"From the time that he attained to manhood," said Dr. Cairn evenly, "this adopted son of my poor old friend has passed from crime to crime. By means which are beyond my comprehension, and which alone serve to confirm his supernatural origin, he has acquired--knowledge. According to the Ancient Egyptian beliefs the _Khu_ (or magical powers) 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 amongst us! What that lore is worth, it would be profitless for us to discuss, but that he possesses it--_all_ of it--I know, beyond doubt. The most ancient and most powerful magical book which has ever existed was the _Book of Thoth_." He walked across to a distant shelf, selected a volume, opened it at a particular page, and placed it on his son's knees. "Read there!" he said, pointing. The words seemed to dance before the younger man's eyes, and this is what he read: "To read two pages, enables you to enchant the heavens, the earth, the abyss, the mountains, and the sea; you shall know what the birds of the sky and the crawling things are saying ... and when the second page is read, if you are in the world of ghosts, you will grow again in the shape you were on earth...." "Heavens!" whispered Robert Cairn, "is this the writing of a madman? or can such things possibly be!" He read on: "This book is in the middle of the river at Koptos, in an iron box--" "An iron box," he muttered--"an iron box." "So you recognise the iron box?" jerked Dr. Cairn. His son read on: "In the iron box, is a bronze box; in the bronze box, is a sycamore box; in the sycamore box, is an ivory and ebony box; in the ivory and ebony box, is a silver box; in the silver box, is a golden box; and in that is the book. 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. 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 focussing the house! "What is this?" muttered Robert Cairn, also stepping to the window.