Sax Rohmer

“ You who have followed these records will have made the acquaintance of Coram, the curator of the Menzies Museum; and it was through Coram that I first came to hear of the inexplicable beheading of mummies, which, commencing with that of Mr. Pettigrew's valuable mummy of the priestess Horankhu, developed into a perfect epidemic. No more useless outrage could well be imagined than the decapitation of an ancient Egyptian corpse; and if I was surprised when I heard of the first case, my surprise became stark amazement when yet other mummies began mysteriously to lose their heads. ”

“ I had never met a man before who had ventured fully to explore those deadly swamps; but Moris Klaw chatted about the Izamal temples as unconcernedly as another man might chat about the Paris boulevards. Isis took no part in the conversation, from which I gathered that, although she seemed to accompany her father everywhere, she had not accompanied him into the jungles of Yucatan.
"In the heart of those forests, Mr. Searles," he whispered, "are stranger things than these headless mummies. ”

“ Grimsby, very puzzled, going off to make arrangements to have the Egyptian Room watched night and day, and Coram, Klaw, and I walking along in the direction of the Greek Room.
"I have no occasion to remind you, Mr. Klaw," said Coram, "that the Menzies Museum is a hard nut for any burglar to crack. We have a night watchman, you will remember, who hourly patrols every apartment. For any one to break into the Egyptian Room, force one of the cases and take out a mummy, would be a task extremely difficult to perform undetected." ”

“ But all these mummies are historic; there are only five in Europe."
"Five?" blurted Pettigrew.
"Five," replied Klaw; "you thought there were only four, eh? But as a blind you called in the police and showed them how your mummy had been mutilated. It was good. It was clever. No one suspected you of the outrages after that—no one but the old fool who knew that you had secured the second copy of that valuable work of guidance!
"So you did not hesitate to use the keys you had procured in your capacity as trustee to gain access to this fourth mummy here." He turned to Grimsby and Coram. ”

“ Accordingly, the deferential and very admiring Grimsby descended with Coram to see Isis off in a taxi. I marvelled to think of her returning to that tumble-down, water-logged ruin in Wapping.
"Now, Mr. Grimsby," said Moris Klaw, when we four investigators had gathered together again, "you will hide in the case with the mummies!"
"But I may find myself helpless! How do we know that any particular case is going to be opened? Besides, I don't know what to expect!"
"Blessed is he that expecteth little, my friend. It is quite possible that no attempt will be made to-night. ”

“ Moris Klaw stooped and from beneath the counter took out his flat-topped brown bowler. From its lining he extracted a cylindrical scent spray and mingled with the less pleasing perfumes that of verbena.
"A cooling Roman custom, Mr. Searles," he rumbled, "so refreshing when one lives with rats. So it is Mr. Grimsby who is puzzled again? It is Mr. Grimsby who needs the poor old fool to hold the lantern for him, so that he, the clever Grimsby, can pick up the credit out of the darkness! And why not, Mr. Searles, and why not? It is his business; it is my pleasure."
He raised his voice. "Isis! ”

“ Searles, what is written here: 'The "Book of the Lamps," which was revealed to the priest, Pankhaur, and by him revealed only to the Queen'—it was the ancient Egyptian Queen, Hatshepsu, Mr. Searles—'was kept locked in the secret place beneath the altar, and each high priest of the temple—all of whom were of the family of Pankhaur—held the key and alone might consult the magic writing. In the 14th dynasty, Seteb was high priest, and was the last of the family of Pankhaur. ”

“ I said.
"There is no likelihood," agreed Klaw; "but I like to see that Grimsby busy! The man with the knife to decapitate mummies will come to-night. Without fear he will come, for how is he to know that an old fool from Wapping anticipates his arrival?"
We quitted the Museum together. The affair brought back to my mind the gruesome business of the Greek Room murders, and for the second time in my life I made arrangements to watch in the Menzies Museum at night. ”

“ Mark Pettigrew.
"Did you ever hear of a more senseless thing?" he asked. "Come over and look at the window where he got in."
We crossed the dark apartment, and the collector drew my attention to a round hole which had been drilled in the glass of one of the French windows opening on a kind of miniature prairie which once had been a lawn.
"I am having shutters fitted," he went on. "It is so easy to cut a hole in the glass and open the catch of these windows." ”

“ Am I not an old fool? Mr. Searles, there is only one other copy of this work"—he laid a long white hand upon the book—"known to European collectors. Do I know where that copy is? Yes? No? I think so!"
There was triumph in his hoarse voice. Personally I was quite unable to see in what way the history of the "Book of the Lamps" bore upon the case of the headless mummies; but Moris Klaw evidently considered that it afforded a clue. He stood up.
"Isis," he said, "bring me my catalogue of the mummies of the Bubastite priests." ”

“ Then his peculiar power—assiduously cultivated by a course of obscure study—of recovering from the atmosphere, the ether, call it what you will, the thought-forms—the ideas thrown out by the scheming mind of the criminal he sought for—enabled him to succeed where any ordinary investigator must inevitably have failed.
"They destroy," he would say in his odd, rumbling voice, "the clumsy tools of their crime; they hide away the knife, the bludgeon ”