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Sir Lionel Barton hesitated. "One," he replied at last, "which amused me at the time. I must inform you that Mekara whose tomb my agent had discovered during my absence in Tibet, and to enter which I broke my return journey to Alexandria was a high priest and first prophet of Amen under the Pharaoh of the Exodus; in short, one of the magicians who contested in magic arts with Moses.
His Fellah and Arab servants deserted him for some reason on seeing the mummy case and he was found dead, apparently strangled, beside it. The matter was hushed up by the Egyptian Government. Rembold could not explain why. But he begged of me not to open the sarcophagus of Mekara." A silence fell. "How long had it lain in the docks?" jerked Smith. "For two days, I believe.
I am not a superstitious man, Mr. Nayland Smith stared him hard in the face. "I am glad you did not, Sir Lionel," he said; "for whatever the priest Mekara has to do with the matter, by means of his sarcophagus, Dr. Fu-Manchu has made his first attempt upon your life. He has failed, but I hope you will accompany me from here to a hotel. He will not fail twice."
What had become of the mummy of Mekara? How had the murderer escaped from a locked room? What was the purpose of the rubber stopper? Why was Kwee hiding in the conservatory? Was the green mist a mere subjective hallucination a figment of Croxted's imagination or had he actually seen it? Until these questions were satisfactorily answered, further progress was impossible.
I dressed hurriedly and met the professor at the Traveler's. He knew that I was to read a paper next week upon" again he looked toward the mummy case "the tomb of Mekara; and he knew that the sarcophagus had been brought, untouched, to England. He begged me not to open it." Nayland Smith was studying the speaker's face. "What reason did he give for so extraordinary a request?" he asked.
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