“I do, but so does the chief—and he’s on the spot.”
We were challenged again as we reached the foot of the Pyramid, by a sergeant whom I took to be in charge of the cordon.
“O.K., sir,” he said when he saw me.
“What’s happened? Who’s inside?”
“The acting superintendent, sir, Sir Denis Nayland Smith, and Sir Lionel Barton. Three men with them.”
“And no one has come out?”
“Not a soul, sir.”
Petrie turned to me in the darkness.
“Shall we go up?” he said.
We found four men on duty when we had climbed up to the entrance. They passed us immediately, and I was about to lead the way in when a muffled voice reached me from the interior.
“I tell you it’s a trick. Smith! He’s slipped out in some way.
»
The chief.
I stepped back again and felt, for I could not see their faces, an atmosphere of tension among the four police officers on duty.
“There’s treachery. Somebody’s been bought over.”
That loud, irascible voice was drawing nearer; and:
“It’s all but incredible, Greville,” said Petrie, in a low voice;
“but evidently Fu Manchu has managed to get out as mysteriously as he got in!”
“I hope there’s no question about us, sir,” came sharply; and one of the four men, whom on close inspection I recognized for a sergeant, stepped forward. Tm responsible to the acting superintendent, so I don’t care what the other gentleman says. But you can take my word for it that nobody has come out of this place to-night, since you came out with the lady and Sir Denis.”
“We don’t doubt it. Sergeant,” Petrie replied. “Sir Denis won’t doubt it, either. You mustn’t pay too much attention to Sir Lionel Barton. He’s naturally very disturbed.”
“That may be, sir—” the man began; when:
“Who’s on duty, here?” bellowed the chief, suddenly appearing out of the opening.
“One moment, Sir Lionel,” a quiet voice interrupted; and I saw Hewlett grasp his arm. “/ am responsible for the men on duty. Sergeant!”
“Sir?”
“Have you anything to report?”
“Nothing, sir.”
“It’s some damned trick!” growled the chief.
Nayland Smith came out last, saw me in the darkness, and:
“Is everything all right, Greville?” he asked eagerly.
“We managed to get her to sleep,” Petrie replied. “Every thing is all right. But this business passes my comprehension, Smith.”
“It does!” the latter rapped. “But, needless to say, I anticipated it.”
“It’s a trick!” the chief shouted. The man’s a conjurer: always was. How did he get Rima in? Damn it! Can’t we ask her?”
“You’ll ask her nothing to-night, Barton,” Petrie returned quietly. “And you’ll ask her nothing in the morning until you have my permission.”
“Thanks!” was the reply. “I’ll remember you in my will.” He was, in short, in a towering rage, and: “Where’s Greville?” he finished up.
“Here I am.”
“D’you think it feasible that Fu Manchu could have slipped up into one of the construction chambers?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Neither do I. Even if he did, he’s got to come down sometime.”
“What are these construction chambers, Greville?” Nayland Smith asked in a low voice.
“Five low spaces above the King’s Chamber,” I replied, “terminating in a pointed roof, generally supposed to have been intended to relieve the stress on the room below.”
“Any way into them?”
“Yes—by means of a long ladder.”
“Is there anything in what Barton says?”
“Hardly. In any event, there is only one way out!” I turned to Sir Lionel. “Have you searched the shaft. Chief?”
“No!” he growled—”I haven’t. And what’s more I’m not going to. Have the damn place closed and watched; that’s all that’s necessary.”
Nayland Smith turned to Hewlett.
“You must arrange for the Pyramid to be closed to visitors for the remainder of the week. And have men on duty at the entrance day and night.”
“Very good,” said Hewlett; “I’ll see to it.”
We had climbed down again to the base, and my feet were on the sand, when an idea occurred to me.
“By heavens! Sir Denis,” I cried. “It isn’t safe to leave just four men there to-night.”
“Why?” he snapped.
“You remember the meeting of dervishes reported by Enderby? Well—they are here—fifty or sixty strong!”
“Where?”
“Just this side of Mena House.”
“A rescue!” said the chief hoarsely. “They mean to rush the entrance! Fu Manchu is hiding inside!”
I could see Nayland Smith pulling at the lobe of his ear.
“They began to gather about midnight,” said Hewlett. “It’s been reported.”
“Who are they?”
“Mostly men from outlying villages, and as Mr Greville says, members of various dervish orders.”
“I don’t like this,” rapped Nayland Smith. The Mahdi organised the dervishes, you know. What’s your opinion, Hewlett?”
“I haven’t one. I can’t make it out—unless, as Sir Lionel suggests, they are going to attempt to rush us...But, byjove! here they come!”
We had set out down the slope and nearly reached that point where Petrie and I had left the car. Now, we pulled up like one man.
Dimly visible in the darkness of the night, their marching feet crunching upon the sand, we saw a considerable company of Arabs approaching from the opposite direction.
“It might be dangerous,” Nayland Smith muttered, “if it weren’t for the fact that sixty armed men are still on duty.”
And as he spoke, that onward march ceased as if in response to some unspoken order. Vaguely, although at no great distance from where we stood, we could see that strangely silent company. The policeman who had stopped Petrie’s car suddenly appeared.
“What do I do about his, sir?” he asked, addressing Hewlett. “They look nasty to me.”
“Do nothing,” was the reply. “We have the situation well in hand.”
“Very good, sir.”
We were near enough now to the crowd on the edge of the plateau to be able to distinguish the colours of robes and turbans—white, black, green and red; a confused blurred mass, but divisible into units. And as I looked doubtingly in their direction, suddenly I saw a hundred arms upraised, and in a muted roar their many voices reached me:
“Mokanna!”
Whereupon, unanimous as worshippers in a cathedral, they dropped to their knees and bowed their heads in the sand!
“Good God! What’s this?”
Nayland Smith was the speaker.
We all turned together, looking back to the northern face of the Great Pyramid. And as we did so, I witnessed a spectacle as vivid in my mind to-night as it was on the occasion of its happening.
Perhaps two thirds of the way up the slope of the great building, but at a point which I knew to be inaccessible to any climber, a figure appeared....Even from where I stood, it was visible in great detail—for the reason that this figure was brilliantly lighted!
Many explanations occurred to us later of how this illumination might have been produced. We recalled the globular lamp in the King’s Chamber; several such lamps, masked from the viewpoint of the onlookers and placed one step below the figure, backed by reflectors, would, I think, have accounted for the phenomenon. But at the time, no solution offered.
Personally, I was conscious of nothing but stark amazement, For there, enshrined in the darkness, I saw El Mokanna!
I saw a tall, majestic figure, wearing either a white or a very light green robe. The face was concealed by a golden mask and surmounted by a tall turban. Upraised in the right hand glittered a sword with a curved blade...