reached to his knees, and a faded red scarf
was folded twice round his neck, one end hanging down his breast and the
other down his back. As Pent-Ah closed the door and bolted it, he said
to him in Coptic:

"So ye have returned! What news of the Queen? For without that surely ye
would not have dared to come before me."

He spoke the words as a Pharaoh might have spoken them to a slave, and
as though the bare, low-ceiled, shabby room, with its tawdry Oriental
curtains and ornaments, had been an audience-chamber in the palace of
Pepi in old Memphis, for this was he who had once been Anemen-Ha, High
Priest of Ptah, in the days when Nitocris was Queen of the Two Kingdoms.

"We have seen her once more, Lord," said Pent-Ah, "scarce an hour ago,
dressed after the fashion of these heathen English, and seated in a
devil-chariot beside another woman, as fair almost as she. It is true,
Lord, even as we said, that our Lady the Queen is in the flesh again,
and yet she knows us not. It may be that the High Gods have laid some
spell upon her."

"Spell or no spell, the mission which is ours is the same," was the
reply. "It is plain that a miracle has been worked. The Mummy which
we--I as well as you--were charged to recover and restore to its
resting-place, has vanished. The Queen has returned to live yet another
life in the flesh, but the command remains the same. Mummy or woman, she
shall be taken back to her ancient home to await the day when the Divine
Assessors shall determine the penalty of her guilt. The task will be
hard, yet nothing is impossible to those who serve the High Gods
faithfully. Ye have done well to bring me this news promptly. Here is
money to pay for your living and your work. Watch well and closely. Know
every movement that the Queen makes, and every day inform me by word or
in writing of all her actions. On the fourth day from now come here an
hour before midnight. Now go."

He counted out five sovereigns to Pent-Ah. Their glitter contrasted
strangely with the shabby squalor of the room and the poverty of his own
dress, but he gave them as though they had been coppers. Pent-Ah took
them with a low obeisance, and dropped them one by one into a pocket in
a canvas belt which he wore under his ragged waistcoat. Neb-Anat looked
at them greedily as they disappeared.

"The Master's commands shall be obeyed, and the High Gods shall be
faithfully served," said Pent-Ah, as he straightened himself up again.
"From d