should direct.  Doctor Winchester was to stand behind the couch so that he should not be between the mummy and the sarcophagus; he was to watch carefully what should take place with regard to the Queen.  Margaret was to be beside him; she held Silvio ready to place him upon the couch or beside it when she might think right.  Mr. Trelawny and Mr. Corbeck were to attend to the lighting of the lamps.  When the hands of the clock were close to the hour, they stood ready with their linstocks.

The striking of the silver bell of the clock seemed to smite on our hearts like a knell of doom.  One!  Two!  Three!

Before the third stroke the wicks of the lamps had caught, and I had turned out the electric light.  In the dimness of the struggling lamps, and after the bright glow of the electric light, the room and all within it took weird shapes, and all seemed in an instant to change.  We waited with our hearts beating.  I know mine did, and I fancied I could hear the pulsation of the others.

The seconds seemed to pass with leaden wings.  It were as though all the world were standing still.  The figures of the others stood out dimly, Margaret’s white dress alone showing clearly in the gloom.  The thick respirators which we all wore added to the strange appearance.  The thin light of the lamps showed Mr. Trelawny’s square jaw and strong mouth and the brown shaven face of Mr. Corbeck.  Their eyes seemed to glare in the light.  Across the room Doctor Winchester’s eyes twinkled like stars, and Margaret’s blazed like black suns.  Silvio’s eyes were like emeralds.

Would the lamps never burn up!

It was only a few seconds in all till they did blaze up.  A slow, steady light, growing more and more bright, and changing in colour from blue to crystal white.  So they stayed for a couple of minutes without change in the coffer; till at last there began to appear all over it a delicate glow.  This grew and grew, till it became like a blazing jewel, and then like a living thing whose essence of life was light.  We waited and waited, our hearts seeming to stand still.

All at once there was a sound like a tiny muffled explosion and the cover lifted right up on a level plane a few inches; there was no mistaking anything now, for the whole room was full of a blaze of light.  Then the cover, staying fast at one side rose slowly up on the other, as though yielding to some pressure of balance.  The coffer still continued to glow; from it began to steal a faint greenish smoke.  I could not smell it fully on account of the respirator; but, even through that, I was conscious of a strange pungent odour.  Then this smoke began to grow thicker, and to roll out in volumes of ever increasing density till the whole room began to get obscure.  I had a terrible desire to rush over to Margaret, whom I saw through the smoke still standing erect behind the couch.  Then, as I looked, I saw Doctor Winchester