thought was by no
means a cheerful one. Here I was, alone with a dangerous lunatic, in the
middle of the night, and not a soul within call. How I was to rid myself
of him I could not see. Under the circumstances, therefore, I knew that
I must humour him until I could hit upon a scheme. I accordingly tried
to frame a conciliatory speech, but before I could do so he had turned
to me again.

"Your thoughts are easily read," he began, with a repetition of that
queer little laugh which I have described before; and as he uttered it
he leaned a little closer to me till I was sick and faint with the mere
horror of his presence. "You think me mad, and it will require more
than my assurance to make you believe that I am not. How slight is your
knowledge of me! But there, let us put that aside for to-night. There is
something of much greater importance to be arranged between us. In the
first place, it is necessary both for your sake--your safety, if you
like--and for mine, that yonder mummy should pass into my possession."

"Impossible!" I answered. "I could not dream of such a thing! It was one
of my poor father's greatest treasures, and for that reason alone no
consideration would induce me to part with it. Besides, despite your
assertion that it is for our mutual safety, I can not see by what right
you ask such a favour of me."

"If you only knew how important it is," he repeated, "that that
particular mummy should become my property, you would not know a single
minute's peace until you had seen the last of it. You may not believe me
when I say that I have been searching for it without intermission for
nearly fifteen years, and it was only yesterday I learned you were the
owner of it. And yet it is the truth."

If I had not had sufficient proof already, here was enough to convince
me of his madness. By his own confession, until that evening he had had
no notion of my identity, much less of the things I possessed. How,
therefore, could he have become aware that I was the owner of the
remains of Ptahmes, the King's magician? Under the influence of the
momentary irritation caused by his persistence my intention of humouring
him quite slipped my memory, and I answered sharply that it was no use
his bothering me further about the matter, as I had made up my mind and
was not to be moved from it.

He took my refusal with apparent coolness; but the light which still
lingered in his eyes warned me, before it was too late, not to r