if I could have done so, however, for really
I was immovable; my heart seemed to stop and all my muscles to be
paralysed.

I do not know for how long this endured, but I do know how it ended.
Presently in the intense silence I heard Bastin's heavy voice and
looking round, saw his big head projecting into the sepulchre.

"Well, I never!" he said, "you seem to have woke them up with a
vengeance. If you begin like that with the lady, there will be
complications before you have done, Arbuthnot."

Talk of being brought back to earth with a rush! I could have killed
Bastin, and Bickley, turning on him like a tiger, told him to be off,
find wood and light a large fire in front of the statue. I think he was
about to argue when the Ancient gave him a glance of his fierce eyes,
which alarmed him, and he departed, bewildered, to return presently with
the wood.

But the sound of his voice had broken the spell. The Lady let her arms
fall with a start, and shut her eyes again, seeming to faint. Bickley
sprang forward with his sal volatile and applied it to her nostrils, the
Ancient not interfering, for he seemed to recognise that he had to deal
with a man of skill and one who meant well by them.

In the end we brought her round again and, to omit details, Bickley gave
her, not coffee and brandy, but a mixture he compounded of hot water,
preserved milk and meat essence. The effect of it on her was wonderful,
since a few minutes after swallowing it she sat up in the coffin. Then
we lifted her from that narrow bed in which she had slept for--ah! how
long? and perceived that beneath her also were crystal boxes of
the radiant, heat-giving substance. We sat her on the floor of the
sepulchre, wrapping her also in a blanket.

Now it was that Tommy, after frisking round her as though in welcome of
an old friend, calmly established himself beside her and laid his
black head upon her knee. She noted it and smiled for the first time,
a marvelously sweet and gentle smile. More, she placed her slender hand
upon the dog and stroked him feebly.

Bickley tried to make her drink some more of his mixture, but she
refused, motioning him to give it to Tommy. This, however, he would not
do because there was but one cup. Presently both of the sleepers began
to shiver, which caused Bickley anxiety. Abusing Bastin beneath his
breath for being so long with the fire, he drew the blankets closer
about them.

Then an idea came to him and he examined th