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diff --git a/25589.txt b/25589.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1612a72 --- /dev/null +++ b/25589.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2547 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of HE, by Andrew Lang + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: HE + +Author: Andrew Lang + +Release Date: May 24, 2008 [EBook #25589] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HE *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + +HE + + + +BY THE AUTHOR OF + +'IT' 'KING SOLOMON'S WIVES' 'BESS' +'MUCH DARKER DAYS' 'MR MORTON'S SUBTLER' + +AND OTHER ROMANCES + + + +LONDON +LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. +1887 + +All rights reserved + +PRINTED BY +SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE +LONDON + + + + +'SHE.' + +_TO H. RIDER HAGGARD._ + +_Not in the waste beyond the swamp and sand, +The fever-haunted forest and lagoon, +Mysterious Kor, thy fanes forsaken stand, +With lonely towers beneath the lonely Moon! +Not there doth Ayesha linger,--rune by rune +Spelling the scriptures of a people banned,-- +The world is disenchanted! oversoon +Shall Europe send her spies through all the land!_ + +_Nay, not in Kor, but in whatever spot, + In fields, or towns, or by the insatiate sea, +Hearts brood o'er buried Loves and unforgot, + Or wreck themselves on some Divine decree, +Or would o'er-leap the limits of our lot, + There in the Tombs and deathless, dwelleth SHE!_ + + + + +DEDICATION. + + +_KOR_, _Jan._ 30, 1887. + +_DEAR ALLAN QUATERMAIN, + +You, who, with others, have aided so manfully in the Restoration of +King Romance, know that His Majesty is a Merry Monarch. + +You will not think, therefore, that the respectful Liberty we have +taken with your Wondrous Tale (as Pamela did with the 137th Psalm) +indicates any lack of Loyalty to our Lady Ayesha. + +Her beauties are beyond the reach of danger from Burlesque, nor +does_ her _form flit across our humble pages. + +May you restore to us yet the prize of her perfections, for we, at +least, can never believe that she wholly perished in the place of the +Pillar of Fire! + +Yours ever, + +TWO OF THE AMA LO-GROLLA._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 1 + + II. POLLY'S NARRATIVE 12 + + III. LEONORA'S DISCOVERY 18 + + IV. THE EQUIPMENT 27 + + V. DOWN THE DARK RIVER 31 + + VI. THE ZU 41 + + VII. AMONG THE LO-GROLLAS 49 + +VIII. HE 59 + + IX. THE POWER OF HE 76 + + X. A BODY IN PAWN 81 + + XI. THE WIZARD UNBOSOMS 91 + + XII. THE WIZARD'S SCHEME 97 + +XIII. THE PERILOUS PATH 103 + + XIV. THE MAGIC CHAIR 113 + + XV. THE END 116 + + + + +HE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. + + +As I sat, one evening, idly musing on memories of roers and Boers, and +contemplating the horns of a weendigo I had shot in Labrador and the +head of a Moo Cow[1] from Canada, I was roused by a ring at the door +bell. + + [1] + A literary friend to whom I have shown your MS. says a + weendigo is Ojibbeway for a cannibal. And why do you shoot + poor Moo Cows?--PUBLISHER. + + Mere slip of the pen. Meant a Cow Moose. Literary gent no + sportsman.--ED. + + All right.--PUBLISHER. + +The hall-porter presently entered, bearing a huge parcel, which had +just arrived by post. I opened it with all the excitement that an +unexpected parcel can cause, and murmured, like Thackeray's sailor-man, +'Claret, perhaps, Mumm, I hope----' + +It was a Mummy Case, by Jingo! + +This was no common, or museum mummy case. The lid, with the gilded +mask, was absent, and the under half or lower segment, painted all over +with hieroglyphics of an unusual type, and _green_ in colour--had +obviously been used as a cradle for unconscious infancy. A baby had +slept in the last sleeping-place of the dead! What an opportunity for +the moralist! But I am not a collector of cradles. + +Who had sent it, and why? + +The question was settled by an envelope in a feminine hand, which, with +a cylindrical packet, fell out of the Mummy Case, and contained a +letter running as follows:-- + + _'Lady Betty's, Oxford._ + + _'My dear Sir,--You have not forgotten me and my friend Leonora + O'Dolite?_ + + _'The Mummy Case which encloses this document is the Cradle of + her ancient Race._ + + _'We are, for reasons you will discover in the accompanying + manuscript, about to start for Treasure Island, where, if anywhere + in this earth, ready money is to be found on easy terms of personal + insecurity.'_ + +'Oh, confound it,' I cried, 'here's another fiend of a woman sending me +another manuscript! They are always at it! Wants to get it into a +high-class magazine, as usual.' And my guess was correct. + +The letter went on:-- + + '_You, who are so well known, will have no difficulty in getting + the editor of the Nineteenth Century, or the Quarterly Review, or + Bow Bells, to accept my little contribution. I shall be glad to hear + what remuneration I am to expect, and cheques may be forwarded + to_ + + '_Yours very truly,_ + + 'MARY MARTIN. + + 'P.S.--_The mummy case is very valuable. Please deposit it at the + Old Bank, in the High, where it will represent my balance._ + + 'M. M.' + +Now I get letters like this (not usually escorted by a mummy case) +about thrice a day, and a pretty sum it costs me in stamps to send back +the rubbish to the amateur authors. But how could I send back a +manuscript to a lady already on her way to Treasure Island? + +Here, perhaps, I should explain how Mary Martin, as she signed herself, +came to choose _me_ for her literary agent. To be sure, total strangers +are always sending me their manuscripts, but Mrs. Martin had actually +been introduced to me years before. + +I was staying, as it happened, at one of our university towns, which I +shall call Oxford, for short--not that that was _really_ its name. +Walking one day with a niece, a scholar of Lady Betty's Hall, we +chanced to meet in the High two rather remarkable persons. One of them +was the very prettiest girl I ever saw in my life. Her noble frame +marked her as the victor over Girton at lawn-tennis; while her +_pince-nez_ indicated the student. She reminded me, in the grace of her +movements, of the Artemis of the Louvre and the Psyche of Naples, while +her thoughtful expression recalled the celebrated 'Reading Girl' of +Donatello. Only a reading girl, indeed, could have been, as she was, +Reader in English Literature on the Churton Collins Foundation. + +'Who is she?' I said to my friend, the scholar of Lady Betty's; 'what a +lovely creature she is!' + +'Who, _that_?' she replied with some tartness. 'Well, what you can see +in _her_, _I_ don't know. That's Leonora O'Dolite, and the lady with +her is the Lady Superior of Lady Betty's. + +'They call them Pretty and the Proctor,' my friend went on, 'as Mrs. +Martin--Polly they call her too--has been Proctor twice.'[2] + + [2] + I say, you know, keep clear of improbabilities! No one was + ever old enough to have been Proctor _twice_.--PUBLISHER. + + That's all you know about it. Why, I shall bring in a + character old enough to have been Proctor a thousand + times.--ED. + +Now nobody could have called Polly bewitching. Her age must really have +been quite thirty-five. I dislike dwelling on this topic, but she was +short, dumpy, wore blue spectacles, a green umbrella, a red and black +shawl, worsted mittens and uncompromising boots. She had also the +ringlets and other attractions with which French Art adorns its ideal +Englishwoman. + +At my request, I was introduced; but presently some thirty professors, +six or seven senior dons, and a sprinkling of Heads of Houses in red +and black sleeves came bounding out of University sermon, and gathered +round the lovely Leonora. The master of St. Catherine's was accompanied +by a hitherto Unattached student, who manifestly at once fell a victim +to Leonora's charms. + +This youth was of peculiar aspect. He was a member of the nearly +extinct Boshman tribe of Kokoatinaland. His long silky hair, originally +black, had been blanched to a permanent and snowy white by failures in +the attempt to matriculate at Balliol. He was short--not above four +feet nine--and was tattooed all over his dark but intelligent features. + +When he was introduced I had my first opportunity of admiring Leonora's +extraordinary knowledge of native customs and etiquette. + +'Let me present to you,' said the Master of St. Catherine's, 'the +Boshman chief, Ustani!' + +'You 'stonish me!' answered Leonora, with a smile that captivated the +Boshman. It is a rule among the tribes of Kokoatinaland, and in Africa +generally, to greet a new acquaintance with a verbal play on his +name.[3] Owing to our insular ignorance, and the difficulty of the +task, this courtesy had been omitted at Oxford in Ustani's case, even +by the Professors of Comparative Philology and the learned Keeper of +the Museum. From that hour to another which struck later, when _he_ +struck too, Ustani was Leonora's slave. + + [3] + Is this _bona fide_?--PUBLISHER. + + All right, see _She_ (p. 145), Ayesha's elegant pun on Holly. + It's always done--pun, I mean.--ED. + +I had no further opportunity of conversing with Leonora and Polly, nor +indeed did I ever think of them again, till Polly's letter and mummy +case recalled them to my memory. + +Perhaps for pretty Leonora's sake I did, after all, take up and open +the vast cylindrical roll of MS.[4] in the mummy case. Dawn found me +still reading the following record of unparalleled adventure.[5] + + [4] + Don't you think it would stand being cut a little?--PUBLISHER. + + We shall see.--ED. + + [5] + There is just one thing that puzzles me. Polly and Leonora + have gone, no man knows where, and, taking everything into + consideration, it may be a good two thousand years before they + come back. + + Ought I not, then, to invest, _in my own name_, the + princely cheque of the Intelligent Publishers?--ED. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +POLLY'S NARRATIVE. + + +I am the plainest woman in England, bar none.[6] Even in youth I was +not, strictly speaking, voluptuously lovely. Short, stumpy, with a +fringe like the thatch of a newly evicted cottage, such was my +appearance at twenty, and such it remains. Like Cain, I was branded.[7] +But enough of personalities. I had in youth but one friend, a lady of +kingly descent (the kings, to be sure, were Irish), and of bewitching +loveliness. When she rushed into my lonely rooms, one wild winter +night, with a cradle in her arms and a baby in the cradle; when she +besought me to teach that infant Hittite, Hebrew, and the Differential +Calculus, and to bring it up in college, on commons (where the air is +salubrious), what could I do but acquiesce? It is unusual, I know, for +a student of my sex, however learned, to educate an infant in college +and bring her up on commons. But for once the uncompromising nature of +my charms strangled the breath of scandal in the bud, and little +Leonora O'Dolite became the darling of the university. The old Keeper +of the Bodleian was a crusty bachelor, who liked nothing young but +calf, and preferred morocco to _that_. But even _he_ loved Leonora. One +night the little girl was lost, and only after looking for her in the +Hebdomadal Boardroom, in the Sheldonian, the Pusaeum, and all the +barges, did we find that unprincipled old man amusing her by letting +off crackers and Roman-candles among the Mexican MSS. in the Bodleian! + + [6] + I may as well say at once that I _will not_ be responsible for + Polly's style. Sometimes it is flat, they tell me, and + sometimes it is flamboyant, whatever they may mean. It is + never the least like what one would expect an elderly lady don + (or Donna), to write.--ED. + + [7] + See _The Mark of Cain_ [Arrowsmith], an excellent + shillingsworth.--ED. + + Is this not 'log rolling'?--PUBLISHER. + +These were halcyon hours, happier as Leonora grew up and received the +education prescribed for her by her parent. Her Hebrew was fair, and +her Hittite up to a first class, but, to my distress, she mainly +devoted herself to Celtic studies. + +I should tell you that Leonora's chief interest in life was the +decipherment of the inscriptions on her cradle--the mummy case which +had rocked her ancestors since Abraham's time, and which is now in your +possession. Of itself it is a sufficient proof of the accuracy of this +narrative. The mummy case is not the ordinary coffin of Egyptian +commerce. The hieroglyphics have baffled Dr. Isaac Taylor, and have +been variously construed as Chinese, Etruscan, and Basque, by the +various professors of these learned lingoes.[8] + + [8] + Don't you think this bit is a little dull? The public don't + care about dead languages.--PUBLISHER. + + Story can't possibly get on without it, as you'll see. You + _must_ have something of this sort in a romance. Look at Poe's + cypher in the _Gold Beetle_, and the chart in _Treasure + Island_, and the Portuguee's scroll in _King Solomon's + Mines_.--ED. + +Now about this mummy case: you must know that it had been in Leonora's +family ever since her ancestress, Theodolite, Pharaoh's daughter, left +Egypt, not knowing when she was well off, and settled in Ireland, of +all places, where she founded the national prosperity.[9] + + [9] + Is not _this_ a little steep?--PUBLISHER. + + No; it is in all the Irish histories. See Lady Wilde's + _Ancient Legends of Ireland_, if you don't believe me.--ED. + +The mummy case and a queer ring (see cover) inscribed with a duck, a +duck's egg, and an umbrella, were about all that the O'Dolites kept of +their ancient property. The older Leonora grew the more deeply she +studied the inscriptions on the mummy case. She tried it as Zend, she +tried it as Sanskrit, and Japanese, and the American language, and +finally she tried it as Irish. + +We had a very rainy season that winter even for Oxford, and the more it +rained the more Leonora pored over that mummy case. I kept telling her +there was nothing in it, but she would not listen to me. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +LEONORA'S DISCOVERY. + + +One wild winter night, when the sleet lashed the pane, my door suddenly +opened. I started out of a slumber, and--could I believe my eyes? can +history repeat itself?--there stood the friend of my early youth, her +eyes ablaze, a cradle in her arms. Was it all coming round again? A +moment's reflection showed me that it was _not_ my early friend, but +her daughter, Leonora. + +'Leonora,' I screamed, 'don't tell me that _you_----' + +'I have deciphered the inscription,' said the girl proudly, setting +down the cradle. The baby had _not_ come round. + +'Oh, is _that_ all?' I replied. 'Let's have a squint at it' (in my case +no mere figure of speech). + +'What do you call _that_?' said Leonora, handing me the accompanying +document. + +[Illustration] + +'I call it pie,' said I, using a technical term of typography. 'I can't +make head or tail of it,' I said peevishly. + +'Well, pie or no pie, I love it like pie, and I've broken the crust,' +answered the girl, 'according to my interpretation, which I cannot +mistrust.' + +'Why?' I asked. + +'Because,' she answered; and the response seemed sufficient when mixed +with her bright smile. + +'It runs thus,' she resumed with severity, 'in the only language _you_ +can partially understand---- + +'It runs thus,' she reiterated, and I could not help saying under such +breath as I had left, 'Been running a long time now.' + +She frowned and read-- + + '_I, Theodolite, daughter of a race that has never been run out, + did to the magician Jambres, whose skill was even as the skill of + the gods, those things which as you have not yet heard I shall now + proceed to relate to you. + + 'Of him, I say, was I jealous, for that he loved a maiden + inferior--Oh how inferior!--to me in charms, wit, beauty, + intellect, stature, girth, and ancestry. Therefore, being well + assured of this, I made the man into a mummy, ere ever his living + spirit had left him. What arts I used to this last purpose it boots + not, nor do I choose to tell. When I had done this thing I put him + secretly away in a fitting box, even as Set concealed Osiris. Then + came my maidens and tidied him away, as is the wont of these + accursed ones. From that hour, even until now, has no man nor woman + known where to find him, even Jambres the magician. For though the + mummifying, as thou shalt not fail to discover, was in some sort + incomplete, yet the tidying away and the losing were so complete + that no putting forth of precious papyri into cupboards beneath + flights of stairs has ever equalled it. + + 'Now, therefore, shall I curse these maidens, even in Amenti, the + place of their tormenting. + + 'Forget them, may they be eternally forgotten. + + 'Curse them up and down through the whole solar system.'_ + +'This is very violent language, my dear,' said I. + +'Our people swore terribly in Egypt,' answered Leonora, calmly. + + '_But it is vain, no woman can curse worth a daric._[10] + + [10] From the use of the word _daric_ I conjecture that + Leonora's ancestress lived under the Persian Empire. There + or thereabout.--M. M. + + '_But for this, the losing of the one whom I mummied, must I + suffer countless penalties. For I, even the seeress, know not what + the said maidens did with the said mummy, nor do you know, nor any + other. And not to know, for I want my mummy to have a good cry + over, is great part of my punishment. But this I, the seeress, do + know right well, for it was revealed to me in a dream. And this I + do prophesy unto thee, my daughter, or daughter's daughter, ay, + this do I say, that a curse will rest upon me until He who was + mummied shall be found. + + 'Now this also do I, the seeress, tell thee. He who was mummified + shall be found in the dark country, where there is no sun, and men + breathe the vapour of smoke, and light lamps at noonday, and wire + themselves even with wires when the wind bloweth. And the place + where the mummy dwelleth is beneath the Three Balls of Gold. And + one will lead thee thither who abides hard by the great tree carven + like the head of an Ethiopian. And thou shalt come to the people + who slate strangers, and to the place of the Rolling of Logs, and + the music thereof. + + 'Thereafter shalt thou find Him, even Jambres. And when thou hast + healed him the Curse shall fall from me! + + 'Nor, indeed, shall the unmummying be accomplished, even then, + unless thou, O my daughter, or my daughter's daughter as before, + shalt go with He-who-was-mummied to the Hall of Egyptian Darkness + and sit in the Wizard's Chair that is thereby, even the seat which + was erst the Siege Perilous. These things have I said, well knowing + that they shall be accomplished._ + + '_To thee, my daughter!_ + + 'THY GRANDMOTHER.' + +'There, Polly, what do you say to _that_?' said Nora. + +'Your grandmother!' I replied. + +'Polly!' said Miss Nora, looking at me with quite needlessly flashing +eyes, 'you and I will set out on the search for this unhappy mummied +one.' + +'Don't you think the critics will call the _motive_ rather thin?' I +demurred. + +'Thin, to rescue my ancestress from a curse!' said Leonora. + +'There's just one other thing,' she mused. 'Shall we take a low comedy +character this time, or not?' + +'Let's take Ustani,' I proposed, 'he can double the part with that of +the Faithful Black! A great saving in hotel bills and railway fares.' + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE EQUIPMENT. + + +After it had been decided that we should start in search of '_He_ who +had been mummified alive,' the next step seemed to be to go. But +Leonora demurred to this. + +'We must have our things,' she said; 'what do you think we should +take?' + +'Scissors,' I replied; and I regret to say that at first she +misinterpreted the phrase. + +Leonora is a powerful as well as a pretty girl, and when the bear fight +that ensued was over my rooms were a little mixed. + +This suggested mixed biscuits, that invaluable refreshment of the +traveller, and from one thing to another we soon made up a complete +list of our needs. + +The scissors, and skates, and the soap we procured at the Church and +State stores,[11] but not, of course, the revolvers. The revolvers we +got of the genuine Government pattern, because both Leonora and I are +dreadfully afraid of fire-arms, and we knew that _these_, anyhow, would +not 'go off.' The jam we got, of course, at the official cartridge +emporium, same which we did _not_ shoot the Arabs. The Gladstone bag +and the Bryant & May's matches we procured direct from the makers, +resisting the piteous appeals of itinerant vendors. Some life-belts we +laid in, and, as will presently be seen, we could have made no more +judicious purchase. + + [11] + Won't the critics say you are advertising the stores? And the + tradesmen won't like it.--PUBLISHER. + + Where would the _stern reality_ of the story be (see _Spectator_), + and the contrast with the later goings on, if you didn't give + names?--ED. + +As, from information received on a mummy case, we were travelling in +search of a mummy, of course we laid in a case of Mumm, which was often +a source of gaiety in our darkest hours. The wine was procured, as I +would advise every African traveller to do, from Messrs. ----.[12] + + [12] + Messrs. Who? Printers in a hurry.--PUBLISHER. + + Suppressed the name. Messrs. ---- gave an impolite response to + our suggestions as to mutual arrangements.--ED. + +Being acquainted with the deleterious effects of a malarious tropical +atmosphere, we secured a pair of overalls, advertised as sovran for +'all-overishness,' the dreaded curse of an African climate. These we +got at the celebrated emporium of Messrs. ----.[13] + + [13] + Name suppressed. When eligible opportunity for advertisement + as a substitute for a cheque was hinted at, Messrs. ---- + brusquely replied, in the low Essex _patois_, 'Wadyermean?' + +Our preparations being now exhaustively completed, Leonora and I +returned to Oxford, packed our things, and consulted as to the route +which we should adopt. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +DOWN THE DARK RIVER. + + +Down the Dark River, the mystic Isis, so Leonora had decided, we sped: +Ustani plying the long pole of the dhow, or native flat-bottomed boat, +while we took it in turns to keep him up to his work by flicking him +with a tandem-whip. + +The moon went slowly down, and it occurred to Leonora to remark that we +were 'going down' too, an unusual thing so early in term. Like some +sweet bride into her chamber the moon departed, and the quivering +footsteps of the Don[14] shook the planets from their places, to the +consternation of the Savilian Professor of Astronomy, who, as in duty +bound, was contemplating these revolutionary performances from the +observatory in the Parks. A number of moral ideas occurred to Leonora +and myself, but out of regard for Ustani's feelings we denied them +expression. I began, indeed, to utter a few appropriate sentiments, but +the poor Boshman exclaimed, 'You floggee, floggee, Missy, or preachee, +preachee, but no _both_ floggee and preachee--' in a tone that would +have disarmed a Bampton lecturer. + + [14] + Do you mean the Dawn?--PUBLISHER. + + Every Oxford man knows what I mean.--ED. + +Down we drifted, ever downwards, obedient to the inscrutable laws of +the equilibrium of fluids. Now we swept past the White Willow, now +through the cruel crawling waters of the Gut, now threaded the +calamitous gorge of Iffley, and then shot the perilous cataract of +Sandford. + +At this moment, just when the dhow was yet quivering with the strain, I +noticed an expression of abject fear on the face of Ustani. His dark +countenance was positively blanched with horror, and his teeth +chattered. + +'Silence, chatterbox!' I cried, querulously perhaps, when he laid down +his pole and seated himself in an attitude of despair. + +'What's the matter, old boy?' asked Leonora, and the reply came in +faltering accents-- + +'_The Ama Barghis!_'[15] + + [15] + _Ama_ is the prefix of all the tribal names; Ama Zulu, Ama + Hagger. I connect it with the Greek preposition [Greek: + hama].--ED. + + Don't keep hammer hammering away at Greek! This is a boy's + book, not a holiday task, this is!--PUBLISHER. + +We glanced in terror down the river's edge. + +There, on the path trodden by so many millions of feet that now are +silent,[16] there were the burly forms of five or six splendid savages. + + [16] + _Please_ don't begin moralising again. One never knows when it + will come upon you.--PUBLISHER. + + Couldn't help just throwing it in.--ED. + +The character of their language--which was borne to us on the pure +breeze of morning--their costume, their floating house, in which these +scourges of the water highway commonly reside--everything combined to +demonstrate that they belonged to the Barghiz, the most powerful and +most dreaded of the native populations. + +'_Me umslopogey_,' whispered Ustani in his native language, meaning +that he would retreat. + +'Eyes in the boat,' cried Leonora, in her clear, commanding tones; +'paddle on all!' + +The Boshman, cowed by her aspect, and the mere slave of discipline (he +had pulled in the St. Catherine's second torpid), obeyed her command, +and presently we were abreast of the Barghiz. + +'Hi, Miss,' cried the Barghi chief, a man of colossal stature, 'Can't +yer look where yer a shovin' to?' + +Though his words were unintelligible, his tone was insulting. + +Leonora rose to her feet, and to the occasion. + +By virtue of her rare acquaintance with savage customs, she was able to +taunt the Barghiz with the horrors of their tribal mystery, to divulge +which is _Death_! + +She openly insulted the secret orgies of the tribe. + +_She denounced the Dog-Feast!_ + +'WHO ATE THE PUPPY PIE UNDER MARLOWE BRIDGE?' shrilled Leonora in +her proud sweet young voice. + +In a moment a shower of stones struck the dhow, and spurred the water +into storm. Frank Muller, the Barghi chief, distinguished himself by +the fury of his imprecations and the accuracy of his aim. A smothered +groan told me that Ustani had been hit in the mouth. + +_Whid, whad, crash_ went the stones, while Leonora plied the pole +with desperate energy, and I erected the patent reversible umbrellas +with which we were provided to catch any breath of favourable wind. + +The fierce rapidity of the stream finally carried us out of the reach +of the infuriated Barghiz (who, moreover, were providentially slain by +lightning--a common enough occurrence in that favoured climate, where +nobody thinks anything of it), and we rested, weary and wounded, in a +sheltered backwater.[17] + + [17] + Are you not gliding insensibly into _Bess_?--PUBLISHER. + + No; all right. It is a tremendous country for storms; can't + use them too often; adds to the sense of reality.--ED. + +'The dhow's looking rather dowdy,' said Leonora, glancing at the +shattered craft. + +'If doughty deeds my lady please,' said I, catching her light tone, +'why, she must take the consequences. But, Leonora,' I added, +shuddering, 'I'm sure my feet are damp.' + +If there is one thing I dread it is damp feet. + +'No wonder,' said Leonora, calmly. 'The dhow has sprung a leek.' + +I searched the dhow everywhere, but could find no trace of the +vegetable. + +Meanwhile the water had risen above the capstan, and Ustani, shivering +audibly, had perched himself on the bowsprit. + +'Now or never,' said Leonora, 'is the moment for our life-belts.' + +We hurriedly put on our life-belts, regretting the absence of an +experienced maid. + +'I'll be Mrs. Lecks, and you'll be Mrs. Aleshine!' laughed Leonora, as +the dhow, shuddering in all her timbers, collapsed. + +'_Ego et Lecks mea!_' cried I, not to seem deficient in opportune +gaiety of allusion, and we were in the water. We advanced briskly down +stream, Ustani propelling himself with the pole of the dhow. + +Ever anxious about Ustani's University education (interrupted by this +expedition), Leonora kept 'coaching' him in the usual way. + +'Bow, you're feathering under water,' she exclaimed, when the +unfortunate Ustani disappeared in a lasher, where we, thanks to our +life-belts, floated gaily enough. + +Here we paused to catch a few of the perch and gudgeons, which Leonora +had attracted by carefully wearing white stockings. + +'Nothing like white stockings for perch,' she said. + +As there were not perch enough to go round, Ustani was told to content +himself with the pole, a synonym, if not an equivalent. + +Laying our trencher-caps on the water, we used them, as of old, for +trenchers, and made an excellent meal. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE ZU. + + +Our course was now through a series of cross streams, and finally we +emerged into a long, perfectly straight, and perfectly tranquil expanse +of water, bordered by a path which had every appearance of having been +made by the hand of man. + +Night fell: a strange, murky night, smelling of lucifer matches, and +lit on the eastern horizon by a mysterious light, flaring like a dreary +dawn. + +Our passage was obstructed by a thousand obstacles, and at one point we +plunged into the very bowels of the earth for a distance of at least a +quarter of a mile. Next we found the canal barred by a grinning row of +black iron teeth, under which we dived as best we might. We were now, +Ustani whispered to us, within the strange and dreaded region known to +the superstitious natives as _the Zu_. For the first time in our +expedition we heard the roaring of innumerable wild beasts. The +rattling trumpet of the elephant, the drum of the gorilla, the scream +of the lion, the chattering of countless apes, the yells of myriads of +cockatoos, the growls of bears, the sobs of walri,[18] the whistle of +rhinocerotes, combined to make a strange pandemonium--strange, I call +it, because the zoological learning I had picked up while with Nora at +Oxford, informed me at once that the variety of roars, screams, grunts, +skreeks, whirrings, which our footsteps seemed to awake in every kind +of animal, bird, and insect, could be paralleled only in the pages of +the 'Swiss Family Robinson.' Add to this, that it was _night_, yet dark +as a day on the London flags when the fog creeps silently about your +feet and, rising from utter blackness, grows white and whiter in its +ascent, till it coils round your neck, a white choker! + + [18] + Is this plural correct?--PUBLISHER. + + I can't find walrus in the Latin dictionary nor anything else + beginning with W somehow, but it _seems_ all right.--ED. + +Yes, the fog was playing a dark game, but Nora could see it and go one +lighter (there were several on the stream we had quitted). She produced +a patent electric light.[19] Aided by this, we looked about us and saw +the strange denizens of the Zu. + + [19] + Patent in the first sense of the word. She has not yet + received offers advantageous enough to close with in the other + sense. + +It was now that the presence of mind of Leonora saved us. Foreseeing +the probability of an encounter with wild beasts, she had filled her +practicable pocket (she belonged to the Rational Dress Association) +with buns and ginger-bread nuts. + +The elephant now walked round, the wolves also circulated, the bear +climbed his pole, the great gorilla beat his breast and roared. + +Leonora was their match. + +For the elephant she had a rusk, a bun for the bear, and the gorilla +was pacified by an offering of nuts from his native Brazil. + + THIS WAY TO THE CROCODILE HOUSE + +we now read, on an inscription in black letters, and, following the +path indicated, we reached the dank tank where the monsters dwell. We +had arrived at a place which I find it difficult to describe. The floor +was smooth and hard. + +'What do you make of _this_?' asked Leonora, tapping her dainty foot on +the floor. + +'Flags,' I replied phlagmatically, and she was silent. + +In the centre of the space was a dark pool, circled by crystalline +palaces inhabited by the sacred snakes, from huge pythons to the +terrapin proud of his tureen. Again, there was a whipsnake, and a toad, +bloated as the aristocracy of old time, and puffed up as the plutocracy +of to-day. For such is the lot of toads! + +Now a strange thing happened. + +'_Hark!_' said Ustani; '_hark! hark! hark!_ a den is opening!' + +He was right; it was the den of a catawampuss, an animal whose habits +are so well known that I need not delay to describe them. + +In the centre of the dark pool in the middle of the vague space lay one +crocodile. The rest were sleeping on the banks. The catawampuss +secretly emerged from its den--horror, I am not ashamed to say, +prevented me from interfering--stealthily crept across the cold floor, +and, true to the instincts of all the feline tribe,[20] made straight +for the water. + + [20] + _Is_ the catawampuss one of the Felidae?--PUBLISHER. + + Of course he is. Look at his name!--ED. + +'Ah!' cried Ustani, 'he's going for him!' + +The expression was ambiguous, but we understood it. + +The catawampuss, cunning as the dread jerboa, crept to the edge of the +pool, took a header into it, and then, still true to the feline +instincts, _swimming on its back_, made its way to the crocodile. In +this manner it caught the crocodile by the tail and waked it. When the +tail of a crocodile awakes the head awakes also. The crocodile's head, +then, waking as the catawampuss seized its tail, caught the tail of the +catawampuss. The interview was hurried and tumultuous. + +The crocodile had one of his ears chawed off (first blood for the +catawampuss), but this was a mere temporary advantage. When next we saw +clearly through the tempest of flying fur and scales, the head of the +catawampuss _had entirely disappeared_, and the animal was clearly +much distressed. + +Then, all of a sudden, the end came. + +_They had swallowed each other!_ + +Not a vestige of either was left! + +This duel was a wonderful and shocking sight, and was therefore +withdrawn, by request, as the patrons of the Gardens are directly +interested in the morality of the establishment. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +AMONG THE LO-GROLLAS. + + +How to escape from our perilous position on the banks of a pestilential +stream, haunted by catawampodes and other fell birds of prey, now +became a subject for consideration. Our object, of course, was to reach +the people of the Lo-grollas, through whose region, according to the +prophecy, we must pass before finding the Magician that should guide us +to the mummy. Our perplexity was only increased by the discovery that +we were surrounded on every side by the walls and houses of a gigantic +city. Stealing out by the canal as we had entered, we found to our +comfort that this must be the very city mentioned by Theodolite. As the +seeress had declared, a deep and noisome night always prevailed, only +broken here and there as a wanderer scratched one of Bryant & May's +matches and painfully endeavoured to decipher the number on the door of +his house. The streets, moreover, were strewn and interwoven with long +strings of iron fallen from the sky. + +'_The people who wire themselves with wires_,' whispered Leonora; 'what +do you think of my interpretation _now_?' + +'I shall inquire,' I answered, and I _did_ inquire for the land of the +Lo-grollas, but in vain. + +Happily we chanced to meet an old man, clothed in a whitish robe of +some unknown substance, not unlike paper. This fluttering vesture was +marked with strange characters, in black and red, which Leonora was +able to interpret. She read them thus. They were but fragmentary. + +[Illustration: + + +-----------------------+ + | SP" "AL | + | | + | VORCE C"SE. | + | | + | WAR "" "URKEY. | + | | + | P"L ""LL ""ZETTE. | + +-----------------------+ +] + +On the fragments the words, 'Tragedy,' 'Awful Revelations,' 'Purity,' +and other apparently inconsistent hieroglyphics might be deciphered. + +He had a large and ragged staff; on his back he carried a vast Budget, +and he was always asking everybody, 'Won't you put something in the +Budget?' + +'Father,' said Leonora, in a respectful tone, 'canst thou tell us the +way to the land of the people called Lo-grolla, and the place of the +Rolling of Logs.' + +He stroked his beautiful white beard, and smiled faintly. + +'Indeed, child, we not only know it, but ourselves discovered it and +wrote it up--we mean, sent our representative,' he answered. + +It was a peculiarity of this man that he always spoke, like royalty, in +the first person plural. + +'And if a daughter may ask,' said Leonora, 'what is the name of my +father?' + +Stedfastly regarding her, he answered, 'Our name is Pellmelli.' + +'And whither go we, my father?' + +'That you shall see--as soon, that is, as the fog lifts, or as our +representative has made interest with a gas company.' + +With these words he furnished an unequalled supply of litter, which +came, he said, 'from the office,' where there was plenty, and we were +borne rapidly in a westward direction. + +As we journeyed, old Pellmelli gave us a good deal of information about +the Lo-grollas, whom he did not seem to like. + +They were, he said, a savage and treacherous tribe, inhabiting for the +most part the ruined abodes of some kingly race of old. + +The names of their chief dwellings, he told us, were still called, in +some ancient and long-lost speech, + +'The Academy,' and 'The Athenaeum.' + +Leonora, whose knowledge of languages was extensive and peculiar, told +Pellmelli that these names were derived from the old Greek. + +'Ah,' said he, 'you have clearly drunk of the wisdom of the past, and +thy hands have held the water of the world's knowledge. Know you Latin +also?' + +'Yes, O Pellmelli,' replied Leonora, and Pellmelli said he preferred +modern tongues, though it would often be useful to him if he did in his +dealings with the Lo-grollas. + +'However, if our Greek is a little to seek, our Russian is O.K.,' he +said proudly. + +He was very bitter against the Lo-grollas. + +The Lo-grollas' favourite weapon, he told us, was the club, and he even +proposed to show us this instrument. + +Our litter presently stopped outside a stately palace. + +The street was dark, as always in this strange city, but old Pellmelli +paused, sniffed, and, bending his ear to the ground, listened intently. + +'I smell the incense,' he said, 'and hear the melodious Rolling of the +Logs. But they shall know their master!' + +Thus speaking, he led us into a vast hall, where the Lo-grollas were +sitting or standing, 'offering each other incense,' as Pellmelli +remarked, from thin tubes of paper, which smoked at one end. + +'Now listen,' said Pellmelli, and he cried aloud the name of a poet +known to the Lo-grollas. + +Instantly we heard, from I know not what recess, a rolling fire of +applause and admiration, which swept past us with stately and solemn +music, like a hymn of praise. + +'_There_,' said Pellmelli, 'I told you so. This is the place of the +Rolling of Logs, and yourselves have heard it.' + +Leonora said she did not mind how often she heard it, as she quite +agreed with the sentiments. + +'Not so!' said Pellmelli; and he cried aloud another name--the name of +a poetaster--which was almost strange to us. + +Then followed through that vasty hall a sharp and rattling crash, as of +the descent of innumerable slates. + +'Great heavens!' whispered Leonora, 'remember the writing; _the place +where they slate strangers_!' + +As _we_ were strangers, and wholly unknown to the Lo-grollas, we +thought they might slate _us_, and, beating a hasty retreat, soon found +ourselves with Pellmelli in the dark outer air. + +'They are a desperate lot,' said he; 'they won't ever put anything in +the Budget.' + +He was quivering with indignation; and Leonora, to soothe him, told him +the story of our quest for the mummy, and asked him if he could help +us. + +'We are your man,' said he. 'We propose to-morrow to send our +representative to interview a magician who has just arrived in this +country. He is a mysterious character; his name is Asher,[21] and it is +said that he is the Wandering Jew, or, at all events, has lived for +many centuries. He, if any one, can direct you in your search.' + + [21] + Pronounced _Assha_.--ED. + +He then appointed a place where his representative should meet us next +day, and we separated, Pellmelli taking his staff, and going off to +lead an excursion against the Ama-Tory, a brutal and licentious tribe. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +HE. + + +Next day Leonora was suffering from a slight feverish cold, and I don't +wonder at it considering what we suffered in the Zu. I therefore went +alone to the rendezvous where I was to meet 'our representative.' + +To my surprise, nobody was there but old Pellmelli himself. + +'Why, you said you would send your representative!' I exclaimed. + +'We are our usual representative,' he answered rather sulkily. 'Come +on, for we have to call on Messrs. Apples, the famous advertisers.' + +'Why?' said I. + +'Can you ask?' he replied. 'Can aught be more interesting than an +advertiser?' + +'_I_ call it log rolling,' I answered; but he was silent. + +He went at a great pace, and presently, in a somewhat sordid street, +pointed his finger silently to an object over a door. + +_It was the carven head of an Ethiopian!_ + +This new confirmation of the prophecy gave me quite a turn, especially +when I read the characters inscribed beneath-- + + TRY OUR FINE NEGRO'S HEAD! + +'Here dwells the sorcerer, even Asher,' said Pellmelli, and began to +crawl upstairs on his hands and knees. + +'Why do you do that?' I asked, determined, if I must follow Pellmelli, +at all events not to follow his example. + +'It is the manner of the tribe of Interviewers, my daughter. Ours is a +blessed task, yet must we feign humility, or the savage people kick us +and drive us forth with our garments rent.' + +He now humbly tapped at a door, and a strange voice cried, + +'_Entrez!_' + +Pellmelli (whose Russian is his strong point) paused in doubt, but I +explained that the word was French for 'come in.' + +He crawled in on his stomach, while I followed him erect, and we found +ourselves before a strange kind of tent. It had four posts, and a +broidered veil was drawn all round it. + +Within the veil the sorcerer was concealed, and he asked in a gruff +tone, + +'Wadyerwant?' + +Pellmelli explained that he had come to receive a brief personal +statement for the Budget. + +The Voice replied, without hesitation, 'The Centuries and the AEons +pass, and I too make the pass. _Je saute la coupe_,' he added, in a +foreign tongue. 'While thy race wore naught but a little blue paint, I +dwelt among the forgotten peoples. The Red Sea knows me, and the Nile +has turned scarlet at my words. I am Khoot Hoomi, I am also the Chela +of the Mountain!' + +'Now it is my turn to ask _you_ a few easy questions. + +'Who sitteth on the throne of Hokey, Pokey, Winky Wum, the Monarch of +the Anthropophagi? + +'Have the Jews yet come to their land, or have the owners of the land +gone to the Jews? + +'Doth Darius the Mede yet rule, or hath his kingdom passed to the +Bassarids?' + +As Pellmelli was utterly floored by these inquiries (which indicated +that the sorcerer had been for a considerable time out of the range of +the daily papers), I answered them as well as I could. + +When his very natural curiosity had been satisfied by a course of +Mangnall's Questions, I ventured to broach my own business. + +He said he did not deal in mummies himself, though he had a stuffed +crocodile very much at my service; but would I call to-morrow, and +bring Leonora? He added that he had known of our coming by virtue of +his secret art of divination. 'And thyself,' he added, 'shalt gaze +without extra charge in the Fountain of Knowledge.' + +Thrusting a withered yellow hand out of the mystic tent, he pointed to +a table where stood a small circular dish or cup of white earthenware, +containing some brown milky liquid. + +'Gaze therein!' said the sorcerer. + +I gazed--_There was a Stranger in the tea!_ + +Deeply impressed with the belief (laugh at it if you will) that I was +in the presence of a being of more than mortal endowments, I was +withdrawing, when my glance fell on his weird familiars,--two tailless +cats. This prodigy made me shudder, and I said, in tones of the deepest +awe and sympathy, 'Poor puss!' + +'Yes,' came the strange voice from within the tent, 'they are _born_ +without tails. I bred them so; it hath taken many centuries and much +trouble, but at last I have triumphed. Once, too, I reared a breed of +dogs with two tails, but after a while they became a proverb for pride; +Nature loathed them, and they perished. [Greek: Chaire!] _Vale!_'[22] + + [22] + I have consulted the authorities at the British Museum, who + tell me these are the Greek and the Latin words for 'Don't you + think you had better go? Get out!'--ED. + +This, though not understood, of course, by Pellmelli, was as good as an +invitation to withdraw, so I induced the old man to come away, +promising the magician I would return on the morrow. + +Who was this awful man, to whom centuries were as moments, whose very +correspondence, as I had noticed, came through the Dead Letter Office, +and who spoke in the tongues of the dead past? + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE POWER OF HE. + + +Next day Leonora, the Boshman, and I returned to the home of the mage. +He stood before us, a tall thin figure enwrapped in yellowish, strange +garments, of a singular and perfumed character--spicy in fact--which +produced upon me a feeling which I cannot attempt to describe, and +which I can only vaguely hint at by saying that the whole form conveyed +to me the notion of _something wrapped up_.[23] + + [23] + The public will say, so is your meaning.--PUBLISHER. + + Don't give it away, but that's what I mean.--ED. + +With a curious swaying motion which I have never seen anything +like--for he seemed less to be walking than to be impelled from behind +like a perambulator, or dragged from in front like a canal-boat--he +advanced to the table, where lay some pieces of a white substance like +papyrus, all of the same size and oblong shape, which showed on their +surfaces, some of them antique-looking figures and faces curiously +stained, and others red and black dots, arranged, as it seemed to me, +in some sort of design, although at first sight they looked jumbled +enough. Near to these lay a book bound in brown, but with heavy black +and gold lettering, amid which I thought I could make out the words +_Modern Magic_, and the name _Hoffmann_. The swathed figure poised +itself a moment, resting one thin hand on the table, and then spoke. + +'There is naught that is wonderful about this matter,' it said, 'could +you but understand it. Prestigiation itself is wonderful, but that its +phases and phrases should be changed is not wonderful. Not now, I ween, +is the _gibeciere_ of the Ancient Wizard seen; not now the "Presto, +pass!" of the less ancient conjurer heard. Nay, all things change, yet +I change not; that which is not yet cannot yet have taken place--at +least not its proper place; that which shall not be may yet come to a +bad pass, and the blind race of man watches helpless the trammels it +could shake off did it but greatly dare. My business, ladies and +gentlemen, now is, as I have just explained to you, to attempt to +puzzle your eyes by the quickness of my fingers. Yours, on the other +hand, will be to detect the way--or _modus operandi_, as old Simon +Magus used to say--in which I perform my little wonders--if you can. +Will any gentleman lend me a helmet--I mean a hat?' + +As the only male person present was the Boshman, this appeared to me a +futile question, and even the stately Magician seemed to be struck by +some dim idea of the kind, for I could discern a pair of mysterious +eyes peering anxiously through his swathings, and I heard him mutter to +himself in several languages, 'Ought to have thought of that. No hat +present. Don't know any trick to produce one. Nothing about it in the +book.' + +But he recovered himself quickly, and went on in clear cheerful tones, +'Ladies and gentlemen, as no person present has a hat, I will proceed +to another of the tricks on my little programme. Will any lady oblige +me by drawing a card? Will you, madam?' he said, bowing with infinite +grace to Leonora. + +Her hand touched Asher's as she drew a card, and I saw a shiver pass +over the veiled figure. + +'Will the lady on your left now oblige me?' he continued, turning to +me, who was indeed standing on Leonora's left hand, though how he knew +it is a thing I have never been able fully to understand. + +'Now, please,' he continued, 'look well at your cards, but do not show +them to me or to each other. _Basta. Assez._ [Greek: Konx Ompax]. Now, +please, still hiding the cards from me and from each other, exchange +them. Now,' he continued, his form dilating with conscious power, 'see +how true is it that change is perennial, even so far as magic and +Nature herself can be perennial. For she who held the King of Hearts +now holds the Queen of Spades, and she who held the Queen of Spades now +holds the King of Hearts. Thus much among the shifting shadows of life +can I, the wizard, see as a sure and accomplished fact. Is it not so, +my children?' + +We bowed in silence, overawed by the wonder of his presence, although +Leonora whispered to me, 'He has got the cards wrong, but we had better +say nothing about it.' + +'And now,' he continued, 'look upon this glass (it was an ordinary +wineglass) and on this silver coin,' producing a _stater_ of the +Eretrian Republic. 'See! I place the coin in the glass, and now can I +tell you by its means what you will of the future. There is no magic in +it, only a little knowledge of the secrets, mutable yet immutable, of +Nature. And this is an old secret. I did not find it. It was known of +yore in Atlantis and in Chichimec, in Ur and in Lycosura. Even now the +rude Boshmen keep up the tradition among their medicine-men. Vill any +lady ask the coin a qvestion?' he continued, in a hoarse Semitic +whisper, for all currencies and all languages were alike to him. 'Sure +it's the coin 'll be afther tellun' ye what ye like. Voulez-vous +demander, Mademoiselle? Wollen Sie, gnaedige Signora?' + +'Then,' said Leonora, in trembling accents, 'I demand to know if I +shall find that which I seek.' + +The figure, drawing itself up to its full height, passed its hand with +a proud, impatient, and mystic gesture across the glass, and then stood +in the attitude of one who awaited a response. 'Should the coin, my +daughter, jump three times,' he said, 'the answer is yea. Should it +jump but once, nay.' + +We waited anxiously. The coin did not jump at all! The wizard took up +the glass, shook it impatiently, and put it down again. Still the coin +showed no sign of animation. Then the wizard uttered some private +ejaculations in Hittite, but still the coin did not move. Then he +affected an air of jauntiness, and said, 'I remember a circumstance of +a similar kind when I was playing odd man out ([Greek: tritos +anthropos] dear old Sokrates used to call it) with Darius the night +before Marathon. Darius was the Mede. _I_ was the Medium.' Then he +seemed about to work another wonder, when he was interrupted by the +harsh cackling laughter of the Boshman, who advanced with careless +defiance and observed in his own tongue, which we all knew perfectly, +that he 'could see all the tricks the wizard could do and go several +better.' I waited, horror-struck, to see what would follow this +insolence. + +Asher made a movement so swift that I could scarcely follow it; but it +seemed to me that he lightly laid his hand upon the poor Boshman's +head. I looked at Ustani, and then staggered back in wonder, for there +upon his snowy hair, right across the wool-white tresses, were five +finger-marks _black as coal_. + +'Now go and stand in the corner,' said the magician, in a cold inhuman +voice. The unhappy Boshman tremblingly did his bidding, putting his +hands to his head in a dazed way as he went, and, incredible as it may +seem, thus transferring--as if the curse carried double force--some of +the black mark to his own fingers. + +'I will now,' continued the wizard, who had regained his ordinary +polished, if somewhat swaying and overbalanced, manner--'I will now, +with your kind permission, show you a little trick which was a great +favourite with the late Tubal Cain when we were boys together. Observe, +I take this paper-knife--it is an ordinary paper-knife--look at it for +yourselves. I will place it on my down-turned hand. It is an ordinary +hand--look at it for yourselves, but don't touch it; the consequences +might be disastrous.' + +I, for my part, having seen the consequences in the case of Ustani's +hair, had no desire to do so. + +'You see,' continued the sorcerer, 'I place the paper-knife _there_! It +falls. Why? Because of gravity. What is gravity? Newton, as you know +well, invented the art; but what of that? Did he find that which did +not exist? No, for the non-existent is as though it had never been. But +now, availing myself of the resources of science, which is ever old and +ever young, I clasp my wrist--the wrist of the hand on which the +paper-knife rests--with the other hand, and--you see.' + +As the sorcerer spoke, he deftly turned his hand palm downwards, and +the paper-knife fell with a crash and a clatter on the floor. It was +terrible to see the dumb wrath of the swathed figure at this new +defeat. + +Even in this moment the Boshman glided like a serpent among us, picked +up the paper-knife, and triumphantly performed the very miracle in +which the wizard had failed. A harsh cackle of laughter announced his +success. But the mage was even with him, or rather he was 'odds and +evens.' Rapidly he drew his forefinger across the Boshman's face, +perpendicularly and horizontally-- + +[Illustration: + + | | + --+--+-- + | | + --+--+-- + | | +] + +On the skin of Ustani, azure with terror, appeared the above diagram in +lines of white! The mage then made the sign of a +, thus-- + +[Illustration: + + | |+ + --+--+-- + | | + --+--+-- + | | +] + +and challenged Leonora to a contest of skill in 'oughts and crosses.' +But the Boshman, catching a view of his own altered aspect in a mirror, +exclaimed, 'You 'standy Ustani? Him no standy He! Him show hisself for +tin! Adults one shilling, kids tizzy. _Me Umslopoguey!_' And he sloped; +nor did we ever again see this victim of an overwhelming Power +(limited). + +We presently took our leave of the mage, promising to call next day, +and bring a policeman. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A BODY IN PAWN. + + 'Gin a body meet a body!'--BURNS. + + +Though Leonora's faith in the magician had been a good deal shaken by +his failures in his black art, she admitted that, as a clairvoyant, he +might be more inspired. We therefore went, as he had directed us, to +the neighbourhood of Clare Market, where he had prophesied that we +should find a Temple adorned with the Three Balls of Gold, which the +Lombards bore with them from their far Aryan home in Frangipani. Nor +did this part of the prophecy fail to coincide with the document on the +mummy case. Through the thick and choking darkness which has made 'The +Lights of London' a proverb, we beheld the glittering of three aureate +orbs. And now, how to win our way, without pass-word or, indeed, +pass-book, into this home of mystery? + +Here, in these immemorial recesses, the natives had long been wont to +bury, as we learned, their oldest objects of interest and value. There, +when we pushed our way within the swinging portal, lay around us, in +vast and solemn pyramids of portable property, the silent and touching +monuments of human existence. The busy life of a nation lay sleeping +here! Here, for example, stood that ancestral instrument for the +reckoning of winged Time, which in the native language is styled a +'Grandfather's Clock.' Hard by lay the pipe, fashioned of the 'foam of +perilous seas in fairy lands forlorn,' the pipe on which, perchance, +some swain had discoursed sweet music near the shady heights of High +Holborn. The cradle of infancy, the gamp of decrepitude, the tricycle +of fleeting youth, the paraffin lamp which had lighted bridal gaiety, +the flask which had held the foaming malt,--all were gathered here, and +the dust lay deep on all of them! + +I was about to make some appropriate moral remarks, when I heard +Leonora (whose command of tongues is simply _marvellous_) address an +attendant priestess in the local dialect. + +'Here, miss,' said she, ''ow much can yer let us 'ave on this 'ere +ticker?' (producing her watch). + +The priestess, whose clear-cut features and two lovely black eyes +betrayed a mixture of Semitic blood, was examining the 'turnip'--as she +called the watch--when Leonora, saying 'Mum's the word,' rather +violently called my attention (with her elbow) to a strange parcel +lying apart from the rest. + +It was a long bundle, as long as a man, and was swathed in cerements of +white Egyptian tissue. + +''Tis you! 'tis you!' I sneezed rapturously, recognising the object of +our search, the very mummy which, two thousand years ago, Theodolite +had prepared with her own fair but cruel hands. + +There, beyond the shadow of doubt, lay all that was mortal of the +unlucky Jambres! On the tissue which wrapped the bundle I distinctly +recognised _the stencilled mark corresponding to Leonora's scarab_, a +duck, the egg of a duck, and an umbrella.[24] + + [24] + See cover. Most important to have this cover bound in _sur + brochure_.--PUBLISHER. + +'How much,' said I to the priestess of the temple, 'could you afford to +let me have that old bundle of rags for?' + +'That old bundle of rags?' said the woman, 'Take it, dear lady, take it +and keep it (if you can), and the blessing of Abraham be on your head!' + +So anxious was she to part with the mummy that we could hardly get her +to accept a merely nominal price. To give plausibility to the purchase, +we said we wanted the rags for a paper-mill. Joyously did Leonora and I +call a passing chariot, and, with the mummy between us, we drove to our +abode. I was surprised on the way by receiving a pettish push from +Leonora's foot. + +'Don't tread on my toes,' she said, though I had not even stirred. I +told her as much, and we were getting a little animated when my bonnet +was twitched off and thrown out into the darkness. + +'Leonora,' I said severely, 'these manners are unworthy of a lady!' + +'I declare, my dear Polly,' she replied, 'that I never even moved!' and +as she was obviously in earnest I had to accept her word. + +When we reached home, after a series of petty but provoking +accidents,[25] we first locked up the mummy very carefully in the spare +bedroom. To-morrow would be time enough, we said, to consult the wizard +as to our next movement. We ordered a repast of the native viands +(which included, I remember, a small but savoury fish, the Blo-ta), and +sought our couches, in better spirits than usual. + + [25] + I say, are you not gliding insensibly into _The Fallen + Idol_?--PUBLISHER. + + Not a bit, you wait and you'll see.--ED. + +Next morning, long before Leonora was awake, the young but intelligent +Slavi (so the common people call housemaids) crept into my chamber with +a death-white face. + +'Omum,' she said (it is a term of courtesy), 'wot a night we've been +having?' + +'Why, what is the matter, Jemimaran?' I asked, for that was her +melodious native name. + +'There's _something_ in the spare room, mum, a-carrying on horful. The +bell ringing all night, and the Thing screaming and walking up and down +as restless! I'm a-going to give warning, mum,' she added +confidentially. + +'Why, you've _given_ it,' I said, to reassure her. 'Forewarned is +forearmed.' + +'Four-legged It do run sometimes, like a beast, mum, wailing terrible. +Up and down, up and down It goes, and always ringing the bell, and +crying high for a brandy-and-soda, mum, like a creature tormented.'[26] + + [26] + Do take care. This is copyright! Don't you remember Mr. + Hyde?--PUBLISHER. + + Neither Hyde nor Hidol, you're so nervous. Do wait till the + end.--ED. + + Wish it was come!--PUBLISHER. + +'Well,' I asked, though every hair upon my head stood erect with horror +(adding greatly to the peculiarity of my appearance), 'well, did you +take It what It asked for?' + +'Yes, mum; for very fear I dared not refuse. And when I had handed it +in by a chink in the open door, first there was a sound like drinking, +then an awful cry, "Potash again!" and then a heavy soft thud, as if +you had knocked over a bolster stuffed with lead, mum.' + +Through the brown glimmer of dawn (it was about ten A.M.) I hurried +to Leonora's chamber. She was dressed, and came out. 'What do you +advise?' I asked. + +'Send for Mr. Urmson, the eminent lawyer, at once,' said she, 'he is +used to this kind of thing. Nothing like taking Counsel's opinion. But +first let me knock the door open!' She applied her magnificent white +shoulder to the door, which flew into splinters. + +There was not a trace of the mummy, but there, in a deprecatory +attitude, stood the philosopher Asher![27] + + [27] + Please pronounce _Assha_.--ED. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE WIZARD UNBOSOMS. + + +'Sir,' said Leonora, 'may I request you to inform me why we find you, +rampaging an unbidden guest, in the chamber which is sacred to +hospitality?' + +'[Greek: Ten d' apameibomenos prosephe koruthaiolos] Asher,' answered +the magician, dreamily. 'Do my senses deceive me, or--that voice, that +winsome bearing--am I once more with Helen on the walls of Ilion?' + +'No, sir, you are in 30 Acacia Gardens,' replied Leonora, severely. +'_Why_, permit me to repeat myself, do I find you here, an unbidden +guest?' + +'To say that I never guessed you'd find me here,' answered the +magician, 'might seem a mere trifling with language and with your +feelings.' + +'My feelings!' exclaimed the proud girl, indignantly, 'just as if---- +But answer me!' + +'When a man has seen as much of life as I have,' answered the magician, +'when the AEons are to him merely as drops in a bucket which he will +never kick--and when he suffers,' he added mournfully, 'from attacks of +multiplex personality, he recognises the futility of personal +explanations.' + +'At least I can compel you to tell us _Where is the mummy?_' said +Leonora. + +'I am, or lately was, that mummy,' said the wizard, haughtily; then, +drawing himself up to his full height, he added, 'I am the REAL +JAMBRES! Old Gooseberry Jamberries,' he added solemnly. 'No other is +genuine!' + +'You are playing, sir, on our credulity,' replied the girl; 'no living +man can be a mummy,--outside of the House of Lords or the Royal +Academy.' + +'You speak,' he said tenderly, 'with the haste of youth and +inexperience. When you have lived as long as I have, you will know +better. Hearken to my story. + +'Three or four thousand years ago--for what is time?--I was the +authorised magician at the Court of Ptolemy Patriarchus. I had a +rival--the noted witch Theodolite. In an evil hour she won me by a show +of false affection, and, taking advantage of my passion, mummified me +alive. To this I owe my remarkable state of preservation at an advanced +age. _Tres bien conserve_,' he added fatuously. + +'But she only half accomplished her purpose. By some accident, which +has never been explained, and in spite of the stress of competition, +she had purchased _pure_ salts of potash for the execution of her fell +purpose in place of _adulterated_ salts of soda. + +'To this I owe it that I am now a living man; and in a moment----' + +A certain stiffness of demeanour, which we had noticed, but ascribed to +pride, worked an unspeakable change in the mage. As we looked at him +_he hardened into our cheap mummy_. + +'Here's a jolly go!' said Leonora, her mind submerged in terror. + +I sprang to the bell, '_Soda water at once!_' I cried, and the _slavi_ +appeared with the fluid. We applied it to the parched lips of the +mummy, and Jambres was himself again. + +'Now will you tell me?' I asked, when he had been given a cigarette and +made comfortable, 'why we found you--I mean the mummy--under the Three +Balls?' + +''Twas a pledge,' he replied. 'When my resources ran low, and my rent +was unpaid, the landlady used to take advantage of my condition and +raise a small sum on me.' + +All seemed now explained; but Leonora was not yet satisfied. + +'You have----' she began. + +'Yes, a strawberry mark,' he replied wearily, 'on the usual place!' + +'The quest is accomplished,' I said. + +'Nay,' replied Jambres, to give him his real name. 'There is still the +adventure of the Siege Perilous.' + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE WIZARD'S SCHEME. + + +'We must, as you are aware, visit the Siege Perilous in the Hall of +Egypt, and risk ourselves in the chair of the Viewless Maiden, of Her +that is not to be seen of Man.' + +'We know it,' said Leonora. + +'It is,' continued the mage, 'your wish to accomplish the end for which +you set forth. This seems to you an easy matter enough; young hearts +are full of such illusions, and, believe me, I would willingly change +my years, which are lost in geological time, for one hand's breadth of +your daring. Know, then,' continued this strange creature, 'that the +time has now come when matters must be brought to an end between us. It +will be my business, and, I will add, my pleasure,' he continued with a +lofty air which sat drolly enough upon him in his yellow duds, 'to +conduct you to the Siege Perilous. From you, in return, I must exact an +unquestioning obedience; and I will add a measureless _confidence_. I +beg you to bear in mind that the slightest resistance to my will must +be followed by consequences of which you cannot estimate either the +reach or the extension.' + +There was such a parrot-like pomp about the creature's tautology, and +such an old-world affectation of fine manners \in his constant +obeisances, that I could hold it no longer, but fairly laughed out in +his face. + +I dreaded, it is true, lest some such fate as Ustani's might punish me +for my temerity, but for reasons which doubtless seemed sufficient to +himself the wizard merely looked at me through his veil, shook himself +a little in his swathings, and said in a matter-of-fact voice, 'Well, +well, perhaps we have had enough of such talk as this. Let's get ahead +with the business before us. That business is to reach the Siege +Perilous, or Magic Chair. Thither will I guide ye, and there ye shall +see what ye shall see. But first it is needful, as all sages have +declared, that ye shall show your confidence in me! I value not wealth. +Gold is mere dross--nay, I have the mines of King Solomon at my +disposal. But when the weary King Ecclesiast confided to me, in his +palace of ivory and cedar in Jerusalem, long ago, the secret of these +diamond treasures, he bade me reveal it to none who did not show their +confidence in me. + +'Let _them_ entrust _you_,' said Solomon, 'with their paltry wealth, +ere _you_ place in _their_ hands opulence beyond the dreams of +avarice. Give me, then, merely as a sign of confidence, gold, much +gold, or,' he continued in a confidential and Semitic tone, 'its +equivalent in any safe securities, American railways preferred. Don't +bring bank-notes, my dear--risky things, risky things! Why, when I was +pals with Claude Duval--but 'tis gone, 'tis gone! Now, my dears, what +have you got? what have you got?' + +'I have,' answered Leonora, in her clear sweet voice and girlish +trustfulness, 'as is my invariable custom, my _dot_, namely, +300,000_l._ worth of American railway shares, chiefly Chicago N.W. and +L. & N., in my pocket.' + +'That's right, my dear, that's right,' said the Erie wizard; 'just hand +those to me, and then we can start at once. + + '_And when_ (he went on in italics) + _o my Leonora + when that mystic change has been worked + which has been predestined + for countless ages and which shall come as + sure as fate, + then on another continent + kindred to thine yet strange, even in the land + of the railways that thy shares are in, + Thou and I, + the Magician and the Novice, + the Celebrated Wizard of the West + and his Accomplished Pupil + Mademoiselle Leonore + will make a tour that shall drag in the + dollars + by the hatful. NOW COME!'_ + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE PERILOUS PATH. + + +Forth we rushed into the darkness, through the streaming deluge of that +tropic clime. For the seraphic frenzy had now come upon the mage in +good earnest, and all the Thought-reader burned in his dusky eyes. + +We presented, indeed, a strange spectacle, for the mage, in his silvery +swathings, held Leonora by the hands, and Leonora held me, as we raced +through the gloom. + +In any other city our aspect and demeanour had excited attention and +claimed the interference of the authorities. + +In Berlin Uhlans would have charged us, in Paris grape-shot would have +ploughed through our ranks. _Here_ they deemed we were but of the +sacred race of Thought-readers, who, by a custom of the strange people, +are permitted to run at random through the streets and even to enter +private houses. + +We were not even followed, in our headlong career, by a crowd, for the +public had ceased to interest itself in frenzied research for hidden +pins or concealed cigarettes. + +After a frantic chase Jambres (late 'the Mage') paused, breathless, in +front of a building of portentous proportions. + +How it chanced I have never been able to understand, but, as I am a +living and honourable woman, this hall had the characteristics of +ancient Egyptian architecture, and that (miraculous as it may appear) +in perfect preservation. + +There are the hypostyle halls, the two Osirid pillars--colossal figures +of strange gods, in coloured relief--there is the great blue scarab, +the cartouche, the _pschent_, the _pschutt_, and all that we admire in +the Rameseum of the Ancient Empire. + +But all was silent, all was deserted; the vast adamantine portals were +closed. + +Jambres paused in dismay. + +'Since I last gave an exhibition of mine art in those halls,' said +he, '('twas in old forgotten days, in Bosco's palmy time), much is +altered. OPEN SESAME!' he cried; but, curious to say, _nothing +opened_! + +At that moment a dark figure crawled submissively to our feet. It was +old Pellmelli. + +His instinct for 'copy' had brought him on our track, and he began-- + +'As our representative, I am commissioned----' + +Jambres (late 'Asher') turned from him, and he fell (still making +notes) prone on his face, where we left him, as the pace was too good +to inquire. + +The mage now reconnoitred carefully the vast facade of the Hall of +Egypt, and finally fixed his gaze on a perpendicular leaden column, +adorned with strange symbols, through which (for it was a rainy night) +raging torrents of water were distinctly heard flowing downwards to who +knows what abysmal and unfathomable depths? + +In this weird climate it was the familiar yet dreaded _waterspout_! + +Jambres, with the feline agility of a catapult of the mountain, began +to climb the perpendicular leaden channel to which he had called our +attention, and of course we had to follow him. It was perfectly +marvellous to see the ease and grace with which he skipped and hopped +up the seemingly naked face of the wall. There were places indeed where +our position was perilous enough, and it did not add to our +cheerfulness to hear the horrid roaring and gurgling of the unseen and +imprisoned waters that poured down the channel with a violence which +seemed as if they might at any moment burst their bonds. Helped, +however, by certain ledges which projected from the wall beneath square +openings filled with some transparent substance, on which ledges from +time to time we rested, we arrived at the steep crest, and paused for +repose beneath the leafy shade of the roof-tree, Jambres lightly +leading the way. + +'Now,' said Jambres, 'comes the most delicate part of our journey.' + +So indeed it proved, for the mage began rapidly to divest himself of +his mysterious swathings. Wrapper by wrapper he undid, cerement on +cerement, till both Leonora and I wondered when he would stop. + +Stop he did, however, and, with a practised hand, shot his linen into +one long rope, which he carefully attached to an erect and smoking +pillar, perhaps of basaltic formation, perhaps an ancient altar of St. +Simeon Skylites. When all was taut, Jambres approached a slanting +slope, smooth and transparent, perhaps of glacial origin. On this he +stamped, and the fragments tinkled as they fell into unknown deeps. +Then he seized the rope, let himself down, and from far below we heard +his voice calling to us to follow him. + +Leonora and I descended with agility to some monstrous basin in the +abyss--the Pit, Jambres called it. Here Jambres met us, and bade us +light the railway reading-lamps which, as I forgot to mention, we had +brought with us. Then, jumping off with the lead, he advanced along the +floor, picking his way with great care, as indeed it was most necessary +to do, for the floor was strewn with strange forms, stumbling over the +legs and backs of which it would have been easy to break one's own. +When we halted, brought up by a barrier, of which I did not at first +discern the nature, our lamps (as is sometimes the way of some such +patent lamps[28]) suddenly went out. Jambres whispered hoarsely, 'Wot +are yer waitin' for? Come on; [Greek: all' age]. _Nunc est scandendum._' +We saw before us a vast expanse, of which it was impossible to gauge +the extent, so impenetrable, so overpowering was the gloom of its +blackness. 'It is the abode,' said Jambres, mysteriously, 'of my rival +De Kolta!' He himself, owing to his use of his swathings, was +sufficiently _decollete_ + + [28] + I think I've managed not to be libellous.--ED. + + We shall see.--PUBLISHER. + +On the hither side was a row of _lumieres a pied_ which seemed _afloat_ +on the darkness, and in their centre a sudden chasm which looked as if +it had been made by human agency. The fitful moonbeams[29] showed us a +most curious and accurately shaped spur, or _run-down_ as it is called +in the native dialect, which connected the floor on which we stood with +the darkness beyond. + + [29] + You've not mentioned them before.--PUBLISHER. + + That's why I do now.--ED. + +What mortal, however hardy, dared cross this quivering wavering bridge +in the total darkness? Beneath our feet it swayed and leaped like +rotten ice on the magic Serpentine. + +'Hush,' cried Jambres, 'it comes, it comes! Be still!' + +Even as he spoke, we saw a _long shaft of yellow light_ streaming +from an unknown centre, and searching out the recesses of the cavern. + +'Be still, as you value your liberty,' whispered Jambres. 'The Bobi is +on his beat.' + +Then, as the long shaft smote the swaying bridge, he lightly crossed +it, and beckoned us to follow. We obeyed, and in another instant all +was again darkness. + +'He has gone his round,' said Jambres. 'Won't be back for hours!' + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE MAGIC CHAIR. + + +There, on the plateau, or platform, we had seen, stood, in naked +mystery, the Enchanted Chair. + +''Tis the weird chair of the Viewless Maiden, the place of Her who is +no more seen,' said Jambres. 'Who shall sit therein?' + +'The writing said,' remarked the dauntless Leonora, 'that a descendant +of Theodolite must achieve this adventure. I am ready.' + +'Nay, not so, maiden,' murmured Jambres, 'try it not till I have made +experience thereof. Me it cannot harm; in me you see the original +inventor; beware of spurious imitations. But it is a dread experience; +let me work it first!' + +Leonora could not resist his winning manner and concern for her safety. + +'I move,' she said, 'that Mr. Jambres do take the chair at this +meeting.' + +'I second that proposal,' said I, and there was not a dissentient +voice. + +'Mr. Jambres will now take the chair,' said Leonora, and the wizard, +his swathing robes bulging with Leonora's securities, glided forward. + +Then an awful thing occurred. No sooner had Jambres sat down than +Leonora and I found ourselves--how can we expect it to be +believed?--gazing on a blank, bare space! + +The chair was still there, but the wizard was gone. Leonora turned to +me, horror in her eyes, her golden curls changed to a pale German +silver. + +'It is the chair of the Vanishing Lady,' she said. + +'It is the Confidence Trick,' I cried; and we both lost consciousness +as the true state of the case flashed on our minds. The wizard was off +with 300,000_l._ in high-class American securities. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE END. + + +What remains to be told is of little public interest. When we came to +ourselves, all was darkness. Escape seemed impossible. + +We could not swarm up the rope, by the way we had come. + +We knew not when the shaft of yellow light might return on its beat. + +We lit a Bryant & May's match, and thereby groped our way downwards, +ever downwards. + +Finally, as we had given up all for lost, Leonora said, 'Don't you +think the air is a little stuffy?' + +We sniffed about the rocky floor, and found an iron grating. + +It yielded to a strong tug, and we descended into subterranean +passages, framed by the art of men, through which rolled and surged +torrents of turbid water. + +Through these we waded, attacked by armies of rats, till, thank +goodness! we saw a moving light, flashing hither and thither on the +torrent. + +Half swimming, half wading, we reached the bearer of the light. + +It was old Pellmelli, 'doing a Sanitary special,' as he told us. + +We, somewhat deceitfully, led him to believe that we had lost ourselves +on a similar errand, for a rival Budget, with which he was concerned in +a Paper Mill.[30] + + [30] + What do you mean by a Paper Mill?--PUBLISHER. + + A Journalistic War, then.--ED. + +On our faithfully promising to give him exclusive information about our +adventures, 'for an Extra,' as he said, old Pellmelli conducted us to +an orifice in the rock, whence we escaped, at last, into the light of +such day as dwells in the Dark City. + +Our hopes now entirely rest on finding Jambres again, but it may be, of +course, a good three or four thousand years before that. + + * * * * * + +Here this strange narrative closes; and as I end my editorial task, I +have only one question to ask myself--Will this thing go on? will +Jambres and Leonora meet? will the Americans give up Jambres under the +Extradition Act? or---- + +Is the great drama Played Out?--ED. + + +PRINTED BY +SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE +LONDON + + + + +A SEQUEL TO 'KING SOLOMON'S MINES.' + + * * * + +ALLAN QUATERMAIN: + +BEING AN ACCOUNT OF HIS FURTHER ADVENTURES AND DISCOVERIES + +IN COMPANY WITH SIR HENRY CURTIS, BART. CAPTAIN JOHN GOOD, R.N. AND +ONE UMSLOPOGAAS, + +_Being a Sequel to 'KING SOLOMON'S MINES,'_ + +By H. RIDER HAGGARD, + +Was commenced in the January Number of + +LONGMAN'S MAGAZINE. + +_PRICE SIXPENCE, MONTHLY._ + + +_ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS._ + +'Mr. HAGGARD certainly provides the readers of _Longman's Magazine_ +with a rich supply of excitement.' + + +_COUNTY GENTLEMAN._ + +'The Author has so far dispensed with the element of the supernaturally +strange which provided much of the weird attractiveness of "King +Solomon's Mines," and in an even greater measure of "She," but the +inherent probability of the present narrative rather enhances than +detracts from its interest in the mind of the reflective reader.' + + +London: LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. + + + + +POPULAR NOVELS + + * * * + +By ELIZABETH M. SEWELL. + +Price 1_s._ each, boards; 1_s._ 6_d._ each, cloth plain; 2_s._ 6_d._ +each, cloth extra, gilt edges + +MY HERBERT. KATHARINE ASHTON. +GERTRUDE. CLEVE HALL. +LANETON PARSONAGE. IVORS. +MARGARET PERCIVAL. URSULA. +EARL'S DAUGHTER. A GLIMPSE of the WORLD. +THE EXPERIENCE OF LIFE. + + * * * + +By BRET HARTE. + +IN THE CARQUINEZ WOODS. 2_s._ boards; 2_s._ 6_d._ cloth. + +ON THE FRONTIER (Three Stories). 1_s._ sewed. + +BY SHORE AND SEDGE (Three Stories). 1_s._ sewed. + + * * * + +By MRS. OLIPHANT. + +IN TRUST. 2_s._ boards; 2_s._ 6_d._ cloth. + +MADAM. 3_s._ 6_d._ cloth. + + * * * + +By JAMES PAYN. + +THICKER THAN WATER. 2_s._ boards; 2_s._ 6_d._ cloth. + +THE LUCK OF THE DARRELLS. 3_s._ 6_d._ cloth. + + * * * + +By the Author of the 'ATELIER DU LYS.' + +THE ATELIER DU LYS; or, An Art Student in the Reign of Terror. 2_s._ 6_d._ + +MADEMOISELLE MORI: a Tale of Modern Rome. 2_s._ 6_d._ + +IN THE OLDEN TIME: a Tale of the Peasant War in Germany. 2_s._ 6_d._ + +HESTER'S VENTURE. 6_s._ + + * * * + +London: LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. + + + + +NEW STORY BY H. RIDER HAGGARD. + + * * * + +SHE: + +_A HISTORY OF ADVENTURE._ + +By H. RIDER HAGGARD, + +AUTHOR OF 'KING SOLOMON'S MINES' &c. + +With Facsimiles of either face of the Sherd of Amenartas and of the +various uncial Greek, Roman, Black-letter, and Early English +Inscriptions thereon inscribed. + +_Crown_ 8_vo. price_ 6_s._ + + * * * + +_SCOTSMAN._--'One of the most extraordinary stories that has ever made +its appearance in the English tongue.' + +_NONCONFORMIST._--'One of the most fascinating and remarkable works of +imagination that has appeared for a considerable time.' + +_STANDARD._--'A story told with much imagination and a vividness of +detail which carries the reader along with it, and almost forces him to +believe in its truth.' + +_ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE._--'That region of the universe of romance which +Mr. Haggard has opened up is better worth a visit than any that has +been explored for many a long year.' + +_WORLD._--'There is invention and fancy enough in these three hundred +pages to furnish all the circulating libraries in the kingdom for a +year.... As rich and original a piece of romance as any our age has +seen.' + +_TIMES._--'It is too wondrous to be told except in the words of the +Author himself. Worthy of Poe is the scene of the vast charnel-house.... +On the other hand, the pages of "Vathek" could hardly show finer +imagery than we meet here.' + +_SPECTATOR._--'At every stage of the story we feel persuaded that the +Author must have exhausted his resources, and that the interest must +begin to decline. As a matter of fact, this is not the case. At almost +every page the weird interest of the story rises.' + + * * * + +London: LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of HE, by Andrew Lang + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HE *** + +***** This file should be named 25589.txt or 25589.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/5/8/25589/ + +Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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