"Something "--Karamaneh paused, shuddering violently--"some dreadful
thing, like a mummy escaped from its tomb, came into my room to-night
through the port-hole...."
"Through the port-hole?" echoed Dr. Stacey amazedly.
"Yes, yes, through the port-hole! A creature tall and very, very thin.
He wore wrappings--yellow wrappings, swathed about his head, so that
only his eyes, his evil gleaming eyes, were visible.... From waist to
knees he was covered, also, but his body, his feet, and his legs were
bare...."
"Was he--?" I began.
"He was a brown man, yes." Karamaneh, divining my question, nodded,
and the shimmering cloud of her wonderful hair, hastily confined,
burst free and rippled about her shoulders. "A gaunt, fleshless brown
man, who bent, and writhed bony fingers--so!"
"A thug!" I cried.
"He--it--the mummy thing--would have strangled me if I had slept, for
he crouched over the berth--seeking--seeking...."
I clenched my teeth convulsively.
"But I was sitting up--"
"With the light on?" interrupted Stacey in surprise.
"No," added Karamaneh; "the light was out." She turned her eyes toward
me, as the wonderful blush overspread her face once more. "I was
sitting thinking. It all happened within a few seconds, and quite
silently. As the mummy crouched over the berth, I unlocked the door
and leapt out into the passage. I think I screamed; I did not mean to.
Oh, Dr. Stacey, there is not a moment to spare! Mr.
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