THE GREAT AHMES
“Barry Dear:
“I don’t ask you to forgive me. I never meant to see you again. But
when Jim spoke to me to-day I realized, somehow, that _you_ were here.
And I knew you would come. And I knew I would have to see you. I
didn’t know how hard it would be--because I never believed you cared,
like that.
“I don’t know how to tell you what I see now, I _must_ tell. It all
began, really many years ago, when I was a baby, and when Paul Ahmes
was giving up everything to make my mother’s last days bearable. She
had never loved him, but they had one thing in common. It was their
passion for Egypt. She made her great success in an Egyptian opera and
he as an Egyptian performer. He used to buy Egyptian antiques with all
he could save. He knew more about these things than any dealer in
Europe. Most of his stage properties were real. They inspired him.
“One day my mother read that a ring which had been the property of the
real Thaïs was being auctioned at Sotheby’s in London. This ring had
once belonged to her. She never sang Thaïs without wearing it. But
poverty had forced her to sell it. Paul Ahmes, knowing what happiness
the recovery of this ring would give her, went to London to buy it.
This was like him. He did not bid, himself, as all the auctioneers
knew him. He sent someone.
“Barry--your father was at that auction--and he has the ring to-day!
When Ahmes heard that John Cumberland had secured it, he wrote to him,
and without mentioning my mother’s name told him all the
circumstances. Your father did not believe him.
“My mother died the night after Ahmes returned.
“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.
“Here for a long time I lived like a nun. No one outside our small
household ever saw me. When I went anywhere I was always heavily
veiled. Ahmes taught me to speak _Coptic_. This was the mysterious
language of Zalithea! Arabic I knew, because I had had an Arab nurse
from childhood--an old member of Ahmes’s company--Safîyeh!
“A year before the papyrus was brought to your father, Ahmes went to
Egypt. He erected the screen, as you know, his agent, Hassan es-Sugra,
having traced the real, or front, entrance to the tomb. He broke
through as far as the first portcullis, which he knew was intact. Then
he reclosed and hid the entrance as you found it. The hieroglyphic of
‘She Who Sleeps’ he himself carved in the rock.
“By the other tunnel, the one he first discovered, he took in lifting
gear and swung up the stone sarcophagus lid. The painted sarcophagus,
which he had made in New Jersey and shipped out, he put inside. Then
he lowered the stone lid again. The tables, lamps, couch, and other
things he set in place. Some of these were genuine. Some he had made.
He also added the cartouche of ‘She Who Sleeps’ to the ancient
inscriptions painted on the wall.
“He cemented the door and, from the tunnel above, blocked the secret
entrance. Then he came back to America. The stage was set for his last
and greatest illusion.
“The ‘Zalithea Papyrus’ and the ‘Formula’ Ahmes had been at work upon
for two years. They were the biggest achievements of his career! The
materials had cost him no end of research. But no other man in Europe
or America could have written them--to pass Horace Pain and Dr.
Rittenburg!
“Yes, Barry! I’m proud of him! Until you came, it never occurred to me
to question his way of life. Besides, he had taught me to hate the
name of Cumberland. It was a mania with him. I believe for a long time
he held John Cumberland responsible for my mother’s death.
“The Zalithea dress, the strange ingredients mentioned in the Formula,
and all the other things, he got from many sources, working patiently
for months and months. He put his whole soul into the affair.
“Then, just as we were ready, you had an accident right outside the
house!
“We were in an awful panic. But Ahmes was always at his best in an
emergency. You know how we managed to keep out of the matter. The
household was dispersed. Only Mrs. Brown stayed to clear things up. I
was hidden in my guardian’s apartment in New York. And I nearly ruined
everything one evening by going out to our old garden in New Jersey to
get some flowers. Yes! I was there that day when you came!
“As soon as the date of departure was fixed, Safîyeh and another
Arab, called Omar, were sent to Egypt. Soon afterward I went, also. I
sailed on the same ship, to Cherbourg, as Professor Blackwell! But it
didn’t matter, because we had arranged that I should stay in my
stateroom all the way.
“I remained hidden with Safîyeh in Luxor until the night before the
tomb was opened. That night I was smuggled across--and you heard my
voice as I stumbled in the little valley where Omar was waiting for
me! Omar you saw once. He is tall and thin, and you thought he was a
ghost!
“In a ruined tomb in that little valley I was dressed for the part of
Zalithea. Safîyeh was there with me. But she went back to Luxor in
the early morning.
“You understand, now, that when you first discovered the painted
sarcophagus I was not in it? He carried me up to the tomb during _the
second watch_ on the night before the lid was raised! I was placed
inside. Then the lid was fastened down! I was frightened, although the
gold mask allowed me to breathe freely and there were lots of air
holes in the sarcophagus.
“I had to lie there for nearly three hours! But I had been training to
do this for months before.
“Never shall I forget my relief when you came at last to unwrap me! Of
course I had been prepared in all sorts of ways for the ordeal. And
you will remember, Barry, that none of you had a chance to touch me or
even see me properly up to the time that I opened my eyes.
“Yes! You were in the hands of a master illusionist!
“As for the rest--I was prepared to hate you! But on the night you
came to my tent and said, ‘Forgive me. I didn’t mean to hurt you,’ I
couldn’t hate you, somehow.
“Ahmes, too, had changed his mind about John Cumberland. He had
learned to respect him; in fact, to love him. But he had to go on
then! So did I!
“Sometimes it was good fun. Sometimes, when your father talked to me,
not knowing I understood, I couldn’t bear it. But we didn’t know how
to end it!
“You ended it! The night when you found me with that pig Edwards I
knew it must finish. While you were asleep I went to Ahmes and told
him.
“He was sorry--for me; but glad that we were through. Safîyeh went to
Montreal and sailed, under her own name, for England, three days
later. I was here, in Paris, before you allowed the news of my
disappearance to be published. Ahmes wrote the hieroglyphic letter to
relieve your mind. It was delivered by the same messenger who brought
another letter. He is here, now, with the others. That is why you
failed to trace him.
“That’s all, Barry dear. We have a house in Paris. It had been closed,
though, and so I stayed at the Chatham for a short time. But Ahmes
arrived to-day, and I am going to join him. He knows I have told you.
“Do what you like. But I shall be punished enough.
“You see--I love you.
“Marguerite.”