The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker (ebook and pdf reader .txt) đź“–
- Author: Bram Stoker
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“To unroll the mummy of the cat! Queen Tera will not need her Familiar
tonight. If she should want him, it might be dangerous to us; so we
shall make him safe. You are not alarmed, dear?”
“Oh no!” she answered quickly. “But I was thinking of my Silvio, and
how I should feel if he had been the mummy that was to be unswathed!”
Mr. Trelawny got knives and scissors ready, and placed the cat on the
table. It was a grim beginning to our work; and it made my heart sink
when I thought of what might happen in that lonely house in the
mid-gloom of the night. The sense of loneliness and isolation from the
world was increased by the moaning of the wind which had now risen
ominously, and by the beating of waves on the rocks below. But we had
too grave a task before us to be swayed by external manifestations: the
unrolling of the mummy began.
There was an incredible number of bandages; and the tearing sound—they
being stuck fast to each other by bitumen and gums and spices—and the
little cloud of red pungent dust that arose, pressed on the senses of
all of us. As the last wrappings came away, we saw the animal seated
before us. He was all hunkered up; his hair and teeth and claws were
complete. The eyes were closed, but the eyelids had not the fierce look
which I expected. The whiskers had been pressed down on the side of the
face by the bandaging; but when the pressure ws taken away they stood
out, just as they would have done in life. He was a magnificent
creature, a tiger-cat of great size. But as we looked at him, our first
glance of admiration changed to one of fear, and a shudder ran through
each one of us; for here was a confirmation of the fears which we had
endured.
His mouth and his claws were smeared with the dry, red stains of recent
blood!
Doctor Winchester was the first to recover; blood in itself had small
disturbing quality for him. He had taken out his magnifying-glass and
was examining the stains on the cat’s mouth. Mr. Trelawny breathed
loudly, as though a strain had been taken from him.
“It is as I expected,” he said. “This promises well for what is to
follow.”
By this time Doctor Winchester was looking at the red stained paws. “As
I expected!” he said. “He has seven claws, too!” Opening his
pocket-book, he took out the piece of blotting-paper marked by Silvio’s
claws, on which was also marked in pencil a diagram of the cuts made on
Mr. Trelawny’s wrist. He placed the paper under the mummy cat’s paw.
The marks fitted exactly.
When we had carefully examined the cat, finding, however, nothing
strange about it but its wonderful preservation, Mr. Trelawny lifted it
from the table. Margaret started forward, crying out:
“Take care, Father! Take care! He may injure you!”
“Not now, my dear!” he answered as he moved towards the stairway. Her
face fell. “Where are you going?” she asked in a faint voice.
“To the kitchen,” he answered. “Fire will take away all danger for the
future; even an astral body cannot materialise from ashes!” He signed
to us to follow him. Margaret turned away with a sob. I went to her;
but she motioned me back and whispered:
“No, no! Go with the others. Father may want you. Oh! it seems like
murder! The poor Queen’s pet … !” The tears were dropping from
under the fingers that covered her eyes.
In the kitchen was a fire of wood ready laid. To this Mr. Trelawny
applied a match; in a few seconds the kindling had caught and the flames
leaped. When the fire was solidly ablaze, he threw the body of the cat
into it. For a few seconds it lay a dark mass amidst the flames, and
the room was rank with the smell of burning hair. Then the dry body
caught fire too. The inflammable substances used in embalming became
new fuel, and the flames roared. A few minutes of fierce conflagration;
and then we breathed freely. Queen Tera’s Familiar was no more!
When we went back to the cave we found Margaret sitting in the dark.
She had switched off the electric light, and only a faint glow of the
evening light came through the narrow openings. Her father went quickly
over to her and put his arms round her in a loving protective way. She
laid her head on his shoulder for a minute and seemed comforted.
Presently she called to me:
“Malcolm, turn up the light!” I carried out her orders, and could see
that, though she had been crying, her eyes were now dry. Her father saw
it too and looked glad. He said to us in a grave tone:
“Now we had better prepare for our great work. It will not do to leave
anything to the last!” Margaret must have had a suspicion of what was
coming, for it was with a sinking voice that she asked:
“What are you going to do now?” Mr. Trelawny too must have had a
suspicion of her feelings, for he answered in a low tone:
“To unroll the mummy of Queen Tera!” She came close to him and said
pleadingly in a whisper:
“Father, you are not going to unswathe her! All you men … ! And in
the glare of light!”
“But why not, my dear?”
“Just think, Father, a woman! All alone! In such a way! In such a
place! Oh! it’s cruel, cruel!” She was manifestly much overcome. Her
cheeks were flaming red, and her eyes were full of indignant tears. Her
father saw her distress; and, sympathising with it, began to comfort
her. I was moving off; but he signed to me to stay. I took it that
after the usual manner of men he wanted help on such an occasion, and
manlike wished to throw on someone else the task of dealing with a
woman in indignant distress. However, he began to appeal first to her
reason:
“Not a woman, dear; a mummy! She has been dead nearly five thousand
years!”
“What does that matter? Sex is not a matter of years! A woman is a
woman, if she had been dead five thousand centuries! And you expect her
to arise out of that long sleep! It could not be real death, if she is
to rise out of it! You have led me to believe that she will come alive
when the Coffer is opened!”
“I did, my dear; and I believe it! But if it isn’t death that has been
the matter with her all these years, it is something uncommonly like it.
Then again, just think; it was men who embalmed her. They didn’t have
women’s rights or lady doctors in ancient Egypt, my dear! And besides,”
he went on more freely, seeing that she was accepting his argument, if
not yielding to it, “we men are accustomed to such things. Corbeck and
I have unrolled a hundred mummies; and there were as many women as men
amongst them. Doctor Winchester in his work has had to deal with women
as well of men, till custome has made him think nothing of sex. Even
Ross has in his work as a barrister …” He stopped suddenly.
“You were going to help too!” she said to me, with an indignant look.
I said nothing; I thought silence was best. Mr. Trelawny went on
hurriedly; I could see that he was glad of interruption, for the part of
his argument concerning a barrister’s work was becoming decidedly weak:
“My child, you will be with us yourself. Would we do anything which
would hurt or offend you? Come now! be reasonable! We are not at a
pleasure party. We are all grave men, entering gravely on an experiment
which may unfold the wisdom of old times, and enlarge human knowledge
indefinitely; which may put the minds of men on new tracks of thought
and research. An experiment,” as he went on his voice deepened, “which
may be fraught with death to any one of us—to us all! We know from what
has been, that there are, or may be, vast and unknown dangers ahead of
us, of which none in the house today may ever see the end. Take it, my
child, that we are not acting lightly; but with all the gravity of
deeply earnest men! Besides, my dear, whatever feelings you or any of
us may have on the subject, it is necessary for the success of the
experiment to unswathe her. I think that under any circumstances it
would be necessary to remove the wrappings before she became again a
live human being instead of a spiritualised corpse with an astral body.
Were her original intention carried out, and did she come to new life
within her mummy wrappings, it might be to exchange a coffin for a
grave! She would die the death of the buried alive! But now, when she
has voluntarily abandoned for the time her astral power, there can be no
doubt on the subject.”
Margaret’s face cleared. “All right, Father!” she said as she kissed
him. “But oh! it seems a horrible indignity to a Queen, and a woman.”
I was moving away to the staircase when she called me:
“Where are you going?” I came back and took her hand and stroked it as
I answered:
“I shall come back when the unrolling is over!” She looked at me long,
and a faint suggestion of a smile came over her face as she said:
“Perhaps you had better stay, too! It may be useful to you in your work
as a barrister!” She smiled out as she met my eyes: but in an instant
she changed. Her face grew grave, and deadly white. In a far away
voice she said:
“Father is right! It is a terrible occasion; we need all to be serious
over it. But all the same—nay, for that very reason you had better
stay, Malcolm! You may be glad, later on, that you were present
tonight!”
My heart sank down, down, at her words; but I thought it better to say
nothing. Fear was stalking openly enough amongst us already!
By this time Mr. Trelawny, assisted by Mr. Corbeck and Doctor
Winchester, had raised the lid of the ironstone sarcophagus which
contained the mummy of the Queen. It was a large one; but it was none
too big. The mummy was both long and broad and high; and was of such
weight that it was no easy task, even for the four of us, to lift it
out. Under Mr. Trelawny’s direction we laid it out on the table
prepared for it.
Then, and then only, did the full horror of the whole thing burst upon
me! There, in the full glare of the light, the whole material and
sordid side of death seemed staringly real. The outer wrappings, torn
and loosened by rude touch, and with the colour either darkened by dust
or worn light by friction, seemed creased as by rough treatment; the
jagged edges of the wrapping-cloths looked fringed; the painting was
patchy, and the varnish chipped. The coverings were evidently many, for
the bulk was great. But through all, showed that unhidable human
figure, which seems to look more horrible when partially concealed than
at any other time. What was before us was Death, and nothing else. All
the romance and sentiment of fancy had disappeared. The two elder men,
enthusiasts who had often done such work, were
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