the multitude of the dead; countless as the desert sands they pressed,
gazing with awful eyes upon us twain. And the fire that was on the altar
died away, but yet was there light, for it shone from those dead eyes,
and in the eyes of lost Hataska there was light.

"And ever the faces changed, never for one beat of time did they cease
to change. For as we gazed upon a face it would melt, even to the eyes,
and round these same eyes again would gather but no more the same. And
like the sloping sides of pyramids were the faces set about us from the
ground to the Temple roof--and on us were fixed their glowing eyes.

"And I, Rei, being instructed, knew that to suffer myself to be overcome
with terror was death, as it was death to pass without the circle. So in
my heart I called upon Osiris, Lord of the Dead, to protect us, and even
as I named the ineffable name, lo! all the thousand thousand faces bent
themselves in adoration and then, turning, looked each upon the other
even as though each spake to each, and changed, and swiftly changed.

"'Meriamun,' I said, gathering up my strength, 'fear not, but beware!'

"'Nay, wherefore should I fear,' she answered, 'because the veil of
sense is torn, and for an hour we see those who are ever about our path
and whose eyes watch our most secret thought continually? I fear not.'
And she stepped boldly, even to the edge of the circle, and cried:

"'All hail, ye Sahus, spirits of the awful dead, among whom I also shall
be numbered.'

"And as she came the changing faces shrunk away, leaving a space before
her. And in the space there grew two arms, mighty and black, that