Captain of the Polestar, and other tales — The Ring of Thoth - Part 2

Vansittart Smith hesitated.

He had hoped that he had come to the end of his adventure.

Yet his curiosity was strong within him.

He could not leave the matter unsolved, so he followed his strange companion into the lighted chamber.

It was a small room, such as is devoted to a concierge.

A wood fire sparkled in the grate.

At one side stood a truckle bed, and at the other a coarse wooden chair, with a round table in the centre, which bore the remains of a meal.

As the visitor’s eye glanced round he could not but remark with an ever-recurring thrill that all the small details of the room were of the most quaint design and antique workmanship.

The candlesticks, the vases upon the chimney-piece, the fire-irons, the ornaments upon the walls, were all such as he had been wont to associate with the remote past.

The gnarled heavy-eyed man sat himself down upon the edge of the bed, and motioned his guest into the chair.

“There may be design in this,” he said, still speaking excellent English.

“It may be decreed that I should leave some account behind as a warning to all rash mortals who would set their wits up against workings of Nature.

I leave it with you.

Make such use as you will of it.

I speak to you now with my feet upon the threshold of the other world.

“I am, as you surmised, an Egyptian--not one of the down-trodden race of slaves who now inhabit the Delta of the Nile, but a survivor of that fiercer and harder people who tamed the Hebrew, drove the Ethiopian back into the southern deserts, and built those mighty works which have been the envy and the wonder of all after generations.

It was in the reign of Tuthmosis, sixteen hundred years before the birth of Christ, that I first saw the light.

You shrink away from me.

Wait, and you will see that I am more to be pitied than to be feared.

“My name was Sosra.

My father had been the chief priest of Osiris in the great temple of Abaris, which stood in those days upon the Bubastic branch of the Nile.

I was brought up in the temple and was trained in all those mystic arts which are spoken of in your own Bible.

I was an apt pupil.

Before I was sixteen I had learned all which the wisest priest could teach me.

From that time on I studied Nature’s secrets for myself, and shared my knowledge with no man.

“Of all the questions which attracted me there were none over which I laboured so long as over those which concern themselves with the nature of life.

I probed deeply into the vital principle.

The aim of medicine had been to drive away disease when it appeared.

It seemed to me that a method might be devised which should so fortify the body as to prevent weakness or death from ever taking hold of it.

It is useless that I should recount my researches.

You would scarce comprehend them if I did.

They were carried out partly upon animals, partly upon slaves, and partly on myself.

Suffice it that their result was to furnish me with a substance which, when injected into the blood, would endow the body with strength to resist the effects of time, of violence, or of disease.

It would not indeed confer immortality, but its potency would endure for many thousands of years.

I used it upon a cat, and afterwards drugged the creature with the most deadly poisons.

That cat is alive in Lower Egypt at the present moment.

There was nothing of mystery or magic in the matter.

It was simply a chemical discovery, which may well be made again.

“Love of life runs high in the young.

It seemed to me that I had broken away from all human care now that I had abolished pain and driven death to such a distance.

With a light heart I poured the accursed stuff into my veins.

Then I looked round for some one whom I could benefit.

There was a young priest of Thoth, Parmes by name, who had won my goodwill by his earnest nature and his devotion to his studies.

To him I whispered my secret, and at his request I injected him with my elixir.

I should now, I reflected, never be without a companion of the same age as myself.

“After this grand discovery I relaxed my studies to some extent, but Parmes continued his with redoubled energy.

Every day I could see him working with his flasks and his distiller in the Temple of Thoth, but he said little to me as to the result of his labours.

For my own part, I used to walk through the city and look around me with exultation as I reflected that all this was destined to pass away, and that only I should remain.

The people would bow to me as they passed me, for the fame of my knowledge had gone abroad.

“There was war at this time, and the Great King had sent down his soldiers to the eastern boundary to drive away the Hyksos.

A Governor, too, was sent to Abaris, that he might hold it for the King.

I had heard much of the beauty of the daughter of this Governor, but one day as I walked out with Parmes we met her, borne upon the shoulders of her slaves.

I was struck with love as with lightning.

My heart went out from me.

I could have thrown myself beneath the feet of her bearers.

This was my woman.

Life without her was impossible.

I swore by the head of Horus that she should be mine.

I swore it to the Priest of Thoth.

He turned away from me with a brow which was as black as midnight.

“There is no need to tell you of our wooing.

She came to love me even as I loved her.

I learned that Parmes had seen her before I did, and had shown her that he too loved her, but I could smile at his passion, for I knew that her heart was mine.

The white plague had come upon the city and many were stricken, but I laid my hands upon the sick and nursed them without fear or scathe.

She marvelled at my daring.

Then I told her my secret, and begged her that she would let me use my art upon her.

“‘Your flower shall then be unwithered, Atma,’ I said.

‘Other things may pass away, but you and I, and our great love for each other, shall outlive the tomb of King Chefru.

’ “But she was full of timid, maidenly objections.

‘Was it right?

’ she asked, ‘was it not a thwarting of the will of the gods?

If the great Osiris had wished that our years should be so long, would he not himself have brought it about?

’ “With fond and loving words I overcame her doubts, and yet she hesitated.

It was a great question, she said.

She would think it over for this one night.

In the morning I should know her resolution.

Surely one night was not too much to ask.

She wished to pray to Isis for help in her decision.

“With a sinking heart and a sad foreboding of evil I left her with her tirewomen.

In the morning, when the early sacrifice was over, I hurried to her house.

A frightened slave met me upon the steps.

Her mistress was ill, she said, very ill.

In a frenzy I broke my way through the attendants, and rushed through hall and corridor to my Atma’s chamber.

She lay upon her couch, her head high upon the pillow, with a pallid face and a glazed eye.

On her forehead there blazed a single angry purple patch.

I knew that hell-mark of old.

It was the scar of the white plague, the sign-manual of death.

“Why should I speak of that terrible time?

For months I was mad, fevered, delirious, and yet I could not die.

Never did an Arab thirst after the sweet wells as I longed after death.

Could poison or steel have shortened the thread of my existence, I should soon have rejoined my love in the land with the narrow portal.

I tried, but it was of no avail.

The accursed influence was too strong upon me.

One night as I lay upon my couch, weak and weary, Parmes, the priest of Thoth, came to my chamber.

He stood in the circle of the lamplight, and he looked down upon me with eyes which were bright with a mad joy.

“‘Why did you let the maiden die?

’ he asked; ‘why did you not strengthen her as you strengthened me?

’ “‘I was too late,’ I answered.

‘But I had forgot.

You also loved her.

You are my fellow in misfortune.

Is it not terrible to think of the centuries which must pass ere we look upon her again?

Fools, fools, that we were to take death to be our enemy!

’ “‘You may say that,’ he cried with a wild laugh; ‘the words come well from your lips.

For me they have no meaning.

’ “‘What mean you?

’ I cried, raising myself upon my elbow.

‘Surely, friend, this grief has turned your brain.

’ His face was aflame with joy, and he writhed and shook like one who hath a devil.

“‘Do you know whither I go?

’ he asked.

“‘Nay,’ I answered, ‘I cannot tell.

’ “‘I go to her,’ said he.

‘She lies embalmed in the further tomb by the double palm-tree beyond the city wall.

’ “‘Why do you go there?

’ I asked.

“‘To die!

’ he shrieked, ‘to die!

I am not bound by earthen fetters.

’ “‘But the elixir is in your blood,’ I cried.

“‘I can defy it,’ said he; ‘I have found a stronger principle which will destroy it.

It is working in my veins at this moment, and in an hour I shall be a dead man.

I shall join her, and you shall remain behind.

’ “As I looked upon him I could see that he spoke words of truth.

The light in his eye told me that he was indeed beyond the power of the elixir.

“‘You will teach me!

’ I cried.

“‘Never!

’ he answered.

“‘I implore you, by the wisdom of Thoth, by the majesty of Anubis!

’ “‘It is useless,’ he said coldly.

“‘Then I will find it out,’ I cried.

“‘You cannot,’ he answered; ‘it came to me by chance.

There is one ingredient which you can never get.

Save that which is in the ring of Thoth, none will ever more be made.

“‘In the ring of Thoth!

’ I repeated; ‘where then is the ring of Thoth?

’ “‘That also you shall never know,’ he answered.

‘You won her love.

Who has won in the end?

I leave you to your sordid earth life.

My chains are broken.

I must go!

’ He turned upon his heel and fled from the chamber.

In the morning came the news that the Priest of Thoth was dead.

“My days after that were spent in study.

I must find this subtle poison which was strong enough to undo the elixir.

From early dawn to midnight I bent over the test-tube and the furnace.

Above all, I collected the papyri and the chemical flasks of the Priest of Thoth.

Alas!

they taught me little.

Here and there some hint or stray expression would raise hope in my bosom, but no good ever came of it.

Still, month after month, I struggled on.

When my heart grew faint I would make my way to the tomb by the palm-trees.

There, standing by the dead casket from which the jewel had been rifled, I would feel her sweet presence, and would whisper to her that I would rejoin her if mortal wit could solve the riddle.

“Parmes had said that his discovery was connected with the ring of Thoth.

I had some remembrance of the trinket.

It was a large and weighty circlet, made, not of gold, but of a rarer and heavier metal brought from the mines of Mount Harbal.

Platinum, you call it.

The ring had, I remembered, a hollow crystal set in it, in which some few drops of liquid might be stored.

Now, the secret of Parmes could not have to do with the metal alone, for there were many rings of that metal in the Temple.

Was it not more likely that he had stored his precious poison within the cavity of the crystal?

I had scarce come to this conclusion before, in hunting through his papers, I came upon one which told me that it was indeed so, and that there was still some of the liquid unused.

“But how to find the ring?

It was not upon him when he was stripped for the embalmer.

Of that I made sure.

Neither was it among his private effects.

In vain I searched every room that he had entered, every box, and vase, and chattel that he had owned.

I sifted the very sand of the desert in the places where he had been wont to walk; but, do what I would, I could come upon no traces of the ring of Thoth.

Yet it may be that my labours would have overcome all obstacles had it not been for a new and unlooked-for misfortune.

“A great war had been waged against the Hyksos, and the Captains of the Great King had been cut off in the desert, with all their bowmen and horsemen.

The shepherd tribes were upon us like the locusts in a dry year.

From the wilderness of Shur to the great bitter lake there was blood by day and fire by night.

Abaris was the bulwark of Egypt, but we could not keep the savages back.

The city fell.

The Governor and the soldiers were put to the sword, and I, with many more, was led away into captivity.

“For years and years I tended cattle in the great plains by the Euphrates.

My master died, and his son grew old, but I was still as far from death as ever.

At last I escaped upon a swift camel, and made my way back to Egypt.

The Hyksos had settled in the land which they had conquered, and their own King ruled over the country.

Abaris had been torn down, the city had been burned, and of the great Temple there was nothing left save an unsightly mound.

Everywhere the tombs had been rifled and the monuments destroyed.

Of my Atma’s grave no sign was left.

It was buried in the sands of the desert, and the palm-trees which marked the spot had long disappeared.

The papers of Parmes and the remains of the Temple of Thoth were either destroyed or scattered far and wide over the deserts of Syria.

All search after them was vain.

“From that time I gave up all hope of ever finding the ring or discovering the subtle drug.

I set myself to live as patiently as might be until the effect of the elixir should wear away.

How can you understand how terrible a thing time is, you who have experience only of the narrow course which lies between the cradle and the grave!

I know it to my cost, I who have floated down the whole stream of history.

I was old when Ilium fell.

I was very old when Herodotus came to Memphis.

I

was bowed down with years when the new gospel came upon earth.

Yet you see me much as other men are, with the cursed elixir still sweetening my blood, and guarding me against that which I would court.

Now at last, at last I have come to the end of it!

“I have travelled in all lands and I have dwelt with all nations.

Every tongue is the same to me.

I learned them all to help pass the weary time.

I need not tell you how slowly they drifted by, the long dawn of modern civilisation, the dreary middle years, the dark times of barbarism.

They are all behind me now, I have never looked with the eyes of love upon another woman.

Atma knows that I have been constant to her.

“It was my custom to read all that the scholars had to say upon Ancient Egypt.

I have been in many positions, sometimes affluent, sometimes poor, but I have always found enough to enable me to buy the journals which deal with such matters.

Some nine months ago I was in San Francisco, when I read an account of some discoveries made in the neighbourhood of Abaris.

My heart leapt into my mouth as I read it.

It said that the excavator had busied himself in exploring some tombs recently unearthed.

In one there had been found an unopened mummy with an inscription upon the outer case setting forth that it contained the body of the daughter of the Governor of the city in the days of Tuthmosis.

It added that on removing the outer case there had been exposed a large platinum ring set with a crystal, which had been laid upon the breast of the embalmed woman.

This, then was where Parmes had hid the ring of Thoth.

He might well say that it was safe, for no Egyptian would ever stain his soul by moving even the outer case of a buried friend.

“That very night I set off from San Francisco, and in a few weeks I found myself once more at Abaris, if a few sand-heaps and crumbling walls may retain the name of the great city.

I hurried to the Frenchmen who were digging there and asked them for the ring.

They replied that both the ring and the mummy had been sent to the Boulak Museum at Cairo.

To Boulak I went, but only to be told that Mariette Bey had claimed them and had shipped them to the Louvre.

I followed them, and there at last, in the Egyptian chamber, I came, after close upon four thousand years, upon the remains of my Atma, and upon the ring for which I had sought so long.

“But how was I to lay hands upon them?

How was I to have them for my very own?

It chanced that the office of attendant was vacant.

I went to the Director.

I convinced him that I knew much about Egypt.

In my eagerness I said too much.

He remarked that a Professor’s chair would suit me better than a seat in the Conciergerie.

I knew more, he said, than he did.

It was only by blundering, and letting him think that he had over-estimated my knowledge, that I prevailed upon him to let me move the few effects which I have retained into this chamber.

It is my first and my last night here.

“Such is my story, Mr. Vansittart Smith.

I need not say more to a man of your perception.

By a strange chance you have this night looked upon the face of the woman whom I loved in those far-off days.

There were many rings with crystals in the case, and I had to test for the platinum to be sure of the one which I wanted.

A glance at the crystal has shown me that the liquid is indeed within it, and that I shall at last be able to shake off that accursed health which has been worse to me than the foulest disease.

I have nothing more to say to you.

I have unburdened myself.

You may tell my story or you may withhold it at your pleasure.

The choice rests with you.

I owe you some amends, for you have had a narrow escape of your life this night.

I was a desperate man, and not to be baulked in my purpose.

Had I seen you before the thing was done, I might have put it beyond your power to oppose me or to raise an alarm.

This is the door.

It leads into the Rue de Rivoli.

Good night!

” The Englishman glanced back.

For a moment the lean figure of Sosra the Egyptian stood framed in the narrow doorway.

The next the door had slammed, and the heavy rasping of a bolt broke on the silent night.

It was on the second day after his return to London that Mr. John Vansittart Smith saw the following concise narrative in the Paris correspondence of the Times:-- “Curious Occurrence in the Louvre.

--Yesterday morning a strange discovery was made in the principal Egyptian Chamber.

The ouvriers who are employed to clean out the rooms in the morning found one of the attendants lying dead upon the floor with his arms round one of the mummies.

So close was his embrace that it was only with the utmost difficulty that they were separated.

One of the cases containing valuable rings had been opened and rifled.

The authorities are of opinion that the man was bearing away the mummy with some idea of selling it to a private collector, but that he was struck down in the very act by long-standing disease of the heart.

It is said that he was a man of uncertain age and eccentric habits, without any living relations to mourn over his dramatic and untimely end.

” *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAPTAIN OF THE POLESTAR, AND OTHER TALES *** Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will be renamed.

Creating the works from print editions not protected by U. S.

copyright law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and you!

) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties.

Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ concept and trademark.

Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use of the Project Gutenberg trademark.

If you do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very easy.

You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and research.

Project Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected by U. S.

copyright law.

Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.

START: FULL LICENSE

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project Gutenberg License available with this file or online at www.

gutenberg.

org/license.

Section 1.

General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg electronic works 1. A.

By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property (trademark/copyright) agreement.

If you do not agree to abide by all the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg electronic works in your possession.

If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project Gutenberg electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1. E.

8. 1. B.

“Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark.

It may only be used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.

There are a few things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg electronic works even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.

See paragraph 1. C below.

There are a lot of things you can do with Project Gutenberg electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg electronic works.

See paragraph 1. E below.

1. C.

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project Gutenberg electronic works.

Nearly all the individual works in the collection are in the public domain in the United States.

If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the United States and you are located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg are removed.

Of course, we hope that you will support the Project Gutenberg mission of promoting free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg name associated with the work.

You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg License when you share it without charge with others.

1. D.

The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern what you can do with this work.

Copyright laws in most countries are in a constant state of change.

If you are outside the United States, check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project Gutenberg work.

The Foundation makes no representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any country other than the United States.

1. E.

Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: 1. E.

1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg License must appear prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg work (any work on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, copied or distributed: This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.

You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg™ License included with this eBook or online at www.

gutenberg.

org.

If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

1. E.

2. If an individual Project Gutenberg electronic work is derived from texts not protected by U. S.