have found the man I was following, I had turned to the
left and had entered the apartment popularly, but erroneously, called
the Queen's Chamber.

It would have been difficult to estimate the thankfulness I felt on
reaching the open air once more. How sweet the cool night wind seemed
after the close and suffocating atmosphere of the Pyramid I can not hope
to make you understand. And yet, if I had only known, it would have been
better for me, far better, had I never been found, and my life come to
an end when I fell senseless upon the floor.

When we had left the passage and had clambered down to the sands once
more, Pharos bade me follow him, and leading the way round the base of
the Pyramid, conducted me down the hill toward the Sphinx.

For fully thirty years I had looked forward to the moment when I should
stand before this stupendous monument and try to read its riddle; but in
my wildest dreams I had never thought to do so in such company. Looking
down at me in the starlight, across the gulf of untold centuries, it
seemed to smile disdainfully at my small woes.

"To-night," said Pharos, in that same extraordinary voice he had used a
quarter of an hour before, when he bade me follow him, "you enter upon a
new phase of your existence. Here, under the eyes of the Watcher of
Harmachis, you shall learn something of the wisdom of the ancients."

At a signal the tall man whom he had met at the foot of the Pyramid
sprang forward and seized me by the arms from behind with a grip of
iron. Then Pharos produced from his pocket a small case containing a
bottle. From the latter he poured a few spoonfuls of some fluid into a
silver cup, which he placed to my mouth.

"Drink," he said.

At any other time I should have refused to comply with such a request;
but on this occasion so completely had I fallen under his influence that
I was powerless to disobey.

The opiate, or whatever it was, must have been a powerful one, for I had
scarcely swallowed it before an attack of giddiness seized me. The
outline of the Sphinx and the black bulk of the Great Pyramid beyond
were merged in the general darkness. I could hear the wind of the desert
singing in my ears and the voice of Pharos muttering something in an
unknown tongue beside me. After that I sank down on the sand and
presently became oblivious of everything.

How long I remained asleep I have no idea. All I know is, that with a
suddenness that was almost startling, I found