he dead man's side with a
little cry and beat wildly in the air with his hands. Then it was as if
something snapped, my body became deadly cold, and with a great shiver I
awoke (if, as I can scarcely believe, I had been sleeping before) to
find myself sitting on the same block of stone in the great Hypostile
Hall where Pharos had left me many hours before. The first pale light of
dawn could be seen through the broken columns to the east. The air was
bitterly cold, and my body ached all over as if, which was very likely,
I had caught a chill. Only a few paces distant, seated on the ground,
their faces hidden in their folded arms, were the two Arabs who had
accompanied us from Luxor. I rose to my feet and stamped upon the ground
in the hope of imparting a little warmth to my stiffened limbs. Could I
have fallen asleep while I waited for Pharos, and if so, had I dreamed
all the strange things that I have described in this chapter? I
discarded the notion as impossible, and yet what other explanation had I
to offer? I thought of the secret passage beneath the stone, and which
led to the vaults below. Remembering as I did the direction in which the
old man had proceeded in order to reach it, I determined to search for
it. If only I could find the place I should be able to set all doubt on
the subject at rest for good and all. I according crossed the great
hall, which was now as light as day, and searched the place which I
considered most likely to contain the stone in question. But though I
gave it the most minute scrutiny for upwards of a quarter of an hour, no
sign could I discover. All the time I was becoming more and more
convinced of one thing, and that was the fact that I was unmistakably
ill. My head and bones ached, while my left arm, which had never yet
lost the small purple mark which I had noticed the morning after my
adventure at the Pyramids, seemed to be swelling perceptibly and
throbbed from shoulder to wrist. Unable to find the stone, and still
more unable to make head or tail of all that had happened in the night,
I returned to my former seat. One of the Arabs, the man who had boarded
the steamer on our arrival the previous afternoon, rose to his feet and
looked about him, yawning heavily as he did so. He, at least, I thought,
would be able to tell me if I had slept all night in the same place. I
put the question to him, only to receive his solemn assurance that I had
not left their side ever since I had entere