ide stamped upon the countenance of the old man who was her
companion in death.

She was clothed in some close-fitting robe of white broidered with gold;
pearls were about her neck, lying far down upon the perfect bosom, a
girdle of gold and shining gems encircled her slender waist, and on her
little feet were sandals fastened with red stones like rubies. In
truth, she was a splendid creature, and yet, I know not how, her beauty
suggested more of the spirit than of the flesh. Indeed, in a way, it was
unearthly. My senses were smitten, it pulled at my heart-strings, and
yet its unutterable strangeness seemed to awake memories within me,
though of what I could not tell. A wild fancy came to me that I must
have known this heavenly creature in some past life.

By now Bastin had joined us, and, attracted by my exclamation and by
the attitude of Bickley, who was staring down at the coffin with a fixed
look upon his face, not unlike that of a pointer when he scents game, he
began to contemplate the wonder within it in his slow way.

"Well, I never!" he said. "Do you think the Glittering Lady in there is
human?"

"The Glittering Lady is dead, but I suppose that she was human in her
life," I answered in an awed whisper.

"Of course she is dead, otherwise she would not be in that glass coffin.
I think I should like to read the Burial Service over her, which I
daresay was never done when she was put in there."

"How do you know she is dead?" asked Bickley in a sharp voice and
speaking for the first time. "I have seen hundreds of corpses, and
mummies too, but never any that looked like these."

I stared at him. It was strange to hear Bickley, the scoffer at
miracles, suggesting that this greatest of all miracles might be
possible.

"They must have been here a long time," I said, "for although human,
they are not, I think, of any people known to the world to-day; their
dress, everything, shows it, though perhaps thousands of years ago--"
and I stopped.

"Quite so," answered Bickley; "I agree. That is why I suggest that they
may have belonged to a race who knew what we do not, namely, how to
suspend animation for great periods of time."

I said no more, nor did Bastin, who was now engaged in studying the old
man, and for once, wonderstruck and overcome. Bickley, however, took one
of the candles and began to make a close examination of the coffins.
So did Tommy, who sniffed along the join of that of the Glittering Lady
un