The Mummy and Miss Nitocris: A Phantasy of the Fourth Dimension

  CHAPTER XI

  THE MARVELS OF PHADRIG

  The time, about an hour or so before tea, was occupied by the guestsaccording to their varying tastes--in tennis, croquet, more or lessgood-natured gossip, and flirtations which may or may not have beenserious.

  Nitocris saw with growing cause for self-gratulation that Lord Leightonand Brenda were decidedly attracted towards each other. He, in spite ofhaving received his gracious, but, as he well knew, final _conge_ fromNitocris, still felt that he was not quite playing the game withhimself; but for all that it was impossible for him not to see that theemotion, which was even now stirring in his heart, awakened by the firsttouch of Brenda's hand, and the first meeting of their eyes, wassomething very different from the tenderly respectful admiration, thereal friendship, inevitably exalted by the magic of sex, which, as hesaw now, he had innocently mistaken for love.

  He managed quite adroitly to separate Brenda from the circle, and tolure her into a stroll about the outside grounds, during which he toldher the history and traditions of "The Wilderness" not, of course,omitting the sad little tragedy of the Lady Alicia, all of which MissBrenda listened to with an interest which was not, perhaps, whollyderived from the story itself. She had never yet met any one who wasquite like this learned, much-travelled, quiet-spoken young aristocrat.On her father's side she was descended from one of the oldestKnickerbocker families in the State of New York and her aristocracyresponded instinctively to his, and formed a first bond between them.

  It need hardly be said that her beauty and her prospective wealth, tosay nothing of the bright, mental, and intellectual atmosphere in whichshe seemed to live and move, had attracted to her many men whom she hadinspired with a very genuine desire to link their lives with hers. Shewas only twenty-two, but she had already refused more than one coronetof respectable dignity, and so far her heart had remained as virgin asit was when she had admired herself in her first long skirt. But now,for the first time in her life, she began to feel a strange disquietudein the presence of a man, and a man, too, whom she had not known for anhour. Nitocris had, happily, told her nothing of what had passed betweenLord Leighton and herself, and so the pleasant element in herdisquietude was entirely unalloyed.

  Her father was already too deeply engrossed in learned converse with hisbrother professors to take any notice of the great fact which wasbeginning to get itself accomplished; but her mother's instinctinstantly noticed the subtle change that had come over her daughter,and she saw it with anything but displeasure. All sensible mothers ofbeautiful daughters are discreetly sanguine. She was far too wise in hergeneration not to have agreed with Brenda's decision in certain formercases. The idea of her daughter's beauty and her father's millions beingbartered for mere rank and social power, however splendid, was utterlyrepugnant to her. She had married for love, and she wanted Brenda to dothe same, whoever the chosen man might be, provided always that he was aman--and in this regard there could be no doubt about Lord LesterLeighton; so as they walked away she said to Nitocris with a confidencewhich was almost girlish:

  "His Lordship is just delightful--now, isn't he, Miss Marmion? Just thesort that you seem to raise over here, and nowhere else. Tells you thatyou have to take him for a gentleman and nothing else in the first threewords he says to you--and Brenda seems to like him. I never saw her gooff with a man like that on such short notice, for Brenda's pretty proudand cold with men, for all her nice ways and high spirits."

  "You would have to search a long time, Mrs van Huysman," repliedNitocris very demurely, "before you found a better type of the realEnglish gentleman than Lord Leighton. His family is one of the oldest inthe country, and, unlike too many of our noble families, the Kynestonshave no bar-sinister on their escutcheon."

  "I guess you're getting a little beyond me there, Miss Marmion. I don'tthink I ever heard of a--what is it?--a bar-sinister, before. What mightit be?"

  Nitocris flushed very faintly as she replied:

  "I think I can explain it best, Mrs van Huysman, by saying that it meansthat Lord Leighton's ancestors have preserved their honour unstainedthrough many generations. Of course, you know that some of our so-callednoble families in England spring from anything but a noble origin. Thereare not a few English dukes and earls who would find it rather awkwardto introduce their great-great-grandmothers to their present circle offriends."

  "I should think they would, from what I have read of them, the shamelesscreatures!" said Mrs van Huysman, with a sniff of real republicanvirtue.

  Then the Prince joined them, and the conversation was promptly switchedoff on to another line of interest.

  Tea was served on the Old Lawn under the shade of the great cedars,which made its greatest adornment; and when everybody had had what he orshe wanted, and the men had lit their cigarettes--and the Professors, byspecial permission, their pipes--Nitocris looked across a couple oftables at Oscarovitch, whom she had so far managed most adroitly to keepat an endurable distance, and said:

  "Now, Prince, if your friend the Adept is in the mood to astonish uswith his wonders, perhaps you will be good enough to tell him that weare all ready and willing to be startled--only I hope that he will bemerciful to our ignorance and not frighten us too much."

  "I can assure you, Miss Marmion, that my good friend from Egypt will bediscretion itself," replied the Prince, with a look and a courtlygesture that inspired Commander Merrill with an almost passionatelonging to take him down one of the quiet paths under the beeches for aten minutes' interlude. "I can promise that he will show you somemarvels which even your learned and distinguished father and his_confreres_ may find difficult of explanation: but it shall all be whitemagic. I understand that your real adept considers the black variety aswhat you call bad form."

  As the company rose and went in little groups towards the tennis-lawn,where Phadrig had elected to display his powers, the three Professorsinstinctively joined each other in a small phalanx of scepticism. Ifthere was any trick or deception to be discovered all looked to them todo it, and they were almost gleefully aware of their responsibility.Figuratively speaking, they each wore the scalps of many spiritualisticmediums, and both Professor van Huysman and Professor Hartley sensed apossible addition to their belts of scientific wampum which would not bethe least of their trophies. It had been agreed to by Phadrig, with aquiet scorn, that they were to take any measures they liked to detecthim in any practice that would convict him of being merely a conjurer;and they had accepted the permission with that whole-souled devotion totruth which excludes all idea of pity from the really scientific mind.Franklin Marmion was naturally in a very different frame of mind,although, from reasons of high policy, he assumed a similar mask ofalmost scornful scepticism; but for all that he was by far the mostanxious man in the company.

  At the request of their hostess the guests arranged themselves sittingand standing in a spacious circle on the tennis-lawn; and when this was,formed, Phadrig, whose isolation so far from the rest of the company hadbeen satisfactorily explained by the Prince, walked slowly into themiddle of it, and, after a quick, keen glance round him--a glance whichrested for just a moment or so on Professor Marmion and his _confreres_,and then on Nitocris, who was sitting beside Brenda attended by LordLeighton and Merrill--he said in a low but clear and far-reaching voice,and in perfect English:

  "Ladies and gentlemen, I have come to the house of the learned ProfessorMarmion at the request of my very good friend and patron, His HighnessPrince Oscar Oscarovitch, to give you a little display of what I maycall white magic. But before I begin I must ask you to accept my word ofhonour as a humble student of the mysteries of what, for want of abetter word, we call Nature, that I am not in any sense a conjurer, bywhich I mean one who performs apparent marvels by merely deceiving yoursenses.

  "What I am going to show you, you really will see. My marvels, if youplease to think them such, will be realities, not illusions; and I shallbe pleased if you will take every means to satisfy yourselves that theyare so. I say this w
ith all the more pleasure because I know that thereare present three gentlemen of great eminence in the world of science,and if they are not able to detect me in anything approaching trickery,I think you will take their word for it that I am not deceiving you.

  "In order that there may not be the smallest possible chance of error, Iwill ask Professors Marmion, Hartley, and Van Huysman to come and standnear to me, so that they may be satisfied that I make use of none of themere conjurer's apparatus. I shall use nothing but the knowledge, andtherefore the power, to which it has been my privilege to attain."

  Phadrig spoke with all the calm confidence of perfect self-reliance, andtherefore his words were not wanting in effect on his audience, criticaland sceptical as it was.

  "I reckon that's a challenge we can't very well afford to let go," saidProfessor van Huysman, with a keen look at his two brother scientists."Of course he's just a trick-merchant, but they're so mighty clevernowadays, especially these fellows from the gorgeous East, that you'vegot to keep your eyes wide open all the time they've got the platform."

  "Certainly," said Professor Hartley, as they moved out from the circle;"it must be trickery of some sort, and we shall be doing a publicservice by exposing it. What do you think, Marmion? I hope you won'tmind the exposure taking place in your own garden and among your ownguests?"

  "Not a bit, my dear Hartley," replied Franklin Marmion with a smile,which was quite lost upon his absolutely materialistic friends. "Wehave, as Van Huysman says, received a direct challenge. We should bemost unworthy servants of our great Mistress if we did not take it up.Personally, I mean to find out everything that I can."

  "And, gentlemen," laughed the Prince, who had been standing with themand now moved away towards Nitocris, "I sincerely hope that what youfind out will be worth the learning."

  "He's a big man, that," said Professor van Huysman, when he was out ofearshot, "but he's not the sort I'd have much use for. I wonder whythose people who are on the war-path in his country ever let him out ofit alive?"

  In accordance with Phadrig's request, they made a triangle of which hewas the central point. Without any formula of introduction, he saidrather abruptly:

  "Professor van Huysman, will you oblige me by taking a croquet ball andholding it in your hand as tightly as you can?"

  Brenda ran out of the circle and gave him one. He took it and gripped itin a fist that looked made to hold things. Phadrig glanced at the ball,and said quietly:

  "Follow me!"

  Then he turned away, and, in spite of all the Professor's efforts tohold it, the ball somehow slipped through his fingers and fell on to thelawn. Then, to the utter amazement of every one, except FranklinMarmion, it rolled towards the Adept and followed him at a distance ofabout three yards as he walked round the circle of spectators. He didnot even look at it. When he had made the round, he took his place inthe Triangle of Science, and the ball stopped at his feet.

  "It is now released, Professor," he said to Van Huysman. "You may takeit away, if you wish."

  There was something in the saying of the last sentence that nettled him.He had seen all, or nearly all, the physical laws, which were to him asthe Credo is to a Catholic or the Profession of Faith to a Moslem,openly and shamelessly outraged, defied, and set at nought. To say hewas angry would be to give a very inadequate idea of his feelings,because he, the greatest exposer of Spiritualism, Dowieism, andChristian Scientism in the United States, was not only angry, but--forthe time being only, as he hoped--utterly bewildered. It was too much,as he would have put it, to take lying down, and so, greatly daring, hetook a couple of strides towards Phadrig, and said with a snarl in hisvoice:

  "I guess you mean really if _you_ wish, Mr Miracle-Worker. It was mightyclever, however you did it, but you haven't got me to believe thatphysical laws are frauds yet. You want me to pick that ball up?"

  "Certainly, Professor--if you can--now," replied Phadrig, with a littletwitch of his lips which might have been a smile, or something else.

  Hoskins van Huysman was a strong man, and he knew it. Not very manyyears before, he had been able to shoulder a sack of flour and take itaway at a run, and now he could bend a poker across his shoulderswithout much trouble. He stooped down and gripped the ball, expecting,of course, to lift it quite easily. It didn't move. He put more forceinto his arms and tried again. For "all the move he got on it," as hesaid afterwards, it might have weighed a ton. It was ridiculous, but itwas a fact. In spite of all his pulling and straining, the ball remainedwhere it was as though it had been rooted in the foundations of theworld. He was wise enough to know when he was beaten, so he let go, andwhen he pulled himself up, somewhat flushed after his exertions, hesaid:

  "Well, Mister Phadrig, I don't know how you do it, but I've got toconfess that it lets me out. I'm beaten. If you can make the law ofgravitation do what you want, you're a lot bigger man in physics than Iam."

  He turned and went back to his place, looking, as his daughter whisperedto Nitocris, "pretty well shaken up." The Prince caught Phadrig's eyefor an instant, and said:

  "Miss Marmion, will you confound the wisdom of the wise and bring theball here?"

  It was not the words but the challenge in them that impelled her torise from her chair, aided by Merrill's hand, and not the one that thePrince held out, and walk across the lawn towards Phadrig. She took nonotice of him. She just stooped and picked up the ball and carried itback to her chair. She tossed it down on the grass, and sat down againwithout a word, quaking with many inward emotions, but outwardly as calmas ever. What Professor van Huysman said to himself when he saw thiswill be better left to himself.

  It might have been expected that the miracle, or at least theextraordinary defiance of physical law which had been accomplished byPhadrig, would have produced something like consternation among the bulkof the spectators. It did nothing of the sort. They were, perhaps, abovethe ordinary level of Society intellect in London; but they only sawsomething wonderful in what had been done. Nothing would have persuadedthem that it was not the result of such skill as produced the marvels ofthe Egyptian Hall, simply because they were not capable of grasping itsinner significance. Could they have done that, the panic which ProfessorMarmion was beginning to fear would probably have broken the party up insomewhat unpleasant fashion. As it was they contented themselves withsaying: "How exceedingly clever!" "He must be quite a remarkable man!""I wonder we've never heard of him before!" "He must make a great dealof money!" "I wonder if I could persuade the dear Prince--what acharming man he is!--to bring him to my next At Home day?" and so on,perfectly ignorant, as it was well they should be, that they hadwitnessed a real conquest of Knowledge over Force.

  Phadrig, who seemed to be the least interested person on the lawn,looked about him, and said as quietly as before:

  "I should be very much obliged if the best tennis player in the companywill do me the honour to have a game with me."

  Now, it so happened that Brenda, in addition to her other athletichonours, had recently won the Ladies' Tennis Tournament at Washington,which carried with it the Championship of the State for the year, and sothis challenge appealed both to her pride in the game and her spirit ofadventure. She looked round at Nitocris, and said:

  "I've half a mind to try, Niti. I suppose he won't strike me withlightning or send me down through the earth if I happen to beat him.Shall I?"

  "Yes, do," replied her hostess, with a suspicion of mischief in hervoice; "those dear Professors of ours are puzzling so delightfully overthe first miracle, or whatever it was, that I _do_ want to see themworried a little more. It will be a wholesome chastening for theoverweening pride of knowledge."

  "Very well," laughed Brenda, rising and dropping a light cloak from hershoulders. "It's the first time I've had the honour of playing against amagician, mind, so you mustn't be too hard on me if I lose."

  Lord Leighton fetched her racquet and one for Phadrig, and they wenttogether towards the tennis-court in which he was standing. The threeProfessors left their
places and stood at one end of the net, MessrsHartley and Van Huysman indulging in audible growls of baffledscepticism, and Franklin Marmion silently observant, divided betweeninterest and amusement. He could not help imagining what would happen ifhe were to stand in the middle of the circle and remove himself to theHigher Plane, and then go round shaking hands and saying, "Goodafternoon."

  Brenda acknowledged Phadrig's bow with a gracious nod as she took herplace. Then Lord Leighton handed the other racquet to the Adept. To hisastonishment he declined it with another bow, saying:

  "I thank you, my lord, but I do not need it."

  "What!" exclaimed the other, with a frank stare of astonishment. "Excuseme, but tennis without a racquet, you know--are you going to play withyour hands?"

  "To some extent, yes, my lord," replied Phadrig, as he took his place."Will you ask Miss van Huysman if she will be kind enough to serve?"

  Brenda would. Phadrig stood on the middle line between the two courtswith his hands folded in front of him. She certainly felt a littlenervous, but she knew her skill, and she sent a scorcher of an undercutskimming across the net. The ball stopped dead. Phadrig gave a flickwith his right forefinger, and it hopped back over the net and ranswiftly along the ground to Brenda's feet. She flushed as she picked itup and changed courts. Then she raised her racquet and sent a reallyvicious slasher into the opposite court. Phadrig, without moving, raisedhis hand at the same moment. The ball, hard as it had been driven,stopped in mid-air over the net, hung there for a moment, then droppedon Brenda's side and rolled to her feet again. She picked it up, walkedto the net with it in her hand, and said quite good-humouredly:

  "I think you're a bit too smart for me, Mr Phadrig. I can't pretend toplay against a gentleman who can suspend the law of gravitation just towin a game of tennis."

  "I did not do it to win the game, Miss van Huysman," he replied with agentle smile; "I only desired to amuse you and the other guests ofProfessor Marmion. Now, it may be that some excellent but ignorantpeople here may think that that ball is bewitched, as they would callit, so if you will give it to me, I will send it out of reach."

  She handed him the ball, wondering what was going to happen next. Hetook it and put it on the thumb of his right hand as one does with acoin when tossing. He flicked it into the air, and, to the amazement ofevery one, saving always Franklin Marmion, it rose slowly up to thecloudless sky, followed by the gaze of a hundred eyes, and vanished.Then he bowed again to Brenda, and said in the most commonplace tone:

  "It is out of harm's way now. Thank you once more for yourcondescension."

  "But how did it go up like that?" asked Brenda, looking him frankly andsomewhat defiantly in the eyes.

  "That, Miss Huysman," he replied with perfect gravity, "was only ademonstration of what Spiritualists and Theosophists are accustomed tocall levitation. It is only a matter of reversing the force of gravity."

  "Is that all?" laughed Brenda, as she turned away. "You talk of it asthough it were a matter of turning a paper bag inside out."

  "The one is as easy as the other," he smiled. "It is only a question ofknowing how to do it."

  She walked back to her chair very much mystified, and, for the firsttime in her so far triumphal journey through the interlude between theeternities which we call life, a trifle humiliated: but that fact, ofcourse, she kept to herself. As she dropped back in her chair, she saidto Lord Leighton:

  "That was pretty wonderful, wasn't it? I'm quite certain that there's notrickery about it. What he did, he really did do."

  "I don't pretend to be able to explain it," he replied, "but for allthat I've seen very much the same sort of thing done by the fakirs inIndia, and I think it's generally admitted that that is either a matterof trickery or hypnotism. They make you believe you see what you reallydon't see at all."

  "That's about it," said Merrill, with a short laugh, "Of course no onewho knows anything about the East will deny that hypnotism is a fact,although I must say that these same fakirs have tried it with me morethan once and found me a quite hopeless subject."

  Even as though he had heard him, Phadrig came towards them at themoment, and said in his polite, impersonal tone:

  "Commander Merrill, I am going to try one or two experiments now which Ishould like to have very closely watched. I know that there is no keenerobserver in the world than the skilled British naval officer. May I askfor your assistance?"

  There was something in his tone which made it quite impossible torefuse, so he replied:

  "You have shown us a good many wonders already, Mr Phadrig, and unlessyou've hypnotised the whole of us, I haven't a notion how you have doneit; but if I can find you out I will."

  "That is exactly what I wish, sir," said Phadrig, as he bowed to theladies and went back to the centre of the circle. Merrill followed him,and, with the three Professors, formed a square about him.

  Phadrig, turning slowly round so that his voice might reach all hisaudience, said:

  "Ladies and gentlemen, you have all heard of or seen the strangeperformances of the Indian fakirs: the growing of the mango plant, theso-called basket trick, and the throwing into the air of a rope up whichthe performer climbs from view of the spectators. I am not going to saywhether those are tricks or not. Their knowledge may be different frommine, therefore I do not question it. I only propose to show you thesame kind of performance without the use of any coverings orconcealment, and leave you and these four gentlemen to discover anydeception on my part if you can. I will begin by giving you a newversion of the mango trick, if trick it is, with variations. ProfessorMarmion, would you have the goodness to ask one of the young ladies tobring me one of those beautiful white roses of yours?"

  Franklin Marmion was on the point of saying: "I'll bring you one myself,and see what you can do with it," but he was a sportsman in his way,and, seeing that his guests were so far not all inclined to befrightened at what they had seen, he refrained from spoiling the"entertainment," as they evidently took it to be, and so he asked hisdaughter to go and get one of her nicest Marechal Niels.

  She rose from her chair and went to her favourite tree; Merrill followedher with a ready penknife. They came back with a fine half-blown rose ona leafy twig about nine inches long. As she held it out to Phadrig hedeclined it with a bow and a wave of his hand, saying:

  "I thank you, Miss Marmion, but it will be better for me not to touchit. Some one might think that I had bewitched it in some way; will yoube kind enough to give it to Commander Merrill and ask him to put thestem into the turf: about two inches down, please."

  She handed the rose to Merrill, and as he took it their eyes met for aninstant, and she flushed ever so slightly. He, with many unspokenthoughts, knelt down, made a little hole in the turf with his knife, andplanted the rose. When he stood up again Phadrig went on in the samequiet impersonal voice:

  "Now, ladies and gentlemen, you know that this rose is of a pale creamcolour slightly tinted with red. It shall now grow into a tree bearingboth red and white roses. It will not be necessary for me to touch it."

  This somehow appealed more closely to such imagination as the majorityof the spectators possessed. They had regarded the other marvels theyhad seen merely as bewilderingly clever examples of legerdemain: but fora man to make a single sprig of rose grow into a tree bearing both redand white roses without even touching it meant something quiteunbelievable--until they had seen it. Instinctively the circle narrowed,and Phadrig noting this, said:

  "Pray, come as close as you like, ladies and gentlemen, as long as youdo not pass my guardians, for they have undertaken that you shall not bedeceived."

  The result was that a smaller circle was formed round the square, at theangles of which stood Merrill and the three men of science. Phadrigstood at one side facing the east. Then he spread his hands out abovethe rose, and said slowly:

  "Earth feeds, sun warms, and air refreshes: wherefore grow, rose, thatthe power of the Greater Knowledge may be manifested, and that those whobelieved not befor
e may now see and believe."

  He raised his hands with a spreading movement and, to the utteramazement of every one except Franklin Marmion, who now saw that thisman certainly had approached to within measurable distance of theborderland which he had himself so lately crossed--wherefore in his eyesthere was nothing at all marvellous in anything he had done--the leaveson the sprig grew rapidly out into branches as the main stem increasedin height and thickness, red and white buds appeared under the leavesand swelled out into full blooms with a rapidity that would have beenquite incredible if a hundred keen eyes had not been watching the marvelso closely; and within ten minutes a fine rose-bush, some three feethigh, loaded with red and white and creamy blossoms, stood where Merrillhad planted the sprig.

  After the first gasps of astonishment there arose quite a chorus ofrequests from the younger members of Phadrig's audience for a rose tokeep in memory of the marvel they had seen; but he shook his head, andsaid with a smile of deprecation:

  "I regret that it is not possible for me to grant what you ask. For yourown sakes I cannot do it. If I gave you those roses they would neverfade, and it might be that those who possessed them would never die. Farbe it from me to curse you with such a terrible gift as immortality onearth."

  The gravely, almost sadly spoken words fell upon his hearer's ears likeso many snowflakes. Instinctively they shrank back from the beautifulbush as though it had been the fabled Upas. They had begun to fear nowfor the first time. But there was one among them, a young fellow oftwenty-two, named Martin Caine, who was already known as one of the mostdaring and far-sighted of the rising generation of chemicalinvestigators, to whom the prospect of an endless life devoted to hisdarling science was anything but a curse. Intoxicated for the moment bywhat he had seen, he sprang forward, exclaiming:

  "I'll risk the curse if I can have the life!"

  As his hand touched one of the roses, Phadrig's darted out and caughthis wrist. He was a powerful youth, but the instant Phadrig's handgripped him he stopped, as though he had been suddenly stricken byparalysis. He turned a white, scared face with fear-dilated eyes upward,and said in a half-choked voice:

  "What's the matter? If what you say's true, give me eternal life, andI'll give it to Science."

  "My young friend," said Phadrig, with a slow shake of his head, "you aregrievously mistaken. You have eternal life already. You may kill yourbody, or it may die of age or disease, but the life of your soul is notyours to take or keep. Only the High Gods can dispose of that. Who am Ithat I should abet you in defying their decrees? Here is my refusal ofyour mad request."

  He plucked the rose which Caine had touched, held it to his lips andbreathed on it. The next instant the withered leaves fell to theground, and lay there dry and shrivelled. The stalk was brown and dry.As he released Caine's wrist he dropped the stalk in the middle of thebush, and said in a loud tone:

  "As thou hast lived, die--as all things must which shall live again."

  As quickly as the rose-bush had grown and flowered so quickly, itwithered and died. In a few moments there was nothing left of it but afew dry sticks lying in a little heap of dust.

  The circle suddenly widened out as the people shrank back, every faceshowing, not only wonder now, but actual fear; and now Franklin Marmionfelt that Phadrig had been allowed to go as far as a due considerationfor the sanity of his guests would permit. The other two Professors weredisputing in low, anxious tones, as if even their scepticism was shakenat last: Martin Caine had drifted away through the opening press to hidehis terror and chagrin. The Adept stood impassively triumphant besidethe poor relics of the rose-bush, but obviously enjoying theconsternation that he had produced--for now the lust of power which everattends upon imperfect knowledge had taken hold of him, and he wasdevising yet another marvel for their bewilderment. But before he hadarrived at his decision, something else happened which was quite outsidehis programme.

  The Prince broke the chilly silence by saying to Nitocris in a tone loudenough for every one to hear:

  "I hope, Miss Marmion, that I have justified my intrusion by the skillwhich my friend Phadrig has displayed for the entertainment of yourguests?"

  She turned and looked at him, and, as their glances met, he saw a changecome over her. Her eyes grew darker: her features acquired an almoststony rigidity utterly strange to her. His eyelids lifted quickly, andhe shrank back from her as a man might do who had seen the wraith of onelong dead, but once well known.

  "Nitocris!" he murmured in Russian. "Phadrig was right: it is theQueen!"

  She swept past him--Oscar Oscarovitch, the man who aspired to the throneof the Eastern Empire of Europe--as though he had been one of his ownslaves in the old days, and faced Phadrig.

  "It is enough, Anemen-Ha that was. Hast thou not learned wisdom yet,after so many lives? Is the inmost chamber of thy soul still closed inrebellion against the precepts of the High Gods? No more of thy poorlittle mummeries for the deception of the ignorant! Go, and withoutfurther display of the weakness which thou hast presumptuously mistakenfor strength. The Queen commands--go!"

  Only Phadrig and Franklin Marmion saw that it was not Nitocris, thedaughter of the English man of science, but the daughter of the greatRameses who stood there crowned and robed as Queen of the Two Kingdoms.

  Phadrig raised the palms of his hands to his forehead, bowed before her,and murmured:

  "The Queen has but to speak to be obeyed! It is even as I feared. But thePrince----"

  "I who was and am, know what thou wouldst say. Go, or----"

  "Royal Egypt, I go! But as thou art mighty, have mercy, and make themanner of my going easy."

  Nitocris turned away with a gesture of utter contempt, walked slowlytowards her father, and said in English:

  "Dad, I think our friend the Adept is a little tired after hiswonder-working. I dare say most of us would be if we could do what hehas been doing. He seems quite exhausted. I think you had better ask thePrince to let his coachman take him home."

  Oscar Oscarovitch's soul was in a tumult of bewilderment, but his almostperfect training made it possible for him to say as quietly as though hehad been taking leave of his hostess at a reception in London:

  "Miss Marmion, we must thank you for your great consideration. As yousay, our friend is undoubtedly fatigued, and, as I have an appointmentat the Embassy this evening, I will ask you to allow me to take my leaveas well."

  With a comprehensive bow of farewell to the company, and a somewhat limphandshake with Professor Marmion and his daughter, he put his armthrough that of his defeated and humiliated accomplice, and led him awaythrough an opening which the still dazed spectators instinctively madefor them.