d at length to open my eyes again, the mummy was lying
once more upon its back, motionless, the shrunken and painted face
upturned towards the ceiling, and the old lady had tumbled forward and
was lying in the semblance of death with her head and arms upon its
crumbling body.

But upon the wrappings of the throat I saw the green jasper of the
sacred scarabaeus shining again like a living eye.

Colonel Wragge and the doctor recovered themselves long before I did,
and I found myself helping them clumsily and unintelligently to raise
the frail body of the old lady, while John Silence carefully replaced
the covering over the grave and scraped back the sand with his foot,
while he issued brief directions.

I heard his voice as in a dream; but the journey back along that cramped
tunnel, weighted by a dead woman, blinded with sand, suffocated with
heat, was in no sense a dream. It took us the best part of half an hour
to reach the open air. And, even then, we had to wait a considerable
time for the appearance of Dr. Silence. We carried her undiscovered into
the house and up to her own room.

"The mummy will cause no further disturbance," I heard Dr. Silence say
to our host later that evening as we prepared to drive for the night
train, "provided always," he added significantly, "that you, and yours,
cause it no disturbance."

It was in a dream, too, that we left.

"You did not see her face, I know," he said to me as we wrapped our rugs
about us in the empty compartment. And when I shook my head, quite
unable to explain the instinct that had come to me not to look, he
turned toward me, his face pale, and genuinely sad.

"Scorched and blasted," he whispered.

End of Project Gutenberg's Three John Silence Stories, by Algernon Blackwood

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE JOHN SILENCE STORIES ***

***** This file should be named 10624.txt or 10624.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.net/1/0/6/2/10624/

Produced by Suzanne Shell, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed Proofreaders

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set fort