“Soon after that, before I can remember, we left Paris and went to live in America. I grew up to look upon Ahmes as my father. I was always surrounded by things belonging to Egypt, for my guardian had left the stage and become a professional dealer in antiques. He was sometimes away for months together, in Egypt, where he had agents now that his business had grown so big. He had changed his name. John Cumberland was one of his clients. “But, Barry, very few of the wonderful and beautiful things he received from Egypt ever left Ahmes’s possession. They went into his own collection--which is priceless; for this was his ruling passion now that my mother was dead. He sold copies, or restored originals mostly, to his wealthy customers. Some of the most famous museums in the world contain his work! His love of everything belonging to Egypt simply wouldn’t allow him to sell a genuine piece. His genius for making duplicates (for he is, truly, a genius) made it easy for him to keep them. “And all the money he earned in this way was spent acquiring more and more rarities for his private museum. “Then--this was years ago--he stumbled upon the tomb of Zalithea. He reached it through a long narrow passage cut at some time by Arab robbers. He found there the great stone sarcophagus, and he raised and wedged the lid. The sarcophagus was empty. “Thinking that one day this discovery might profit him, he reclosed and concealed the opening. This opening, I must tell you, came out in another valley, _behind the tomb_, and it led, through a hole in the roof, into the _shaft_ between the first and second portcullis. You remember where the roof had fallen? This second portcullis the thieves had broken, and also the door of the chamber where the sarcophagus was. “I unknowingly inspired him to what followed--I and his wish to score over John Cumberland, whom he had taught me to detest. He said I had the true Egyptian profile. The showman in him came to life--this part of his strange nature was only sleeping; and he thought of the wildest plot that surely any man ever attempted to carry out. “He said to me, ‘I will sell _you_ to John Cumberland! And if you play your cards properly you will marry a millionaire!’ I was completely under his influence, Barry. I had never known any other kind of life but this commercial use of Ahmes’s genius as an illusionist. I don’t want to excuse myself. I prepared for the thing with enthusiasm! “This was when we came secretly to New Jersey. Mr. Brown, who took the house, was formerly Ahmes’s stage manager. His wife acted as cook. There were other members of my guardian’s old company there as well. For no one who had ever worked for Ahmes wanted to leave him.