John Cumberland stepped forward, in response to a signal from Danbazzar. Together, they raised the painted lid and rested it upright against the nearest wall. Through a mist that was not wholly due to the incense, Barry saw the figure of a woman lying in the sarcophagus! The figure was swathed in saffron-coloured wrappings. The arms and hands were enwrapped also. But within a sort of aperture where the face should have been appeared a thin gold mask. He experienced a sense of suspended animation. He seemed to watch that rigid figure through a vast period of time. Then, casting an imperious glance around him, and raising a finger significantly to his lips, Danbazzar stooped. Lifting the mummylike form, he placed it on the couch. With a pair of surgical scissors he began to cut through the wrappings.… A hand touched Barry’s arm. He started wildly. Professor Blackwell, his features strangely haggard, handed him a taper and pointed to the tripod. Barry, by dint of a stupendous effort, regained control of himself. He remembered that it was his duty to light the first two lamps. This duty he performed blindly. A sound of tearing linen seemed to fill the chamber. The perfume of the oil in the lamps began to mingle with that of the _Kyphi_.… John Cumberland lighted two more lamps. Barry turned and looked. Like lilies blooming in corruption, he saw two slender, exquisite arms peeping out from the torn and powdered wrappings… bare, creamy shoulders gleamed in the lamplight. Danbazzar gently detached the gold mask and removed the turbanlike swathings which confined a mass of short, wavy dark hair. A pale, exquisite face was revealed, delicate as a Greek cameo. Long, curling black lashes rested on the youthfully rounded cheeks. The pouting lips seemed to smile.… In on the hush of it burst a loud, harsh cry: “My God!” Even as he met a furious glance of Danbazzar’s blazing, wild animal eyes, Barry did not realize that it was _he_ who had cried out. But instantly came recognition of the fact. He clapped his palm over his mouth, literally choking back the words he had been about to utter. John Cumberland had his hand raised in warning--a hand that shook wildly. Professor Blackwell lighted the last pair of lamps. His face looked waxen--ghastly. Danbazzar, icily calm again, proceeded to carry out the singular formula. A wave of embarrassment swept over Barry, making his very scalp tingle. He turned aside. But his heart was leaping--leaping… Danbazzar lighted the seventh lamp--and glared at Barry. Barry plunged a taper into the brazier and applied the little tongue of flame to an oily liquid in the perfume burner. It ignited at once. Danbazzar, bending over the girl blew the aromatic smoke gently over her face.