the light once more." 
 10
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 Abruptly his voice ceased. In the dark- 
 ness neither could see the other's face. 
 Deane sat and listened silently, immeas- 
 urably surprised. Merritt the hard- 
 headed, Merritt the practical, who would 
 sneer at sentimentality, to rhapsodise 
 thus? Deane knew that it is precisely the 
 man most reserved and self-contained, 
 who, when he speaks at all, will go to 
 greater lengths even than the habitually 
 confiding, and lay bare the deep, shy heart 
 of him to its very roots. Deane also 
 knew that when this rare mood fastens 
 on such an one it is to be marvelled at 
 and its tale held sacred ; for always it will 
 mark some crisis in the man's life, the 
 outward sign of a stress which perhaps 
 none but himself may know. And because 
 
 Deane's every nerve thrilled in response 
 II
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 to the suggestion in Merritt's words, and 
 because that might be said in darkness, 
 between men, which daylight would show 
 up pitilessly and render commonplace and 
 futilely inane, Deane said slowly, staring 
 up at the great stars that blazed above 
 them: 
 
 " I didn't know you felt like that about 
 it too." 
 
 Merritt countered with quick eager- 
 ness. 
 
 " Do you ? Can you put yourself back 
 in that old vanished life when you come 
 upon the broken corpse of it here, and 
 reverence it ? Can you build these ruined 
 walls again, and see, instead of mounds 
 and trenches, a city with tower-capped 
 walls, and groves of trees, and gardens, 
 teeming with human life whose very ashes 
 
 12
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 have dissolved ? That's what I do, every 
 time. It began when I was a little shaver, 
 back home. They wanted to make an en- 
 gineer of me, but I said I'd rather dig up 
 things that other people had built than 
 spend my time building things for other 
 people to dig up. It sort of took a grip 
 on me and it never let go." 
 
 Deane nodded sympathetically in the 
 darkness. 
 
 " I know what you mean, all right. 
 But well, I had no idea that you felt 
 er this way about it." 
 
 Merritt laughed. 
 
 " I don't know what made it all ooze 
 out to-night," he confessed. " But I've 
 been thinking about it a lot. It '11 be a big 
 thing, Deane. It will mean a good deal 
 to all of us, if we can put it through." 
 13
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 " Why shouldn't we put it through ? " 
 Deane questioned. 
 
 Merritt sat up and felt himself for 
 matches. 
 
 " I don't know ! " he answered some- 
 what dubiously. " No reason, I suppose. 
 But somehow, all along, I haven't been 
 able to see us getting to the end of it. I 
 can plan out to a certain point with a rea- 
 sonable certainty, barring accidents and 
 the will of God, that things will fall out 
 as I intended. But beyond that point, in 
 a way it is as though I had an inkling that 
 it was the unexpected which would hap- 
 pen. Of course, it is merely nonsense. 
 By the way, hasn't Holloway got back 
 yet?" 
 
 " I presume so," Deane answered. 
 " His boy left those rolls of films he in- 
 14
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 sisted on bringing, in the sun yesterday, 
 and they've melted. I told him films 
 would be a good deal of a nuisance in a 
 climate like this." 
 
 " He'll come out all right, I guess," 
 Merritt said easily. " It's his first trip, 
 and he's green, but he's a forehanded 
 youngster, and he surely knows how to 
 get good pictures." 
 
 The two fell into silence, conscious 
 subtly of a new sympathy between them. 
 Each had penetrated the other's shell, had 
 touched the hidden spring of a feeling 
 which both shared; and without more 
 words it became a bond between them. 
 They smoked quietly, at peace with 
 themselves, with each other, with all the 
 world. 
 
 A black figure grew out of the night 
 15
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 and came over to them, with the faint 
 glow of a cigarette stabbing a hole in the 
 darkness. 
 
 "Apparatus all right?" Deane asked. 
 " Get any views this afternoon ? " 
 
 " Yes," Holloway answered. " I've 
 been prowling. This place is great. Aw- 
 fully lonesome sort of feeling it gives a 
 fellow, though, to look into the holes 
 we've dug and think what the old chaps 
 would say if they could see us." Deane 
 and Merritt, unseen, grinned in sympa- 
 thy. " That brute of a boy got all my 
 films sunstruck four dozen rolls. I 
 didn't expect to use them much, but I 
 hate to have 'em go, on principle. I 
 believe I'll turn in. Good-night, every- 
 body." 
 
 " 'Night ! " they chorused solemnly. 
 16
 
 In the Dark Backward 
 
 Holloway disappeared. Soon Deane 
 followed him, and Merritt was left sitting 
 alone in the night, with his hard, weather- 
 worn face and his dream-woven fancies.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 ttbe 2>oor tUbicb was Called 
 
 EFORE dawn the men 
 had breakfast, and began 
 work when there was 
 light enough to see their 
 tools. Holloway, trailing his tripod be- 
 hind him, and followed by a boy with a 
 case of plates, went from spot to spot, 
 taking views. - He was a cheery youth, 
 lithe and active, with amazingly light hair, 
 a pair of humourous blue eyes, a square- 
 jawed face burned to a consistent and 
 apoplectic scarlet, and hands much stained 
 by chemicals. 
 
 Merritt, his helmet jammed well over 
 19
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 his eyes, climbed up and down the trenches 
 tirelessly, a wad of crumpled plans in 
 hand. He was in all places at once, keen, 
 clear-eyed, practical, overseeing and di- 
 recting, called upon for help and advice 
 in all directions. The mood of the night 
 had come and gone ; again he was as the 
 world knew him. The labourers swarmed 
 over and around the mounds like busy 
 ants. At one side of a hill of earth and 
 rubbish a file ascended the steep steps of 
 trampled earth which ran down into the 
 trenches, unending, ceaseless, bearing 
 baskets of dirt. At the other side, down 
 more steps, a file descended with empty 
 baskets; from the bottom came the thud 
 of pick and spade and the hoarse shouts 
 of the foremen of the gangs. Above them 
 
 was the clear morning sky, not yet heated 
 20
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 to molten brass ; around them the desert, 
 vast and soundless; beneath them the 
 fragments of an olden world, whose story 
 was lost in the dimness of bygone ages. 
 
 Ibraheem climbed agilely to the top of 
 the trench which had been opened farthest 
 into the mound, spied Deane making cab- 
 alistic signs in a notebook, using one 
 knee as desk, and hurried over. 
 
 " Saar," he announced, swelling with 
 importance and the pride of his discovery, 
 " the mens find a wall, unruinated, with a 
 door and a writing upon it. Where are 
 Mister Merritt ? " 
 
 " By the temple wall, with Mr. Hollo- 
 way," Deane answered. " Go call him 
 quick." 
 
 Ibraheem went, at a dignified dog-trot ; 
 and Deane stuffed his notes into a pocket 
 
 21
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 and ran down the trench to where the 
 workmen, chattering shrilly, were gath- 
 ered around a mass of debris. It was not 
 the first find of the expedition, but each 
 fresh discovery sent the same tingle of 
 excitement through the entire outfit. For 
 there is nothing more stirring than to 
 stand at the threshold of a long-dead 
 world, on the verge of entering, knowing 
 that the next blow of the pick, the next 
 step forward, may reveal either lost se- 
 crets of dead peoples which will shed 
 fresh light through the grey mists of ages 
 or nothing ; may turn a new page in the 
 sealed Book of the Things that Were, or 
 disclose a blank. Even the basket-men 
 swarmed to look, craning over the shoul- 
 ders of the pickmen. 
 
 The trench was close on a hundred and 
 22
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 fifty feet wide, bounded on either side by 
 towering walls of earth. That it revealed 
 a section of the ancient palace was to be 
 inferred from the fragments of brick 
 pavement, the bases of a line of broken 
 pillars deep bedded in the ground. In the 
 side of the trench where the men were 
 gathered, a fragment of wall, rising 
 nearly ten feet in height, with a walled-up 
 doorway, was visible. Merritt, arriving 
 breathless, took command, restraining too 
 ardent impatience on the part of the work- 
 men. Carefully the earth was removed 
 and the find laid bare. 
 
 "Looks like a tomb," said Holloway, 
 leaving his camera and coming up. 
 " Bricks, laid in bitumen, as usual. Hi ! 
 look out, you fellows! careful with your 
 tools, there! There's an inscription over 
 23
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 the door that you don't want to injure. 
 Deane, bring your wisdom to bear on 
 this." 
 
 " Scrape away the dirt, one of you," 
 Merritt ordered; and a half-naked la- 
 bourer sprang on the shoulders of a com- 
 rade and cleared away the clogging earth. 
 Deane caught a sudden glimpse of Mer- 
 ritt's face and was reminded sharply of 
 his outbreak of the night before. It was 
 quite white with excitement, though his 
 hands were steady, and his voice was cool. 
 Then Deane, instantly alive with eager- 
 ness at sight of the carven words, took a 
 careful copy of them in his notebook and 
 hied himself away to decipher their mean- 
 ing. Holloway placed his tripod in posi- 
 tion, found the focus, and took an expo- 
 sure of the wall and the low blocked-up 
 24
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 doorway with its mysterious sign above. 
 He was hot with excitement, as always 
 upon such occasions, and begged strenu- 
 ously that the door be instantly broken 
 down. 
 
 " We have a couple of hours yet before 
 it's too hot to work," Merritt observed. 
 He pushed his helmet back and consulted 
 his watch. " We'll make a beginning 
 anyhow and keep it up as long as we can. 
 From the appearance of the place, and the 
 plan of what we've unearthed, I should 
 say that this tomb, or whatever it was, 
 must have been several feet below what 
 was then the level of the ground. Got it 
 already, Deane?" 
 
 Deane strolled up to the doorway, 
 his pipe clenched between his teeth, his 
 hat on the back of his head, and studied 
 25
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 the inscription intently. Then he com- 
 pared it with the copy he had made, and 
 with various pages of his notebook. From 
 time to time he mumbled unintelligibly. 
 At last he turned upon them. 
 
 " I thought it was a tomb," he observed 
 with satisfaction. " If I'm not mistaken, 
 with this short time to go over it, the in- 
 scription says something like this: 'Whoso 
 cometh, now or hereafter' hereafter? 
 yes, that's right ' wake not the soul that 
 sleeps within.' ' 
 
 " He must have wanted to sleep sound, 
 whoever he was," Holloway observed 
 with flippancy. " Can't we make a be- 
 ginning? If the old man's still here, 
 I'd like to collect him before it gets too 
 dark." 
 
 Soon a force of men was at work, a 
 26
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 swarm of ants prying around the edges 
 of the walled-up door, where, above, the 
 ancient message gave its warning. From 
 this inscription Deane found himself un- 
 accountably unable to keep his eyes. He 
 and Holloway discussed it in low tones, 
 to the accompaniment of the thud of fall- 
 ing pick and spade. Holloway wavered 
 between the seductive idea of buried treas- 
 ure, whose owner had perhaps sought to 
 guard it with a theatrical warning, and 
 the bejewelled mummy of the king he 
 wished to collect. Deane hoped there 
 would be tablets to decipher ; Merritt said 
 nothing. When Holloway questioned, 
 wishing his theories on the subject, Mer- 
 ritt answered shortly : 
 
 " I'm not expecting anything in these 
 
 countries any more. It's the unexpected 
 27
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 that turns up and floors you, no matter 
 what you think you'll get." 
 
 " You're right about these countries ! " 
 quoth Holloway with sudden enthusiasm. 
 " They don't follow the rules and regula- 
 tions of Home. After all, I suppose 
 there's no reason why queer things 
 shouldn't happen in queer lands. You 
 don't understand 'em you can't under- 
 stand 'em but, my aunt ! don't they catch 
 you right where you live sometimes! 
 There's something about these Eastern 
 lands that goes beyond the depth of a 
 Westerner. It's in the very air of the 
 place, and it's got into the people. I've 
 knocked around some in India and Egypt 
 and all that, but I know precious little 
 more about them, except on the surface, 
 than when I began. There's something 
 28
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 that gets away from you; you can't get 
 close enough to it to analyse it ; you know 
 it's there, but you can't give it a name. 
 Even the little simple things seem some- 
 how different. I've stood for hours out- 
 side a Buddhist temple, just listening to a 
 woman praying that prayer of theirs 
 ' Om mani padme Hum! ' until I could al- 
 most fancy I was a Buddhist myself, 
 praying with her. There's mystery all 
 through it to me, and always will be. You 
 see things and know them to exist, as well 
 as you know anything, and can't account 
 for them. And well, once or twice I 
 haven't seen things, but I knew they were 
 there all the same. I think it must be 
 what's behind all this the past back of it, 
 that makes it so deuced queer. Why, 
 
 when I was in Darjeeling " 
 
 29
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 But his audience melted away, and Hol- 
 loway, his spirits nowise dampened by the 
 curtailment of his reminiscences, went and 
 helped the workmen dig, and sang their 
 weird labour chants with them, with the 
 harsh rattling chorus of pick and spade 
 in them, and succeeded in infusing the 
 men with his own overflowing enthu- 
 siasm, so that the work went on by 
 strides. 
 
 The sun climbed higher, and the heat 
 became great. Some of the men showed 
 signs of exhaustion. 
 
 " We'll have to knock off for a while," 
 Merritt said with reluctance. " It's ten 
 o'clock already. Deane, better keep your 
 hat on if you're going up. It's hot enough 
 in the sun to give you a stroke in ten 
 minutes." 
 
 30
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 Deane sat on the stump of a broken col- 
 umn and fanned his flushed face with his 
 grey campaign hat. 
 
 "I've got a nasty headache on already," 
 he admitted. " Hi ! Ibraheem ! Go to my 
 tent, will you, and get the blue bottle out 
 of my medicine chest. The blue bottle, 
 remember ; it's the only blue bottle there. 
 Put a spoonful in a cup of water and bring 
 it here." 
 
 Ibraheem departed. 
 
 " Better try something a bit stronger," 
 Merritt suggested.. 
 
 Deane demurred. 
 
 " No ; it's nothing but the beginning 
 of a headache. Bromo will cure it quicker 
 than anything." 
 
 Ibraheem returned shortly with the 
 cup. Deane drank his dose, put on his 
 31
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 hat, and went off among the workmen to 
 watch the progress. 
 
 When a halt was called, the rubbish had 
 been cleared away considerably, and some 
 of the smaller bricks that blocked the en- 
 trance were out. Each man came up and 
 peered solemnly through the gap, express- 
 ing disappointment when he saw nothing 
 but blackness. Holloway created a mild 
 sensation by declaring with his wonted 
 vigour that he saw a pin-point of light 
 within. He was greatly chaffed, but 
 stuck to his point manfully, even though 
 he admitted that it " looked queer," and 
 he could not at all account for it. 
 
 The men came filing up from the 
 
 trenches to stretch themselves in the shade 
 
 of the mounds. Holloway, being young 
 
 and of indomitable enthusiasms, took him- 
 
 32
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 self off to develop his negatives, refusing 
 to rest. Deane spread a mosquito net 
 carefully over himself to keep off maraud- 
 ing flies, and went to sleep in the lee 
 of the nearest mound. Merritt, pipe 
 in mouth, sat where he and Deane had 
 talked the night before, and stared out 
 over the plain with sombre, thoughtful 
 eyes. 
 
 As the burning day wore on, the ribald 
 chatter of the natives ceased. They slept 
 serenely while the shade lasted, making 
 the most of their time of rest. When the 
 sun, striding across the brazen sky, 
 touched them where they lay, they woke, 
 rose, moved in a body to fresh shelter, 
 and slept again. Also the white men 
 moved, in unison with them ; Deane, half- 
 awake, feverish with sleep, stumbling in 
 33
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 his mosquito net. Where he fell he lay 
 and slept again, breathing heavily, with 
 restless turnings. In his dreams was a 
 vast procession of brown-legged creatures 
 who trailed endlessly up and down, com- 
 ing from nowhere, going nowhere, who, 
 each as it passed him, emptied a hod of 
 dry brown earth upon him so that its 
 weight pressed him down, and always 
 down, into the earth, and shouted in his 
 ears : " Whoso cometh, now or hereafter, 
 let him not wake the soul that sleeps 
 within ! " Each voice grew louder and 
 more menacing, though he could not un- 
 derstand why the brown creatures should 
 threaten him; and as he tried to escape, 
 they piled more earth upon him ; so that, 
 as he smothered to death, he woke with a 
 gasp to find Holloway's hands heavy on 
 34
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 his shoulders, and Holloway's voice cry- 
 ing: 
 
 " Get up, man ! Oh, get up, I tell you ! 
 They've got the door down, and we're 
 going in while the light lasts." 
 
 Deane jumped to his feet, his head still 
 aswim, casting aside the mosquito net; 
 and together they raced down the trench 
 to where a crowd had gathered about a 
 four-foot opening, yawning black. Near- 
 est the entrance was Merritt, his face al- 
 ways pale with excitement, a shovel in 
 his hands. He was as a detective who has 
 found a clue to a tangled mystery a 
 miner who sees long-hoped-for signs of 
 gold. Above his head the strange message 
 blazoned forth its warning, the East 
 guarding her secrets, even in death, from 
 the eyes of the all-seeking West. To him 
 35
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 it was never the routine of work, but the 
 unfolding of a page whereon dead hands 
 had traced the history of a vanished 
 world. Over his shoulder he beckoned 
 Deane and Hollo way to him, stooping 
 the while to peer into the low entrance. 
 Before this was a mass of rubbish, 
 with the bricks which had been re- 
 moved. 
 
 " Look in there ! " he exclaimed. His 
 words snapped like a whip-lash. His eyes 
 were keen and eager. " Does either of 
 you see a a light? " 
 
 Instantly they craned closer. Deane 
 said: 
 
 " A what ? " and glanced at Merritt 
 apprehensively; Holloway ejaculated: 
 
 "A light ! " in incredulous italics. 
 
 But then Holloway, gazing within, 
 36
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 clutched Deane beside him, and said 
 shrilly : 
 
 "It is! By George, it is! Didn't I 
 say I saw a gleam when the first break 
 was made, and didn't you rot me 
 for it? But, oh, my Lord! how could 
 a light get in there, fifty feet below the 
 ground ! " 
 
 "A reflection of outside light on some- 
 thing burnished within," Deane suggested 
 at random. 
 
 Merritt lighted his lantern. 
 
 " We'll have time to take a look," he 
 said, quietly enough. " It's in a first-class 
 state of preservation the first chamber 
 we've found not crushed in and filled with 
 rubbish. Come along, you two, but bring 
 your lamps." 
 
 He picked his way through the debris, 
 37
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 and lifted one leg over the stone which 
 formed the threshold, flinging the light of 
 his lantern ahead. Deane and Holloway 
 followed close upon his heels. The three 
 stood within the tomb. Earth and stone 
 had done what might be done to hold the 
 secret given to their keeping, but man had 
 conquered. The grave of the past was 
 giving up its dead. 
 
 Before them was a short passage, not 
 high enough for them to stand erect, 
 slanting sharply downward, and turning 
 to the right a rod ahead. The angle of 
 the wall hid what lay beyond. By the 
 light of the three lamps, which cast itself 
 into the blackness, it could be seen that 
 walls and roofs were of great blocks of 
 stone, roughly hammer-dressed. 
 
 " I expected to find it caved in," came 
 38
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 Holloway's voice from the background. 
 " Think of the pressure on top." 
 
 " Yes ; but this was deep underground 
 in the beginning. The intermediate layer 
 of earth must have helped support the 
 mass which gradually formed above. Be- 
 sides, it would take a " 
 
 It was then that Deane, somewhat in 
 the lead, turned the corner of the passage, 
 and gave back upon them with a gasp 
 and an oath, cutting Merritt's speech in 
 two. 
 
 " There's something queer about this ! " 
 he muttered. 
 
 The turn of the passage led on a level 
 a couple of yards farther. Here it was 
 blocked by another entrance, likewise 
 walled up. On a square stone beside this 
 door stood a lamp of clay from which 
 39
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 came, not a flame, but a pale radiance as 
 from some material highly phosphorescent 
 within, dim and feeble as though all but 
 burned out. It was as though some liv- 
 ing hand had placed it there but a little 
 while before, behind those sealed-up 
 walls, far down below the ground; a 
 small atom of life, set in the midst of 
 universal death, that smote them with an 
 instant's shock as of something super- 
 natural, not of earth. 
 
 Merritt said " Good God ! look at 
 that ! " below his breath, and halted, as 
 one in presence of some power which had 
 risen suddenly from the opened grave to 
 mock at men. Confronting them thus, it 
 was uncanny a sentient thing with an 
 individuality of its own. Deane, staring 
 at it in fascination, said : 
 40
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 " It can't have been burning here these 
 thousand years, ever since that outer door 
 was bricked up why, it's impossible. 
 It's absurd. There must be some other 
 way of entering. Someone must have 
 been here before us." 
 
 They drew together, all three, and 
 looked at it with wonder and with awe. 
 The suggestion of it held them silent ; the 
 unexpectedness of it left them blank. 
 Holloway, peering among the shadows, 
 said abruptly : 
 
 "Turn your lanterns away a minute. 
 Or shade them so the light won't fall 
 ahead. So ! Now ! " His voice fairly 
 shook with eagerness. " Look over the 
 top of this door. There's an inscrip- 
 tion see? right over it in big letters 
 and that lamp is placed precisely where it 
 41
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 will throw light on it. That's why it is 
 here so that no one could possibly come 
 to this door without seeing those letters. 
 And when the light was brighter they 
 must have been plain as print. Read 'em, 
 Deane, quick." 
 
 Deane read, recognizing the word as 
 one he had seen at times before. It was 
 a single word : 
 
 " Forbidden." 
 
 But as they moved forward to look at 
 it, the pale radiance, shining for untold 
 years in that silent place, brightened in 
 the wave of air they swept on with 
 them, burned bravely an instant, and 
 went quietly into nothingness. At once 
 the clutch of death, held a thousand 
 years at bay by its faint spark of life, 
 
 settled heavily on the place. Merritt 
 42
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 gave an exclamation of bitter disappoint- 
 ment. 
 
 " This must be where the old king lies," 
 Holloway observed. " Shall we try it 
 now? See here; these stones aren't one- 
 fifth as heavy as those outside. I by 
 George! Here's one I can move. It 
 might as well be dark as daylight, because 
 we'll have to work with lanterns anyhow. 
 I'll call up Ibraheem." 
 
 Ibraheem came, with two men and 
 weapons of attack. The passage was 
 too narrow to admit of more than two 
 working at once; as it was, they were 
 cramped for room and gasped for 
 breath. 
 
 But by degrees, each man taking his 
 turn, the door was broken out. Merritt, 
 trimming his lamp afresh, stepped inside. 
 43
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 Those waiting heard a stumble and a 
 shout. 
 
 " Come in, you fellows ! Bring lights. 
 There's something here." 
 
 Promptly the two were after him. 
 As they came, Merritt cried out 
 sharply : 
 
 "Take care! You'll step on it! It's 
 lying just inside the threshold." 
 
 Deane, entering first, threw his light 
 ahead, and saw a thing huddled close to 
 the door. Over it he stepped with care, 
 and stooped beside Merritt to examine. 
 Holloway, half in and half out of the low 
 doorway, peered down at them; over his 
 shoulder Ibraheem stretched his swarthy 
 face. 
 
 " It's a mummy, sure enough," Hollo- 
 way said, holding his light close. " But 
 44
 
 The Forbidden Door 
 
 it's not wrapped in bandages, and it's 
 not in any mummy-case. Just natu- 
 rally dried up, I guess. Turn it over, 
 Deane." 
 
 45
 
 CHAPTER III 
 Wtbfn tbc Uomb 
 
 ]Y now the lamps had 
 steadied to brighter burn- 
 ing, so that the tomb was 
 thrown into the light. It 
 was low and square and very small; 
 and around the walls were paintings, 
 still more or less preserved, whose 
 subjects they did not then stop to 
 ascertain. Deane turned over the 
 thing, shrivelled and brown and leathery, 
 which once had lived and moved and 
 breathed even as they themselves. Said 
 Merritt : 
 
 " It's a woman. From the dress I 
 47
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 should judge she was of high rank " 
 he whistled " Look at the jewels ! " 
 
 As the body was turned face upward, 
 stiff as board, fixed to its crouching 
 posture, the lamplight caught the flash 
 of many jewels, the glint of gold, the 
 dark fire of unknown gems. Around the 
 shrunken neck was a chain of heavy links 
 of gold; upon the shrivelled arms, long 
 and bony, with claw-like hands, were 
 broad, chased armlets, set with many 
 jewels. 
 
 " It is in a remarkably fine state of pres- 
 ervation," Merritt said. He thumped 
 hollowly with one finger on the sunken 
 breast that had once been brown, smooth 
 flesh, softly firm and dimpling to the 
 touch; and held his light to the head. 
 
 The hair was still attached to the skull, 
 48
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 long, midnight black, straight and silky 
 fine; but as he touched it, it came off in 
 his hand. The eyes were gone, the 
 sockets empty; the lips, dry and sunken, 
 stretched grinning back from two rows 
 of perfect teeth. 
 
 " What a mockery ! " Merritt said sud- 
 denly. " I'd like to know what she was 
 doing here. That door never got walled 
 up in that style by any chance. Let's 
 take a look around." 
 
 They looked; and on the walls they 
 found their clue. The pictured story of 
 a drama played out and ended direfully 
 two thousand years before, with one of 
 the actors, decked out as she had played 
 her part, lying at their feet. 
 
 " I think it begins over here, where I 
 am," Holloway remarked, from a corner 
 49
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 near the door. " Where you are, they're 
 walling up an entrance, and that must be 
 pretty near the end. This first one here, 
 where I'm standing." 
 
 They prowled around the walls, jos- 
 tling one another in the smallness of the 
 place, holding their lanterns close. Hollo- 
 way, he of the ardent fancy, slapped his 
 knee all at once with an exclamation. 
 
 " I've got it ! At least it fits in with all 
 the details we've found. She must have 
 been of royal blood; for in that fourth 
 picture she's with the man with the black 
 beard, who has the symbol of royalty, and 
 she's nearly as large as he. In this first 
 scene she's making love to this duck in the 
 white skirt, who is very much smaller, to 
 show he's a mere man. He's coy, and has 
 his hands before his face. I suppose that 
 50
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 means he does not want to come into the 
 game. Those three other fellows, who 
 are lying on their backs over here, must 
 have been three chaps who did not come 
 to any good end by her. They all have 
 their hands over their faces, you see ; same 
 position as the leading man. I guess she 
 was a pretty strenuous lady, judging 
 from these next two pictures. My word, 
 they are frank, aren't they ? In the fourth 
 picture the king is reprimanding her for 
 her ways, and she's got her back to him. 
 On this wall, she's evidently being tried 
 for her sins, and the king is pronouncing 
 sentence. And here hi! look at this 
 they're walling her up in this very tomb, 
 alive. Here they're dragging her along 
 that passage outside, with the tomb open 
 and ready ; and in this last one, the king is 
 51
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 putting in a stone. There's the lamp 
 standing on the stone block, with a slave 
 doing something to it." He drew a long 
 breath. " Well ! by George ! But why 
 did they shut her up alive? Why didn't 
 they poison her or cut her head off, or 
 something that way ? " 
 
 Here interruption came. Ibraheem, 
 his keen-set curiosity overcoming even his 
 superstitious awe of the place, came be- 
 side them to where the light fell full on 
 the picture of the princess standing to 
 receive sentence. Unexpectedly he yelled 
 with surprise and alarm, and bolted for 
 the door. Holloway caught him in mid- 
 flight, demanding explanations. 
 
 " Saars, come away. Nis place so 
 vurry wickit. Nat lady what you call 
 um Englis' devul soul. See look." 
 52
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 He pointed to the painted figure. Mer- 
 ritt leaned forward to examine. 
 
 " This is quaint," he said. " See this 
 thing that looks like a fancy ornament 
 on her breast? It's no ornament; it's a 
 little devil. And it's in every one of 
 her pictures. You can see for your- 
 selves." 
 
 " So it is," quoth Holloway, going 
 around to investigate. " A little devil. 
 Ain't it cute?" 
 
 But Ibraheem howled again. 
 
 " Nat um devul soul in she lookun out. 
 Nat why she did got walled up. If she 
 die so," he drew a hand across his 
 neck, " or get um killed, devul he get out 
 of she and run away. Wall um up like 
 nis so devul, when she die and he got out, 
 mus' stay in here. Now you let devul 
 53
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 soul out by opening wall. Come away 
 queek." 
 
 Holloway laughed. 
 
 " Good eye, Ibraheem ! We never 
 thought we had such a glowing imagina- 
 tion in our midst. But I think myself 
 we'd all better clear out. This air isn't 
 any too sweet. And Deane's getting 
 green around the gills some more." 
 
 From the workmen in the passage came 
 a shout, and Ibraheem dived for the 
 entrance. 
 
 " Say um roof come down ! " he 
 shouted as he fled. " Block up door. 
 Come, saars ! " 
 
 "Only some of the rubbish falling from 
 above," Merritt said; but Holloway, 
 already in retreat, called over his 
 shoulder : 
 
 54
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 "You'd better hustle, you two! 
 There's an avalanche coming down from 
 somewhere." 
 
 He skipped over the threshold of the 
 narrow door. Merritt, also bestirring 
 himself, had got one leg over when there 
 was a slide and a rattle; Holloway, Ibra- 
 heem, and the two workmen in the pas- 
 sage yelled in chorus, and Merritt jumped 
 for safety. Then his place in the door- 
 way was filled with a mass of loose earth 
 and rough-hewn stones, entirely choking 
 the entrance, and prisoning Deane on the 
 wrong side. 
 
 They yelled again, encouragingly, to 
 tell him that they would get right to work 
 and dig him out ; and their voices came to 
 him indistinctly, as from a long distance. 
 Holloway 's lusty young shout, reaching 
 55
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 him more clearly than the others', in- 
 formed him that they would have him out 
 in half an hour, and he might be philo- 
 sophical and make love to the Princess to 
 pass the time. 
 
 Deane smiled at his predicament, hear- 
 ing the fall of pick and spade; a sound 
 loud by comparison with the silence of the 
 tomb. Then he became aware of how 
 very silent it was. The stillness, which 
 for unnumbered years had not been 
 broken, seemed to grip the place again, 
 overwhelming him, reclaiming its own. 
 His one small lamp burned bravely, but 
 the corners of the room were merged in 
 shadow; the pictures on the walls loomed 
 grotesque and indistinct. And then 
 Deane's eyes fell upon the huddled 
 mummy on the floor, and his imagination 
 56
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 leaped back to what that last strange scene 
 must have been. He thought of her, 
 young perhaps, beautiful of course, thrust 
 in there to perish by slow degrees, in the 
 childish belief that the beautiful, evil soul 
 of her, penned within the narrow walls, 
 might never escape to wreak further 
 havoc among the sons of men. 
 
 For some time he amused himself with 
 such fancies, sitting on the floor, his hands 
 clasped about his knees, his eyes on the 
 jewelled mockery in the corner. Quite 
 suddenly he became conscious of the heat 
 and closeness of the place, and felt that a 
 light sweat broke out on brow and hands ; 
 became conscious also of a certain misti- 
 ness in the tomb, in which the flame of his 
 lamp glimmered wanly. 
 
 " I wish those fellows would hurry ! " 
 57
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 he muttered resentfully. He lifted his 
 head abruptly, a new expression upon his 
 face, his eyes agleam with an eager per- 
 plexity. " What in thunder is it ? I 
 thought I got a whiff of perfume jas- 
 mine, by Jove ! " Presently he shook his 
 head. " Too elusive. Another freak of 
 the sun ; none of the fellows use scent and 
 
 stuff and as for the natives " He 
 
 broke off to chuckle. "Anyhow this 
 place is getting confoundedly close." In 
 the stifling atmosphere of the tomb he 
 realised that his head was swimming 
 curiously; his brain was dizzy, his hands 
 grew cold. With a new inspiration, he 
 said: 
 
 " Now, by Jove ! I wonder if Ibraheem 
 got hold of the right bottle? " 
 
 He became quite convinced that he had 
 58
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 taken the wrong dose, and was filled with 
 irritation against Ibraheem. He argued 
 peevishly that it must have been the 
 wrong dose, or he would not be feeling so 
 uncommonly queer. Again his gaze fell 
 on the mummy. This time he stared at 
 it, his eyes fixed under frowning brows, 
 his jaw dropping slightly. The light was 
 dim, his head swimming. What he saw, 
 watching in a fascination of interest, was 
 a slow, indefinable change in the thing, 
 which took place under his eyes, yet whose 
 stages he could not follow. He saw the 
 dead face turn slowly towards him so 
 slowly that, try as he might, he could not 
 see it move saw the sunken cheeks grow 
 rounded, covered no longer with shrivelled 
 parchment, but with velvety brown skin; 
 saw full crimson lips which hid the twin 
 59
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 rows of perfect teeth; saw the shrunken 
 arms firm and gracious; the billowy 
 curves and soft hollows of breast and 
 throat, the sudden brilliancy of unknown 
 jewels; and clutched his head in his 
 hands. 
 
 " Gad ! I'm getting light-headed ! " he 
 muttered. " It's the sun of course it's 
 the sun it can't be anything but the 
 sun!" 
 
 But he felt his flesh crawl to a sudden 
 nameless horror which fastened upon him, 
 like the horror of an evil dream which one 
 knows to be a dream, but from which one 
 cannot waken, when he knew that the 
 vague sense of floating perfume was 
 stronger, more clearly perceptible; the 
 heavy, haunting scent of the jasmine 
 
 flower, clinging and sensuous, and bring- 
 60
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 ing with it a sudden ache of intolerable 
 longing for the good life he had left be- 
 hind. 
 
 " I don't understand ! " he muttered. 
 And then, aimlessly, and with a vague 
 notion of having heard the words before, 
 " You see things, and know them to 
 exist, and can't account for them." 
 
 Then he found himself all at once 
 crawling on hands and knees towards the 
 huddled figure that he knew watched him 
 with living eyes, with the heavy fragrance 
 of the jasmine luring him always on ; and 
 pulled himself up short with sudden terror 
 in his face, believing quite seriously that 
 he was mad, and shivering to think what 
 might have occurred if he unwittingly 
 had touched it. The light was dim and 
 
 his eyes were full of mist, so that he could 
 61
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 not see clearly; but he knew that it was 
 lying very still, watching him with a side- 
 long under-glance, full of invitation and 
 temptation, the jewels on rounded throat 
 and curving breast winking in the 
 light. 
 
 And then all power of will left him 
 under the subtle, enervating fragrance 
 that clutched at his brain and sent it reel- 
 ing ; and suddenly it became more than he 
 could endure. He flung himself upon the 
 earth and stones which filled the doorway, 
 and tore at them, muttering rambling 
 words beneath his breath, in a blind fear 
 of something to which he could give no 
 name. 
 
 Then a shout of men's voices struck his 
 ears, close beside him; the air of the-pas- 
 sage, pure and cool as heaven's own after 
 62
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 the suffocation of the tomb, flooded him 
 like a dash of cold water, infinitely grate- 
 ful. He straightened himself, smiling 
 vacantly, as Merritt and Holloway came 
 towards him, and dropped in a heap just 
 inside the threshold. 
 
 They carried him away with profane 
 expressions of sympathy, and he raved 
 half-consciously of dead things that 
 watched him with living eyes ; of flowers 
 whose essence could drag a man's soul to 
 the torments of the damned; and of the 
 pain in his head, and of the sun, and blue 
 bottles. And at the word, Ibraheem, 
 quaking with fear, was fain to confess 
 that in the medicine chest he could find no 
 blue bottle and had brought instead a cup 
 of plain water " by Lord-God, saars, 
 vurry plain ! " knowing the penalty of 
 63
 
 Within the Tomb 
 
 experimenting with drugs whose potency 
 he did not understand. 
 
 And the tomb was left open to the clean 
 night-winds, with Deane's forgotten lamp 
 still burning on the floor, and casting its 
 glimmer of light on the sunken face and 
 the withered arms of the Princess with the 
 mocking jewels who lay within. 
 
 64
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 TWloman ZTcmpteD dfce" 
 
 | HE camps settled down for 
 the night, with occasional 
 gusts of conversation 
 from the men's quarters, 
 an altercation over a kettle of stew 
 or a game of dice. Holloway strolled 
 up to where Deane and Merritt sat 
 smoking, after supper, his hands in his 
 pockets, a cigarette between his teeth. 
 Deane had a wet cloth bound around his 
 head, and looked dissipated. Merritt was 
 placid and thoughtful, resting contentedly 
 in the memory of a good day's work 
 behind him. This is greatly conducive to 
 65
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 bodily and mental comfort at nightfall 
 when the springs run down. 
 
 Holloway said casually: 
 
 " Which case have you packed the 
 mummy in for shipment ? " 
 
 " Haven't packed it at all yet," Merritt 
 answered, tapping the bowl of his pipe 
 against his boot. " There was no time 
 to-day, between Deane's doings and the 
 rest of it. It will be safe enough in the 
 tomb until the morning. These Affejs 
 would not touch it for unlimited back- 
 sheesh and anyhow Ibraheem is on 
 guard to see that they don't go monkeying 
 around." 
 
 " Not packed it ? " Holloway repeated. 
 His voice held a faint inflection of sur- 
 prise. " Well, it's not in the tomb. It's 
 
 gone." 
 
 66
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 Merritt straightened up and looked at 
 him. 
 
 " How's that? " he demanded. 
 
 Said Holloway patiently: 
 
 " I thought you must have packed it, 
 because it is not in the tomb. I was there 
 not fifteen minutes ago. And Ibraheem 
 was not there. He was eating his supper 
 with what's his name Hafiz, the cooky. 
 I'll bet those beggars have swiped it to 
 loot the jewels." 
 
 Deane and Merritt answered nothing. 
 Simultaneously they rose and made for 
 the trenches. Holloway went after them 
 leisurely, his hands in his pockets. Half- 
 way down he met the two returning. 
 Both were ejaculating profanely. 
 
 "Well?" said Holloway. "Was I 
 right ? Now there'll be the devil to pay." 
 67
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 "Right? Yes!" Merritt snorted. 
 He gained the level, shouting for Ibra- 
 heem. The three seated themselves in 
 solemn tribunal, out of earshot of the 
 camp. Ibraheem came, serenely innocent. 
 Merritt questioned, in the vernacular. 
 
 " You stood watch, Ibraheem, after we 
 left the tomb ? " His tones were honey- 
 sweet. 
 
 " Ow yaas, saar." Ibraheem's voice 
 was bland. Also he persisted in his 
 English. 
 
 "For how long?" 
 
 " Ontil ne supper. My bellee he cry for 
 goat-stew and cakes. Saars, he roar. So 
 I went. Say I to me, eat a leetle bite and 
 come back queek. Be not gone not long. 
 I go; I am back queek. Not er minnut 
 
 am I gone." 
 
 68
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 Merritt turned to Holloway. 
 
 " Was he there when you first went to 
 the tomb?" 
 
 " No, sir ! " Holloway answered 
 promptly. 
 
 " How long were you there? " 
 
 " About an hour, as nearly as I can 
 judge." 
 
 " Had he returned when you left ? " 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 Merritt's grey eyes transfixed Ibra- 
 heem, who quailed. 
 
 " While you were away from your post, 
 in direct disobedience of orders, that 
 mummy was stolen. Now it's up to you 
 to find it. Do you understand, or shall I 
 say it again in your lingo?" He re- 
 peated his words in the vernacular. " It 
 shall be your business to find it. You 
 69
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 shall question the men, examine the 
 ground to see if it has been buried, look 
 through all the camp. Until it is found, 
 your wages are cut off. Also you get 
 no backsheesh, and no gift when we 
 return." 
 
 Ibraheem, prepared for anything save 
 a loss of gold, became pitiable. His grief 
 was childish; he wept, he implored for- 
 giveness. 
 
 " I will find it, saar, mos' vurry damn 
 queek. It is the men did got it, and 
 from them I take it fierce. But give me 
 gifts, or I die me dead of hongry. I am 
 mos' poor men, vurry poor I respectfully 
 need gifts, saars! " 
 
 " Oh, stop your drooling and get to 
 work! " Merritt growled, and turned his 
 
 back on him. Ibraheem crept away, to 
 70
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 fasten guilt, collectively and individually, 
 upon every member of every gang. His 
 progress through the camp was marked 
 by a storm of wrathful protestations of 
 innocence, of appeals to high Heaven for 
 damaged reputations, of furious denials of 
 complicity. 
 
 Merritt laughed shortly and lay down 
 on his back. 
 
 " Don't you think all this rumpus might 
 er frighten the thief into. making off 
 with the property ? " Holloway wished 
 to know. 
 
 " He couldn't make off very far," 
 Merritt retorted grimly, and waved a 
 hand at the surrounding desert. " If he 
 tried it, we'd miss him from among the 
 men, and be on him quicker than jump- 
 ing. But it may scare him into quietly
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 returning it, when he finds the secret is 
 out." 
 
 But the next day the mummy of the 
 Princess had not been returned, nor the 
 next. Always the work went on, dili- 
 gently, with varying success. More 
 trenches were run deeper into the mound. 
 Basketfuls of tablets were found, made of 
 finest clay, many in a state of perfect 
 preservation; also terra-cotta vases, in- 
 struments in copper, some corroded out of 
 all shape; an altar to a god whose name 
 had been erased, bearing marks of sacri- 
 fices. The courtyard of the palace was 
 dug out, a wide and open space, with frag- 
 ments of brick pavement and the rem- 
 nants of its surrounding rooms. Of these 
 architectural details Deane drew care- 
 ful plans, noting their dimensions, the 
 72
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 average height and thickness of their 
 fragmentary walls, their drainage and 
 ventilation. Squeezes were taken of in- 
 scriptions which could not be removed; 
 the ground was carefully surveyed, the 
 buildings photographed and described, 
 preparatory to carrying the excavations to 
 a lower level, where Merritt believed 
 relics of a greater antiquity could be 
 found. Again, other days were barren, 
 and it was then that Merritt became sore 
 over the loss of the Princess. When 
 things went right he forgot her, in joy 
 over some fresh acquisition; when things 
 went wrong, he reverted to her, and 
 mourned for her inconsolably. 
 
 " I was going to give the thing to the 
 National Museum in Washington/' he 
 lamented bitterly. "And now, through 
 73
 
 The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 the infernal greed of a fool of an Affej, 
 it's lost. What's going without your din- 
 ner a time or two, when a thing like that 
 is in the balance ? " 
 
 But the fool of an Affej still held the 
 centre of the stage, and was minded to 
 make the most of it. Deane caught him 
 one evening, purloining wax wherewith 
 to plug up a gruesome gash, after the 
 manner of desert surgery, and bound up 
 the wound himself in proper style. So 
 that Ibraheem, feeling himself sadly ill- 
 used and outcast since the day of his dis- 
 grace, became grateful, and always in 
 his painful English informed him that 
 the night before a workman had disap- 
 peared, not returning with his gang at 
 sunset, and that the man who had seen 
 him last was in the camp, very sick. 
 74
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 All this Deane dutifully reported to 
 Merritt, and Merritt grunted sleepily and 
 said: 
 
 " The fellow's gone to sleep behind one 
 of the mounds. He'll turn up in time for 
 breakfast, never fear." 
 
 But he did not turn up in time for 
 breakfast, and the sick man was sicker, 
 and wished to die. Asked by curious 
 comrades as to the cause of his distress, 
 he replied that he would not tell, and did 
 not wish to talk ; so that he received scant 
 sympathy, and his attendants dwindled. 
 It was upon this night that Deane 
 dreamed of being again a prisoner in the 
 tomb, with the living eyes in the dead face 
 watching him as he fought his way to air 
 and life. Only this time the face seemed 
 not all dead; the skin was brown and 
 75
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 drawn tight across the bones, but in the 
 face there was expression; lust and 
 cruelty, and a triumph which was of evil. 
 He woke bathed in sweat, with a feeling 
 of suffocation such as had choked him on 
 that unforgotten day in the airless tomb. 
 For the first time he was struck with a 
 sense of impending evil ; though, when he 
 woke again, this had vanished wholly in 
 the brave morning light. 
 
 It was within a day of this that a cer- 
 tain uneasiness made itself manifest 
 among the men. In the evening a depu- 
 tation visited Merritt, and set forth their 
 troubles at great length. They made 
 Ibraheem their spokesman; he revelled in 
 the chance of exploiting his English, and 
 made the most of it. 
 
 " Saar Merritt will not forget nat it is 
 76
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 accursed citee, accursed by Lord-God in 
 vurry long time ago. Nere may be bad 
 affairs, vurry bad, which we shall see. 
 It is not good to unbury what is bad. 
 Nare is a altar of so most wickit Lord- 
 God which men says shine all night. 
 Spucks are here all, all around. We 
 did got vurry great lot spucks in nis land. 
 The mens don't not like him. Hafiz, he 
 cook, see a ting, las' night. Make um 
 vurry seek." 
 
 He pulled forth Hafiz by the tail of his 
 short and dirty cotton garment. Hafiz 
 was unwilling, but seeing himself sur- 
 rounded, hearing himself bidden to speak, 
 spread out his hands and said rapidly : 
 
 " It is a thing, oh, my masters, which 
 comes from the mounds at night-time, 
 swaying as the corn sways in summer, 
 77
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 very light, beckoning men to follow. 
 Tarfa, he who went and came not back, 
 saw and said it is the god of that altar we 
 have profaned. The desert has swal- 
 lowed him; for it is three days since he 
 hath gone." Then he called Allah to wit- 
 ness for he was a good Mohammedan 
 that he intended no meddling with unseen 
 things, that he was forced to obey orders, 
 and that he was a flower in Allah's hands. 
 
 " I don't understand what's got into the 
 brutes," Holloway said fretfully. 
 
 " They're just a bit nervous," Merritt 
 assured him. " It seems as though this 
 place always had a bad name, from the 
 earliest times. The men are superstitious, 
 and they don't know exactly what they're 
 up against. 7 think Tarfa is responsible 
 for the mummy, and invented the tale of 
 78
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 the shining altar before he left, to throw 
 us off the track. Yes, he's undoubtedly 
 the thief. But he wouldn't be such a fool 
 as to cross northward without water or 
 provisions and cooky says he took noth- 
 ing from the stores and the only other 
 practicable route would be southward. 
 So when we go back that way, we'll find 
 him or what's left of him and it." 
 
 " But the Rocks ? Suppose he makes 
 for them ? " Deane suggested. 
 
 At this idea, however, Merritt scoffed. 
 
 " Why should he go there ? His main 
 wish, I take it, would be to get into the 
 track of caravans, where he might find 
 help. He'd throw the mummy away in 
 the desert, and hide the jewels in his shirt. 
 Among the Rocks, he might as well go 
 north and be done with it. No caravans 
 79
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 pass within fifty miles of the place, and 
 then rarely; and fifty miles is no joke to 
 an exhausted man without food or water. 
 Oh, we'll get the Princess back yet ! " 
 
 The next day came a flurry of disturb- 
 ance. A digger came to Merritt and told 
 him, quite hysterically, that he, Moussa, 
 had seen a man slipping away among the 
 mounds, following a thing which went 
 always on ahead ; and the man was Hafiz, 
 the cook, who had been with Tarfa and 
 had later wished to die. And Moussa, 
 shuddering, told what the thing was, as 
 he had seen it. 
 
 " Master, it was near to dark, and I and 
 Hafiz took food and went to the shade of 
 that mound and ate." He waved his 
 hand at a hill of upturned earth and 
 rubbish at a distance upon the left. 
 80
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 " And just as the sun sank, in that 
 moment before night fell, there came a 
 breath of air from the gardens of the 
 blessed souls in Paradise, slow and soft 
 as the whisper of women's voices, and It 
 came, slowly, around the mound, and 
 looked upon Hafiz, and beckoned. And 
 the desert was no longer a desert, but as 
 a garden filled with the scent of roses and 
 the song of bulbuls. And it was a 
 woman, master, as Allah lives, a woman, 
 here in this place, where a woman had not 
 been before, and her eyes were dark and 
 her mouth red. She stood swaying just 
 in the shadow of the earth, and beckoned; 
 and I cried out in fear, but Hafiz would 
 follow. And when I would have held 
 him back, he cursed me, and went, follow- 
 ing that woman who laughed and 
 81
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 beckoned, for the sweetness of her was in 
 his nostrils, and her will was to be obeyed. 
 And when I, fearing greatly, went around 
 also, I could not see them, for the dark- 
 ness of night had come. Eh, masters, but 
 she was beautiful, and very evil, and her 
 jewels were such as none had ever seen 
 before upon the earth." 
 
 Merritt turned sharply upon Ibraheem, 
 who stood behind him. 
 
 " Did I not tell you that liquor was 
 not to be brought along for the men ? By 
 Jove! we'll have them seeing sacred py- 
 thons and jumping lizards next ! " 
 
 " Not got um liquor, saar," Ibraheem 
 interrupted. " Not um drop er whiskey 
 in er camp. Sun touch um here." He 
 tapped his forehead significantly. Mer- 
 ritt grunted in unbelieving disgust. 
 82
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 That night the three sat late, unwont- 
 edly silent, watching the desert night and 
 the pulsing stars. Holloway was the first 
 to break a pause of many minutes. 
 
 " These men aren't children, to be 
 scared of shadows. I think this thing 
 ought to be sifted. And when you come 
 to think of their point of view, this is a 
 pretty weird sort of a place. There's 
 a-plenty to cook up a rattling good ghost 
 story out of ; this old cursed city, the altars 
 to unknown gods where human sacrifices 
 were offered ; that mummy Princess, with 
 her ' devil-soul ' and her jewels and her 
 story painted on the walls of her own 
 tomb; and now the disappearance of our 
 men, one by one. Well, I'm glad you two 
 fellows are here, anyhow. If I were 
 alone, by George, I shouldn't wonder if 
 83
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me'' 
 
 I'd get to believing in Ibraheem's spucks 
 myself. I'd end by cutting loose and run- 
 ning away." 
 
 Deane smiled at the boy through a 
 cloud of tobacco smoke; and Merritt said, 
 with a dry affection which only Hollo- 
 way, with his spirits, his light-hearted- 
 ness, and the unexpected contradiction 
 of an imagination more torrid even than 
 Merritt's own, could wring from him : 
 
 " Oh, yes ! I have seen you run like that 
 before, you young dare-devil. They'll 
 forget about all this in a couple of days. 
 They merely think it's their duty not to 
 let one trip go by without stirring up 
 something sensational." 
 
 Holloway sighed portentously. 
 
 " Well, you can search me ! " he said 
 with frankness. " I give it up. This 
 84
 
 "The Woman Tempted Me" 
 
 country gets beyond the depth of my phi- 
 losophy. Upon my soul, if I stay here 
 much longer, I'll be ready to believe any- 
 thing you tell me of it."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 {Touch of the Sun 
 
 DAY later Ibraheem re- 
 ported that Moussa had 
 taken himself off. Ibra- 
 
 heem was nervous, and 
 
 showed it. The men were getting rest- 
 less, he averred; he himself would be 
 glad when the work in that place was 
 finished. It was an unholy spot. Fur- 
 thermore, he declared that he had seen 
 Moussa the night before, and Moussa 
 had behaved peculiarly, had talked of rose 
 gardens and strange perfumes to which 
 no man could give a name, and had said 
 that if he saw the Woman again he was 
 87
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 determined to follow her. Wherefore 
 Moussa was undoubtedly mad, Ibraheem 
 said with great solemnity, for Lord-God 
 knew there were no women around that 
 camp, neither was there any perfume save 
 the reek of the cattle-pen. Oh, yes 
 Moussa was mad, most mad, there was no 
 doubt whatever about that. In conse- 
 quence of this, Merritt ordered a search 
 made for concealed liquor, and found 
 none. The men watched the proceedings 
 in silence. That night there was no sing- 
 ing; men gathered close and slept in 
 bunches of three and four. 
 
 Some hours later, Deane, on his way 
 to his tent, stumbled over Holloway, 
 who sprawled upon the ground, chin 
 on hands. 
 
 " Look out ! " Holloway said mildly, 
 88
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 not offering to move. " I say, look at that 
 moonrise." 
 
 His voice had lost some of its enthusi- 
 asm, and sounded tired. Deane, consider- 
 ing that the boy was homesick and per- 
 haps needed bracing up, accepted the im- 
 plied invitation, and sat down. The 
 moon, climbing over the great Mound of 
 the City, was turning the sky to intense 
 blue-black; the earth to a slumbering sea 
 of hoary light, wrapped in infinite loneli- 
 ness and peace. 
 
 " It's bully," Deane assented unheed- 
 ingly. Quickly it became plain to him 
 that moonrises, usually conducive to 
 poetic enthusiasms on Holloway's part, 
 to-night held no attraction for him. He, 
 generally brimming over with life and 
 spirits, was suddenly distrait and listless. 
 89
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 Deane was wondering if by any chance 
 the boy had exposed himself to the sun, 
 when Holloway spoke, with a certain hes- 
 itancy and constraint which had the effect 
 of making him appear all at once more 
 than ever boyish. 
 
 " Deane, do you know I've been won- 
 dering if there could be anything in those 
 fellows' stories, after all? I don't mean 
 any of that rot about a woman, but . . . 
 I saw something myself to-night." 
 
 " Where ? " Deane asked with equal se- 
 riousness. The darkness hid a smile of 
 amused tolerance on his face. 
 
 " Down among the tombs." Hollo- 
 way's voice was solemn. 
 
 " Perhaps a goat got loose," Deane 
 suggested hopefully. 
 
 " Oh, you can laugh if you like! " Hol- 
 90
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 loway said with unexpected emphasis. 
 "Of course, you'll say next it was one of 
 the men. It might have been, but I'll take 
 my oath it wasn't. Why should they be 
 sneaking 'round there at that hour, when 
 they wouldn't go near the place after dark 
 to save their immortal souls ? " 
 
 " Why were you there ? " Deane 
 queried. 
 
 At Holloway's reply, low, and with an 
 odd note of breathlessness in it, he 
 straightened up in the darkness, trying to 
 see the other's face. 
 
 " I don't know. I'm I'm all sorts of 
 a fool, but I can't keep away from the 
 place somehow. I tell you, Deane, I've 
 been there every night for the last 
 four nights, and I'm afraid as death 
 of it."
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 " Then, in Heaven's name, why do you 
 go ? " Deane asked amazedly. 
 
 "I tell you I can't help it!" Hollo- 
 way answered with quick impatience. 
 " Before I know it, I'm there. I say, 
 Deane, when people have a touch of the 
 sun, does it make 'em see things that 
 well, that aren't there, you know ? " 
 
 " I don't know," Deane said slowly, 
 and stopped, remembering a picture, al- 
 ways with him, of a dim-lit tomb, of a 
 jewelled thing with flaming eyes that 
 crouched upon the floor, of himself, half 
 senseless, dizzy with the dreaded sun- 
 sickness, digging with naked hands at the 
 fallen earth in an agony of idiotic fear. 
 
 " Yes, it does," he said decidedly. 
 
 Holloway drew a long breath of relief. 
 
 "Thank Heaven for that! If I hadn't 
 92
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 that excuse I'd think I'd got 'em, sure 
 enough. . . . What a jolly night this 
 is! like some of the nights we have at 
 Home, in late spring." He stretched his 
 muscular length comfortably, in relaxed 
 content, staring upward at the poising 
 moon. Deane, seeing that he was talking 
 off, in his own way, the vague unrest 
 which had held him, gave him his head, 
 paying not much attention to his idle 
 words. " There's a hill behind the old 
 house," the boyish voice went on. " The 
 moon comes up behind it just as it comes 
 up behind the Mound of the City every 
 night. And there's a big old apple-tree 
 there, and right below is the garden where 
 the violets grow. I've been smelling those 
 violets all day seems as though I could 
 look down any minute and expect to see 
 93
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 them growing in the warmth and damp- 
 ness. Funny thing how a fellow can al- 
 most make himself believe he's smelling 
 flowers when there aren't any flowers in a 
 thousand miles, and how the mere re- 
 membrance of the perfume will bring 
 things back to him that he'd forgotten 
 long ago. I don't know how I got to 
 imagining all that, but it had quite a curi- 
 ous effect on me ; made me want that little 
 old bull-pup of mine as I never thought 
 I'd want anything again in this weary 
 world. I'd give half I've got to have him 
 here now, with his head on my knee ; and 
 I don't quite know why, because violets 
 haven't much to do with bull-terriers." 
 
 Deane came out of his reverie, con- 
 scious only of the fact that Holloway was 
 still speaking. 
 
 94
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 " What's that? " he demanded. 
 
 " I was just talking about Keno, my 
 dog," said Holloway plaintively. " This 
 moon made me think of the old garden 
 back home, and the violets growing there 
 I swear I can almost smell 'em now 
 and one thing and another made me think 
 of that pup of mine. He's about the only 
 one I've got to think of now. Go to sleep 
 again don't mind me. I wonder if it's 
 one of the phases of this beastly sun- 
 sickness. If it is, I've got a touch, 
 sure." 
 
 " Is what one of the phases ? " Deane 
 queried sleepily, as Holloway paused, ex- 
 pectant of an answer. 
 
 " The er smelling perfumes that 
 aren't there and that sort of thing why, 
 what's the matter ? " 
 95
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 Deane sat up and laid a hand 
 on Holloway's arm and shook him 
 gently. 
 
 " Have you been doing that, too ? " he 
 demanded. " See here, Bob, have you 
 been doing that, too ? " 
 
 " Yes, I have, in a sort of a way," Hol- 
 loway admitted. " I didn't know there 
 was anything to jar you in that. It's part 
 of the regular programme, isn't it? 
 headache, pain in the back of the neck, 
 red-hot iron band across the eyes, smell- 
 ing things and seeing things of various 
 sorts. Is it a a symptom? It must be 
 what else in thunder could it be? I 
 don't know that I mind it so much; it 
 isn't unpleasant, in a way, but oh, I 
 don't know! It made me so damnably 
 
 homesick " 
 
 96
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 He stopped on the word and moved un- 
 easily in the darkness. 
 
 " I'm talking rot," he said firmly. 
 " Guess that's a symptom, too. Well, I 
 believe I'll turn in." 
 
 He eyed his own tent, standing farthest 
 off, white in the moonlight. 
 
 " Better take yourself in hand and get 
 rid of these attacks," Deane advised him 
 kindly. " The sun is not a thing to be 
 treated lightly in these parts, you know." 
 
 As Holloway moved away, slowly, he 
 watched him with narrowed eyes. Then 
 he went into his own tent and lighted 
 his lamp. With his leather trunk for 
 desk, he wrote up his notes, and arranged 
 his journal and books of entry ; while out- 
 side the night deepened and all the camp 
 slumbered 
 
 97
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 Later he put away his papers, and pre- 
 pared for bed. As he stretched out a hand 
 to extinguish the lamp, he stopped sud- 
 denly, head bent, listening intently. On 
 the other side of the wall, close against 
 the canvas, was a small sound as of a 
 heavy body which had brushed against it 
 in rolling over. Deane removed his boots, 
 and went noiselessly to the door. He 
 peered through the flap into the moon- 
 light; abruptly drew back with a quick 
 intake of breath. 
 
 "Good Lord!" he muttered. "That 
 boy! . . . Camping down here in one 
 blanket instead of sleeping decently in his 
 tent. ... Is the youngster crazy ? " 
 
 An instant he thought rapidly. He 
 drew on his boots, bestirred himself 
 briskly a moment, making much noise; 
 98
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 and listened again then called out in 
 natural tones : 
 
 " Hello, Holloway ! Not turned in yet ? 
 Come in." 
 
 And grinned as he heard a confused 
 movement of surprise on the other side of 
 the tent-wall, then a step. 
 
 " Come on in," he invited heartily. 
 " Flap's loose " ; and bent over his journal 
 assiduously. 
 
 Holloway entered, and Deane faced 
 around, levelling a keen glance at him. 
 
 " Sure I won't disturb you ? " Hollo- 
 way asked; and at the tone of his voice 
 Deane's glance became keener. 
 
 " Not at all," he answered. " Fact is, 
 
 I'm glad you came. I heard er your 
 
 step passing, and thought I'd get you to 
 
 come in. Do you happen to remember 
 
 99
 
 which case the squeeze of the Library in- 
 scription was packed in ? " 
 
 "I don't believe I do," said Hollo- 
 way. He dropped down on a camp-stool. 
 " Deane, can't you give me something to 
 make me sleep? I'm I'm no good at all 
 to-night. It's the sun of course it's the 
 sun." 
 
 Deane looked at him, frowning a little 
 with perplexity. He sat tensely, gripping 
 the edge of the camp-stool with both 
 hands. His face was pale, his fair hair 
 wildly rumpled. His jaws were set, but 
 from time to time the corners of his 
 mouth twitched. On one shoulder was a 
 long smear of earth. All at once he 
 turned restive under Deane's eyes. 
 
 " Oh, cut it off ! " he cried querulously. 
 
 " It's nothing but the sun, I tell you. If I 
 100
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 could get one night's sleep I'd be all 
 right." 
 
 " I'll give you a dose," Deane said, and 
 went to the medicine chest by the head of 
 his bed. Over his shoulder he added, 
 watching keenly the effect of his words 
 " Only you'll have to camp down here 
 with me till morning. So that I can watch 
 its effect, you understand." 
 
 The change in the boy's face was swift 
 and sharp, but Deane caught it; a look 
 of utter relief, a certain quick relaxing of 
 the tension. Holloway said with eager- 
 ness: 
 
 " Can I ? " and caught himself up to 
 add : " Oh, but I'm afraid it '11 be beastly 
 inconvenient for you." 
 
 " Don't let that worry you," Deane re- 
 turned, and went on with his prepara- 
 101
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 tions. From their net he took half a 
 dozen limes, and into a tin cup poured cool 
 water from the porous water- jar which 
 hung at the tent door. He squeezed the 
 lime-juice into this, added a scant allow- 
 ance of sugar and a dash from a blue 
 bottle, and shook the whole up in a mix- 
 ing-glass. 
 
 "That wouldn't hurt an infant," he 
 said with satisfaction. " Human com- 
 panionship is all the medicine the poor 
 devil wants this night." He turned to 
 Holloway suddenly. " Here, old man," 
 he said and saw that Holloway jumped 
 at his voice as though he had been shot 
 " drink it slowly. It will help things 
 along some, I think." 
 
 Holloway took the cup, with thanks 
 and high faith in its sleep-inducing prop- 
 102
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 erties, and sipped docilely. Deane made 
 sundry preparations, whistling softly 
 through his teeth. The lamplight cast 
 grotesque shadows behind him as he 
 moved. 
 
 " Now, get yourself to bed as quick 
 as you know how," he ordered. " In ten 
 minutes you'll be asleep and warranted 
 not to dream." 
 
 " But where are you going to sleep ? " 
 his patient asked, rising. 
 
 " Never mind about me," Deane said 
 with decision. 
 
 Still docile, Holloway got himself to 
 bed, drawing the blanket to his chin. He 
 gave a long sigh of comfort, as he 
 watched Deane moving to and fro, like a 
 child that feels itself secure against un- 
 known terrors of the dark in the company 
 103
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 of its elders. Deane rolled himself in his 
 blanket on the floor in a position so that 
 he could keep Holloway in view, tucked 
 his coat under his head as pillow, and 
 started to turn out the lamp. But Hollo- 
 way sat suddenly bolt upright in the bed, 
 and began to speak rapidly, in a high 
 voice : 
 
 " Deane, hold on a minute ! I might as 
 well make a clean breast of it. I'll be 
 damned if I impose on you like this. I'm 
 not sick; there's nothing the matter with 
 me except sheer beastly funk. I don't 
 know how you thought you heard me 
 passing outside. The truth of it is, I was 
 curled up in a blanket on the other side of 
 this wall, where I could hear you moving 
 in here and the scratch of your pen. All 
 
 I wanted was to be within range of some- 
 104
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 body, where I could hear somebody mov- 
 ing, and know I wasn't alone with It. I 
 knew if I stayed in my tent an hour 
 longer I'd be off down among those tombs 
 again. I was afraid, utterly afraid and 
 you can guess if it's a pleasant thing to 
 own up to but 'fore God I don't know 
 what I was afraid of. I didn't intend to 
 come in here and rout you out like this. 
 Just let me have a blanket and a place on 
 the floor I don't want your bed." 
 
 He flung off the blankets and put a foot 
 on the floor. Deane rolled out of his own 
 blanket, sprang to his feet, and forced him 
 back again. 
 
 " You stay right where you are, Bob. 
 This business has got on your nerves a 
 bit, that's all. Man alive! don't worry 
 
 about the bed. Hope you don't think it's 
 105
 
 A Touch of the Sun 
 
 the first time I've slept out of one ! And 
 I'm jolly glad you came to me if you felt 
 like that about it. It's not a good thing 
 for a fellow to be alone when he begins to 
 get floored this way. Now go to sleep, 
 will you ? " 
 
 Holloway subsided. Deane went back 
 to his corner and lay down. There was a 
 long silence. Unexpectedly Holloway 
 said in matter-of-fact tones from the 
 depths of his blankets: 
 
 " I say, this is a hell of a place, isn't 
 it?" 
 
 106
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 ne TRabo Went Swag 
 
 N the morning, when Deane 
 awoke, he found his patient de- 
 parted. At breakfast, in the 
 grey dawn before sunrise, Hol- 
 loway appeared, exceedingly 
 dignified, carefully unconcerned. Deane 
 showed wisdom by making no allusion 
 to what had gone before; so that, by 
 degrees, Holloway's dignity relaxed. 
 
 During the morning, Deane spent most 
 of his time in carefully packing cases of 
 antiquities for safe transportation. Mer- 
 ritt, as usual, was in the trenches with his 
 
 men; Holloway took photographs inde- 
 107
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 fatigably. He swore quite savagely at his 
 boy when the latter spilled a pan of fixa- 
 tive; and this was a thing unusual to 
 Holloway's blithe good temper. Later, 
 he and Deane fell out, over a question 
 whose seriousness at one time threatened 
 to plunge all three into civil war. Deane 
 opened the fray by declaring, a propos of 
 dinners, that the only proper way to cre- 
 ate a cocktail of the genus Martini was to 
 add a half-spoonful of sherry after the 
 other ingredients had been satisfactorily 
 mixed, if at all. Holloway declared with 
 vigour that the sherry should go in before 
 the vermouth, in order to blend properly ; 
 and announced that he would concoct a 
 specimen on this plan for Deane at the 
 Waldorf the night they reached New 
 
 York, and stand him a champagne supper 
 1 08
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 if his theory failed. They argued warmly ; 
 Merritt, rashly undertaking to mediate, 
 was speedily placed hors de combat and 
 forced to retire ignominiously. The con- 
 testants waxed eloquent in invective, los- 
 ing sight completely of the casus belli; 
 in the end they parted, sulky as two angry 
 children ; thereafter ignored each other in 
 high disdain. Merritt, sorely perplexed, 
 strove to pour balm into their wounds, 
 with assurances that both were right 
 that either way was equally good, and 
 that the sun was responsible for their 
 er, irritation. Whereat Holloway re- 
 torted that the sun had nothing whatever 
 to do with it that it was merely the ob- 
 stinate pigheadedness of some people who 
 could see no other point of view than their 
 
 own. To this Deane replied that it was 
 109
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 not even this, but and stopped short. So 
 that Holloway, imagining a taunt where 
 none was meant, glared at him in fury 
 and strode away. 
 
 " Now, what's got into him? " Merritt 
 exclaimed, half-irritated, half-amused. 
 
 " I guess he imagines I was going to 
 twit him with something that happened 
 er, once," Deane answered lucidly. " He 
 ought to be taught not to go around with 
 a chip on his shoulder. It's disgusting 
 bad form. I never would have thought of 
 arguing with him if he had not taken the 
 words out of my mouth." 
 
 He was very busy all that afternoon. 
 Occasionally, over his lists and identifica- 
 tion-slips, he found time to grin some- 
 what sheepishly at the futile squabble; 
 
 also for a faint patronising resentment at 
 no
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 what he was pleased to term Holloway's 
 crudeness. 
 
 At supper Merritt glanced around as 
 though all at once missing something, and 
 said: 
 
 "Where's Holloway?" 
 
 Deane helped himself to canned apri- 
 cots, and answered tolerantly : 
 
 " Still sulking, I suppose. He doesn't 
 usually go off the tether like this. I al- 
 ways thought him a pretty good-natured 
 sort of cub." 
 
 " So he is ! " Merritt answered. 
 " Seems to me you were a bit rough on 
 him, Deane. The sun in these parts has 
 a trick of upsetting a fellow once in a 
 while, and the boy isn't seasoned timber 
 yet. Now about that 'perpetual lamp/ 
 
 I shall give it to Dr. Peabody, at the Mu- 
 iii
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 seum in Washington, with a written de- 
 scription of the circumstances under 
 which it was found. I haven't touched it, 
 beyond packing it away in the D case. He 
 can extract whatever is inside. It may 
 solve, or help to solve, the problem which 
 men have been working over a good many 
 years the secret of perpetual light. I 
 wish it to go on exhibition, with some of 
 the tablets and vases, when our men are 
 through with them. How are the 
 squeezes coming on ? " 
 
 They smoked peaceful after-dinner 
 pipes, and talked over their plans and 
 projects. At times Deane caught himself 
 listening for a quick, boyish step and an 
 outbreak of cheerful slang. 
 
 When the next morning's work was 
 under way, Deane, wishing an exposure 
 
 112
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 made of a certain patterned pavement, that 
 the photograph might aid in replacing 
 the numbered pieces when the bit was re- 
 constructed, went for Holloway and his 
 camera. Merritt had got to work earlier 
 than usual that morning; he could hear 
 him shouting from one trench to Ibra- 
 heem in another. Abruptly he came upon 
 him, and full of the business in hand, 
 demanded : 
 
 " Where's Holloway ? I want him to 
 get a shot at the pavement in Square 
 14." 
 
 Merritt glanced at him with a sudden 
 gravity. 
 
 " Didn't you know ? Holloway did not 
 
 come back to camp last night. I've got a 
 
 couple of men out now hunting him 
 
 among the tombs. He must have fallen 
 
 "3
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 down and injured himself. Perhaps a 
 tunnel caved in on him somewhere." 
 
 The shock of this announcement turned 
 Deane cold. Uppermost in his mind was 
 the thought "Two gone! what if the 
 boy should be the third ? " 
 
 " Oh, he he's around here some- 
 where," he said, and strove to speak 
 lightly. Merritt pushed his hat on the 
 back of his head with a gesture full of 
 worry and bewilderment. 
 
 "I hope so!" he said slowly. "Of 
 course, it must be so. But . . . there 
 are Tarfa and Hafiz, you know ! " 
 
 " Perhaps he came back, and went 
 away so early that we did not see him," 
 Deane suggested. At heart he knew this 
 to be futile. Merritt shook his head. 
 
 "No, I asked Hamd, his boy." He 
 114
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 braced himself visibly against a certain 
 depression, a premonition of hopeless- 
 ness. " They may bring him in at noon," 
 he said, with an obvious effort at cheer- 
 fulness. " If not well, we'll send out 
 more men. I'm afraid he's had a touch 
 of the sun lately, to tell the truth. He's 
 such a worker, and so willing to take any 
 job that comes his way, that I half the 
 time I forget he's green, and ought to 
 have an eye kept on him, and take it out 
 of him more than he can stand, I'm 
 afraid. And he'd go till he dropped, the 
 beggar, and never open his mouth. That's 
 the worst of him; I can't tell when he's 
 done up. Oh, yes ; he'll come in with the 
 men at noon, sure." 
 
 They cheered themselves with this re- 
 frain throughout the afternoon. But to-
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 wards evening Merritt's grey face was 
 greyer and greatly worn, and Deane was 
 silent and very thoughtful. Candidly he 
 confessed that he had been a brute; had 
 he also got a touch of the sun ? His mind 
 went back to the scene in his tent the 
 night before; he heard the high, boyish 
 voice, keyed to nervous confession, say- 
 ing : " All I wanted was to be within 
 range of somebody, where I could hear 
 somebody moving. ... I knew 
 if I stayed in that tent alone an hour 
 longer, I'd be off among those tombs 
 again. ... I cannot keep away from 
 the place. . . . I've been there for 
 the last four nights, and I'm afraid as 
 death of it." He lost himself in a maze 
 of vain imaginings. Had the boy wanted 
 
 him last night needed the support of 
 116
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 human companionship, and not come to 
 him because of their foolish squabble, 
 fearing scorn and ridicule? Had he 
 fought off his madness by himself, hour 
 after hour in the darkness, and at last 
 given way and wandered into the place he 
 dreaded and what had happened then? 
 Deane knew that imagination is a terribly 
 real factor in certain crises of life, let it 
 but get its grip upon its victim. And 
 Holloway ... at the thought that 
 he might be following in the footsteps of 
 those other two, vanished utterly from 
 the face of the earth, Deane started up to 
 pace the camp in an agony of restless- 
 ness. 
 
 Ibraheem, scorching himself before the 
 fire in devoted tendance of a covered dish 
 
 containing dainties saved from supper for 
 117
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 the return of Holloway, whom he loved, 
 looked up at Deane's sudden motion. 
 
 " Ne master have send out more man," 
 he said mournfully. 
 
 Deane nodded. Ibraheem nursed his 
 dish. 
 
 " Saar, I ask a word, mos' respectful. 
 What nis go to mean. What is eraisho- 
 uf-perluserpy? " 
 
 Deane pondered. 
 
 " Give it up ! Where did you hear 
 that?" 
 
 " Mister Holloway said um. To me. 
 Las' night. I am sit by fire. He come 
 walkun queek; see me and stop. He say, 
 * Ibraheem, it is late, eh ? ' I say vurry 
 late. He say, ' Ibraheem, I have saw her, 
 ne woman what is a what you call jinn.' 
 
 Jus' lak nat." 
 
 118
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 " The woman ! That empty supersti- 
 tion again ! " Deane groaned. 
 
 " I say, ' Saar, for Lord-God sake don't 
 not go. Come queek and lie in bed.' And 
 he say, ' Oh, I'm not goin' after her, you 
 old fool. Jus' goin' down in tombs a 
 leetle.' Nen he laugh and say, ' Nere is 
 more affair in Heaven-Earth eraisho nan 
 in er perluserpy ' I don't know what else. 
 Some kind dam' bad Englis' nat, eh ? So 
 he go, and byumby I go to hole and look 
 down for to see um. But I see um comin' 
 to me, on ne ground, saar, all white in she 
 face, wiv um eyes green lak fire, sleepin' 
 round mound-earths lak um cat at night, 
 sayin' so sof ' : ' I won't not go I won't 
 not go.' Nen he go, and I run queek to 
 ne mens and fall down, and go to slip to 
 
 keep um spucks away." 
 119
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 Deane went off to Merritt. 
 
 " I'm going to look for the boy myself. 
 If what Ibraheem says is straight, I'm 
 afraid he's gone as Tarfa and Hafiz 
 went." 
 
 Merritt looked at him. 
 
 " You mean " 
 
 Deane nodded miserably. 
 
 " Yes. It seems he saw the same thing. 
 Ibraheem heard him talking." 
 
 "Why didn't Ibraheem stop him?" 
 Merritt cried with a flash of anger. 
 
 " Oh, because he's a fool," Deane re- 
 torted. " I shall take half a dozen men, 
 with food and all the water 'you can spare. 
 Somehow " he drew a long breath, 
 setting his teeth " I feel as though it 
 had been partly my fault. You see a 
 couple of nights ago he came and told me 
 
 120
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 a thing or two. And I shouldn't have 
 spoken as I did yesterday. I ought to have 
 remembered." Suddenly he struck one 
 fist into the palm of his open hand. " Oh, 
 it's impossible ! " he cried harshly. 
 " Nothing so hellish could happen ! He 
 must be around somewhere; surely we'll 
 overtake him in a couple of miles! I 
 wish to Heaven we'd never set eyes on 
 this cursed place ! " 
 
 Two hours later Deane and his party 
 started. Deane, the last to leave, came to 
 Merritt and held out his hand. 
 
 " Good-bye," he said. " Will you run 
 up a flag on the tallest pole on the highest 
 mound, and leave it there until we get 
 back?" 
 
 Merritt's hand gripped his hard. 
 
 "Aye," he said. "I'll do it. God 
 
 121
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 grant you bring the poor lad back safe 
 with you. But . . . take care of your- 
 self, Deane. Remember that if you don't 
 find him within the week, it ... will be 
 no use to look further." 
 
 They rode away towards the darkening 
 east, away from the sunset; and he 
 watched, without speech or motion, until 
 they were mere black dots crawling upon 
 the desert floor. 
 
 Thereafter, Merritt discovered that he 
 had fresh troubles on his hands. The 
 fourth day after Deane's departure a man 
 raced into the camp at supper-time, crying 
 shrilly. His words brought the camp 
 about him, nervous, ready for any new 
 alarm. Ibraheem dragged him to Mer- 
 ritt, leaving a tumult of excited voices in 
 his wake; and reported that the man, re- 
 
 122
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 turning to the farthest trench after the 
 workmen were gone, to look for a lost 
 pick-head, had found the mummy of the 
 Princess in a shallow cave in a heap of 
 rubbish. Ibraheem further stated that the 
 men demanded instant permission to wall 
 it up in its tomb again, that the evil spell 
 of the place might thus be broken. 
 
 Merritt was surprised and amused and 
 indignant. The finding of the mummy 
 was a big piece of luck; the man should 
 be rewarded. But as for burying it again, 
 that was not to be thought of. It was en- 
 tirely senseless for the men to connect that 
 bit of harmless dried skin and bones 
 with all their troubles ; such a theory was 
 not worth serious consideration. The 
 mummy should be recovered and packed 
 
 securely that same night. Also the finder 
 123
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 was to go with Merritt at once to point 
 out its whereabouts. In vain the man 
 protested. Merritt's grey eye overawed 
 him; he yielded and went, first borrow- 
 ing all the amulets he could find from any 
 who would lend. Thus equipped and for- 
 tified against the Devil, he led the way, 
 shivering and whining, past the trenches 
 nearest the camp to one of the old dig- 
 gings. Here he searched until he came 
 to a shallow cave in the further side of the 
 rubbish-heap. 
 
 " This is the place, my master," he 
 said, and crept forward to look. Then he 
 dropped upon his knees and felt for all 
 his amulets and prayed crazily, even as 
 Merritt said with sternness: 
 
 " You've forgotten the place. There's 
 
 no mummy here." 
 
 124
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 " But it is the place, my master, where 
 one hour ago my eyes did see it. By 
 Allah, it is the place! It has gone, and 
 because I tracked it, its wrath shall come 
 upon me, and I shall perish as did my 
 master and my friends. Oh, master, 
 come away! The place is cursed. It is 
 the lair of the evil soul, which we have 
 freed from death to lure us into death. 
 Ai, master, come ! " 
 
 " Get along With you, you chicken- 
 heart ! " Merritt muttered in wrathful 
 Anglo-Saxon, and waved him off. The 
 man knew not the words, but took the 
 hint and fled. For an hour Merritt pa- 
 tiently searched the mounds, the aban- 
 doned trenches, the deserted tombs. Once 
 he looked up, feeling eyes upon him, and 
 
 said with annoyance: 
 125
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 " Get back to camp, I tell you ! If you 
 won't work, I won't have you peering 
 around here." Again, later, he repeated 
 his command, with growing anger. In the 
 end he found nothing, and became con- 
 vinced that the man had lied. He 
 marched back to camp, hot and much dis- 
 gusted, and sent for the culprit, who came 
 in serene innocence. 
 
 " Why did you lie to me ? " Merritt 
 asked. " When I sent you from the place, 
 why did you return? So that you might 
 laugh when you saw that I followed your 
 worthless directions ? " 
 
 " I was not from the camp, my mas- 
 ter ! " the man declared. " And where I 
 said I saw the mummy, there I saw it. 
 When it went I do not know; where it 
 
 went I do not know either." 
 126
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 " That '11 do. Perhaps you don't. Only 
 bring no more fairy tales here. I won't 
 have 'em. Understand ? " 
 
 But in the morning a new complication 
 rose. Ibraheem hunted up Merritt, an 
 uneasy scowl on his dark face, and told 
 him that the men absolutely refused to 
 enter the trenches. The workman's tale 
 had done its business. They were afraid, 
 they acknowledged frankly; they would 
 do anything under heaven to please their 
 master, whom they loved as they loved 
 their fathers and their mothers, but enter 
 the accursed city and its devil-haunted 
 tombs, they would not. Merritt saw 
 that unless he played his cards with 
 care, he would have a mutiny upon his 
 hands. Superstition was rampant; they 
 
 were an hundred, he was one. Only the 
 127
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 workman who had given the false alarm 
 stuck to Merritt. For three days the two 
 laboured, doing what two pair of willing 
 arms might do; for three days the army 
 of shirkers ate and loafed and smoked and 
 slept in the shade, embarrassingly respect- 
 ful to Merritt, stubborn as polite mules 
 when it came to the test. 
 
 Then the devoted one disappeared, even 
 as three before him had done, in the 
 night, in silence and mystery. This raised 
 an open panic. The men became utterly 
 convinced of an influence for evil working 
 actively in their midst; each man looked 
 upon himself as the next possible victim. 
 Ibraheem hinted to Merritt that they 
 might, in an excess of terror, capture the 
 animals and provisions and desert in a 
 
 body, taking the law into their own 
 128
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 hands; and Merritt leaped from his 
 camp-chair and strode out into the sun- 
 light, his jaw set, his eyes ablaze with the 
 light of coming battle. The men, gath- 
 ered into muttering groups, drew apart 
 as he appeared among them. He seized 
 the instant's advantage their pause gave 
 him and spoke, not loudly, not angrily, 
 but so that every man heard his voice, 
 and felt his courage oozing from him 
 under the fire of the grey Saxon eyes. 
 His words were Arabic, and understood 
 by all ; he stood upon a hillock of rubbish, 
 bareheaded, his shirt blowing free from 
 his tanned neck, head thrown back, un- 
 armed, dominating them by sheer force 
 of will and the heritage of the blood that 
 was in him. 
 
 " See here, men, you're not children to 
 129
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 be frightened at the dark like this. Queer 
 things have happened lately, I'm not de- 
 nying, but they're queer only because we 
 have not happened to hit on the right ex- 
 planation of them. Don't you know that 
 yourselves? " One or two heads nodded 
 doubtfully. " I'm not going to argue 
 with you ; I'm not even going to tell you 
 that you're fools. In regard to Daheer, 
 who went away last night how do you 
 know but that one of your own number, in 
 revenge for his faithfulness to me, fright- 
 ened him in the night-time, so that he, 
 thinking the hand of evil was upon him, 
 fled into the desert to escape ? " 
 
 They did not know. Quickly they saw 
 his point an Arab is not slow-witted 
 and discussed it among themselves. Each 
 
 knew that himself had not done it that 
 130
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 went without saying but whether an- 
 other was guilty they could not tell. 
 
 " Whoever will may leave this place," 
 Merritt said; and at once there was a 
 turning of heads towards him. " But he 
 must go without food and without water, 
 since I do not intend to equip any person- 
 ally-conducted expeditions. If he will, let 
 him go from here westward, where in 
 four days, or five, at most, he shall come 
 into the track of caravans. If he is lucky 
 he may find a caravan passing, and re- 
 ceive food and drink. If he finds no 
 caravan, then ."" . . it may be that he 
 will wish that he had stayed with me." 
 He paused, to let this idea sink home. 
 " But whoever stays with me " his voice 
 deepened " shall work in the trenches or 
 out of the trenches, as I command. I will
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 have no shirking, no complaints. For 
 two days I have waited to see if wis- 
 dom would enter you; now I wait no 
 longer. Choose now; will you go or 
 stay?" 
 
 A gasp of astonishment followed his 
 words. They had expected time to make 
 up their minds, and in the East time 
 means eternity. To be put to the question 
 thus, brutally, at once, was unexpected. 
 They wavered, chattered, became all at 
 once helpless and vacillating. Merritt 
 spoke once more. 
 
 " If you go, you are free to wander as 
 you like, and to perish as you like. But 
 if you stay you will obey my orders with- 
 out question, will answer fully and com- 
 pletely to my commands; for I am the 
 master here ! " 
 
 132
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 His voice held menace and power and 
 warning. They murmured. Merritt's 
 eyes flashed ; he sprang from the low hill- 
 ock of earth. He was unarmed, but they 
 shrank back. And it was then that a 
 sound broke in upon them; and Ibra- 
 heem, wheeling to look, cried aloud, and 
 ran to Merritt and shook his arm, shout- 
 ing: 
 
 " Look see, saar ! Oh, Lord-God, 
 look see ! " 
 
 Behind them, so that they turned to see 
 it, a figure was racing over the sands rap- 
 idly, stumbling with staggering steps, a 
 gaunt skeleton with fluttering rags; and 
 as it came it cried three times, hoarsely: 
 " Merritt, Merritt, Merritt ! " and stum- 
 bled on past Merritt, looking neither to 
 the right nor left, reeling drunkenly, pant- 
 133
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 ing like an overridden horse. An instant 
 Merritt stood motionless with his men; 
 but with the voice, he understood and 
 leaped forward and caught the flying fig- 
 ure by its arm. 
 
 "Deane! Deane! For God's sake, 
 what's happened ? " 
 
 And Deane stumbled, recovered him- 
 self, reeled, and came slowly to the 
 ground, with Merritt's arm about his 
 shoulders, and his face hidden in his 
 hands. 
 
 Merritt looked up, white to the lips 
 with sheer fright. 
 
 " Get water, somebody ! " he cried. 
 
 They brought him a cup, but Deane 
 
 made no motion to take it until Merritt 
 
 held it carefully to his lips. Then he 
 
 snatched it, with a snarl like a hungry 
 
 134
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 beast, and drained it and laughed 
 hoarsely. 
 
 " Give me more ! " he panted, and 
 struggled to rise. 
 
 " There, old boy ! keep cool ! " Merritt 
 soothed, and held him down. f< Take it 
 easy; you'll have enough." 
 
 He gave Deane the cup again, and 
 splashed water on the grimed parched 
 skin that drank as a plant drinks 
 rain. 
 
 " I had bad times out there," Deane 
 said suddenly. He spoke thickly, out of 
 a stiff throat, with a curious eagerness, 
 yet a certain hesitancy, in short, detached 
 sentences. " My men deserted when I 
 insisted on searching farther. They took 
 all the food. And the water. You 
 see " the words came painfully " I 
 135
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 . . . didn't find him. Two nights 
 ago when was it? I forget. I've been 
 out there years and years. But some- 
 thing happened. I saw something run- 
 ning away from me. So I chased it. 
 And when I found it . . ." He broke 
 off. " I don't know what I'm talking 
 about. That morning I had been just 
 within sight of your flag, so I was pretty 
 sure of my direction. But I went on, 
 keeping it as well as I could. I was 
 nearly gone then. I heard your voices. 
 And I ran, and called for you." Again 
 he stopped. 
 
 Merritt, giving him drink, said un- 
 certainly : 
 
 " I don't think I understand. Why do 
 you say ' heard your voices ' ? Of course, 
 you must have seen the camp before you 
 136
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 heard us, or were we making such a 
 racket " 
 
 And after his words there came a 
 pause, unexpected, pregnant with hidden 
 meaning. Merritt suddenly saw Deane's 
 hands slowly clench, with a strength 
 which left the knuckles white, clench 
 until they shook to the muscular effort. 
 Deane said, very slowly, in a perfectly ex- 
 pressionless voice: 
 
 " I thought you had found it out by 
 this time. Merritt . . . I'm blind." 
 
 Again there was a pause. The cup in 
 Merritt's hand- remained tilted, its con- 
 tents spilling upon the ground. Then he 
 said, almost below his breath: 
 
 " How did it happen ? " 
 
 "I'll tell you. Later. Can't we get 
 inside somewhere? I feel the sun," 
 137
 
 The One Who Went Away 
 
 Deane said. He got himself to his feet, 
 unsteady, making a strong effort to get 
 control of his weakness. Merritt passed 
 an arm through his, and led him to his 
 tent. A crowd of natives followed, curi- 
 ous as children, understanding nothing of 
 what had passed. . . . 
 
 That night, lying on his bed with a wet 
 cloth about his head, Deane told his story 
 to Merritt, in the darkness. 
 
 138
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 Cbe tber *5dbo "Returned 
 
 .ERRITT sat at the tent 
 door, smoking, glancing 
 now at the long figure on 
 the bed, now out across 
 the night to where the mounds loomed 
 through the darkness. Deane's voice 
 was low, and slow; at times he paused 
 for minutes as though to gather fresh 
 strength. 
 
 " I don't remember very clearly about 
 parts of it," he said. " So if I get dis- 
 connected now and then, you'll know it's 
 because I can't fit it all together. We 
 searched in circles. For three days the 
 139
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 men were all right. Then we worked 
 around to the Rocks, where I had half 
 expected to find at least the remains of the 
 Arabs, but there was nothing. After we 
 left the Rocks the men began to get ugly. 
 They declared there was no use in looking 
 further, and they wanted to return. 
 Every day brought emptiness and failure. 
 Holloway would not have been alive if we 
 had found him, and although I hated to 
 give up, I felt I could not risk the men's 
 lives. So I said that the next day we'd 
 start back. But that night a caravan 
 passed us, twelve or fourteen miles away. 
 My men deserted and went to join it. 
 They took everything but my glass, my 
 compass and waterskin, and what food I 
 had with me. I started back. ... I 
 
 started back. On the " he paused, with 
 140
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 a visible effort to fix his attention on his 
 words " I think it was the third day, the 
 water gave out. The next day at sunrise 
 I saw the flag. It could not be seen with 
 the naked eye; with the glass it was just 
 visible. If it had not been for that, I 
 should have died out there. I covered 
 a good many miles that morning. There 
 was not a scrap of shade, and the sun was 
 cruel. About noon I saw something run- 
 ning ahead. I thought at first it might 
 be Holloway, still alive by a miracle, gone 
 crazy, you know, with the sun. Anyhow, 
 I was not going to take chances. I 
 chased it. Luckily for me, it went in the 
 general direction of the flag, due east. 
 Then I realised what I was doing, with 
 the sun scorching like a blast of furnace 
 
 heat. But by that time the mischief was 
 141
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 done. My brain was burnt out; there 
 was an iron band across my forehead. I 
 nearly went mad with the pain. I think 
 I got delirious after a while, for every 
 time I woke, I was chasing that infernal 
 thing across the desert. It stopped after 
 a while. I thought it lay down, but that 
 may have been my eyes. I was seeing 
 stars and pinwheels then. And then 
 something cracked inside my head, and 
 the light went out." 
 
 He drew a long breath. Always his 
 voice was slow and monotonous, devoid 
 of all expression. 
 
 " For a while I ... I stayed where I 
 was. Then I swore I'd get back in spite 
 of it, or die on my feet. So I went on, 
 as nearly due east as I could guess, try- 
 ing to keep in the direction I had been 
 142
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 started in. The fear that all uncon- 
 sciously I would get to walking in a 
 circle, and so keep on until my strength 
 gave out; the feeling of appalling help- 
 lessness, of not knowing whether I was 
 headed right or whether I might as well 
 sit down where I was and wait for the 
 finish. ... I tell you, Merritt, it was a 
 journey to Hell and back again." His 
 voice shook, ever so slightly. Merritt, 
 in the doorway, turned his head away. 
 
 " What I'm about to tell you now you 
 may say is nothing but the recollection of 
 a delirium," the monotonous, controlled 
 voice went on. " I don't know how long 
 I had been travelling. It was slow work, 
 as you may guess. Suddenly I tripped 
 over something. I felt around on the 
 ground and my hands struck what had 
 143
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 thrown me. It ... it was a body, Mer- 
 ritt, a dried husk that sounded hollow 
 when I struck it. I don't know whose. 
 It might have been the boy's. They do 
 dry up so fast, out in this sun, you 
 know. ... It was a shock, an awful one. 
 I don't know what I did. I was so set, 
 heart and soul, on keeping a straight 
 course, that I scarcely dared turn my face 
 aside or stop moving. ... I felt for it, to 
 see if I could tell anything by the clothes, 
 but it slipped out of my hands and and 
 I could not find it again. I groped for 
 it, but dared not move far to either side, 
 lest I get turned around. It may have 
 been lying within a foot of me, and I 
 missed it. So I said ' God have mercy 
 on your soul, whoever you were ! ' and 
 
 went on, and left it lying there. But if 
 144
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 it were Holloway if it were the boy! 
 To come across him, and not know him, 
 and leave him ! " A sob shook him from 
 head to foot. He continued, quietly as 
 always. 
 
 " He's one of Us, of our speech and of 
 our blood. And we were all he had out 
 here. ... It isn't profitable talking about 
 those days that followed. I think there 
 were three of them. My waterskin was 
 empty; I chewed on dry biscuit until my 
 mouth bled. In the mornings I set my 
 course by the heat of the rising sun on 
 my face. I broke out the crystal of my 
 watch that I might feel the hands and 
 know when they pointed to noon and the 
 sun would be behind me. I had to travel 
 in the morning so that I might have the 
 feel of the sun to go by, and at night I 
 145
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 was afraid to stir lest I get turned 
 around. Oh, those nights! My God! 
 those nights ! " His voice dropped to a 
 whisper. In a moment it went quietly 
 on, restrained, devoid of all expression. 
 
 " Occasionally I had half - delirious 
 dreams, which I could not distinctly re- 
 member afterwards. Usually I was in a 
 garden, where the perfume of the jasmine 
 and the honeysuckle was enough to drag 
 the very heart out of you, and where a 
 woman was with me, whose face I 
 couldn't see. And I dreamt about the 
 Princess a good deal probably because I 
 had had her on my mind seeing her 
 always as she must have been once, and 
 never as the the thing we found. In 
 one dream, which I can remember, and 
 
 which I'll never be able to forget, I saw 
 146
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 the boy our boy in this garden place. 
 He was lying face downward on the 
 ground I swear I could almost have 
 touched him, it was so real! and a 
 woman was stooping over him oh, Mer- 
 ritt, the loveliest thing that God or the 
 Devil ever made! I never was much 
 given to running after women, but in 
 that dream I wanted to strangle him, to 
 crush the life and breath and soul out of 
 him, because that woman was leaning 
 over him, with her breath on him and her 
 hands on his head, and 7 was mad for 
 her. In a way, I could see myself creep- 
 ing through that garden towards them, 
 quite without volition of my own, parting 
 the vines and the flowers carefully that 
 they might not rustle. And as I got to 
 
 them " Deane stopped abruptly. His 
 
 147
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 hand closed hard upon a corner of the 
 blanket. 
 
 " As I got to them, the woman looked 
 over her shoulder at me. From that 
 point it's all confused and vague, as 
 dreams will be, and I've lost the details. 
 I only know that she left the boy lying on 
 the ground, and moved away; that I fol- 
 lowed her, and caught her, and she did 
 not struggle, but put her arms about my 
 neck and held her lips to mine. I tell 
 you, I felt the weight of her body and the 
 warmth of her breath as though I had 
 held her in the flesh. And when earth 
 and hell and heaven itself held nothing 
 but the madness of her beauty, I felt a 
 change. She seemed to stiffen in my 
 grasp ; her arms dropped from my shoul- 
 ders. And then I saw a change. Saw 
 148
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 it as plainly as though I had been awake 
 and she was there in actual fact. I saw 
 her flesh shrivel and the skin cling tight 
 to the bones. I saw her face sink in until 
 the eyes were gone, and the cheeks were 
 gaunt and covered with wrinkled brown 
 parchment, and the lips were grinning 
 like the jaws of a skull. And the thing 
 slid out of my arms and lay on the 
 ground, stark and rigid. Then I thought 
 that Holloway, from the ground, spoke, 
 without moving, and said ' It isn't 
 worth while, after all, is it ? ' And I woke 
 in a cold sweat of abject terror, with his 
 voice ringing in my ears so that I could 
 have sworn that someone had just 
 spoken. . . . Oh, it was maudlin, I don't 
 deny it, and I was well over the edge of 
 
 madness ! " His voice all at once was 
 149
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 strained and tired. " Three times I had 
 that dream. I used to wait for it, and 
 long for it, to intoxicate myself with her 
 loveliness, but even in my sleep I was con- 
 scious of trying desperately to waken be- 
 fore the the change should come. I 
 never succeeded, and when I did wake, it 
 was always in the same shiver of mortal 
 fear, with that thing, dark and stiff, on 
 the ground at my feet. And the third 
 time . . ." 
 
 Again he stopped, controlling himself 
 with an effort, gathering fresh strength to 
 continue. 
 
 " Have you ever roused suddenly from 
 sleep at night, for no apparent cause, and 
 realised that your mind, your conscious- 
 ness, was broadly awake while for a bare 
 
 instant your body still slept, as it were? 
 150
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 It gives you the physical sensation of 
 sleep; you feel that your whole being is 
 at lowest ebb, that your heart is beating 
 slower, that your limbs are weighed down 
 by faint numbness, that you are pro- 
 foundly immovable. You are not, of 
 course; when you make the conscious 
 effort, you can move with perfect ease. 
 It lasts barely a second. That is how I 
 woke, the third time. And in that 
 instant, while I lay feeling as though I 
 could not stir hand or foot to save my 
 soul, yet with every mental faculty wak- 
 ing to alertness, I got the impression of 
 arms soft human arms removed from 
 my neck, and knew that something be- 
 side me had sprung away, swiftly and 
 silently. Dear Lord in heaven, how I 
 cursed my blindness then ! Not to know
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 whether I was the plaything of strange 
 forces, none the less real because I could 
 not understand them, or whether it was 
 all the workings of a fever-haunted brain 
 whether something was actually hap- 
 pening out there in the desert, or 
 whether I was merely playing the fool 
 luckily with nobody at hand to take in the 
 full beauty of the spectacle. . . . Oh, 
 well! The only conclusion I can come 
 to is that during those three days I was 
 undoubtedly insane. And ... I hope to 
 God it's the correct one. ... It seemed 
 as though this went on for cycles of time ; 
 shivering nights spent half in a state of 
 maudlin, sensuous bliss half in a panic 
 of crazy fear; blistering days, crawling 
 on, inch by inch, over red-hot sands, in a 
 
 blackness that was swimming with blood- 
 152
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 red mist. ... I soberly thought I had 
 walked for weeks when I heard voices 
 that sounded quite close at hand. I for- 
 got that sound carries over the desert 
 almost as over water, and thought 
 I was right among you. I heard 
 Ibraheem screaming to his ' Lord-God ' 
 about something, and I ran. . . . 
 That's all." 
 
 His slow voice stopped with a gasp of 
 utter exhaustion. And for a long space 
 was silence. 
 
 When at last Merritt spoke, huskily, no 
 answer came. He went to the bed, 
 shielding his light with care, and stood 
 looking down. Deane's gaunt frame was 
 relaxed, his drawn face, graven into new 
 deep lines of suffering, was quiet, his 
 darkened eyes were closed. Merritt 
 153
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 turned the lamp out and stole noiselessly 
 from the tent. . . . 
 
 In spite of Merritt's anxious care, 
 Deane did not seem to rally from the 
 effects of that desert journey. So that 
 Merritt wished to hasten the work, and 
 get away, but to this Deane obstinately 
 refused to listen. He argued forcefully 
 that no time was like the present; that 
 they did not know if they could ever get 
 out again ; that if his eyes could be cured 
 at all, a few weeks' delay would not harm 
 them. In the end Merritt yielded, partly 
 because he wished to believe what Deane 
 said, partly because all his heart was in 
 his work. Soon Deane learned to go 
 about by himself, with the aid of a stick, 
 stumbling at first, for the ground was 
 154
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 badly cut up, later with comparative ease 
 and rapidity. That his helplessness was 
 worse to him than the bitterness of death, 
 Merritt knew unerringly. Of this Deane 
 never spoke, but his face, when he failed 
 in some erstwhile easy task, all uncon- 
 sciously betrayed him. Continually he 
 was restless, ill at ease, yet striving 
 doggedly to get himself in hand. Merritt 
 began to notice in him a desire for com- 
 panionship, especially towards nightfall; 
 noticed with opened eyes that Deane kept 
 himself always near a group of men, even 
 though he sat silent, taking no part in 
 their talk. Twice, Merritt, going late at 
 night cautiously to his tent to see that he 
 wanted nothing, found it empty. At first 
 this frightened him, suggesting thoughts 
 of Deane wandering alone in the dark- 
 155
 
 The Other Who Returned 
 
 ness, until he remembered that night and 
 day were as the same to Deane. 
 
 So a week went by; and the Evil that 
 brooded over them awoke once more and 
 stalked abroad. 
 
 156
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 at tbe Bleventb Dour 
 
 ERRITT, in his tent, was 
 busily bringing his jour- 
 nal down to date. The 
 lamplight fell unspar- 
 ingly on his grey face, weather-worn 
 and with tired eyes, and flung a 
 distorted shadow of him on the tent 
 wall behind him. He wrote slowly, 
 making no corrections, methodical, thor- 
 ough, as in all his doings. The jour- 
 nal was a marvel of brevity and concise- 
 ness. His pen was finishing the sentence 
 "which I wish to present to the 
 National Museum, in Washington, D. C, 
 157
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 with the hope that my good friend, Dr. 
 Peabody, may, on examination, be 
 enabled to analyse what it contains." 
 For it was of the lamp he wrote, the lamp, 
 which, cold and dead, later found its 
 place in a glass case among old relics of 
 bygone days, labelled with a card bearing 
 an outline of its half-known strange his- 
 tory, of which the beginning was forever 
 lost. He was deep in interested reviewal 
 of its discovery, when a stumble at the 
 door and a smothered curse announced 
 the advent of Deane. 
 
 " Can I come in ? " Deane asked, and 
 entered hastily. He listened an instant 
 to make sure of Merritt's position, and 
 crossed the tent to him, feeling his way 
 with the helpless awkwardness of the 
 
 newly blind. 
 
 158
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 " Is there a piece torn out of the left 
 sleeve of my shirt, near the shoulder?" 
 he asked abruptly, and bent down 
 that Merritt might observe. Merritt 
 noticed that his breath was quick and 
 his manner full of a repressed excite- 
 ment. 
 
 "No," Merritt said. " Nothing wrong 
 here." 
 
 "Thank the Lord for that," Deane 
 muttered devoutly. " But then it's 
 mighty queer. I don't understand what 
 could have happened. . . Something 
 caught at me just now, down in the dig- 
 gings ... I can't believe it's all im- 
 agination " 
 
 Simultaneously Merritt exclaimed: 
 
 " Hold on ! You said the left sleeve. 
 There's a six-inch rip in the right sleeve, 
 159
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 here, where I'm pulling. Did you catch 
 it on a nail ? " 
 
 Deane drew his breath in sharply. 
 
 " There is one, then ? " he said in an 
 odd voice. " No, I did not catch it on 
 any nail." 
 
 Merritt turned to look at him. 
 
 " What's up? " he demanded. 
 
 But Deane, without noticing his ques- 
 tion, began to speak rapidly, in the same 
 tense voice. 
 
 "Then I believe anything everything. 
 I believe that the men are right. I be- 
 lieve the place is cursed. I believe that 
 Bob and the Arabs were decoyed and 
 trapped by unhuman powers. I've 
 scoffed and sneered, but now I will 
 believe anything this land can show 
 
 me. I'm beaten done up. I don't 
 160
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 understand but I believe. ... I be- 
 lieve it!" 
 
 His voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. 
 Merritt stood up and shook him gently. 
 
 " Look here, old man, this won't do. 
 Get yourself together. It won't last much 
 longer; in ten days at most we'll be off." 
 
 " Ten days," Deane repeated. " Ten 
 days. ... I guess I can stand that, 
 can't I?" 
 
 " If you think you'd like to start ahead 
 of me," Merritt said, " take what stores 
 and men you want, and start on first. I 
 think that would~be the best plan, anyhow. 
 Your eyes need treatment; it may be a 
 serious thing if they don't get it soon. I 
 won't be long behind you " 
 
 But Deane interrupted with sudden 
 
 fierceness, a burst of uncalled-for anger, 
 161
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 so that Merritt stared at him in sheer 
 amazement. 
 
 " See here ! Don't say that to me 
 again; understand? Why, do you know 
 what you're inviting me to do? Play the 
 coward run away and hide my head in 
 the sand; make a worse spectacle of my- 
 self than I am already. That's what 
 you're asking me to do! But I won't 
 by Heaven, I won't! Don't think that 
 because I'm useless and not worth my 
 salt I'll let a man any man insult 
 me " 
 
 But, on the word, his voice changed and 
 hesitated; his torrent of speech checked. 
 He said with a certain timidity which sat 
 very strangely on him a deprecating 
 humility not good to hear: 
 
 " I I don't mean that, Merritt, upon 
 162
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 my soul, I don't ! I don't know what I'm 
 talking about, these days." 
 
 " You go to bed," Merritt said with 
 decision. " That's the best place for you 
 at present. Sleeping pretty good, 
 lately?" 
 
 " Not ten minutes since since I got 
 back," Deane answered shortly. " Some- 
 times I get half off, but that that's 
 worse than nothing. Every time I drop 
 off I'm back out there again, stum- 
 bling over rocks, mad with hunger and 
 thirst." He brushed the back of a hand 
 across his forehead. " Or else I'm feel- 
 ing dry arms around my neck, and some- 
 thing pulling at me the way oh, the way 
 I dreamt out there!" He shuddered. 
 " Then I stay awake the rest of the 
 night." 
 
 163
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 " Deane, go home ! " Merritt urged 
 earnestly. " You're not fit to stay out 
 here. No man would be, after all 
 that." 
 
 But on the instant Deane's anger flared 
 up again, irresponsible, violent, wholly 
 out of proportion to its cause. 
 
 " Haven't I got enough to keep me 
 happy without you to help it on ? " he said 
 with savage irony. " Do you think I'll 
 turn tail and give up now, at the eleventh 
 hour?" 
 
 " No; after all I suppose it would not 
 do," Merritt said gravely, a keen eye on 
 Deane's drawn face. 
 
 Deane calmed down at once. 
 
 " I thought you'd feel that way about 
 it," he said in satisfied tones. " You see, 
 
 of course, how I'm placed." He laughed 
 164
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 grimly, jangling laughter that jarred. 
 " Lord, what a farce it is ! Here I'm 
 going the way Hollo way went; coming to 
 you whining to be put to sleep, as he came 
 to me, poor devil! Next thing, I'll be 
 crawling around your tent to hear you 
 moving inside; then I'll be wandering 
 down among the tombs; then " 
 
 "Now what are you talking about?" 
 Merritt demanded helplessly. " Don't 
 think about Holloway any more, there's 
 a good chap. Suppose I fix you up 
 something to take, and you turn 
 in " 
 
 " The devil you will ! " Deane retorted 
 with promptness. " You don't get 
 around me that way, by George! I've 
 fixed up stuff for shaky devils myself be- 
 fore this, and sent 'em to sleep thinking 
 165
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 they had a good strong dose inside them. 
 None of your lime- juice-and- water tricks 
 forme!" 
 
 Merritt gasped slightly. 
 
 "Oh very well. Then I'll look in 
 later to see how you are getting on." 
 
 He turned to his journal again. 
 Deane, on his way to the door, said 
 calmly over his shoulder : 
 
 " Then you'd better sing out loud be- 
 fore you come in. Hamd that black 
 limb of Satan came in on me suddenly 
 last night, and I choked him silly before 
 he could tell me who he was. I haven't 
 got a rag of nerve left, that's the truth 
 of it." 
 
 He departed, swearing a little as he ran 
 against a camp-stool in his path. 
 
 " Yes sir ! he's reached his limit. I've 
 got to get him out of this somehow," 
 166
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 said Merritt, and took up his pen once 
 more. 
 
 But later, when Merritt, loudly herald- 
 ing his approach, entered Deane's tent, 
 Deane was not within. Merritt stood in 
 the doorway and looked about him, scowl- 
 ing uneasily. 
 
 " Wish I'd kept him with me," he said 
 aloud. " The fellow isn't fit to be left 
 alone just now. He might good Lord! 
 why, he might . . ." 
 
 He sat down on the leather-covered 
 trunk and waited. Outside, the night 
 was very still. No sound came from the 
 camps; all the world slept. Merritt 
 dozed uncomfortably, his head fallen for- 
 ward, hands hanging limp between his 
 knees. It seemed to him, afterwards, 
 that he had slept thus a very long time. 
 
 As one, in ten minutes, may dream 
 167
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 through a cycle of time, so Merritt felt 
 as though half the night had gone when 
 at length he pulled himself together, 
 guiltily conscious that he ought to go and 
 look for Deane. He yawned, stretched, 
 and got himself to his feet, stupid with 
 sleep, noticing, irrelevantly, that the lamp 
 was still burning, and that the moonlight, 
 coming through the open entrance, turned 
 its light wan and sickly. And then he 
 started, wide awake on the instant, listen- 
 ing with bent head and hands clenching 
 to a sound that came out of the night; a 
 moan, rising and swelling into a scream 
 that split through the stillness, and stopped 
 suddenly as though choked into strangled 
 quiet, with the silence settling deeper than 
 before. The cry came from the excava- 
 tions. Merritt dashed out of the tent 
 and ran thither, his teeth set hard, every 
 168
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 muscle tense to face he knew not what 
 crisis. But that some crisis was at hand, 
 instinct told him surely. 
 
 He gained the edge of the level which 
 overlooked the courtyard, forty feet be 
 low, and looked down. There, among 
 the exhumed tombs, was dense black 
 shadow, save at one place only, in the 
 centre of the open court, where the moon- 
 light fell like a lake of silver at the bottom 
 of a well. Merritt, pausing uncertain 
 which way to turn or what to look for, 
 heard strange sounds arising from the 
 heart of the shadow below him; heavy 
 breathing, guttural snarls, low and worry- 
 ing, like an angry dog's; thumping as 
 of heavy bodies at grips and threshing to 
 and fro. Then a thing appeared, from 
 the blackness into the patch of light, and 
 Merritt rubbed his eyes to make sure that 
 169
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 the wan moonlight, which turned all 
 things uncorporeal as phantoms, had not 
 deceived him a thing that rolled upon 
 the ground, and rose and fell again in 
 contorted struggling an indeterminate 
 mass, black against the silver, silent save 
 for deep panting breaths and worrying 
 snarls. Merritt plunged down the slant- 
 ing gallery leading to the courtyard, leap- 
 ing downward with great strides. Even 
 as he raced, his brain formulated theories. 
 It might be a wild animal lion hyena 
 jackal ; it might be a native run amuck ; 
 it might be a thief. Whatever it was, it 
 had Deane, handicapped by his blindness 
 and recent hardships, down and fighting 
 
 for his life 
 
 Merritt gained the lower level, stum- 
 bled over an unseen obstruction in his 
 path, recovered, and dashed into the 
 170
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 courtyard to where the struggling mass 
 had been. Had been, but was no longer ; 
 for even in the bare half-minute that 
 Merritt had taken in his descent, what 
 was to happen had happened. There was 
 only a crumpled heap upon the ground in 
 the moonlight, that screamed when Mer- 
 ritt touched it, and clutched him, feeling 
 with blind, desperate fingers for his 
 throat. Merritt cried sharply: 
 
 " Stop it, Deane, stop it, I tell you ! 
 It's I, Merritt! Oh, man, are you off 
 your head entirely? " 
 
 With difficulty he mastered him, and 
 held him down, repeating over and 
 over: 
 
 it's I it's only Merritt. Don't fight 
 like this, man can't you understand 
 it's Merritt!" 
 
 Until Deane's struggles ceased, and he 
 171
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 lay panting, with Merritt's weight atop 
 of him. 
 
 "You Merritt?" he said faintly. 
 Merritt, still holding him, repeated sooth- 
 ing assurances automatically. But Deane 
 sat up suddenly, flinging off Merritt as 
 though he had been a child, and cried : 
 
 "Then where is it? Merritt, Merritt, 
 find it find it for the love of Heaven, 
 and burn it ! It can't have got very far 
 I had it sure. Oh, go, old man, look for 
 it it's here among the tombs some- 
 where ! I had it not half a minute ago ! " 
 
 Merritt put a hand on his arm, and felt 
 that he was shaking all over. 
 
 "Steady, old boy!" he said. "Get 
 yourself together. There's nothing here 
 I'll swear there isn't. What was it you 
 were doing?" 
 
 " Doing ! " Deane said between his 
 173
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 teeth. His hands clenched and un- 
 clenched convulsively. " I tell you I had 
 it ! Can't you do as I tell you ? Do you 
 want the thing to get away from us 
 again ? Oh, man, do as I tell you ! " 
 
 " Hold on a minute ! What was it you 
 had ? " Merritt asked. Deane's voice 
 rose to a shriek of angry impotence. 
 
 " The mummy, you fool, the mummy ! 
 Can't you understand? Will you look 
 for it, damn you ! " 
 
 "The mummy !" Merritt echoed blankly. 
 The solution of Deane's conduct flashed 
 upon him; Deane was undoubtedly mad; 
 the overwrought brain at last had given 
 way. But Deane was speaking, in a high, 
 shrill voice that staggered and stuttered 
 crazily. 
 
 " I found it here, down among the 
 tombs. I knew I should; I was waiting 
 173
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 for it. It came, and I felt its arms 
 around my neck, and I knew that the 
 dream I had in the desert was no dream. 
 And when I tried to get away, it clung, 
 clung like a leech, with feet and hands 
 and teeth Merritt! Oh, my God, Mer- 
 ritt, where are you ! " It was the voice 
 of a child, wakened suddenly, in mortal 
 terror to find itself in the dark. 
 
 Merritt, with instant comprehension, 
 said quickly : 
 
 " Here, old chap! It's all right I'm 
 here. I won't go off." 
 
 Deane's hand groped for his, and 
 clutched it with a grip which made Mer- 
 ritt wince. His voice took up its tale. 
 
 " I fought it off, and it twined its legs 
 
 and arms around mine and I couldn't 
 
 shake it off. I tried to beat its head on 
 
 the stones, and it fasiened its teeth in my 
 
 174
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 shoulder and held on. Then I tried to 
 bring it up above. * I let it cling, and held 
 on to it, and ran ; but I had lost my bear- 
 ings and went round and round without 
 getting anywhere. I reached the gallery 
 at last, but it found out what I was doing, 
 and fought God! how it fought to get 
 away! I tripped it, and we both fell, it 
 trying to break loose, and I trying to hold 
 it down. And then I heard a shout, and 
 steps coming, and it tore away from me, 
 and I lost it." 
 
 "Well, come away!" Merritt said 
 soothingly. To himself he said with 
 sternness, " One of us jackasses has got 
 to keep cool ! " 
 
 Deane must be humoured; must be 
 
 coaxed into submission. Deane laughed. 
 
 " You think I'm mad, do you ? " he cried. 
 
 " Well, I'm not. Not yet. I'm I'm as 
 
 175
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 sane as you are, but I won't be very long. 
 If you had felt it hanging to you, with its 
 skinny arms wound round you, and you 
 not able to see what it was perhaps 
 you'd be half-mad too." 
 
 " It couldn't have been the the 
 mummy, you know," Merritt said, as one 
 trying to soothe a child to reason. 
 " That's quite absurd. A mummy 
 couldn't possibly be waltzing around 
 like this. It's not in the nature of 
 things " 
 
 " Of course it's not in the nature of 
 things ! " Deane cut in savagely. " Don't 
 I know that ? " His voice wavered ; be- 
 came shriller. " I can't stand it any 
 longer, Merritt. Call me any name you 
 
 like I deserve it. But I'm I'm " 
 
 He laughed again, crazily, so that Merritt 
 started apprehensively; and suddenly 
 176
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 buried his face in his hands and sat with 
 long shudders chasing through him. 
 " I'm done up," he said hoarsely. 
 
 " Get up and come with me," Merritt 
 ordered. He caught himself casting a 
 wary eye around; Deane's collapse had 
 unsteadied even his well-strung nerves. 
 " We'll not stay here another day. This 
 place is is unholy, that's all there is to 
 it. Come away, old man." 
 
 He got Deane to his feet, and Dearie 
 clung to him helplessly, begging not to be 
 left alone. Carefully Merritt led him up 
 to the slanting gallery, over the cut-up 
 ground, and to his own tent. Here Deane 
 sat obediently on the bed, turning his 
 white, haunted face always towards the 
 sound of Merritt's comings and goings 
 about the tent. Merritt saw with a sense 
 of shock that his shirt had been torn into 
 177
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 ribbons on one side, and on his shoulder 
 was blood and the mark of teeth. He 
 washed the wound and touched it with 
 lunar caustic; and Deane laughed grimly 
 through locked jaws. Then Merritt put 
 him to bed, and lay down himself where 
 Deane might touch him and be instantly 
 convinced of his presence, leaving the 
 lamp still burning. 
 
 The tent fell into silence; but Merritt, 
 always wakeful, with every nerve strung 
 taut, felt subtly the tenseness of the figure 
 beside him; knew how Deane, motion- 
 less, was holding himself down by sheer 
 force of will; and longed feverishly for 
 daylight when the nightmare of the 
 darkness should end. Once, indeed, he 
 dozed uneasily, only to be wakened 
 
 by Deane's hands, wet with sweat, play- 
 178
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 ing over his face, and Deane's voice 
 whispering : 
 
 " It's out there. I hear it. Merritt, if 
 it comes in here I shall go mad ! " 
 
 And Merritt, startled into quick con- 
 sciousness, sprang up and peered through 
 the tent-flap into the night, before he real- 
 ised the foolishness of his action, and the 
 credulity it implied. ' 
 
 " See it ? " Deane asked tensely behind 
 him. " If it's there, I'm going out after 
 it. I can't stand the notion of its going 
 around loose any longer. Suppose it came 
 in here . . ." 
 
 And Merritt paused a perceptible 
 instant before replying. Then he 
 said: 
 
 " Nothing out there " 
 
 And came back and lay down again. 
 
 But he did not tell Deane that something 
 179
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 had slipped out of his sight, behind a 
 mound into the shadows not a dozen 
 yards away; something, if his eyes did 
 not deceive him, which was not a goat at 
 large, nor a hyena, nor any creature that 
 walked upon four legs. And there was 
 no noise in the camps to indicate that men 
 were stirring there. 
 
 Once more there fell a silence. Out of 
 it Deane suddenly spoke again, with a 
 jarring laugh. 
 
 "This is a hell of a place, isn't it?" 
 And then, " Oh, boy, boy ! If we hadn't 
 scoffed and been quite so confoundedly 
 cocksure of ourselves and our theories ! " 
 
 Morning broke. Before the sky had 
 wholly lost its veil of night, Merritt called 
 Ibraheem. He came; but if he drew con- 
 clusions from the two grey and drawn 
 
 faces before him, he made no sign. To 
 1 80
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 him Merritt gave certain orders; he ejac- 
 ulated in profane and joyful English and 
 departed. Fifteen minutes later the camps 
 were all astir. Breakfast was being 
 cooked and eaten, as before, but there was 
 an added hum of preparation and antici- 
 pation. The cases containing tablets and 
 antiquities were loaded carefully on cam- 
 els; the camp dunnage was collected and 
 packed; at noon the tents were struck. 
 All hands helped; four were eagerly 
 ready to do the work of one. The East 
 had conquered; whatever means she had 
 employed to hide the remainder of her 
 treasures from the eyes of the prying 
 West, had done their work. The grave, 
 half-opened, was to be left in peace. Her 
 methods, lawful or unlawful, had sufficed. 
 At sunset the caravan started. Merritt, 
 his grey face and tired eyes seemingly un- 
 181
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 changed, sober, yet with the activity of 
 one who, in authority, must be all things 
 to all men, urged on the advance. Deane, 
 silent, with brooding face and bowed 
 shoulders, sat his horse listlessly, leaving 
 its control to the Arab who held the lead- 
 ing-rein. His reddish hair was touched 
 with grey; the lines of humour about his 
 mouth had given place to other lines, 
 which cast the face into a new mould; he 
 looked aged by many years. The sun, 
 shooting his last level rays across the des- 
 ert, fell full upon their faces as they set 
 put upon their journey, leaving their work 
 half-done. 
 
 The vanguard drew away over the des- 
 ert, a long string of horses and men and 
 camels. In the last moment of twilight, 
 when the sky was steeped in violet, and 
 
 the darkness rushed down upon them with 
 182
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 swooping wings, Merritt turned in his 
 saddle and looked back at the scene of his 
 work. The excavations, only hastily filled 
 up, gaped like open wounds wounds 
 which might never heal, but remain al- 
 ways open to the pitiless sun and the driv- 
 ing sand-storms and the holy nights 
 half-revealing, half-concealing the secrets 
 which lay below. The half-buried corpse 
 of the city that had been, sank again to 
 its broken rest, to lie a while in pitiful 
 nakedness, and be slowly buried once 
 more, in the fulness of time, beneath the 
 shifting sand. Man had come, and man 
 had gone ; man had come again, and now 
 had gone, and the earth would reclaim 
 her own. The inscrutable East, brooding 
 and sombre, wise with forgotten evil lore, 
 had conquered. 
 
 A sick goat, left behind as worthless, 
 183
 
 At the Eleventh Hour 
 
 ran a few steps after the caravan, bleating 
 feebly. It stopped in front of one of the 
 mounds, and looked after them, as horses 
 and men moved slowly across the desert. 
 Occasionally, from in front, voices were 
 heard, growing always fainter as the dark 
 string wound its way westward against 
 the stars. But those in the rear were very 
 silent. Merritt, looking back, saw some- 
 thing slipping among the mounds, a black 
 blot against the dusk, and struck the 
 spurs into his horse's flank. Then he re- 
 membered that it might have been the 
 goat. 
 
 Then the curtain of night shut down, 
 and the stealthy moving thing was blotted 
 from his sight. 
 
 184
 
 FICTION 
 
 In similar binding, varying somewhat with the season. 
 i2mo. $1.25 per volume 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF PISCATOR 
 
 BY HENRY WYSHAM LANIER. With Frontispiece by WM. 
 
 BALFOUR KER. 
 
 A tale of how the trout and landlocked salmon temporarily 
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 the Peri ; how he was greatly tempted by circumstance, and 
 offended ; how complications ensued when he followed the Peri 
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 tures, more fishing frequent fishing and an embarrassing 
 climax. 
 
 THE MICMAC 
 
 By S. CARLETON. With three decorations by ADAH EMPIE. 
 
 Though in this tale four " humans " are duly human, and excite 
 our sympathy and interest, the great Micmac swamp in Nova 
 Scotia dominates the action. Perhaps the most striking " human" 
 is the fascinating and unscrupulous Mrs. Marescaux, who comes 
 to the hero in his camp in the deep woods. Through her mach- 
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 UNCLE MAC'S NEBRASKY 
 
 BY WILLIAM R. LIGHTON. Author of " The Ultimate Moment," 
 
 etc. With Frontispiece by W.H. DUNTON. 
 
 William R. Lighten has scarcely a superior for grasp on the 
 masculine traits of the earlier West. In this book he gives bits of 
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 A NIGHT WITH ALESSANDRO 
 
 By TREADWELL CLEVELAND, JR. With three views in colour 
 
 by ELIOT KEEN. 
 
 The action of this stirring tale occupies but a single night, from 
 dark to dawn. The scene and period are among the most pict- 
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 cording to the principles laid down by that great historical 
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 fall in with, including the treacherous banker, Strozzi (in whose 
 prison-like palace much of the action passes), the dissolute Duke 
 Alessandro, his despicable kinsman " Lorenzaccio, " Cardinal 
 Ippolito, and others. Effective coloured sketches of the Strozzi 
 palace at night, Florence at dusk, and Fiesole at dawn, embellish 
 the book. 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 39 W. 23d St. (iii '04) NEW YORK
 
 BY ARTHUR COLTON 
 
 Port Argent 
 
 A Novel. With Frontispiece by ELIOT KEEN. $1.50 
 
 Port Argent is Mr. Colton's most ambitious work thus far. It 
 presents a telling picture of American life in a Middle Western city 
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 no panacea for the municipal disease, and guarantees no social dogma, 
 neither does it recommend despair. It suggests that charity is the 
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 With a Frontispiece by A. B. FROST. lamo, $1.25 
 
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 " He has originality, feeling, humor." 
 
 N. Y. TRIBUNE : 
 
 " There is serious thought as well as good art in this book; 
 there is individuality also, and we gladly commend it." 
 
 N. Y. EVENING POST : 
 
 " Mr. Colton rarely fails to strike the reader's fancy by his 
 unexpected and ingenious turns of thought and his quaint way of 
 putting things." 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 Publishers (m '04) New York
 
 " Conan Doyle and Anna Katharine Green have a worthy rival 
 in Burton B. Stevenson." CHICAGO RECORD-HERALD. 
 
 2D PRINTING 
 
 The Holladay Case 
 
 By BURTON E. STEVENSON 
 
 With Frontispiece by ELIOT KEEN 
 
 i2mo, $1.25 
 
 ^[ An absorbing tale of a modern mystery, in which the 
 horror of the opening situation is but lightly touched on, 
 and the chief appeal is made by ingenuity, dramatic situ- 
 ation, and suspense. It starts with the finding of a New 
 York banker, stabbed to death in his office. The lawyer 
 who finally unravels the tangle does so in a highly original 
 manner. There are many stirring incidents, while the 
 scenes shift from New York, partly in the French quarter, 
 to an ocean steamer and to France. 
 
 NEW YORK TRIBUNE : 
 
 Professor Dicey recently said to a company of students: 
 " If you like a detective story take care you read a goo_d de- 
 tective story." This is a good detective story, and it is the 
 better because the part of the hero is not filled by a member 
 of the profession. . . . The reader will not want to put the 
 book down until he has reached the last page. This is one of 
 the most ingeniously constructed detectivej stories we have 
 read in a long time, and it is well written into the bargain. 
 
 NEW YORK MAIL AND EXPRESS : 
 
 Worth reading . . . ingenious without violating proba- 
 bility. 
 
 SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN : 
 
 Unusually clever. 
 BOSTON TRANSCRIPT : 
 
 Developed with novelty and originality . . . may ba 
 
 heartily commended. 
 
 BUFFALO COMMERCIAL: 
 Of rare interest and intricacy. 
 
 HENRY HOLT and COMPANY, 
 
 x) W. *3d Street (xii '03) , NEW YORK
 
 THIRTEENTH IMPRESSION of "A novel novel and an 
 all-around good one." Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 The Lightning 
 Conductor. 
 
 The Strange Adventures of a Motor Car. 
 
 By C. N. and A. M. WILLIAMSON. 
 
 I lino, $1.50. 
 
 | The love story of a beautiful American and 
 a gallant Englishman, who stoops to conquer. 
 Two almost human automobiles, the one 
 German, heavy and stubborn, and the other 
 French, light and easy-going, play prominent 
 parts. There is much humor. Picturesque 
 scenes in Provence, Spain and Italy pass be- 
 fore the reader's eyes in rapid succession. 
 
 Nation : " Such delightful people, and such delightful scenes. . . . 
 It should be a good, practical guide to those about to go over 
 the same course, while its charming descriptions of travel afford 
 an ample new fund of pleasure, tinged with envy here and there 
 to the stay-at-homes. ' ' 
 
 N. y. Sun : "A pleasant and felicitous romance." 
 
 Springfield Republican : "Wholly new, and decidedly entertaining." 
 
 Brooklyn Eagle : "A novel novel and an all-around good one." 
 
 Chicago Pott: "Sprightly humor , . . the story moves." 
 
 Boston Tranteript : "Can hardly fail of a popular vote of approval." 
 
 HENRY HOLT & COMPANY, 
 
 roar. (,'j). CHICAGO