tues of Memphis, and the inscriptions of Thebes, but my eyes
would always come back to that wonderful Jewish relic, and my mind to
the singular mystery which surrounded it. I was lost in the thought of
it when my companion suddenly drew his breath sharply in, and seized my
arm in a convulsive grip. At the same instant I saw what it was which
had excited him.

I have said that against the wall--on the right-hand side of the
doorway (the right-hand side as we looked at it, but the left as one
entered)--there stood a large mummy-case. To our unutterable amazement
it was slowly opening. Gradually, gradually the lid was swinging back,
and the black slit which marked the opening was becoming wider and
wider. So gently and carefully was it done that the movement was
almost imperceptible. Then, as we breathlessly watched it, a white
thin hand appeared at the opening, pushing back the painted lid, then
another hand, and finally a face--a face which was familiar to us both,
that of Professor Andreas. Stealthily he slunk out of the mummy-case,
like a fox stealing from its burrow, his head turning incessantly to
left and to right, stepping, then pausing, then stepping again, the
very image of craft and of caution. Once some sound in the street
struck him motionless, and he stood listening, with his ear turned,
ready to dart back to the shelter behind him. Then he crept onwards
again upon tiptoe, very, very softly and slowly, until he had reached
the case in the centre of the room. There he took a bunch of keys from
his pocket, unlocked the case, took out the Jewish breastplate, and,
laying it upon the glass in front of him, began to work upon it with
some sort of small, glistening tool. He was so directly underneath us
that his bent head covered his work, but we could guess from the
movement of his hand that he was engaged in finishing the strange
disfigurement which he had begun.

I could realize from the heavy breathing of my companion, and the
twitchings of the hand which still clutched my wrist, the furious
indignation which filled his heart as he saw this vandalism in the
quarter of all others where he could least have expected it. He, the
very man who a fortnight before had reverently bent over this unique
relic, and who had impressed its antiquity and its sanctity upon us,
was now engaged in this outrageous profanation. It was impossible,
unthinkable--and yet there, in the white glare of the electric light
benea