,
sticking out, looked like the matrix of opal. The blood had streamed
down and stained the brown wrappings as with rust. Here, then, was
full confirmation of the narrative. With such evidence of the
narrator's truth before us, we could not doubt the other matters which
he had told, such as the blood on the mummy hand, or marks of the seven
fingers on the throat of the strangled Sheik.

"I shall not trouble you with details of all we saw, or how we learned
all we knew. Part of it was from knowledge common to scholars; part we
read on the Stele in the tomb, and in the sculptures and hieroglyphic
paintings on the walls.

"Queen Tera was of the Eleventh, or Theban Dynasty of Egyptian Kings
which held sway between the twenty-ninth and twenty-fifth centuries
before Christ. She succeeded as the only child of her father, Antef.
She must have been a girl of extraordinary character as well as
ability, for she was but a young girl when her father died. Her youth
and sex encouraged the ambitious priesthood, which had then achieved
immense power. By their wealth and numbers and learning they dominated
all Egypt, more especially the Upper portion. They were then secretly
ready to make an effort for the achievement of their bold and
long-considered design, that of transferring the governing power from a
Kingship to a Hierarchy. But King Antef had suspected some such
movement, and had taken the precaution of securing to his daughter the
allegiance of the army. He had also had her taught statecraft, and had
even made her learned in the lore of the very priests themselves. He
had used those of one cult against the other; each being hopeful of
some present gain on its own part by the influence of the King, or of
some ultimate gain from its own influence over his daughter. Thus, the
Princess had been brought up amongst scribes, and was herself no mean
artist. Many of these things were told on the walls in pictures or in
hieroglyphic writing of great beauty; and we came to the conclusion
that not a few of them had been done by the Princess herself. It was
not without cause that she was inscribed on the Stele as 'Protector of
the Arts'.

"But the King had gone to further lengths, and had had his daughter
taught magic, by which she had power over Sleep and Will. This was
real magic--"black" magic; not the magic of the temples, which, I may
explain, was of the harmless or "white" order, and was intended to
impress rather than