! What a reward for mine!"

He buried his face in quivering hands.

"I cannot tell exactly what you mean by that, sir," said Robert Cairn;
"but it brings me to my question."

Dr. Cairn did not speak, did not move.

"_Who is Antony Ferrara_?"

The doctor looked up at that; and it was a haggard face he raised from
his hands.

"You have tried to ask me that before."

"I ask now, sir, with better prospect of receiving an answer."

"Yet I can give you none, Rob."

"Why, sir? Are you bound to secrecy?"

"In a degree, yes. But the real reason is this--I don't know."

"You don't know!"

"I have said so."

"Good God, sir, you amaze me! I have always felt certain that he was
really no Ferrara, but an adopted son; yet it had never entered my
mind that you were ignorant of his origin."

"You have not studied the subjects which I have studied; nor do I wish
that you should; therefore it is impossible, at any rate now, to
pursue that matter further. But I may perhaps supplement your
researches into the history of Trois Echelles and Concini Concini. I
believe you told me that you were looking in my library for some work
which you failed to find?"

"I was looking for M. Chabas' translation of the _Papyrus Harris_."

"What do you know of it?"

"I once saw a copy in Antony Ferrara's rooms."

Dr. Cairn started slightly.

"Indeed. It happens that my copy is here; I lent it quite recently
to--Sir Michael. It is probably somewhere on the shelves."

He turned on more lights and began to scan the rows of books.
Presently--

"Here it is," he said, and took down and opened the book on the table.
"This passage may interest you." He laid his finger upon it.

His son bent over the book and read the following:--

"Hai, the evil man, was a shepherd. He had said: 'O, that I might have
a book of spells that would give me resistless power!' He obtained a
book of the Formulas.... By the divine powers of these he enchanted
men. He obtained a deep vault furnished with implements. He made waxen
images of men, and love-charms. And then he perpetrated all the
horrors that his heart conceived."

"Flinders Petrie," said Dr. Cairn, "mentions the Book of Thoth as
another magical work conferring similar powers."

"But surely, sir--after all, it's the twentieth century--this is mere
superstition!"

"I thought so--_once_!" replied Dr. Cairn. "But I have lived to know
that Egyptian magic was a real and a potent force. A great part o