“Do you understand, Barry?” said John Cumberland excitedly. “Do you understand what this may mean?” Barry in bewilderment looked from his father to Danbazzar and then stared down at the papyrus on the table. “I worked on it all last winter,” Danbazzar went on quietly. “I opened a way in--and I found myself checked by a great stone portcullis.” “You mean,” said Barry dazedly, “you spent last winter in Egypt, actually excavating?” “Actually on the job! I got away with murder. I had no permit to dig. But I’ve explained my system to your father. I’d hoped to go back this season; but funds won’t allow. It’s going to be ruinously expensive to complete that excavation. But the man who _does_ complete it will make a name for himself.” “If,” John Cumberland went on, “she remained alive for three hundred years, Barry, why not for three thousand?” “But, Dad,” said Barry, “this is raving lunacy!” “It seems so,” Danbazzar admitted gravely; “but five generations of learned men whose names we have here testify to the fact. Are we to assume that they were all liars? If so, with what object did they lie? I found the tomb--unopened, untouched!” But Barry’s attention had wandered again, and the words reached him but vaguely. He was staring intently at the graceful figure in the papyrus which aroused such strange memories. And now, turning to Danbazzar, and resting his finger upon that part of the record: “What does this mean?” he asked. “Is it a symbol?” “No,” was the reply. “You will notice on the right of the figure what looks like a cartouche. I have been unable to identify it, though. Translated, it means, ‘She Who Sleeps but Who Will Awaken.’ For this reason I take the figure to be a portrait of the Princess Zalithea.” CHAPTER VIII. SPECIAL OPINIONS “The last time the man Danbazzar was about,” said Countess Colonna, “the result was that a motor lorry and ten men arrived. The front doors were taken off their hinges and a stone figure as big as the Statue of Liberty was carried into the library.” “I don’t think it will happen this time, Micky,” Barry assured her. “I hope not,” was the reply. “I don’t like Danbazzar. I always imagine him living in a harem.” “I haven’t met the sportsman,” said Jim Sakers, “but I am going to crash into the University Club to-night and look him over keenly. If I don’t approve, Barry, I shan’t hesitate to advise you to drop him. On the other hand, I may be favourably impressed. And as is only fair to him, if this should prove to be the case, I shall relieve your mind at once and let you know.” “Thanks,” Barry replied. “I shall be in a frightfully unsettled state until I have your opinion.” “That’s quite natural,” Jim agreed; “but I promise not to keep you in suspense.” “It occurs to me, young Sakers,” Aunt Micky broke in, “that you and I are being deliberately kept in the dark about this thing. Young Cumberland here has a secret eye. It’s his left!” Barry laughed.