ot weary you
with these particulars?"

"I'll ask you to cut it as short as you can, Mr. Jellicoe," said
Badger. "It has been a long yarn and time is running on."

"For my part," said Thorndyke, "I find these details deeply interesting
and instructive. They fill in the outline that I had drawn by
inference."

"Precisely," said Mr. Jellicoe, "then I will proceed."

"I left the deceased soaking in the spirit for a fortnight and then
took him out, wiped him dry, and laid him on four cane-bottomed chairs
just over the hot-water pipes, and I let a free current of air pass
through the room. The result interested me exceedingly. By the end of
the third day the hands and feet had become quite dry and shriveled and
horny--so that the ring actually dropped off the shrunken finger--the
nose looked like a fold of parchment; and the skin of the body was so
dry and smooth that you could have engrossed a lease on it. For the
first day or two I turned the deceased at intervals so that he should
dry evenly, and then I proceeded to get the case ready. I divided the
lacing and extracted the mummy with great care--with great care as to
the case, I mean; for the mummy suffered some injury in the extraction.
It was very badly embalmed, and so brittle that it broke in several
places while I was getting it out; and when I unrolled it the head
separated and both the arms came off.

"On the sixth day after the removal from the sarcophagus, I took the
bandages that I had removed from Sebek-hotep and very carefully wrapped
the deceased in them, sprinkling powdered myrrh and gum benzoin freely
on the body and between the folds of the wrappings to disguise the
faint odor of the spirit and the formalin that still lingered about the
body. When the wrappings had been applied, the deceased really had a
most workmanlike appearance; he would have looked quite well in a glass
case even without the cartonnage, and I felt almost regretful at having
to put him out of sight for ever.

"It was a difficult business getting him into the case without
assistance, and I cracked the cartonnage badly in several places before
he was safely enclosed. But I got him in at last, and then, when I had
closed up the case with a new lacing, I applied a fresh layer of
bitumen which effectually covered up the cracks and the new cord. A
dusty cloth dabbed over the bitumen when it was dry disguised its
newness, and the cartonnage with its tenant was ready for delive