if he were to prove--as, of course, he could do now that this
mysterious hand, outstretched through the mists of the far past, had led
him across the horizon which divides the two states of Existence--that,
under certain circumstances, they would also make three or five? What if
he demonstrated that even the axioms of Euclid could, under different
conditions, be both true and false at the same time?

No, the thought of overthrowing such a venerable authority and plunging
the scientific world into a hopeless state of intellectual chaos sent a
shudder through his nerves. He could not do it.

And yet it was only the bare, solid truth that he did possess these
powers. The dream of the death-bridal of Nitocris might possibly have
been nothing more than just a dream, or possibly the revival of an
episode in a past existence; but the other experiences certainly were
not. He had taken off his ring without unbending his finger. Yes, he
could do it again now; it was just as easy as taking it off in the
ordinary way. He certainly had not been dreaming when the Mummy had
become Queen Nitocris and given him the wine. He could not have been mad
or dreaming, because his daughter was there. The episode of the strange
stealers who had come into his house--that too was real, for they had
left their lamp and the man's shoes behind them, and the Mummy was gone!

He took a piece of string out of his pocket, tied the two ends, and then
with the greatest ease tied another knot in the string without undoing
the first.

A motor-car came humming along the road towards him, and he began to
think what this place was like a thousand years before motors were heard
of. That instant the motor vanished, and he found himself standing in a
little glade surrounded by huge forest trees with not so much as a
foot-track in sight. He made his way through the trees in what he
remembered to be the direction of the road, and presently, through an
opening avenue, he saw the sun glittering upon something moving, and
heard voices; and then past the end of the avenue half a dozen armoured
knights, followed by their squires and a string of men-at-arms guarding
a covered waggon, and after these came a motley little crowd of
travellers, some on horseback and some on foot, evidently taking
advantage of the escort to protect them from robbers.

"Dear me!" said the Professor to himself, not without a little shiver of
apprehension, "this is very interesting. I seem to