Brood of the Witch-Queen by Sax Rohmer (the top 100 crime novels of all time .TXT) 📕

the donkeys up the slope,” replied Dr. Cairn, “where those blocks of granite are, and tether them there.”

In silence, then, the party commenced the tedious ascent of the mound by the narrow path to the top, until at some hundred and twenty feet above the surrounding plain they found themselves actually under the wall of the mighty building. The donkeys were made fast.

“Sime and I,” said Dr. Cairn quietly, “will enter the pyramid.”

“But⁠—” interrupted his son.

“Apart from the fatigue of the operation,” continued the doctor, “the temperature in the lower part of the pyramid is so tremendous, and the air so bad, that in your present state of health it would be absurd for you to attempt it. Apart from which there is a possibly more important task to be undertaken here, outside.”

He turned his eyes upon Sime, who was listening intently, then continued:

“Whilst we are penetrating to the interior by means of the sloping passage on the north side, Ali Mohammed and yourself must mount guard on the south side.”

“What for?” said Sime rapidly.

“For the reason,” replied Dr. Cairn, “that there is an entrance on to the first stage⁠—”

“But the first stage is nearly seventy feet above us. Even assuming that there were an entrance there⁠—which I doubt⁠—escape by that means would be impossible. No one could climb down the face of the pyramid from above; no one has ever succeeded in climbing up. For the purpose of surveying the pyramid a scaffold had to be erected. Its sides are quite unscaleable.”

“That may be,” agreed Dr. Cairn; “but, nevertheless, I have my reasons for placing a guard over the south side. If anything appears upon the stage above, Rob⁠—anything⁠—shoot, and shoot straight!”

He repeated the same instructions to Ali Mohammed, to the evident surprise of the latter.

“I don’t understand at all,” muttered Sime, “but as I presume you have a good reason for what you do, let it be as you propose. Can you give me any idea respecting what we may hope to find inside this place? I only entered once, and I am not anxious to repeat the experiment. The air is unbreathable, the descent to the level passage below is stiff work, and, apart from the inconvenience of navigating the latter passage, which as you probably know is only sixteen inches high, the climb up the vertical shaft into the tomb is not a particularly safe one. I exclude the possibility of snakes,” he added ironically.

“You have also omitted the possibility of Antony Ferrara,” said Dr. Cairn.

“Pardon my scepticism, doctor, but I cannot imagine any man voluntarily remaining in that awful place.”

“Yet I am greatly mistaken if he is not there!”

“Then he is trapped!” said Sime grimly, examining a Browning pistol which he carried. “Unless⁠—”

He stopped, and an expression, almost of fear, crept over his stoical features.

“That sixteen-inch passage,” he muttered⁠—“with Antony Ferrara at the further end!”

“Exactly!” said Dr. Cairn. “But I consider it my duty to the world to proceed. I warn you that you are about to face the greatest peril, probably, which you will ever be called upon to encounter. I do not ask you to do this. I am quite prepared to go alone.”

“That remark was wholly unnecessary, doctor,” said Sime rather truculently. “Suppose the other two proceed to their post.”

“But, sir⁠—” began Robert Cairn.

“You know the way,” said the doctor, with an air of finality. “There is not a moment to waste, and although I fear that we are too late, it is just possible we may be in time to prevent a dreadful crime.”

The tall Egyptian and Robert Cairn went stumbling off amongst the heaps of rubbish and broken masonry, until an angle of the great wall concealed them from view. Then the two who remained continued the climb yet higher, following the narrow, zigzag path leading up to the entrance of the descending passage. Immediately under the square black hole they stood and glanced at one another.

“We may as well leave our outer garments here,” said Sime. “I note that you wear rubber-soled shoes, but I shall remove my boots, as otherwise I should be unable to obtain any foothold.”

Dr. Cairn nodded, and without more ado proceeded to strip off his coat, an example which was followed by Sime. It was as he stooped and placed his hat upon the little bundle of clothes at his feet that Dr. Cairn detected something which caused him to stoop yet lower and to peer at that dark object on the ground with a strange intentness.

“What is it?” jerked Sime, glancing back at him.

Dr. Cairn, from a hip pocket, took out an electric lamp, and directed the white ray upon something lying on the splintered fragments of granite.

It was a bat, a fairly large one, and a clot of blood marked the place where its head had been. For the bat was decapitated!

As though anticipating what he should find there, Dr. Cairn flashed the ray of the lamp all about the ground in the vicinity of the entrance to the pyramid. Scores of dead bats, headless, lay there.

“For God’s sake, what does this mean?” whispered Sime, glancing apprehensively into the black entrance beside him.

“It means,” answered Cairn, in a low voice, “that my suspicion, almost incredible though it seems, was well founded. Steel yourself against the task that is before you, Sime; we stand upon the borderland of strange horrors.”

Sime hesitated to touch any of the dead bats, surveying them with an ill-concealed repugnance.

“What kind of creature,” he whispered, “has done this?”

“One of a kind that the world has not known for many ages! The most evil kind of creature conceivable⁠—a man-devil!”

“But what does he want with bats’ heads?”

“The Cynonycteris, or pyramid bat, has a leaf-like appendage beside the nose. A gland in this secretes a rare oil. This oil is one of the ingredients of the incense which is never named in the magical writings.”

Sime shuddered.

“Here!” said Dr. Cairn, proffering a flask. “This is only the overture! No nerves.”

The other nodded shortly, and poured out a peg of brandy.

“Now,” said Dr. Cairn, “shall I