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 308 "`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