ough things to go
round, two of them bore his big coat between them, the first holding it
by the sleeves and the second by the tail as though it were a stretcher.

"Put them down," said Smith, and they obeyed. "Now," he added, "run for
your lives; I thought I heard two _afreets_ talking up there just now
of what they would do to any followers of the Prophet who mocked their
gods, if perchance they should meet them in their holy place at night."

This kindly counsel was accepted with much eagerness. In another minute
Smith was alone with the stars and the dying desert wind.

Collecting his goods, or as many of them as he wanted, he thrust them
into the pockets of the great-coat and returned to the mouth of the
tomb. Here he made his simple meal by the light of the lantern, and
afterwards tried to go to sleep. But sleep he could not. Something
always woke him. First it was a jackal howling amongst the rocks; next
a sand-fly bit him in the ankle so sharply that he thought he must have
been stung by a scorpion. Then, notwithstanding his warm coat, the
cold got hold of him, for the clothes beneath were wet through with
perspiration, and it occurred to him that unless he did something he
would probably contract an internal chill or perhaps fever. He rose and
walked about.

By now the moon was up, revealing all the sad, wild scene in its every
detail. The mystery of Egypt entered his soul and oppressed him. How
much dead majesty lay in the hill upon which he stood? Were they all
really dead, he wondered, or were those fellaheen right? Did their
spirits still come forth at night and wander through the land where once
they ruled? Of course that was the Egyptian faith according to which
the _Ka_, or Double, eternally haunted the place where its earthly
counterpart had been laid to rest. When one came to think of it, beneath
a mass of unintelligible symbolism there was much in the Egyptian faith
which it was hard for a Christian to disbelieve. Salvation through a
Redeemer, for instance, and the resurrection of the body. Had he, Smith,
not already written a treatise upon these points of similarity which he
proposed to publish one day, not under his own name? Well, he would not
think of them now; the occasion seemed scarcely fitting--they came home
too pointedly to one who was engaged in violating a tomb.

His mind, or rather his imagination--of which he had plenty--went off at
a tangent. What sights had this place seen thousand