Chapter XII
The Magic Coffer
"When we recovered our amazement, which seemed to last unduly long, wedid not lose any time carrying the mummy through the passage, andhoisting it up the Pit shaft. I went first, to receive it at the top.As I looked down, I saw Mr. Trelawny lift the severed hand and put itin his breast, manifestly to save it from being injured or lost. Weleft the dead Arabs where they lay. With our ropes we lowered ourprecious burden to the ground; and then took it to the entrance of thevalley where our escort was to wait. To our astonishment we found themon the move. When we remonstrated with the Sheik, he answered that hehad fulfilled his contract to the letter; he had waited the three daysas arranged. I thought that he was lying to cover up his baseintention of deserting us; and I found when we compared notes thatTrelawny had the same suspicion. It was not till we arrived at Cairothat we found he was correct. It was the 3rd of November 1884 when weentered the Mummy Pit for the second time; we had reason to rememberthe date.
"We had lost three whole days of our reckoning--out of ourlives--whilst we had stood wondering in that chamber of the dead. Wasit strange, then, that we had a superstitious feeling with regard tothe dead Queen Tera and all belonging to her? Is it any wonder that itrests with us now, with a bewildering sense of some power outsideourselves or our comprehension? Will it be any wonder if it go down tothe grave with us at the appointed time? If, indeed, there be anygraves for us who have robbed the dead!" He was silent for quite aminute before he went on:
"We got to Cairo all right, and from there to Alexandria, where we wereto take ship by the Messagerie service to Marseilles, and go thence byexpress to London. But
'The best-laid schemes o' mice and men Gang aft agley.'
At Alexandria, Trelawny found waiting a cable stating that Mrs.Trelawny had died in giving birth to a daughter.
"Her stricken husband hurried off at once by the Orient Express; and Ihad to bring the treasure alone to the desolate house. I got to Londonall safe; there seemed to be some special good fortune to our journey.When I got to this house, the funeral had long been over. The childhad been put out to nurse, and Mr. Trelawny had so far recovered fromthe shock of his loss that he had set himself to take up again thebroken threads of his life and his work. That he had had a shock, anda bad one, was apparent. The sudden grey in his black hair was proofenough in itself; but in addition, the strong cast of his features hadbecome set and stern. Since he received that cable in the shippingoffice at Alexandria I have never seen a happy smile on his face.
"Work is the best thing in such a case; and to his work he devotedhimself heart and soul. The strange tragedy of his loss and gain--forthe child was born after the mother's death--took place during the timethat we stood in that trance in the Mummy Pit of Queen Tera. It seemedto have become in some way associated with his Egyptian studies, andmore especially with the mysteries connected with the Queen. He toldme very little about his daughter; but that two forces struggled in hismind regarding her was apparent. I could see that he loved, almostidolised her. Yet he could never forget that her birth had cost hermother's life. Also, there was something whose existence seemed towring his father's heart, though he would never tell me what it was.Again, he once said in a moment of relaxation of his purpose of silence:
"'She is unlike her mother; but in both feature and colour she has amarvellous resemblance to the pictures of Queen Tera.'
"He said that he had sent her away to people who would care for her ashe could not; and that till she became a woman she should have all thesimple pleasures that a young girl might have, and that were best forher. I would often have talked with him about her; but he would neversay much. Once he said to me: 'There are reasons why I should notspeak more than is necessary. Some day you will know--and understand!'I respected his reticence; and beyond asking after her on my returnafter a journey, I have never spoken of her again. I had never seenher till I did so in your presence.
"Well, when the treasures which we had--ah!--taken from the tomb hadbeen brought here, Mr. Trelawny arranged their disposition himself.The mummy, all except the severed hand, he placed in the greatironstone sarcophagus in the hall. This was wrought for the ThebanHigh Priest Uni, and is, as you may have remarked, all inscribed withwonderful invocations to the old Gods of Egypt. The rest of the thingsfrom the tomb he disposed about his own room, as you have seen.Amongst them he placed, for special reasons of his own, the mummy hand.I think he regards this as the most sacred of his possessions, withperhaps one exception. That is the carven ruby which he calls the'Jewel of Seven Stars', which he keeps in that great safe which islocked and guarded by various devices, as you know.
"I dare say you find this tedious; but I have had to explain it, sothat you should understand all up to the present. It was a long timeafter my return with the mummy of Queen Tera when Mr. Trelawnyre-opened the subject with me. He had been several times to Egypt,sometimes with me and sometimes alone; and I had been several trips, onmy own account or for him. But in all that time, nearly sixteen years,he never mentioned the subject, unless when some pressing occasionsuggested, if it did not necessitate, a reference.
"One morning early he sent for me in a hurry; I was then studying inthe British Museum, and had rooms in Hart Street. When I came, he wasall on fire with excitement. I had not seen him in such a glow sincebefore the news of his wife's death. He took me at once into his room.The window blinds were down and the shutters closed; not a ray ofdaylight came in. The ordinary lights in the room were not lit, butthere were a lot of powerful electric lamps, fifty candle-power atleast, arranged on one side of the room. The little bloodstone tableon which the heptagonal coffer stands was drawn to the centre of theroom. The coffer looked exquisite in the glare of light which shone onit. It actually seemed to glow as if lit in some way from within.
"'What do you think of it?' he asked.
"'It is like a jewel,' I answered. 'You may well call it the'sorcerer's Magic Coffer', if it often looks like that. It almostseems to be alive.'
"'Do you know why it seems so?'
"'From the glare of the light, I suppose?'
"'Light of course,' he answered, 'but it is rather the disposition oflight.' As he spoke he turned up the ordinary lights of the room andswitched off the special ones. The effect on the stone box wassurprising; in a second it lost all its glowing effect. It was still avery beautiful stone, as always; but it was stone and no more.
"'Do you notice anything about the arrangement of the lamps?' he asked.
"'No!'
"'They were in the shape of the stars in the Plough, as the stars arein the ruby!' The statement came to me with a certain sense ofconviction. I do not know why, except that there had been so manymysterious associations with the mummy and all belonging to it that anynew one seemed enlightening. I listened as Trelawny went on to explain:
"'For sixteen years I have never ceased to think of that adventure, orto try to find a clue to the mysteries which came before us; but neveruntil last night did I seem to find a solution. I think I must havedreamed of it, for I woke all on fire about it. I jumped out of bedwith a determination of doing something, before I quite knew what itwas that I wished to do. Then, all at once, the purpose was clearbefore me. There were allusions in the writing on the walls of the tombto the seven stars of the Great Bear that go to make up the Plough; andthe North was again and again emphasized. The same symbols wererepeated with regard to the "Magic Box", as we called it. We hadalready noticed those peculiar translucent spaces in the stone of thebox. You remember the hieroglyphic writing had told that the jewelcame from the heart of an aerolite, and that the coffer was cut from italso. It might be, I thought, that the light of the seven stars,shining in the right direction, might have some effect on the box, orsomething within it. I raised the blind and looked out. The Plough washigh in the heavens, and both its stars and the Pole Star were straightopposite the window. I pulled the table with the coffer out
into thelight, and shifted it until the translucent patches were in thedirection of the stars. Instantly the box began to glow, as you saw itunder the lamps, though but slightly. I waited and waited; but the skyclouded over, and the light died away. So I got wires and lamps--youknow how often I use them in experiments--and tried the effect ofelectric light. It took me some time to get the lamps properly placed,so that they would correspond to the parts of the stone, but the momentI got them right the whole thing began to glow as you have seen it.
"'I could get no further, however. There was evidently somethingwanting. All at once it came to me that if light could have someeffect there should be in the tomb some means of producing light, forthere could not be starlight in the Mummy Pit in the cavern. Then thewhole thing seemed to become clear. On the bloodstone table, which hasa hollow carved in its top, into which the bottom of the coffer fits, Ilaid the Magic Coffer; and I at once saw that the odd protuberances socarefully wrought in the substance of the stone corresponded in a wayto the stars in the constellation. These, then, were to hold lights.
"'Eureka!' I cried. 'All we want now is the lamps.'" I tried placingthe electric lights on, or close to, the protuberances. But the glownever came to the stone. So the conviction grew on me that there werespecial lamps made for the purpose. If we could find them, a step onthe road to solving the mystery should be gained.
"'But what about the lamps?' I asked. 'Where are they? When are we todiscover them? How are we to know them if we do find them? What--"
"He stopped me at once:
"'One thing at a time!' he said quietly. 'Your first question containsall the rest. Where are these lamps? I shall tell you: In the tomb!'
"'In the tomb!' I repeated in surprise. 'Why you and I searched theplace ourselves from end to end; and there was not a sign of a lamp.Not a sign of anything remaining when we came away the first time; oron the second, except the bodies of the Arabs.'
"Whilst I was speaking, he had uncoiled some large sheets of paperwhich he had brought in his hand from his own room. These he spreadout on the great table, keeping their edges down with books andweights. I knew them at a glance; they were the careful copies whichhe had made of our first transcripts from the writing in the tomb.When he had all ready, he turned to me and said slowly:
"'Do you remember wondering, when we examined the tomb, at the lack ofone thing which is usually found in such a tomb?'
"'Yes! There was no serdab.'
"The serdab, I may perhaps explain," said Mr. Corbeck to me, "is a sortof niche built or hewn in the wall of a tomb. Those which have as yetbeen examined bear no inscriptions, and contain only effigies of thedead for whom the tomb was made." Then he went on with his narrative:
"Trelawny, when he saw that I had caught his meaning, went on speakingwith something of his old enthusiasm:
"'I have come to the conclusion that there must be a serdab--a secretone. We were dull not to have thought of it before. We might haveknown that the maker of such a tomb--a woman, who had shown in otherways such a sense of beauty and completeness, and who had finishedevery detail with a feminine richness of elaboration--would not haveneglected such an architectural feature. Even if it had not its ownspecial significance in ritual, she would have had it as an adornment.Others had had it, and she liked her own work to be complete. Dependupon it, there was--there is--a serdab; and that in it, when it isdiscovered, we shall find the lamps. Of course, had we known then whatwe now know or at all events surmise, that there were lamps, we mighthave suspected some hidden spot, some cachet. I am going to ask you togo out to Egypt again; to seek the tomb; to find the serdab; and tobring back the lamps!'"
"'And if I find there is no serdab; or if discovering it I find nolamps in it, what then?' He smiled grimly with that saturnine smile ofhis, so rarely seen for years past, as he spoke slowly:
"'Then you will have to hustle till you find them!'
"'Good!' I said. He pointed to one of the sheets.
"'Here are the transcripts from the Chapel at the south and the east.I have been looking over the writings again; and I find that in sevenplaces round this corner are the symbols of the constellation which wecall the Plough, which Queen Tera held to rule her birth and herdestiny. I have examined them carefully, and I notice that they areall representations of the grouping of the stars, as the constellationappears in different parts of the heavens. They are all astronomicallycorrect; and as in the real sky the Pointers indicate the Pole Star, sothese all point to one spot in the wall where usually the serdab is tobe found!'
"'Bravo!' I shouted, for such a piece of reasoning demanded applause.He seemed pleased as he went on:
"'When you are in the tomb, examine this spot. There is probably somespring or mechanical contrivance for opening the receptacle. What itmay be, there is no use guessing. You will know what best to do, whenyou are on the spot.'
"I started the next week for Egypt; and never rested till I stood againin the tomb. I had found some of our old following; and was fairlywell provided with help. The country was now in a condition verydifferent to that in which it had been sixteen years before; there wasno need for troops or armed men.
"I climbed the rock face alone. There was no difficulty, for in thatfine climate the woodwork of the ladder was still dependable. It waseasy to see that in the years that had elapsed there had been othervisitors to the tomb; and my heart sank within me when I thought thatsome of them might by chance have come across the secret place. Itwould be a bitter discovery indeed to find that they had forestalledme; and that my journey had been in vain.
"The bitterness was realised when I lit my torches, and passed betweenthe seven-sided columns to the Chapel of the tomb.
"There, in the very spot where I had expected to find it, was theopening of a serdab. And the serdab was empty.
"But the Chapel was not empty; for the dried-up body of a man in Arabdress lay close under the opening, as though he had been stricken down.I examined all round the walls to see if Trelawny's surmise wascorrect; and I found that in all the positions of the stars as given,the Pointers of the Plough indicated a spot to the left hand, or southside, of the opening of the serdab, where was a single star in gold.
"I pressed this, and it gave way. The stone which had marked the frontof the serdab, and which lay back against the wall within, movedslightly. On further examining the other side of the opening, I founda similar spot, indicated by other representations of theconstellation; but this was itself a figure of the seven stars, andeach was wrought in burnished gold. I pressed each star in turn; butwithout result. Then it struck me that if the opening spring was onthe left, this on the right might have been intended for thesimultaneous pressure of all the stars by one hand of seven fingers.By using both my hands, I managed to effect this.
"With a loud click, a metal figure seemed to dart from close to theopening of the serdab; the stone slowly swung back to its place, andshut with a click. The glimpse which I had of the descending figureappalled me for the moment. It was like that grim guardian which,according to the Arabian historian Ibn Abd Alhokin, the builder of thePyramids, King Saurid Ibn Salhouk placed in the Western Pyramid todefend its treasure: 'A marble figure, upright, with lance in hand;with on his head a serpent wreathed. When any approached, the serpentwould bite him on one side, and twining about his throat and killinghim, would return again to his place.'
"I knew well that such a figure was not wrought to pleasantry; and thatto brave it was no child's play. The dead Arab at my feet was proof ofwhat could be done! So I examined again along the wall; and found hereand there chippings as if someone had been tapping with a heavy hammer.This then had been what happened: The grave-robber, more expert at hiswork than we had been, and suspecting the presence of a hidden serdab,had made essay to find it. He had struck the spring by chance; hadreleased the avenging 'Treasurer', as the Arabian writer designatedhim. The issue spoke for itself. I got a piece of wood, and, standingat a safe distance, pr
essed with the end of it upon the star.
"Instantly the stone flew back. The hidden figure within dartedforward and thrust out its lance. Then it rose up and disappeared. Ithought I might now safely press on the seven stars; and did so. Againthe stone rolled back; and the 'Treasurer' flashed by to his hiddenlair.
"I repeated both experiments several times; with always the sameresult. I should have liked to examine the mechanism of that figure ofsuch malignant mobility; but it was not possible without such tools ascould not easily be had. It might be necessary to cut into a wholesection of the rock. Some day I hope to go back, properly equipped,and attempt it.
"Perhaps you do not know that the entrance to a serdab is almost alwaysvery narrow; sometimes a hand can hardly be inserted. Two things Ilearned from this serdab. The first was that the lamps, if lamps atall there had been, could not have been of large size; and secondly,that they would be in some way associated with Hathor, whose symbol,the hawk in a square with the right top corner forming a smallersquare, was cut in relief on the wall within, and coloured the brightvermilion which we had found on the Stele. Hathor is the goddess whoin Egyptian mythology answers to Venus of the Greeks, in as far as sheis the presiding deity of beauty and pleasure. In the Egyptianmythology, however, each God has many forms; and in some aspects Hathorhas to do with the idea of resurrection. There are seven forms orvariants of the Goddess; why should not these correspond in some way tothe seven lamps! That there had been such lamps, I was convinced. Thefirst grave-robber had met his death; the second had found the contentsof the serdab. The first attempt had been made years since; the stateof the body proved this. I had no clue to the second attempt. Itmight have been long ago; or it might have been recently. If, however,others had been to the tomb, it was probable that the lamps had beentaken long ago. Well! all the more difficult would be my search; forundertaken it must be!
"That was nearly three years ago; and for all that time I have beenlike the man in the Arabian Nights, seeking old lamps, not for new, butfor cash. I dared not say what I was looking for, or attempt to giveany description; for such would have defeated my purpose. But I had inmy own mind at the start a vague idea of what I must find. In processof time this grew more and more clear; till at last I almost overshotmy mark by searching for something which might have been wrong.
"The disappointments I suffered, and the wild-goose chases I made,would fill a volume; but I persevered. At last, not two months ago, Iwas shown by an old dealer in Mossul one lamp such as I had looked for.I had been tracing it for nearly a year, always sufferingdisappointment, but always buoyed up to further endeavour by a growinghope that I was on the track.
"I do not know how I restrained myself when I realised that, at last, Iwas at least close to success. I was skilled, however, in the finesseof Eastern trade; and the Jew-Arab-Portugee trader met his match. Iwanted to see all his stock before buying; and one by one he produced,amongst masses of rubbish, seven different lamps. Each of them had adistinguishing mark; and each and all was some form of the symbol ofHathor. I think I shook the imperturbability of my swarthy friend bythe magnitude of my purchases; for in order to prevent him guessingwhat form of goods I sought, I nearly cleared out his shop. At the endhe nearly wept, and said I had ruined him; for now he had nothing tosell. He would have torn his hair had he known what price I shouldultimately have given for some of his stock, that perhaps he valuedleast.
"I parted with most of my merchandise at normal price as I hurriedhome. I did not dare to give it away, or even lose it, lest I shouldincur suspicion. My burden was far too precious to be risked by anyfoolishness now. I got on as fast as it is possible to travel in suchcountries; and arrived in London with only the lamps and certainportable curios and papyri which I had picked up on my travels.
"Now, Mr. Ross, you know all I know; and I leave it to your discretionhow much, if any of it, you will tell Miss Trelawny."
As he finished a clear young voice said behind us:
"What about Miss Trelawny? She is here!"
We turned, startled; and looked at each other inquiringly. MissTrelawny stood in the doorway. We did not know how long she had beenpresent, or how much she had heard.