Page:Weird Tales volume 36 number 02.djvu/114



HE Book of the Dead no longer exists save in my mind," replied Ramahadin calmly. "I destroyed it—its translation and its secret formulae."

"You what?" gasped Professor Blythe, and his eyes turned toward the safe.

"That was only too easy to open," said the Egyptian. "I felt that you men were not great enough, not worthy enough, if you will, to have such a secret in your possession."

"Other secrets of yours I have," shouted Professor Shepard whose anger had prevented his speaking at the Egyptian's portentous announcement. "I shall use them as I will—to destroy or save mankind as I decide."

"One great secret of my knowledge you can never possess," announced Ramahadin, "because it is of the spirit, not of the intellect."

"I know the Law of Taxeticon," said Shepard. "That will neutralize the power of high explosive."

"You know only a part of it," replied Ramahadin.

"You instructed me in the theories of harnessing the pull of gravity," retorted Shepard. "That will govern all airship construction."

"Such knowledge must be shared, Shepard, such was our agreement," broke in Professor Blythe.

"It is mine, and mine alone now," cried Shepard. "I can use it as I will. Ramahadin has shared with me the hypnotic powers of his cult of High Priests; I can rule men's minds. He has given me the secret formula by which Gravitas and his medieval college of mind doctors changed human brains; I can mold men's very souls. He has shown me the secrets of the power of the stars over the movements of vessels upon the sea.

"From here in America I shall rule the world; I, Emory Shepard, shall be more powerful than Hitler, wiser than—"

"It is true," broke in Ramahadin, "I have told you much—too much, I realize—but from it all you have not learned the greatest lesson of all, that it is not wise to shout aloud your knowledge. We realize the danger of your power my friend, and that in itself reduces much of its value.

"Let me tell you that since I have gone about this country of yours, I have become convinced that in it is the spirit which will save the world of the future—and nothing as puny as you will stand between it and its purpose. I have spoken!"

Even as his voice faded out, Ramahadin seemed to take on the stature of the priest of old and his listeners were as awed and incapable of speech or action as were his satellites of untold centuries before.

When the spell was broken, Shepard lay on the sofa in a coma and his breathing was scarcely perceptible.

"When he wakes up," said Ramahadin, "his mind will be a blank. He should not have challenged the lore of all the ages. It is too bad I had to destroy all his present knowledge, but he was too weak a man to possess mine—which unfortunately I did not at first realize."

And with a shrug he dismissed the whole matter from his mind.

USAN was sitting on the hotel porch high on the mountain side. Opposite her was Eric Hanley and the man whose powers of wizardry had been demonstrated to them only a few days before. Susan herself could hardly believe that the swarthy gentleman in impeccable evening dress whose figure she could just make out in the gathering dusk, could be the same creature that her father and Professor Shepard had conjured from the past.

They had come to this mountain resort to escape the city's heat. And now in the clear air were sitting in front of the hotel watching the daylight fade. Far below