CHAPTER XV
THE ADVANCEMENT OF NITOCRIS--THE RESOLVE OF OSCAROVITCH
Franklin Marmion and Hoskins van Huysman parted that evening in what maybe described as a state of armed neutrality, but with more cordialitythan Brenda, at any rate, had hoped for. Still, they were bothgentlemen, and, moreover, the American scientist was honestly lookingforward to the discovery of some fatal flaw in the reasoning of hisEnglish rival which should leave the final triumph with him--and such atriumph would be not only final but crushing.
Brenda whirled her father and Lord Leighton--who, of course, sat besideher in front as she drove--off to supper; Merrill went to his club toruminate happily for an hour; and the hero of the evening and hisdaughter drove home almost in silence, and it was a silence for whichthere was a very sufficient reason. Such people do not talk abouttrivialities when they are thinking about much more serious concerns.
After supper Nitocris followed her father into the study, as he quiteexpected her to do, and when she had shut the door, she faced him andsaid in a voice that was not quite her own:
"Dad, there seems to me to be only one explanation of what you didto-night. I know enough mathematics to see that it is the only one. Ifyou tell me that I am wrong, of course I shall believe you--and then Ishall ask you how else you did it."
As she spoke he felt that his soul was asking itself a momentousquestion. She had guessed--or did she already know?--the Great Secret.And, if either, was she herself near enough to the dividing line betweenthe two worlds for him to tell her the truth?
He sat down in the chair before his writing-table and stared hard at hisplotting-pad for a few moments. Then he looked up at her and saw theanswer.
"Niti," he said slowly, and with a little halt between the words, "youhave asked me a question which I think some one else must answer, if itcan be answered at all. Look behind you!"
She turned swiftly, and there, almost beside her, stood--not the Mummy,but the Queen, her living other-self, royal-robed and crowned as she hadbeen in the dim past, which was now again the present.
Would she flinch or faint, or cry out with fear? If her unconscious feethad not advanced very near to the Border she would certainly do one orthe other. Indeed, it was with an inward quaking of fear for her thather father had told her to turn. It might well have meant the differencebetween sanity and insanity, knowing what she already did of the Mummyand its mysterious disappearance. But no: there before his eyes wasworked again the miracle which had already been worked in his own case,though now it was, if possible, even more marvellous than it had beenbefore. As Nitocris turned she uttered a low cry of wonder andrecognition, and held out both hands to her other twin-self. The Queentook them, and said in the Ancient Tongue, which now she understoodagain after many centuries:
"Welcome, thou who wast once myself, into this larger life to which thePerfect Knowledge hath led thee: where Time is not, and that which was,and is, and shall be are the same! Thou hast yet many days, as men callthem, to live in that limited life known as mortal, and so the mortallot, with its perils and sorrows and joys, shall yet be thine: yet,although, if the High Gods will it so, that life shall end and begin andend again many times, thou hast already won through the shadows whichbound that little life into the light of the Day which knows not dawnnor noon nor night. I who was, and thou who art, are one again!"
Then came silence. Franklin Marmion saw the two kindred shapes mergeinto each other. He closed his eyes for a moment, as he thought, andwhen he opened them again he was alone. He looked at the clock, and sawthat it was after four.
"Dear me!" he said, getting up with a shake of his shoulders, "I musthave fallen asleep. Where's Niti? Why, of course, she has been in bedfor hours, and it's about time that I got there, too."
When they met before breakfast Nitocris said to him:
"I had a very strange experience last night, Dad. I either saw, ordreamt I saw, the Mummy alive again, robed and crowned like a queen ofancient Egypt; and then we seemed to become the same person, and Iremembered that I had been Queen Nitocris of Egypt once. Then I foundmyself alone--so very much alone--in a new world which was still likethis one, only there wasn't any time. I had another sense which made meable to see past, present, and future all at once, and here and there,and up and down, and something else were all the same, and yet it didnot seem in the slightest strange to me, so I suppose it was a dream."
"It was no dream, Niti," said her father, looking at her with graveeyes. "Last night, as we have to say in the state of Three Dimensions,you had your first glimpse of the state of Four. I saw what you did."
"Ah!" she replied, without any sign of astonishment. "Then that is why Iwas able to understand your demonstrations last night when all the restwere puzzled. I didn't think I quite did then, however, but I see nowthat I did. And so I and Her Majesty are really one and the same! Itought to seem very wonderful, but somehow it doesn't in the slightest."
"I don't think that anything will seem wonderful to you now, Niti," wasthe quiet response. "But as we are at present on the lower plane ofexistence, it will be necessary for us to go to breakfast."
* * * * *
Oscarovitch and Phadrig went back after the lecture to the Prince's flatin Royal Court Mansions, which, as a bachelor and a bird of passage, hefound much more convenient in many ways than a house. He ordered hisRussian servant to make coffee for his guest, and mixed a stiffbrandy-and-soda for himself. He wanted it, for the experiences of theevening had shaken even his nerves not a little. He was essentially aman of power, both physically and mentally, of boundless ambitions andiron will, vast knowledge of the world, as he knew it, and of very highintellectual attainments; but the cast of his mind was absolutelymaterial, and therefore he both hated and feared anything which appearedto transcend the material plane to which his mental vision was atpresent entirely confined.
When the servant had left the room after bringing the coffee, he gavePhadrig a cigar, lit one himself, and said through the first puffs ofsmoke:
"Phadrig, you know, or pretend to know, more about these things than Ido, or want to do: but, still, just now I want you to tell me honestlyif you believe that Professor Marmion did really solve those problemsto-night. I ask you because I admit that the solutions went beyond therange of my mathematics."
"Highness," replied the Egyptian, speaking slowly and almost reverently,"he did. There is not, I think, another man on earth now who could havedone so; but for those who had eyes to see there could be no doubt, andyou will find that, though he has many rivals and will have countlesscritics, not one will be able either to explain his solutions or find aflaw in them."
"You did a few things that I should not have thought possible the otherday, which you claimed to be really miracles. Now, if they were, Isuppose you can explain Professor Marmion's?"
"There are no miracles, Highness: only the results of higher knowledgethan that which they who see them possess. That is why what I did seemedlike miracles to those who watched. But this Franklin Marmion, as he iscalled in this life, has attained to a higher knowledge than mine,wherefore I am able only to understand imperfectly, but not myself todo, that which he does. Yet, as the High Gods live, he did this thing;and to do it he must have passed to the higher life through the gate ofthe Perfect Knowledge."
"In other words," said the Prince, after a big gulp of hisbrandy-and-soda, "that he has solved that infernal problem of the fourthdimension you have had so much to say about. Now, granted that he hasdone so, what does it amount to as regards our world--the world ofpractical thought and real action, I mean?"
"All thought is practical, Highness," replied Phadrig, "since there canbe no action which is intelligent without thought. Wherefore, the higherthe thought the more potent the action, and so he who has the PerfectKnowledge has also the Perfect Power."
"Then, do you mean to tell me seriously--and I can hardly think that youwould trifle with me--that this man is now practically omnipotent, asfar as
we lower beings, as you seem to call us, are concerned?"
"Only the High Gods are omnipotent, Your Excellency; but, if I have seenrightly, he is as a god to us of the lower life, and therefore I wouldpray you again to utterly relinquish your lately and, as I have daredfor your sake to say, rashly-formed designs to make the Queen who was,and his daughter that is, the sharer of your future throne. Is not thePrincess Hermia noble and fair enough?"
"No, by all your gods, no!" exclaimed the Prince passionately. "Since Ihave seen the woman who, as you say, was once Queen of Egypt, there is,and shall be, no other consort for me. And who are you to advise methus? Are you still the same man who made the condition that, if youused your arts, whatever they may be, to place her in my power, sheshould be, not only my Empress, but also Queen of Egypt? What haschanged you? What has made you faithless to the promise that you gaveme in exchange for mine? If you have forgotten that, do not also forgetthat we Russians have a short way with traitors."
"What has changed me, Highness," replied Phadrig, ignoring the threat,"is the knowledge that I have gained to-night. Though you believe me ornot, the debt which I owe you makes it my duty to warn you. The matterstands thus: Nitocris, the daughter of Franklin Marmion, was the Queen.For all I know, she also may have attained to the higher life, and istherefore the Queen still, though that is a mystery beyond mycomprehension; but I do know now that her father has attained to it, andthat for this reason, unless you put this new-found love out of yourheart, you will bring yourself within the sphere of this man's power--apower mighty enough to wreck every scheme you have ever shaped, and todoom you to a fate more horrible than mortal brain could conceive. Youwould be as a man who strove against a god."
"You may believe what you are saying, Phadrig, and I dare say you do,"exclaimed the Prince again. "I don't, because I can't; but even if Idid, I would claim your promise. I love this Nitocris, Queen or woman,and neither man nor god shall keep her from me, willing or unwilling. Asfor the Princess Hermia--well, her husband is not dead yet."
"Better he dead and his widow your wife, as was planned, Highness, thanthat you should dare the power of one who has attained to the PerfectKnowledge," said the Egyptian, with all the earnestness of absoluteconviction. "But my duty is done. I have warned you of that which youcannot see for yourself. I have done it to my own sorrow and thedestroying of my own dream; but my promise is given, and I will keep it,even to a fate that may be worse than death."
The Prince drained his glass and laughed.
"Well said, my ages-old adept, as you think you are! You shall followme, for I will go on now even to death, or what there may be worsebehind it, if I can only take my beautiful Queen with me. Yes, I swear Iwill, by God--if there is one!"
So by his ignorant blasphemy Oscar Oscarovitch, who once was Lord of Warin Egypt, for the love of the same woman, fixed his fate for this life,and for many that were to come after it.
The Mummy and Miss Nitocris: A Phantasy of the Fourth Dimension Page 16