thee.'

"She ceased, but no answer came. Still the cold Osiris smiled, and still
the body on his knee sat with open eyes gazing into nothingness.

"'Not thus easily,' I whispered, 'may this dreadful thing be done. Thou
art instructed in the Word of Fear. If thou darest, let it pass thy
lips, or let us be gone.'

"'Nay, it shall be spoken,' she said--and thus she wrought. Passing to
the statue she hid her head within her cloak and with both hands grasped
the feet of the slain Hataska.

"Seeing this I also crouched upon the floor and hid my face, for it is
death to hear that Word with an uncovered face.

"Then in so soft a whisper that scarce had its breath stirred a feather
on her lips, Meriamun spoke the Word of Fear which may not be written,
whose sound has power to pass all space and open the ears of the dead
who dwell in Amenti. Softly she said it, for in a shout of thunder it
was caught up and echoed from her lips, and down the eternal halls it
seemed to rush on the feet of storm and the wings of wind, so that
the roof rocked and the deep foundations of the Temple quivered like a
wind-stirred tree.

"'Unveil, ye mortals!' cried a dreadful voice, 'and look upon the sight
of fear that ye have dared to summon.'

"And I rose and cast my cloak from about my face and gazed, then sank
down in terror. For round about the circle that I had drawn pressed all