“I feel tonight that I am going to prove to you that I can see things that are hidden....”
He paused, and again the silence was broken only by the sound of heavy breathing. As suddenly as before, Sims spoke again:
“Listen!” he said. “I see a great room, half lit by a lamp in the roof. There is a brighter light near a table in the center of the room. It is a stone table, such as was used in ancient Egypt by the embalmers.”
The Professor drew in his breath with a sharp gasp, but the voice went steadily on:
“Beside the table I see a man. He is bending over something—something white. It is the body of a woman—”
“Stop, damn you!” screamed the Professor; and Sims, springing from his chair, took something from the pocket of his dinner-jacket.
The Professor laughed discordantly—the laugh of a madman.
“Put up your pistol,” he cried. “You will not need it. I don’t know who you are, and, damn you, I don’t care! Do you hear that? I don’t care! Listen, all of you; listen, I say! Today I have completed my task; I have learned the secret which I have sought so patiently. I am going to join my Princess, my Hora.”
He ceased, and threw his arms out in a great gesture to the mummy-case in front of which he had been standing. Huge drops of sweat stood out on his forehead, and he tore open his linen collar with a madman’s strength. But it was in a controlled, almost tender voice that he went on: