hen, under Margaret's guidance, we carried the mummied body of Queen
Tera from her room into her father's, and laid it on a couch. We put
the sheet lightly over it, so that if she should wake she could at once
slip from under it. The severed hand was placed in its true position
on her breast, and under it the Jewel of Seven Stars which Mr. Trelawny
had taken from the great safe. It seemed to flash and blaze as he put
it in its place.

It was a strange sight, and a strange experience. The group of grave
silent men carried the white still figure, which looked like an ivory
statue when through our moving the sheet fell back, away from the
lighted candles and the white flowers. We placed it on the couch in
that other room, where the blaze of the electric lights shone on the
great sarcophagus fixed in the middle of the room ready for the final
experiment, the great experiment consequent on the researches during a
lifetime of these two travelled scholars. Again, the startling
likeness between Margaret and the mummy, intensified by her own
extraordinary pallor, heightened the strangeness of it all. When all
was finally fixed three-quarters of an hour had gone, for we were
deliberate in all our doings. Margaret beckoned me, and I went out
with her to bring in Silvio. He came to her purring. She took him up
and handed him to me; and then did a thing which moved me strangely and
brought home to me keenly the desperate nature of the enterprise on
which we were embarked. One by one, she blew out the candles carefully
and placed them back in their usual places. When she had finished she
said to me:

"They are done with now. Whatever comes--life or death--there will be
no purpose in their using now." Then taking Silvio into her arms, and
pressing him close to her bosom where he purred loudly, we went back to
the room. I closed the door carefully behind me, feeling as I did so a
strange thrill as of finality. There was to be no going back now.
Then we put on our respirators, and took our places as had been
arranged. I was to stand by the taps of the electric lights beside the
door, ready to turn them off or on as Mr. Trelawny should direct.
Doctor Winchester was to stand behind the couch so that he should not
be between the mummy and the sarcophagus; he was to watch carefully
what should take place with regard to the Queen. Margaret was to be
beside him; she held Silvio ready to place him upon the couch or beside
it