Sax Rohmer

“ Cairn flashed the ray of the lamp all about the ground in the vicinity of the entrance to the pyramid. Scores of dead bats, headless, lay there.
“For God's sake, what does this mean?” whispered Sime, glancing apprehensively into the black entrance beside him.
“It means,” answered Cairn, in a low voice, “that my suspicion, almost incredible though it seems, was well founded. Steel yourself against the task that is before you, Sime. We stand upon the borderland of strange horrors.”
Sime hesitated to touch any of the dead bats, surveying them with an ill concealed repugnance. ”

“ Dr. Cairn, stepping carefully over the rubbish of the floor, advanced to the east corner of the chamber, waving to Sime to follow. Side by side they stood there.
“Do you notice that the abominable smell of the incense is more overpowering here than anywhere?”
Sime nodded.
“You are right. What does that mean?”
Dr. Cairn directed the ray of light down behind a little mound of rubbish into a corner of the wall.
“It means,” he said, with a subdued expression of excitement, “that we have got to crawl in there!” ”

“ Cairn dropped into an armchair, nodding toward Sime.
“Tell him all that we have heard,” he said. “Of course, we stand together in this affair.”
“Well,” continued Sime, in his deliberate fashion, “when we struck our camp beside the Pyramid of Meydum, Ali Mohammed remained behind, with a gang of workmen, to finish off some comparatively unimportant work. He is an unemotional person. Fear is alien to his composition. It has no meaning for him; but last night something occurred at the camp—or what remained of the camp—which seems to have shaken even Ali Mohammed's iron nerve.” ”

“ The mountainous pile of granite, its peculiar orange hue a ghastly yellow in the moonlight, now assumed truly monstrous proportions, seeming like a great square tower rising in three stages from its mound of sand to some three hundred and fifty feet above the level of the desert.
There is nothing more awesome than to find one's self at night, far from all fellow men, in the shadow of one of those edifices raised by unknown hands, by unknown means, to an unknown end ”

“ Cairn.
“Still I do not understand,” declared Sime.
“You may understand later,” was the answer. “We must not waste a moment. You Egyptologists think that Egypt has little or nothing to teach you. The Pyramid of Meydum lost interest as soon as you learned that no treasure could be found in it. How little you know what it really contained, Sime! Mariette did not suspect. Sir Gaston Maspero does not suspect. The late Sir Michael Ferrara and I once camped by the Pyramid of Meydum, as you have camped there, and we made a discovery.” ”

“ No one could climb down the face of the pyramid from above; no one has ever succeeded in climbing up. For the purpose of surveying the pyramids, a scaffold had to be erected. Its sides are so steep that they are quite unscalable.”
“That may be,” agreed Dr. Cairn; “but, nevertheless, I have my reasons for placing a guard over the south side. If anything appears upon the stage above, Rob—anything—shoot, and shoot straight!”
He repeated the same instructions to Ali Mohammed, to the evident surprise of the latter.
“I don't understand at all,” muttered Sime ”

“ The great silence of the desert—a silence like no other in the world; the loneliness, which must be experienced to be appreciated, of that dry and tideless ocean; the traditions which had grown up like fungi about this venerable building; and, lastly, the knowledge that it was associated in some way with the sorcery, the unholy activity, of Antony Ferrara, combined to chill them with a supernatural dread which called for all their courage to combat.
“What now?” said Sime, descending from his mount.
“We must lead the donkeys up the slope,” replied Dr. ”

“ Sime, who had been listening to this strange conversation, cried out from the rear:
“We cannot reach it before sunset!”
“No,” replied Dr. Cairn, turning in his saddle; “but that does not matter. Inside the pyramid, day and night make not the slightest difference.”
Having crossed a narrow wooden bridge, they turned fully in the direction of the great ruin, pursuing a path along the opposite bank of the cutting. They rode in silence for some time, Robert Cairn deep in thought.
“I suppose that Antony Ferrara actually visited this place last night,” he said suddenly ”

“ Here the combined lights of the two pocket lamps showed them that they had reached a tiny chamber irregularly hewn in the living rock. It was less than four feet high, but, its jagged floor being level, they were enabled to sit for a while.
“Do you notice something unfamiliar in the smell of the place?” Dr. Cairn asked his companion.
Sime nodded, wiping the perspiration from his face the while.
“It was bad enough when I came here before,” he replied hoarsely. “It is terrible work for a heavy man; but to-night the place seems to be reeking. I have smelled nothing like it in my life!” ”

“ His nocturnal operations concluded, he left the temple locked and the door sealed, and placed a guard over the gate. He was killed in battle, and never returned to Carra; but when, in the reign of Jovian, the seal was broken and the temple opened, a body was found hanging by its hair. I will spare you the particulars. It was a case of that most awful form of sorcery—anthropomancy!”
An expression of horror had crept over Robert Cairn's face.
“Do you mean, sir, that this pyramid was used for similar purposes?” ”

“ Cairn.
Impetuously he snatched out his own lamp and flashed its beams about the weird apartment in which they found themselves—the so-called King's Chamber of the pyramid. Right and left leaped the searching rays, touching the ends of the wooden beams, which, practically fossilized by long contact with the rock, still survive in that sepulchral place. Above and below and all around he directed the light of his lamp—upon the litter covering the rock floor, upon the blocks of the higher walls, upon the frowning roof.
They were alone in the King's Chamber!
IV
“There is no one here!” ”

“ Any man of the ancient world—of the Middle Ages—would have known that he was looking upon a professed wizard, upon an adept magician, who, according to one of the most ancient formulas known to mankind, was seeking to question the dead respecting the living. ”

“ Sime shuddered.
“Here,” said Dr. Cairn, proffering a flask. “This is only the overture. No nerves!”
The other nodded shortly, and poured out a peg of brandy.
“Now,” said Dr. Cairn, “shall I go ahead?”
“As you like,” replied Sime quietly, and again quite master of himself. “Look out for snakes! I will carry the light, and you can keep yours handy in case you may need it.”
III
Dr. ”

“ Slowly Sime resumed.
“The bats had begun to disperse in various directions, but the panic which had seized upon the camp does not seem to have subsided so readily. Ali Mohammed confesses that he himself felt almost afraid—a remarkable admission for a man of his class to make. Picture these fellows, then, standing looking at one another, and very frequently up at the opening in the side of the pyramid. Then the smell began to reach their nostrils—the smell which completed the panic, and which led. to the abandonment of the camp.”
“The smell? What kind of smell?” jerked Robert Cairn. ”

“ The air is unbreathable, the descent to the level passage below is stiff work, and, apart from the inconvenience of navigating the lower passage—which, as you probably know, is only sixteen inches high—the climb up the vertical shaft into the tomb is not a particularly safe one. ”