bling about some
boat-race on the Cam, and was inclined to be violent. Indeed, when we
entered the room Ustane was holding him down. I spoke to him, and my
voice seemed to soothe him; at any rate he grew much quieter, and was
persuaded to swallow a dose of quinine.

I had been sitting with him for an hour, perhaps--at any rate I know
that it was getting so dark that I could only just make out his head
lying like a gleam of gold upon the pillow we had extemporised out of a
bag covered with a blanket--when suddenly Billali arrived with an air
of great importance, and informed me that _She_ herself had deigned to
express a wish to see me--an honour, he added, accorded to but very
few. I think that he was a little horrified at my cool way of taking the
honour, but the fact was that I did not feel overwhelmed with gratitude
at the prospect of seeing some savage, dusky queen, however absolute
and mysterious she might be, more especially as my mind was full of
dear Leo, for whose life I began to have great fears. However, I rose to
follow him, and as I did so I caught sight of something bright lying on
the floor, which I picked up. Perhaps the reader will remember that with
the potsherd in the casket was a composition scarabaeus marked with a
round O, a goose, and another curious hieroglyphic, the meaning of which
is "Suten se Ra," or "Royal Son of the Sun." The scarab, which is a very
small one, Leo had insisted upon having set in a massive gold ring, such
as is generally used for signets, and it was this very ring that I now
picked up. He had pulled it off in the paroxysm of his fever, at least
I suppose so, and flung it down upon the rock-floor. Thinking that if I
left it about it might get lost, I slipped it on my own little finger,
and then followed Billali, leaving Job and Ustane with Leo.

We passed down the passage, crossed the great aisle-like cave, and came
to the corresponding passage on the other side, at the mouth of which
the guards stood like two statues. As we came they bowed their heads in
salutation, and then lifting their long spears placed them transversely
across their foreheads, as the leaders of the troop that had met us
had done with their ivory wands. We stepped between them, and found
ourselves in an exactly similar gallery to that which led to our own
apartments, only this passage was, comparatively speaking, brilliantly
lighted. A few paces down it we were met by four mutes--two men and two
women--