“Oh, jeepers, it seems awful to have to wait so long,” Kit exclaimed regretfully. “It seemed to me as if you could just press it through with your thumb, like this.”
She had not intended pressing so hard, but merely to show him what she meant, and, under the pressure of her thumb, the circle of Ra depressed and pushed slowly through. The Dean looked on in utter amazement, as Kit lifted the urn and tested the inner section by shaking it. Then she peered into the circular hole, about the size of a quarter. The urn was fully two inches thick, and by inserting her finger into the space she found that it was made in two sections, with enough room between for a place of concealment.
“There’s something in here like asbestos, Uncle Bart,” she began, and turning the urn upside down, she tried shaking it, using a little pressure on the circle to separate the two rims. Slowly they gave, while the Dean hovered over her, cautioning and directing the operation, until two complete urns lay before them. But it was not these that the Dean snatched at. It was the curious cap-shaped mass which fell out in the form of a cone. To Kit it appeared to be of no significance whatever, but the Dean handled it as tenderly as a newborn child, and under his deft and tender touch it unrolled in long scrolls of papyrus.
The Dean rose to his feet solemnly, and his voice was hushed, as he said, “Kit, you do not know what you have done. Some day the significance of this occasion will recur to you. All I can say is that you have lifted the veil of the past, and revealed the secret of Amenotaph.”
15. Home Again
Kit arrived in Nantic a little past noon in the middle of the first snow storm of the winter. She was so glad to see Mr. Briggs’s smiling face on the platform, that she almost threw her arms around him, as she jumped from the platform of the train.
“Well, well,” he said, “didn’t expect to see you around so soon, Kit.”
“It’s good to be back, Mr. Briggs,” said Kit, as she looked around for the one taxi that Nantic had. She had not told her family just when she was arriving, so no one was there to meet her. She located the cab and after a hurried goodbye to Mr. Briggs she got in and was soon on the way up the familiar highway.
There was none of the family in sight when they turned up the drive, but suddenly Kit’s eager eyes saw a familiar figure out by the barn, and leaning forward she gave a shrill whistle.