on this
matter?"

"Yes."

"And you can read it? Are you versed in such learning, Mr. Keen?"

"I am an Egyptologist--among other details," said the Tracer calmly.

The young man gazed at him, astonished. The Tracer of Lost Persons
picked up a pencil, laid a sheet of paper on the table beside the
papyrus, and slowly began to copy the first symbol:

[Illustration: Glyph]

CHAPTER XIX

"The ancient Egyptian word for the personal pronoun 'I' was _anuk_,"
said the Tracer placidly. "The phonetic for _a_ was the hieroglyph

[Illustration: Glyph]

a reed; for _n_ the water symbol

[Illustration: Glyph]

for _u_ the symbols

[Illustration: Glyph]

for _k_

[Illustration: Glyph]

Therefore this hieroglyphic inscription begins with the personal pronoun

[Illustration: Glyph]

or _I_. That is very easy, of course.

"Now, the most ancient of Egyptian inscriptions read vertically in
columns; there are only two columns in this papyrus, so we'll try it
vertically and pass downward to the next symbol, which is inclosed in a
sort of frame or cartouch. That immediately signifies that royalty is
mentioned; therefore, we have already translated as much as 'I, the king
(or queen).' Do you see?"

"Yes," said Burke, staring.

"Very well. Now this symbol, number two,

[Illustration: Glyph]

spells out the word '_Meris_,' in this way: M (pronounced _me_) is
phonetically symbolized by the characters

[Illustration: Glyph]

_r_ by

[Illustration: Glyph]

(a mouth) and the comma

[Illustration: Glyph]

and the hieroglyph

[Illustration: Glyph]

_i_ by two reeds

[Illustration: Glyph]

and two oblique strokes,

[Illustration: Glyph]

and _s_ by

[Illustration: Glyph]

This gives us Meris, the name of that deposed and fugitive king of
Egypt who, after a last raid on the summer palace of Mer-Shen, usurping
ruler of Egypt, was followed and tracked to Sais, where, with an arrow
through his back, he crawled to El Teb and finally died there of his
wound. All this Egyptologists are perfectly familiar with in the
translations of the boastful tablets and inscriptions erected near Sais
by Mer-Shen, the three hundred and twelfth sovereign after Queen
Nitocris."

He looked up at Burke, smiling. "Therefore," he said, "this papyrus
scroll was written by Meris, ex-king, a speculative thousands of years
before Christ. And it begins: 'I, Meris the King.'"

"How does all this bear upon what concerns me?