ep breath, and mopped his face,
and even attempted a smile. He made me think of a man coming from the
battlefield with the stains of fighting still upon him, but scornful of
his wounds. Then he turned gravely towards the doctor with a question
in his eyes. Memory had returned and he was himself again.

"Precisely what I expected," the doctor said calmly; "a fire-elemental
sent upon its mission in the days of Thebes, centuries before Christ,
and tonight, for the first time all these thousands of years, released
from the spell that originally bound it."

We stared at him in amazement, Colonel Wragge opening his lips for words
that refused to shape themselves.

"And, if we dig," he continued significantly, pointing to the floor
where the blackness had poured up, "we shall find some underground
connection--a tunnel most likely--leading to the Twelve Acre Wood. It
was made by--your predecessor."

"A tunnel made by my brother!" gasped the soldier. "Then my sister
should know--she lived here with him--" He stopped suddenly.

John Silence inclined his head slowly. "I think so," he said quietly.
"Your brother, no doubt, was as much tormented as you have been," he
continued after a pause in which Colonel Wragge seemed deeply
preoccupied with his thoughts, "and tried to find peace by burying it in
the wood, and surrounding the wood then, like a large magic circle, with
the enchantments of the old formulae. So the stars the man saw
blazing--"

"But burying what?" asked the soldier faintly, stepping backwards
towards the support of the wall.

Dr. Silence regarded us both intently for a moment before he replied. I
think he weighed in his mind whether to tell us now, or when the
investigation was absolutely complete.

"The mummy," he said softly, after a moment; "the mummy that your
brother took from its resting place of centuries, and brought
home--here."

Colonel Wragge dropped down upon the nearest chair, hanging breathlessly
on every word. He was far too amazed for speech.

"The mummy of some important person--a priest most likely--protected
from disturbance and desecration by the ceremonial magic of the time.
For they understood how to attach to the mummy, to lock up with it in
the tomb, an elemental force that would direct itself even after ages
upon any one who dared to molest it. In this case it was an elemental of
fire."

Dr. Silence crossed the floor and turned out the lamps one by one. He
had nothing more to