I have seen things which, under any other circumstances,
would seem incredible, and, if it is likely to have any weight with you,
I do not mind owning that his power over me is growing greater every
day. And that reminds me there is a question I have often desired to ask
you. Do you remember one night on board the yacht, when we were crossing
from Naples to Port Said, telling Pharos that you could see a cave in
which a mummy had once stood?"

She shook her head.

"I remember nothing of it," she said. "But why do you ask me such
strange questions?"

I took her hand before I answered. I could feel that she was trembling
violently.

"Because I want to prove to you the diabolical power the man possesses.
You described a tomb from which the mummy had been taken. I have seen
that tomb. It was the burial place of the Magician, Ptahmes, whose mummy
once stood in my studio in London, which Pharos stole from me, and which
was the primary cause of my becoming associated with him. You described
a subterranean hall with carved pillars and paintings on the walls, and
a mummy lying upon a block of stone. I have seen that hall, those
pillars, those carvings and paintings, and the mummy of Ptahmes lying
stretched out as you portrayed it. You mentioned a tent in the desert
and a sick man lying on a bed inside it. I was that sick man, and it was
to that tent that Pharos conveyed me after I had spent the night in the
ruins of the Temple of Ammon. The last incident has yet to take place,
but, please God, if you will help me in my plan, we shall have done with
him long before then."

"You say you saw all the things I described. Please do not think me
stupid, but I do not understand how you could have done so."

Thereupon I told her all that had befallen me at the ruins of Karnak.
She listened with feverish interest.

"How is it that Providence allows this man to live?" she cried when I
had finished. "Who is he and what is the terrible power he possesses?
And what is to be the end of all his evil ways?"

"That is a problem which only the future can solve," I answered. "For
ourselves it is sufficient that we must get away from him and at once.
Nothing could be easier, he exercises no control over our movements. He
does not attempt to detain us. We go in and out as we please, therefore
all we have to do is to get into a train and be hundreds of miles away
before he is even aware that we are outside the doors of the hotel. You
are not