slation a difficult matter. One had
to dodge backward and forward among the words. This was in addition to
the difficulty of deciphering a strange handwriting of two hundred
years ago. I found, however, that after a short time I got into the
habit of following in conventional English the Dutch construction; and,
as I became more familiar with the writing, my task became easier.

At first the circumstances of the room, and the fear lest Miss Trelawny
should return unexpectedly and find me reading the book, disturbed me
somewhat. For we had arranged amongst us, before Doctor Winchester had
gone home, that she was not to be brought into the range of the coming
investigation. We considered that there might be some shock to a
woman's mind in matters of apparent mystery; and further, that she,
being Mr. Trelawny's daughter, might be placed in a difficult position
with him afterward if she took part in, or even had a personal
knowledge of, the disregarding of his expressed wishes. But when I
remembered that she did not come on nursing duty till two o'clock, the
fear of interruption passed away. I had still nearly three house
before me. Nurse Kennedy sat in her chair by the bedside, patient and
alert. A clock ticked on the landing; other clocks in the house
ticked; the life of the city without manifested itself in the distant
hum, now and again swelling into a roar as a breeze floating westward
took the concourse of sounds with it. But still the dominant idea was
of silence. The light on my book, and the soothing fringe of green
silk round the shade intensified, whenever I looked up, the gloom of
the sick-room. With every line I read, this seemed to grow deeper and
deeper; so that when my eyes came back to the page the light seemed to
dazzle me. I stuck to my work, however, and presently began to get
sufficiently into the subject to become interested in it.

The book was by one Nicholas van Huyn of Hoorn. In the preface he told
how, attracted by the work of John Greaves of Merton College,
Pyramidographia, he himself visited Egypt, where he became so
interested in its wonders that he devoted some years of his life to
visiting strange places, and exploring the ruins of many temples and
tombs. He had come across many variants of the story of the building
of the Pyramids as told by the Arabian historian, Ibn Abd Alhokin, some
of which he set down. These I did not stop to read, but went on to the
marked pages.

As