I am not ashamed to say that I followed his advice. I closed my eyes and asked the Omnipotent for remission of my sins. And since it seemed to me that my hour had come, I resolutely put aside my detestation of the monster who designed to murder me, and I even asked for his forgiveness, too. Then a great, deep, splendid peace mantled over me, and for the first time in my life I truly realised the littleness of man's existence and the majesty of resignation. It was almost worth while to go through all I had been compelled to endure to experience at the end that mood of grand, calm dignity. I felt almost sublimely detached from my surroundings. I opened my eyes at last and said with perfect calm:
"I am ready, Belleville."
He stood up and stretched out his arms, yawning widely. Then of a sudden everything was dark.
"What in Hell——?" shouted Belleville. I heard him rush forward cursing angrily, then he stumbled and fell headlong to the floor amidst a crash of glass. In the same instant unseen hands fumbled over me. My bonds suddenly relaxed and I was free. I stood up, stiff but quivering in every nerve. There followed a rasping sound, a match flickered into light, and I saw Belleville rising from the ruins of a broken jar. He held the lucifer above his head, and it showed standing at an angle between us the tall frame of the Arab of the cave temple at Rakh.
Belleville ripped out an oath. There came a blinding flash of light and the deafening report of a revolver. I staggered from the chair to the wall and leaned against it, helpless as a babe. The echoes were still thundering in rolling waves of brain-dazing sound from wall to wall when the pitch blackness of the room was again relieved by the glare of electricity. Belleville had succeeded in turning on the lights. He stood by the door peering all about him. For a moment I thought all was up. I was free, certainly, but my muscles were so cramped and tautened that I could hardly move a finger. I was not fit to contend against a breath of wind, let alone a burly ruffian like the Doctor. But the next instant I remembered I was still invisible. I could not see my own hand held before me, and I had immediate proof that he was unable to perceive me.
"Where are you, Pinsent? are you hurt?" he cried.
I did not answer, but, following his glance, I looked at the couch and there I saw what utterly astounded me. The mummy of Ptahmes lay upon the couch in exactly the same attitude as when Belleville had flung it there aside from the sarcophagus. Who, then, or what, had set me free? I examined the apartment eagerly, but saw nothing living save Belleville, who with cocked revolver thrust out before him now stepped forward cautiously into the room, waving his arms about him as he walked, and muttering, as he walked, through clenched teeth a string of angry blasphemies.