The Evening critic., 1885-04-27

holiday compared with the distance / had
traversed, yet by what mysterious instinct
who shall say2 knew that | had walked
just 115 feet since striking my head against
the pyramid, and though tho Arabs with
their torches had led tho way, / could not
more surely have turned into the higher,
broader gallery, leading almost horizon
tally to tho Queens chamber.
Suddenly all was still about me. An
ice.cold breath struck my check as though
the robe of passing ghost had touched
my face. / groaned, and down that zig
gag path came back an answering groan.
Great heavens Tho truth just flashed
across me then. Arcturus shone from
Bootes that night across the corners of
the pyramid. / shouted as might have
drowned the whole Internal choir and threw
my handkerchief forward, not knowing or
caring how near the chamber IL might
come, and turning about fled precipitately,
determined TO leave the Kings chamber
and gain the moonlight. My heart beat
moro easily with that resolve, but the
power to know the path forsook me, and
with muscles trembling with relaxation l
CROPPED my way, stumbling, back to the
entrance TO the gallery Of the Queens cham.
ber, whence the path to the right led
again to tho entrance and that to the
left deeper into the pyramid and up to the
Kings chamber Wearily / neared the
turning, when suddenly rattling, rum
bling, thon a horrible roaring sounded in
the distance, and looking down the gal
lory between me and the moonlight | saw
-mercful heavens The sight had bet
ter have been left unseen
PART II.
AS live, it was grim, Egyptian god
with two great, yellow, steaming eyes,
staring through sulphurous mists, not
ixpa foot as " frnpn And in oil lha
ghostly, wild, unearthly groanings ever
heard on earth, such as came up that gal
lery have no counterpart. My brain was
petrified with fear Blindly | turned to
tho left, though ii led mo more deeply into
that terrible den. With the long.clawed
fingers Of Anarches clutching each foot as
it was left for an instant behind the other
in the way, with an Egyptian idol stalking
on behind me, fed up that path for very
life nor dared look back lest those smok-
ing eyes should fix me forever in the sand
hollows where my feet rested l closed
my useless eyes in such agony Of 6eroeness
that tho throbbing balls seemed buried in
my brain, yet such was the fury of the
glare of those two eyes behind me, that the
path before me, through my closed lids,
was bright as day.
Then, fear benumbed, my brain was sense
less. For time l was unconscious, till, as
luuubn Wuhluk llOul u uItdulf 4 hOohOu W
realize that l stoodIn the doorway before
the Kings chamber. My eyes were shut;
knew it; yet what an awful sight saw
Dragons by thousands were dancing in that
little. chamber, only twenty feet by thirty.
The Prince of the Powers of He'll sat in the
ragged sarcophagus that year by year is be-
ing carried off by relic-crazed visitors, little
dreaming that in the porphyry bits they
have samples of the nightly seat of Satan.
;, al Al H., lol
to and fro tracing the time of the dancing,
as a cats tail poises and pendulates while
she watches mouse at play. Around him,
leaping to the internal tarantula, were
Arabs, Copts and Turks, Armenians, Greeks
and Bergers, Jews and Franks; chastity
crew Of kissing skeletons from Nubia,
Senaar and Dongolar, Kordofan and Abys-
sinia and Syria; subjects of the patriarchs
and the Pharaohs The Persian princes and
the Ptolemies, the Roman Emperors, the
Sheiks and Sultans from Menes to Nitocris
out Of all the many nations that had lived
and reigned about the pyramids.
Strangely, in all of this the mission upon
which | had come was uppermost in my
mind. My pocket-knife was omen in my
band. l crept across the floor between
those skeletons, but none of them noticed
me. l reached the wooden block at the
foot Of the sarcopbagus, and with the en-
ergy of a madman thrust my knife blade
into IT, then turned to fly with maniac
haste from the scorching fire about me. But
had seen too much to live and leave it.
AS l turned, with great crash the stones
beneath the sarcophagus burst asunder, and
withered mummy, rattling from his bed
of precious stones, leaped from his long,
hidden tomb. l shrieked and sprang away,
but two dry arms, cracking in every joint,
wound round my neck like the grip of
hangman's moose. l gasped, l choked
My eyeballs started from their sockets 1
struggled for moment, then fell like lead,
buried in devils, fast bound in the dead
grip ofa mummy
" - .A y
How many years since then? In faith
you can tell better than I. 1t is ten centuries
at least that these gloomy walls and iron
barred windows have bound me in what
they tell me is an insane:asylum. II an in
telligent mortal Wiser by far than the
men who keep me here barred in a
maniac's den That is enough to make a
sane man mad. / cannot always believe it,.
i rouse myself, and say / am dreaming.
Then they say am madder yet, and they
call in strong men and bind me hand and
foot. Then poor foolish Middleton visits
me sometimes. let him come, / tolerate
his foolish vagaries, because / pity him.
Poor TOOL He tells me that he followed
me into the pyramid, carrying two torches,
because he could not force the Arabs to 20
with him. He says he had almost over
taken me when rushed from the Queens
| gallery; that he followed me shouting all
the way for me to stop, and that without
light / outran him; that when he reached
the Kings chamber he found me senseless,
upon my face, almost strangled by my tur-
ban In slipping knot about my neck, one
| end of it being held fast TO the block of
| wood, with my knife blade thrust through 1t.
Stuff and nonsense Shall he palm it off
| on me? DO not know too well what my
two eyes have seen to yield it all to such an
idiotic fancy? Because / rave sometimes
| till those five men cannot hold me, Is that
sign that am mad ? Who would not
rave? Who would not wrench himself from
the clutches of five hundred times five men,
and every one Hercules, who struggles in
| the creaking arms of resurreeted mummy?
| Who would not howl who writhes, and In
the scorching fires Of hell, and at whose
shoulder ever grins that awful sphinx,
Anarches oh, Jove I'd rip the boiling
Hecla, roots and all, from tho firm bed and
hurl it into the frozen sea, If in the mon
strous pit, whence it was dragged, could
find where to creep away from the shadow
of that pyramid.
| Stand back For the life of you stand
back They are coming again See them
suTging around me! Ho, you officer Of
this madman's heaven, bring on your
strong men Hold me- They stranglC
me! Bind mel They scorch me Oh, fol
Gods sake throw me into the Polar sea
VIII their tortures never end? Is this to