At first she was quite still, then she moaned aloud, a low and terrible moan, which seemed to well from the very heart.

So the thing was not dumb, as I had believed.  Evidently it could suffer, and express its suffering in a human fashion.  Look! it was wringing its padded hands as in an excess of woe.  Now it would seem that Leo began to feel its influence also, for he stirred and spoke in his sleep, so low at first that I could only distinguish the tongue he used, which was Arabic.  Presently I caught a few words.

“Ayesha,” he said, “Ayesha!”

The figure glided towards him and stopped.  He sat up in the bed still fast asleep, for his eyes were shut.  He stretched out his arms, as though seeking one whom he would embrace, and spoke again in a low and passionate voice—­“Ayesha, through life and death I have sought thee long.  Come to me, my goddess, my desired.”

The figure glided yet nearer, and I could see that it was trembling, and now its arms were extended also.

At the bedside she halted, and Leo laid himself down again.  Now the coverings had fallen back, exposing his breast, where lay the leather satchel he always wore, that which contained the lock of Ayesha’s hair.  He was fast asleep, and the figure seemed to fix its eyes upon this satchel.  Presently it did more, for, with surprising deftness those white-wrapped fingers opened its clasp, yes, and drew out the long tress of shining hair.  Long and earnestly she gazed at it, then gently replaced the relic, closed the satchel and for a little while seemed to weep.  While she stood thus the dreaming Leo once more stretched out his arms and spoke, saying, in the same passion-laden voice—­“Come to me, my darling, my beautiful, my beautiful!”

At those words, with a little muffled scream, like that of a scared night-bird, the figure turned and flitted through the doorway.

When I was quite certain that she had gone, I gasped aloud.

What might this mean, I wondered, in a very agony of bewilderment.  This could certainly be no dream:  it was real, for I was wide awake.  Indeed, what did it all mean?  Who was the ghastly, mummy-like thing which had guided us unharmed through such terrible dangers; the Messenger that all men feared, who could strike down a brawny savage with a motion of its hand?  Why did it creep into the place thus at dead of night, like a spirit revisiting one beloved?  Why did its presence cause me to awake and Leo to dream?  Why did it draw out the tress; indeed, how knew it that this tress was hidden there?  And why—­oh! why, at those tender and passionate words did it flit away at last like some scared bat?