She paused, and I could see that she suffered—­suffered horribly.  There was in her eyes a hunted look, which no man can, unmoved, see in the eyes of his beloved.  I was about to interrupt, when her father’s eyes, glancing round with a fierce determination, met mine.  I stood silent, almost spellbound; so also the other men.  Something was going on before us which we did not understand!

With a few long strides Mr. Trelawny went to the west side of the cave and tore back the shutter which obscured the window.  The cool air blew in, and the sunlight streamed over them both, for Margaret was now by his side.  He pointed to where the sun was sinking into the sea in a halo of golden fire, and his face was as set as flint.  In a voice whose absolute uncompromising hardness I shall hear in my ears at times till my dying day, he said: 

“Choose!  Speak!  When the sun has dipped below the sea, it will be too late!” The glory of the dying sun seemed to light up Margaret’s face, till it shone as if lit from within by a noble light, as she answered: 

“Even that!”

Then stepping over to where the mummy cat stood on the little table, she placed her hand on it.  She had now left the sunlight, and the shadows looked dark and deep over her.  In a clear voice she said: 

“Were I Tera, I would say ’Take all I have!  This night is for the Gods alone!’”

As she spoke the sun dipped, and the cold shadow suddenly fell on us.  We all stood still for a while.  Silvio jumped from my arms and ran over to his mistress, rearing himself up against her dress as if asking to be lifted.  He took no notice whatever of the mummy now.

Margaret was glorious with all her wonted sweetness as she said sadly: 

“The sun is down, Father!  Shall any of us see it again?  The night of nights is come!”

Chapter XIX The Great Experiment

If any evidence had been wanted of how absolutely one and all of us had come to believe in the spiritual existence of the Egyptian Queen, it would have been found in the change which in a few minutes had been effected in us by the statement of voluntary negation made, we all believed, through Margaret.  Despite the coming of the fearful ordeal, the sense of which it was impossible to forget, we looked and acted as though a great relief had come to us.  We had indeed lived in such a state of terrorism during the days when Mr. Trelawny was lying in a trance that the feeling had bitten deeply into us.  No one knows till he has experienced it, what it is to be in constant dread of some unknown danger which may come at any time and in any form.

The change was manifested in different ways, according to each nature.  Margaret was sad.  Doctor Winchester was in high spirits, and keenly observant; the process of thought which had served as an antidote to fear, being now relieved from this duty, added to his intellectual enthusiasm.  Mr. Corbeck seemed to be in a retrospective rather than a speculative mood.  I was myself rather inclined to be gay; the relief from certain anxiety regarding Margaret was sufficient for me for the time.