Sax Rohmer

“ Robert Cairn smiled slightly.
“Ah!” said the doctor, with an answering smile, in which there was little mirth. “We are accustomed to laugh at this medieval terminology; but by what other can we speak of the activities of Ferrara?”
“Sometimes I think that we are the victims of a common madness,” said his son, raising his hand to his head in a manner almost pathetic.
“We are the victims of a common enemy,” replied his father sternly. “He employs weapons which often enough, in this enlightened age of ours, have condemned poor souls, as sane as you or I, to the madhouse. ”

“ Silence fell for a few moments between them.
“One thing is certain,” said Robert Cairn, at length. “We are in danger!”
“In the greatest danger.”
“Antony Ferrara, realizing that we are bent upon his destruction, is making a final, stupendous effort to compass ours. I know that you have placed certain seals upon the windows of this house, and that after dusk those windows are never opened. I know that imprints, strangely like the imprints of fiery hands, may be seen at this moment upon the casements of Myra's room, your room, my room, and elsewhere. ”

“ Already the doctor's house was invested by the uncanny forces marshaled by Antony Ferrara. The distinguished patients, who daily flocked to the consulting room of the celebrated specialist, who witnessed his perfect self-possession and took comfort from his confidence, knowing it for the confidence of strength, little suspected that a greater ill than any that flesh is heir to, assailed the doctor to whom they came for healing.
A menace, dreadful and unnatural, hung over that home, as now the thunder clouds hung over it. ”

“ Whitening streaks showed where the doctor's pellets, melting, had trickled down the curtains!
“Lift Myra upon the settee.”
It was Dr. Cairn speaking, calmly, but in a strained voice.
As if emerging from a mist, Robert Cairn turned to the recumbent white form upon the carpet. Then, with a great cry, he leaped forward and raised the girl's head.
“Myra!” he groaned. “Myra, speak to me!”
“Control yourself, boy,” rapped Dr. Cairn sternly. “She cannot speak until you have revived her. She has swooned—nothing worse.” ”

“ In his gait, as he crossed the pavement to enter the photographer's shop, there was something revoltingly effeminate—a sort of catlike grace which would have been noticeable in a woman, but which was unnatural, and, for some obscure reason, sinister, in a man.
It was Antony Ferrara!
Even at that distance and in that brief time, Robert Cairn could see the ivory face, the abnormal red lips, and the long black eyes of this arch fiend, this monster masquerading as a man. He had much ado to restrain his rising passion ”

“ Myra nodded, and her face momentarily clouded over.
“The same dream?”
“Yes,” she said in a troubled way. “At least, in some respects—”
Dr. Cairn came in, glancing at his watch.
“Good morning!” he cried cheerily. “I have actually overslept myself.”
They took their seats at the table.
“Myra has been dreaming again, sir,” said Robert Cairn slowly.
The doctor, serviette in hand, glanced up with an inquiry in his gray eyes.
“We must not overlook any possible weapon,” he replied. “Give us particulars of your dream, Myra.” ”

“ The creature who is known to the world as Antony Ferrara holds that book—do you doubt it? Therefore you know now, as I have known long enough, with what manner of enemy we are fighting. You know that this time it is a fight to the death—”
He stopped abruptly, staring out of the window.
A man with a large photographic camera, standing upon the opposite pavement, was busily engaged in focusing the house.
“What is this?” muttered Robert Cairn, also stepping to the window.
“It is a link between sorcery and science,” replied the doctor. ”

“ There will surely be another attempt upon us to-night!”
“Yes—there will be another attempt upon us to-night,” said the doctor wearily. “This is the year 1914; yet here in Half Moon Street, when dusk falls, we shall be submitted to an attack of a kind to which mankind probably has not been submitted for many ages. ”

“ Cairn suddenly opened the library door and entered.
“Well?” he said eagerly.
Robert Cairn leaped forward.
“I have tracked him, sir!” he cried. “My God, while Myra was at Saunderson's, she was almost next door to the beast! His den is in a field no more than a thousand yards from the garden wall—from Saunderson's orchid houses!”
“He is daring,” muttered Dr. Cairn; “but his selection of that site served two purposes. The spot was suitable in many ways, and we were least likely to look for him next door, as it were. It was a move characteristic of the accomplished criminal that he is.” ”

“ He knew that everything depended upon secrecy. Antony Ferrara must not suspect that his black laboratory was known.
Cairn decided to return to Half Moon Street without delay, fully satisfied with the result of his investigation. He walked rapidly back to where the cab waited, gave the man his father's address, and, in three-quarters of an hour, was back in Half Moon Street.
Dr. Cairn had not yet dismissed the last of his patients. Myra, accompanied by Miss Saunderson, was out shopping; and Robert found himself compelled to possess his soul in patience. ”

“ We may note, however, remembering with whom we are dealing, that the one hundred and eighth chapter of the ancient Egyptian 'Book of the Dead' is entitled 'The Chapter of Knowing the Spirits of the West.' Forgetting, for the time, that we dwell in the twentieth century, and looking at the situation from the point of view, say, of Eliphas Levi, Cornelius Agrippa, or the Abbé de Villars, the man whom we know as Antony Ferrara is directing against this house, and against those within it, a type of elemental spirit known as a salamander. ”

“ Cairn, his son, and Myra Duquesne met together in the library. The girl looked rather pale.
An odor of incense pervaded the house, coming from the doctor's study, wherein he had locked himself early in the evening, after issuing instructions that he was not to be disturbed. The exact nature of the preparations which he had been making, Robert Cairn was unable to conjecture; and some instinct warned him that his father would not welcome any inquiry upon the matter. He realized that Dr. Cairn proposed to fight Antony Ferrara with his own weapons. ”

“ According to the ancient Egyptian beliefs, the khu, or magical power, of a fully equipped adept, at the death of the body, could enter into anything prepared for its reception. According to these ancient beliefs, then, the khu of the high priest Hortotef entered into the body of this infant, who was his son, and whose mother was the Witch Queen; and to-day, in this modern London, a wizard of ancient Egypt, armed with the lost lore of that magical land, walks among us! What that lore is worth, it would be profitless for us to discuss ”

“ Why, in God's name,” he cried with a sudden excitement, “does science persistently ignore all those laws which cannot be examined in the laboratory? Will the day never come when some true man of learning will endeavor to explain the movements of a table upon which a ring of hands has been placed? ”

“ He grasped his son's arm as Robert started for the door.
“That man yonder—”
“Diplomacy, Rob! Guile against guile! Let the man do his work, which he does in all innocence; then follow him. Learn where his studio is situated, and, from that point, proceed to learn—”
“The situation of Ferrara's hiding place?” cried his son excitedly. “I understand! Of course you are right, sir!”
“I will leave the inquiry in your hands, Rob. Unfortunately other duties call me.”
III
Robert Cairn entered a photographer's shop in Baker Street. ”

“ Then, in accordance with the directions of that dead magician—that accursed, malignant being, who thus had sought to secure for himself a new tenure of evil life—we laid the mummy, treated in a certain fashion, in the King's Chamber of the Pyramid of Meydum. It remained there for thirty days—from moon to moon.”
“You guarded the entrance?”
“You may assume what you like, Rob; but I could swear before any jury that no one entered the pyramid throughout that time. Yet, since we were only human, we may have been mistaken. ”

“ It is twisted all round with snakes and scorpions and all the other crawling things. “The man who holds the 'Book of Thoth,'” said Dr. Cairn, breaking the silence, “holds a power which should only belong to God. ”

“ Concealing himself behind the vehicle, he gave the man rapid and precise instructions.
“You see that taxi outside the photographer's?” he said.
The man nodded.
“Wait until some one comes out of the shop and is driven off in it; then follow. Do not lose sight of the cab for a moment. When it draws up, and wherever it draws up, drive right past it. Don't attract attention by stopping. You understand?” ”

“ With a word of apology to the furniture dealer, Cairn passed quickly into Baker Street. Everything rested, now, upon his securing a cab before Ferrara came out again. Ferrara's cabman, evidently, was waiting for him. ”

“ They have merely caused Myra to dream strange dreams—clairvoyant dreams, instructive dreams, more useful to us than to the enemy—and have resulted in certain marks upon the outside of the house, adjoining the windows, which I have sealed in a particular manner. You understand me?”
“By means of photographs he—concentrates, in some way, malignant forces upon certain points—”
“He focuses his will—yes. The man who can really control his will, Rob, is supreme, below the Godhead. ”

“ She was not an Egyptian, but an Asiatic. In short, she was the last high priestess of a cult which became extinct at her death. Her secret mark—I am not referring to a cartouche, or anything of that kind—was a spider. It was the mark of the religion or cult which she practiced. The high priest of the principal Temple of Ra, during the reign of the Pharaoh who was this queen's husband, was one Hortotef. ”

“ Unnatural is the word. He is literally unnatural; but many women find him irresistible. He is typical of the unholy brood to which he belongs. The evil beauty of the Witch Queen sent many a soul to perdition. ”

“ Robert Cairn nodded.
“It is the place of which Myra dreamed, sir—I have not the slightest doubt about that. What we have to find out is at what times of the day and sight he goes there.”
“I doubt,” interrupted Dr. Cairn, “if he often visits the place during the day. ”

“ She must get all the sleep she can during the afternoon; for to-night I have determined that we three must not think of sleep, but must remain together, here in the library. We must not lose sight cf one another—you understand?”
“I am glad that you have proposed it!” cried Robert Cairn eagerly. “I, too, feel that we have come to a critical moment in the contest.”
“To-night,” continued the doctor, “I shall be prepared to take certain steps. My preparations will occupy me throughout the rest of to-day.”
IV
At dusk that evening, Dr. ”