e it to my own sorrow and the
destroying of my own dream; but my promise is given, and I will keep it,
even to a fate that may be worse than death."

The Prince drained his glass and laughed.

"Well said, my ages-old adept, as you think you are! You shall follow
me, for I will go on now even to death, or what there may be worse
behind it, if I can only take my beautiful Queen with me. Yes, I swear I
will, by God--if there is one!"

So by his ignorant blasphemy Oscar Oscarovitch, who once was Lord of War
in Egypt, for the love of the same woman, fixed his fate for this life,
and for many that were to come after it.

CHAPTER XVI

THE MYSTERY OF PRINCE ZASTROW

Events now began to move with an almost bewildering rapidity, at least,
so far as they affected the immediate temporal concerns of Nitocris and
her father. For days and weeks a furious storm raged round the famous
lecture, and the atmosphere of the scientific world was thick with
figures and formulae, diagrams and disquisitions; but since none of the
learned disputators proved himself capable of detecting the slightest
flaw in the lecturer's mathematics, it had very little interest for him,
and therefore has none for us. In fact, so little did he seem concerned
with the tempest he had raised, that a few days later, to the
astonishment and chagrin of his baffled critics, he and Nitocris bade
adieu to their more intimate friends and disappeared on a wandering trip
of undetermined destination for change of air and scene and a
much-needed holiday for the over-worked Professor. At least, that is the
reason which Nitocris gave to Lord Leighton and the Van Huysmans, and
the few others to whom she thought it necessary to give any explanation
at all.

The day before they left, Merrill lunched at "The Wilderness," took a
fitting leave of his lady-love and his prospective father-in-law, and
departed to join his ship, slightly mystified, perhaps, by recent
happenings, but still believing himself with sufficient reason to be the
happiest and most fortunate Lieutenant-Commander in the British Navy.

The true reasons for the sudden departure of the now more than ever
famous Professor and his beautiful daughter from the scene of his latest
and most marvellous triumph may be set forth as follows:

On the evening of the third day after the lecture Franklin Marmion was
going back by train to Wimbledon after a long day at the British Museum
among the relics of Egypti