Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-16

hDSH Grew hlmSeu up with
- quick intake of breath; he ap.
peared positively i'll, and almost
IL expected him to faint. His face
was like chalk.
Certainly, sir-I understand" His
words were articulated with great effort
Then he walked away unsteadily and
disappeared down the rear stairs to the
left Of DR.. Blisss study door.
Vance spoke in low voice to Mark
ham, who Immediately beekoned TO the
officer in the street below.
"You are to stand In the vestibule
here" he ordered. when Sergt. Heath
and his men come, bring them to us at
once. Well be in there He indicated
the large steel door leading into the mu-
scum. 'If any one else calls, hold them
and notify us. Don't let any one ring
the bell" NJ
The ofdcer saiuted and took up his
post and the rest of us, with Vance
leading the way. passed through the
steel door into the museum.
A flight of carpeted stairs, feet
wide, led down along the wall to the
floor Of the enormous room beyond,
which was ION the street level. The
first-Story hoor-the one which had
been even with the hallway of the
house we had just ,quitted-had been
removed so that the room of the mu-
scum was two stories high. Two huge
pillars, with steel beams and diagonal
joists, had been erected as suppoytS.
Moreover, the walls marking the former
rooms had been demolished. 2fae re-
suit was that the room we had entered
occupied the entire width and length
of the houser-about IS M ~ 1eet-
and had a ceiling almost 70 feet high.
At the front was a series OF tall,
1eaded-glass windows drumming across
the entire width Of the building. and
at the rear. above a series of oak cab
inets. a similar row Of windows had
been cut. IKE curtains of the front
windows are drawn, but those at the
rear were open. The sun had not yet
found is way into the room and the
light Sas dingy.
A. we stood for a moment at the
bad Of the steps I noted a. small Cir
cular iron stairway at the rear leading
to q small steel door on the same
level as the door through which we
had entered. -ss-.a
The arrangement of the museum In
relation to the house, which served as
living quarters for the Blisses, was to
prove Of considerable Importance in
Vance's solution Of Benjamin H Kyle's
murder, and for purposes of clarity I
am including In this record q plan of
the two houses, The floor of the
museum, as have said, was on the
street level-it' had formerly been the
basement" floor And IL must be
borne in mind that the rooms indi-
Gated on the left-hand half Of the plan
were one story above the museum floor
and halfway between the museum
floor and the ceiling. 4;
My eyes at once searched the oppo-
site corner Of the room for the muir
dered man, but that part of the Inu-
scum was in shadow and all I could
see was a dark mass, like a recumbent
human body, in front Of the farthest
rear cabinet.
Vance and Markham had descended
the stairs, while Scarlet and waited
on the upper landing. Vance went
straightway to the front of the museum
and pulled the draw-cords of the cur
tains. Light flooded the semi darkness,
and for the first time took in the
beautiful and amazing contents of that
great room.
In the center of the opposite wall
rose a 10-foot obelisk from Heliopolis,
commemorating an expedition Of Queen
Hat-shepsut of the eighteenth dynasty,
and bearing her cartouche. To the
right and left of the obelisk stood two
plaster-cast portrait statues-one of
Queen Teti-Shiret of the seventeenth
dynasty, and the other a black.
replica of the famous Turin statue Of
Ramses demonstrated one of the finest
pieces of sculptured portraiture in an
tiquity.
Above and beside them hung sew
eral papyri, framed and under glass,
their faded burnt-orange backgrounds
punctuated with red, yellow. green and
white patches-making spiashes of at
tractive color against the dingy gray
plaster of the wall. Four large lime
stone bas-reliefs, taken from nine
tenth dynasty tomb at Memphis and
containing passages from the Book OF
the Dead, were aligned above the
papyri.
Beneath the front windows stood a
black granite twenty second dynasty
sarcophagus, fully 10 feet long, its front
and sides covered with hieroglyphic in
scriptions. II was surmounted by q
mummy-shaped lid showing the soul
bird, or Ba, with its falcons form and
human head. This sarcophagus was
one of the rarest in America and had