this he drew forward and attached to a switch in the wall.  Then, turning on a tap, he flooded the whole vault and staircase below with light.  I could now see from the volume of light streaming up into the hallway that the hole beside the staircase went direct into the cave.  Above it was a pulley and a mass of strong tackle with multiplying blocks of the Smeaton order.  Mr. Trelawny, seeing me looking at this, said, correctly interpreting my thoughts: 

“Yes! it is new.  I hung it there myself on purpose.  I knew we should have to lower great weights; and as I did not wish to take too many into my confidence, I arranged a tackle which I could work alone if necessary.”

We set to work at once; and before nightfall had lowered, unhooked, and placed in the positions designated for each by Trelawny, all the great sarcophagi and all the curios and other matters which we had taken with us.

It was a strange and weird proceeding, the placing of those wonderful monuments of a bygone age in that green cavern, which represented in its cutting and purpose and up-to-date mechanism and electric lights both the old world and the new.  But as time went on I grew more and more to recognise the wisdom and correctness of Mr. Trelawny’s choice.  I was much disturbed when Silvio, who had been brought into the cave in the arms of his mistress, and who was lying asleep on my coat which I had taken off, sprang up when the cat mummy had been unpacked, and flew at it with the same ferocity which he had previously exhibited.  The incident showed Margaret in a new phase, and one which gave my heart a pang.  She had been standing quite still at one side of the cave leaning on a sarcophagus, in one of those fits of abstraction which had of late come upon her; but on hearing the sound, and seeing Silvio’s violent onslaught, she seemed to fall into a positive fury of passion.  Her eyes blazed, and her mouth took a hard, cruel tension which was new to me.  Instinctively she stepped towards Silvio as if to interfere in the attack.  But I too had stepped forward; and as she caught my eye a strange spasm came upon her, and she stopped.  Its intensity made me hold my breath; and I put up my hand to clear my eyes.  When I had done this, she had on the instant recovered her calm, and there was a look of brief wonder on her face.  With all her old grace and sweetness she swept over and lifted Silvio, just as she had done on former occasions, and held him in her arms, petting him and treating him as though he were a little child who had erred.

As I looked a strange fear came over me.  The Margaret that I knew seemed to be changing; and in my inmost heart I prayed that the disturbing cause might soon come to an end.  More than ever I longed at that moment that our terrible Experiment should come to a prosperous termination.

When all had been arranged in the room as Mr. Trelawny wished he turned to us, one after another, till he had concentrated the intelligence of us all upon him.  Then he said: