statement that such
operations are still performed, not only in the East, but in Europe?
How many who, witnessing this mass of Satan, would accept it for
verity, would not deny the evidence of their very senses?

He could not believe such an orgie of wickedness possible. A Pagan
emperor might have been capable of these things, but to-day--wondrous
is our faith in the virtue of "to-day!"

"Am I mad?" he whispered hoarsely, "or--"

A thinly-veiled shape seemed to float out from that still form in the
shadows; it assumed definite outlines; it became a woman, beautiful
with a beauty that could only be described as awful.

She wore upon her brow the _uraeus_ of Ancient Egyptian royalty; her
sole garment was a robe of finest gauze. Like a cloud, like a vision,
she floated into the light cast by the tripod.

A voice--a voice which seemed to come from a vast distance, from
somewhere outside the mighty granite walls of that unholy
place--spoke. The language was unknown to Sime, but the fierce
hand-grip upon his wrist grew fiercer. That dead tongue, that language
unspoken since the dawn of Christianity, was known to the man who had
been the companion of Sir Michael Ferrara.

In upon Sime swept a swift conviction--that one could not witness such
a scene as this and live and move again amongst one's fellow-men! In a
sort of frenzy, then, he wrenched himself free from the detaining
hand, and launched a retort of modern science against the challenge of
ancient sorcery.

Raising his Browning pistol, he fired--shot after shot--at that
bat-like shape which stood between himself and the tripod!

A thousand frightful echoes filled the chamber with a demon mockery,
boomed along those subterranean passages beneath, and bore the
conflict of sound into the hidden places of the pyramid which had
known not sound for untold generations.

"My God--!"

Vaguely he became aware that Dr. Cairn was seeking to drag him away.
Through a cloud of smoke he saw the black-robed figure turn; dream
fashion, he saw the pallid, glistening face of Antony Ferrara; the
long, evil eyes, alight like the eyes of a serpent, were fixed upon
him. He seemed to stand amid a chaos, in a mad world beyond the
borders of reason, beyond the dominions of God. But to his stupefied
mind one astounding fact found access.

He had fired at least seven shots at the black-robed figure, and it
was not humanly possible that all could have gone wide of their mark.

Yet An