"Trying to teach me a lesson in patience, Sir Joseph?" "Method is everything in archaeology." "We always deal with our finds of the day in order." "Well, it seems to me that that box we dug up today, with the very peculiar gentleman over there, is the only find we've made in two months that'll bring this expedition medals from the British Museum." "We didn't come to dig in Egypt for medals." "Much more is learned from bits of broken pottery than from all the sensational finds." "Our job is to increase the sum of human knowledge of the past, not to satisfy our own curiosity." "Oh, that's all very true, Sir Joseph, but, after all, we're human." " And a find like this!" "How can you wait?" " This is your first trip." "I've been here ten years." "I'm more curious about the mummy than you." "And even more about that box." " Whemple." " Yes?" "The viscera were not removed." "The usual scar made by the embalmer's knife is not there." "I guessed as much, Muller." "I had a good look at him when I photographed him." "Never saw a mummy like that." "Neither, I imagine, has anyone else." "Looks as though he died in some sensationally unpleasant manner." "The contorted muscles show that he struggled in the bandages." "Buried alive?" ""Imhotep"." ""High Priest of the Temple of the Sun at Karnak"." "Poor old fella." "Now, what could you have done to make 'em treat you like that?" "An execution for treason, I suppose." "Sacrilege, more likely." "Look." "Sacred spells which protect the soul in its journey to the underworld have been chipped off the coffin." "So Imhotep was sentenced to death not only in this world, but in the next." "Maybe he got too gay with the vestal virgins in the temple." "Possibly." "The priestesses of the Temple of Karnak were daughters of the Pharaoh." "They were the secret virgins of Isis." "Maybe the answer's in that box we found buried with him." "I see I shall get no more work out of you until after it's open." " Come on." " Let's have the box." "Oh dear." "The wood's so rotten it'll fall apart at a touch." "Whatever it is, it's terribly heavy." "Metal." "Looks like copper." "It's gold." "I say." "Look here." "The unbroken seals of the Pharaoh Amenophis." "Some temple treasure." ""Death, eternal punishment, for..." "anyone... who... opens... this... casket."" ""In the name of Amon-Ra, the king of the gods."" "Good heavens, what a terrible curse!" " Well, let's see what's inside!" " Wait!" "You will break the curse." "We recognise your mastery of the occult sciences, Muller." "But your beliefs can't interfere with my work." " Then why did you send for me today?" " As a friend and an expert." "This find was unique and I wanted your opinion." " It's providential that you did." " Oh, come, Dr Muller." "Surely a few thousand years in the earth take the mumbo jumbo off any old curse." "Oh, I cannot speak before a boy." "Come out under the stars of Egypt." "Do not touch that casket." "Go on with your cataloguing." "We'll open it later." "Don't think you can persuade me not to examine the most wonderful find of my whole experience out here." "If you are right about the legend, then this casket may contain the Scroll of Thoth, from the holy of holies in the temple, and I can hardly wait to get back to find out." "The gods of Egypt still live in these hills, in their ruined temples." "The ancient spells are weaker, but some of them are still potent." "And I believe that you have in your hut the Scroll of Thoth itself, which contains the great spell with which Isis raised Osiris from the dead." "Put it back." "Bury it where you found it." "You have read the curse." "You dare defy it?" "In the interests of science, even if I believed in the curse," "I'd go on with my work for the museum." "Come back with me and we'll examine this great find together." "I cannot condone an act of sacrilege with my presence." "What's the matter, man?" "For heaven's sakes, what is it?" "He..." "He went for a little walk!" "You should have seen his face!" "Here's something to break the monotony." "A visitor coming from the Nile." " Colour?" "Nationality?" " How could I see in that glare?" "Well, Whemple, back we go to London." "And what fools we look." "Money wasted." "Hole after hole dug in this blasted desert." "A few beads." "A few broken pots." "A man needs more than hard work for this game." "He needs flair." "He needs luck." "Like your father." "When he came here, there wasn't so much competition." "When he did, he found things." "And once, ten years ago, he found too much." "Was it ten years?" "Queer story, that young Oxford chap he had with him going mad." " You know what I think it was?" " No." "What?" "He went crazy." "Bored beyond human endurance in this sand and these rocks." "He was laughing when your father found him." "He died laughing, in a straitjacket." "Your father never explained." "But when the best excavator England has turned out, a man who loved Egypt, said he'd never come back here, that meant something." "Come in." "You break your season's camp, Professor Pearson?" "Your colleagues have returned to London?" "Yes." "Whemple and I stayed behind to clear up." "Your expedition has not been a success." "Scarcely." "Here are the season's finds." "Permit me to present you with the most sensational find since that of Tutankhamen." "This is very sporting of you!" "May I ask why?" "We Egyptians are not permitted to dig up our ancient dead." "Only... foreign museums." "What's this?" "Part of the funerary equipment of the princess Anck-es-en-Amon." " Daughter of Amenophis the Magnificent." " Yes." "It's her name." "I found that not 100 yards from where we are." " You mean you think her tomb is there?" " I will show you where to dig." "I'm sure it's very good of you, Mr...?" "I didn't catch your name." "Ardath Bey." "Circumstantial evidence." "Not very strong, perhaps." "But if we put that gang of diggers from Kerma on the job, we can tell in two days if there's anything here." "In one day, Professor." " It's a step." " He was right." "Anyhow, we've found something." " The name of Anck-es-en-Amon." " We will cable your father in London." "He must be here when we examine this great find." "The seal of the seven jackals." "And it's unbroken." "No one has entered this door since the priests of the royal acropolis sealed it." "3700 years ago." "Is there a view like this in all the world, Helen?" "The real Egypt." "Are we really in this dreadful modern Cairo?" "Your thoughts are far from the dance and these nice English boys." "Not really." "I'm having a lovely time." " I'm so grateful." " But why?" "Your keeping me here with you, of course." "So I don't have to go up to Father in that beastly hot Sudan." "It's I who am grateful." "My most interesting patient." "Know who that is?" " Muller of Vienna." " Really?" "Always spends his winters here." "Authority on Egyptian occult." " Yes, but the girl?" " Helen Grosvenor." "Her father's governor of the Sudan." "English, of course." "Her mother, Egyptian." "Some old family with a tree a mile long." "She's staying here with Dr and Mrs Muller." "Pardon me, sir." "Our closing bell has rung." "I did not notice the time." " I am addressing Sir Joseph Whemple?" " Yes." " I am Ardath Bey." " Indeed!" "Why, we have you to thank that we have this exhibit here at all." "The museum should be kept open all night in your honour." "Won't you come down to my office?" "I'm working here late." "Your pardon." "I dislike to be touched." "An Eastern prejudice." "Won't you sit down?" "You know my son?" "Ardath Bey." "Where did you disappear to when we opened the tomb?" "I returned to Cairo." "But... but now I must not detain you." "But I must see you again." "You must come to my house." "I regret I am too occupied to accept invitations." "He's a strange one." "You might have thanked him." "He was responsible for finding the princess." "Yes." "I rather wish he hadn't been." "It's a dirty trick, Cairo Museum keeping what we've found." "That was the contract." "The British Museum works for science, not for loot." "Anck-es-en-Amon." "Anck-es-en-Amon." "Anck-es-en-Amon." "Is anything the matter?" "Anck-es-en-Amon." "Anck-es-en-Amon." "Where do you want to go, miss?" "Le musée des Antiquités." "Le musée des Antiquités." "Imhotep." "Anck-es-en-Amon." "Anck-es-en-Amon." "Imhotep." "Imhotep." "I must get in." "Anck-es-en-Amon." " I must!" " It's closed for the night." "They've gone." "I must get in." "Imhotep." "Imhotep." "Imhotep." "What's she saying?" "What language is that?" "The language of ancient Egypt." "Not heard on this earth for 2000 years." "And the name of a man unspoken since before the siege of Troy." " Is your master at home?" " Yes, sir." "Tell him Dr Muller wishes to see him urgently." " How did I get here?" " We brought you here." "Father and I." "You fainted." "But how did you guess she was here?" "I discovered that she took a taxi from the hotel to the museum." "I went there." "The watchman said she had left in your car." "Before you take her away, I must talk to you about something she said just now." " Oh, Dr Muller." " Oh, here you are, my dear." "I suppose you introduced yourself?" "No?" "Miss Helen Grosvenor, my old friend Sir Joseph Whemple, Frank Whemple." "That seems so formal under these peculiar circumstances." "And now, if you're all right again, back we go to the hotel." "I think she'll want to rest a few minutes." "Frank, will you make yourself agreeable?" "Well..." "Where was I when I fainted, Mr Whemple?" " Oh, outside the museum." " What was I doing there?" "Well, I wouldn't know that, would I?" "No, I don't suppose you would." "I wish I did." " I was waiting..." " Let's not talk about it." "Oh, right." " You're partly Egyptian, aren't you?" " Yes." "How did you guess that?" "Well, I don't know." "Just something about you." "I'd have liked Egypt better if I'd met you there." "No such luck!" "Stuck in the desert for two months, and was it hot!" " That tomb." " What tomb?" "Surely you read about the princess?" " So you did that?" " Yes." "The 14 steps down and the unbroken seals were thrilling." "But when we came to handle all her clothes, her jewels and her toilet things..." "They buried everything with them they used in life." " When we came to unwrap the girl..." " How could you do that?" "Had to!" "Science, you know!" "Well, after we'd worked among her things, I felt as if I'd known her." "But when we got the wrappings off, and I saw her face..." "You'll think me silly, but I sort of fell in love with her." "Do you have to open graves to find girls to fall in love with?" "I say." "Now I know what it is about you." "There was something about her head..." "I had never mentioned the name, yet I heard Miss Grosvenor mutter in ancient Egyptian something about Imhotep." "Imhotep?" "What was this Ardath doing in the museum?" "Looking at the mummy." "Just at closing time." "Hello?" "What?" "Il est mort?" "Tout de suite, effendi." "Come." "A museum guard found dead in the room with the princess." "Fear." "Fear." "So he died of shock." "We find this in dead guard's hand, Sir Joseph." "Probably thief tried to steal it." "Guard take it away, thief kill him." "The cause of death, I not find nothing." "Looks like an attempted theft, but nothing stolen here could be sold." "What is the document?" "Let me put this here." "You'll be more comfortable." "Thanks." "You really want to know why I didn't take you to the hospital?" " Because, when I held you in my arms..." " Hadn't you better not commit yourself?" "What girl could not make a conquest who collapsed at a man's feet in moonlight?" "It seems absurd when we've known each other such a short time, but I'm serious." "Haven't I had enough excitement for one evening, without the additional thrill of a strange man making love to me?" "But I've never been serious about this sort of thing before." "Now, look here." "You can tell me to go to the devil, but you can't laugh at me." "The curse has struck her, and now, through her, it will strike my son." "Quiet." "Frank, will you come to your father's study?" "Helen, I shall take you home presently." "I'll be back in a minute." "Imhotep was alive when that mummy in the museum was a vestal virgin in the temple." "3700 years ago!" "What's that got to do with us now?" "Your assistant who went insane and died, as you might have if you'd seen what he saw, made a transcription of part of that scroll." "Yes." "I have it still." "You seem to think it has all the devils of hell in it." "Burn it and be done with it." "An excellent suggestion." "What became of the mummy of Imhotep?" "Somebody stole it!" "Look, what's the matter with Miss Grosvenor?" "You still think that that mummy was stolen, Sir Joseph?" "Yes." "I..." "I really don't know." "A thousand pardons." "I am Ardath Bey." "I am Helen Grosvenor." "I called to see Sir Joseph." " He's in the study." " In conference?" "If I might perhaps wait?" "Yes." "Of course." "Have we not met before, Miss Grosvenor?" "No." "I don't think so." "I don't think one would forget meeting you, Ardath Bey." "Then I am mistaken." "But you are of our blood." "As to that, I am not mistaken." "Yes." "My mother was Egyptian." "You must burn the Scroll of Thoth!" "I tell you, it's the museum's property, not mine." "Who's out there with Miss Grosvenor?" "Ardath Bey!" "He's come for the scroll." "Ardath Bey, Dr Muller." "I accept your invitation." "But I find no solitary student with his books." "I fear my visit is inopportune." "On the contrary." "We were just talking about..." " Me?" " Your native Egypt." "You know Miss Grosvenor?" "Ardath Bey introduced himself." "Won't you be seated?" "Sir Joseph was just wondering how you knew where the tomb of the princess Anck-es-en-Amon was hidden." "Partly inference, partly chance." "Sir Joseph, you seem disturbed." "Yes." "A tragedy at the museum after you left." "Tragedy?" "When I was there..." "When you were there, Miss Grosvenor?" "Yes." "They told me I went there and tried to get in after it was closed." "I don't remember, but..." "Helen, it is very late." "Frank, will you please see Helen back to the hotel?" " Certainly, if Miss Grosvenor will let me." " I don't want to go." "After what happened, you need rest badly." "But I don't." "I was tired, but..." "Why, I've never felt so alive before!" " As your doctor, I must order you to go." " I'm not a child." "Yes, please come." "Then, Ardath Bey, au revoir." "We must see each other again." "I shall be honoured." "An unusual crime." "A guard killed by a man who left a gift to the museum." " A gift?" " A scroll." "Part of which was transcribed when it was first found." "Here is the transcription." "I cannot read the writing of a period so remote." "But you read "Anck-es-en-Amon" on that piece of pottery." "That was of the 18th dynasty." "These are pre-dynastic ideographs." "The scroll from which this was copied was stolen ten years ago, together with the mummy of the high priest Imhotep." "Most interesting." "May I see that scroll, Sir Joseph?" "We left it at the... museum." " So." " I have something else to show you." "A photograph." "Why do you show all this to me?" "Do you think it conceivable that the mummy was not stolen, but given a semblance of life by the spell of the scroll?" "That scroll is my property." "I bought it from a dealer." "It is here in this house." "I presume, in that room." "We had foreseen this." "The scroll is in safe hands." "It will be destroyed the minute it is known that harm has come to us." "You have studied our ancient arts, and you know that you cannot harm me." "You also know that you must return that scroll to me or die." "Now tell that weak fool to get that scroll, wherever it is, and hand it to his Nubian servant." " The Nubian!" " The ancient blood." "So you have made him your slave." "If I could get my hands on you, I'd break your dried flesh to pieces." "But your power is too strong." "This is the evil force that has been attacking her." "Burn the scroll, man." "Burn it!" "It was through you this horror came into existence." "It's true." "It's true." "Your father destroyed the scroll, knowing that it would cost him his life." "What's that?" "Isis." "The Egyptian symbol of life." "I meant it for your father." "What good could that old charm have done him?" "I tell you, the doctors say it's plainly heart failure." "The Nubian is missing." "He's an old servant." "He's frightened." "He'll be back." "Don't try and make me believe that this Ardath fellow is a mummy come to life." "That idea, and the horror of it, killed my father." "The museum guard died of natural causes, too." "Frank, I need your help." "I saw your attraction to my patient last night, and hers to you." " Hers to me?" "Do you really think so?" " And I welcomed it." "But do you think I have a chance?" "Cos I think she's the most won..." " Oh, but this is terrible at a time like this..." " Frank, I'm afraid." " Will you go with me to her now?" " Yes." "Then telephone her first, not to leave the hotel." "9590." "No." "I'm not going out." "Yes." "I promise to wait until you get here." "Goodbye." "And I'm so dreadfully sorry." "What were you doing, Doctor?" "Your father did not burn the Scroll of Thoth." "That creature has it now." " The ashes in the fireplace!" " They were newspaper." "The scroll is papyrus." "Then it was murder?" "The Nubian!" "Wear this around your neck." " Why?" " When we fight this creature, we must ask protection from the forces of all that it defied." " I'll give it to Helen." "She needs protection." " No, her life is not in danger." "It is her soul." "Should love for you come to her, he will try to destroy you." "That amulet, the Egyptians believed, was a charm against evil sendings, such as struck down your father." "Your dog is frightened." "My servant will see to him." "Sit down, Miss Grosvenor." "Ancient Egypt." "Nothing modern." "What a strange incense." "Is it not familiar to you?" " No." " Our forefathers used it." "Yours and mine." "You will not remember what I show you now, and yet I shall awaken memories of love and crime and death." "I knelt by the bed of death." "Thy father's last farewell." "I knew the Scroll of Thoth could bring thee back to life." "I dared the god's anger, and stole it." "I stole back to thy tomb to bring thee back to life." "I murmured the spell that raises the dead." "They broke in upon me and found me doing an unholy thing." "Thy father condemned me to the nameless death." "The scroll he ordered buried with me, that no such sacrilege might disgrace Egypt again." "A nameless grave." "The slaves were killed so that none should know." "The soldiers who killed them were also slain, so no friend could creep to the desert with funeral offerings for my condemned spirit." "Anck-es-en-Amon." "My love has lasted longer than the temples of our gods." "No man ever suffered as I did for you." "The rest you may not know." "Not until you are about to pass through the great night of terror and triumph, until you are ready to face moments of horror for an eternity of love," "until I send back your spirit, that has wandered through so many forms and so many ages." "But, before then, Bast must again send forth death." "Death to that boy for whom love is creeping into your heart." "Love that would keep you from myself." "Love that might bring sickness and even death to you." "Awake." "Have I been asleep?" "I had strange dreams." "Dreams of ancient Egypt, I think." "There was someone like you in them." "My pool is sometimes troubled." "One sees strange fantasies in the water." "But they pass like dreams." "My dog!" "Wolfram!" "Wolfram!" "Where is he?" "Helen." "Helen!" "Where have you been?" "We've been so worried." "We've hunted everywhere." " In the museum again?" " Yes." "Muller's down in the Arab quarter now." "Well, if I must give an explanation, it was stuffy in here." "I can't be shut up all the time." "And I don't like the feeling I'm always being watched." " I took the dog with me." " Where is the dog?" "He's dead." " But how?" " I don't know." " Well, where?" " I don't remember." "But I can see it now." "Standing on poor Wolfram's back." " A white cat." " A white cat?" "The cat-goddess Bast!" "Yes, there was a statue of Bast." "The goddess of evil sendings!" "Just what happened?" "Try to remember, Helen!" "I don't want to remember." "Besides, I don't see it's any affair of yours." "Oh, but it is." "We know that you were with Ardath Bey." "Oh, Helen." "Helen, I love you." "I'm trying to help you and protect you." "We all are." "Don't let me go again." "I'll try to get away, but you mustn't let me." "No matter what I do or what I say." "There's death there for me." "And life for something else inside me that isn't me." "But it's alive too, and fighting for life." "Save me from it, Frank." "Save me." "Oh, everything's going to be all right." "Now that you've asked for help, I'll never leave you alone." "I'll get Mrs Muller down here with you, and I'll stay here till the doctor comes." "Then, we'll take you to my house." "Oh, Helen." "It's been such torture." "I love you so." "I don't like that doctor." "Please go in there and find out what he's saying about me." "I will, my dear." "He'll know just what's the matter with you and cure you." "Now, don't worry." "Now, Miss Farthing, help me to get dressed and get out of here." " Come over you again, Miss Grosvenor?" " I must escape." "I'm being held." "Help me." "You told me, when these fits came on I wasn't to listen." "I have a friend." "He's rich." "He'll give you money." "Now you just lie down again." "You know you mustn't get up." "If you don't want money, what do you want most?" "He'll give you anything, if only you'll help me to go to him." "Do you want me to call Dr Muller?" " No." "I hate him." " Mr Whemple, then?" "I'll die if I don't get away from him!" " Now, Miss Grosvenor." " It's killing me!" "Now, Helen, you must not do this again." "You're always so exhausted afterwards." "She's too weak to be removed except to a hospital." "I insist on keeping her here under our direct observation." "But, Doctor, you haven't told us what to do." "She gets weaker every day." "You know that negligée I bought in Paris?" "Help me to put it on." "And bring me my toilet things." "I want some colour." "I want to look well." "You can't, my dear." "They'd never allow it." " The nurse would be sure..." " I know." "We'll get rid of her." "This is a plot, just between us." "I want to look the way I did." "Just a surprise, for Frank." "And I want you to bring him to me." "You understand?" "In short, I have failed to make a diagnosis." "Medical science is helpless in a case like this." "Frank." "Go to her, and don't be angry with me." "I couldn't resist her." "Helen, you shouldn't have done this." "They shouldn't have let you." "Just this once." "Perhaps the last time." "But you're going to get well." "Then I know I can make you love me." "I know I can make you happy." "I do love you, Frank." "And I'm trying to prove it, because I'd rather die than live and lose you." "But you're going to live." "We're not going to lose each other." " So, my dear." "You..." " Don't scold me." "Just feminine vanity." "I wanted to look my best again." "So you know more than I realised you knew." " What do you mean?" " These impulses to go to him." "The pull is too strong to withstand and live." "I am so glad you understand." "Helen knows." "She knows the moment she stops struggling, he will give her back her strength to come to him." "But I don't want to lose my own mind and be someone else." "Someone I hate." "My dear, while you were growing worse, we tried to find him and failed." "The next time the call comes, go to him." "Muller, what can we do now?" "We can do no more." "Ardath has beaten me." "The next time he draws her to him, we must follow her." " And then?" " We will destroy him." "I've given her some bromide." "She's asleep now." "I'll go to bed." " All right." "I'll wait till Dr Muller comes." " Good night." "Good night." "Where are we?" "This is my bed, but this is not the temple, nor my father's palace." "Do not look, Anck-es-en-Amon." "Do not be afraid." "I was afraid." "When you knelt beside my bed, a veil came over my eyes." "Darkness." "Your last memory is of me in the hour of your death as I knelt by your bed, 3700 years ago." "No man has ever suffered for woman as you suffered for me." " Now that the gods have forgiven us..." " No, no, not yet." "Your soul is in a mortal body, renewed many times since we loved in Thebes of old." "But that love is not for us again until the great change." "I do not understand." "Look." " Look and wonder." " A figure of myself." "It is my coffin, made by my father against my death." "What mummy has usurped my eternal resting place?" "It is thy dead shell." "I tried then to raise this body." "I could raise it now, but it would be a mere thing that moved at my will, without a soul." "It was not only this body that I loved, it was thy soul." "I destroy this lifeless thing." "Thou shalt take its place but for a few moments, and then rise again, even as I have risen." "Come." "Imhotep, this is the place of embalming." "It is not lawful for me, a priestess of Isis, to see or touch an unclean thing." "Come to the altar of Anubis, the guide of the dead." "The time has come for the final prayer." "What have I to do with Anubis?" "The ancient rites must be performed over thy body." "Then I will read the great spell with which" "Isis brought Osiris back from the grave." "And thou shalt rise again." "No." "No, I'm alive!" "I'm young!" "I won't die!" "I loved you once, but now you belong with the dead." "I am Anck-es-en-Amon, but I..." "I'm somebody else too." "I want to live, even in a strange new world." "For thy sake I was buried alive." "I ask of thee only a moment of agony." "Only so can we be united." "The bath of natron." "You shall not plunge my body into that." "Let the deed be done." "Let me go." "Let me go!" "Don't kill me!" "I'm a priestess of Isis." "Save me from that mummy!" "It's dead!" "Save me!" "I no longer fear you." "Do with me what you will." "Frank." "Frank!" "She has gone to him." "They must be in the museum." "Now I know his horrible plan." "He is going to kill her, and make her a living mummy like himself." "The gods will receive into the underworld the spirit of Anck-es-en-Amon." "But not for long." "Osiris will release thy soul." "You shall rest from life, like the setting sun in the west." "But you shall dawn anew in the east, as the first rays of Amon-Ra dispel the shadow." "Look!" "What's that?" "Come on." "Anck-es-en-Amon." "Frank!" "Frank!" "Helen!" "Helen!" "Helen." "O Isis, holy maiden." "I was thy consecrated vestal." "I broke my vows." "Save me now!" "Teach me the ancient summons, the holy spells I've forgotten." "I call upon thee as of old!" "Helen!" "Call her." "He has dragged her back to ancient Egypt." "Call her!" "Her love for you may bridge the centuries." "Helen." "Helen!" "Come back." "It's Frank." "Come back."