Weird Tales volume 36 number 02

by McIlwraith, Dorothy

  mortal remains of a much more important person—Ramahadin!"

  "Ramahadin, the last of the great high-priests?"

  Blythe nodded. "When he died, the decline of Egypt began. There was never another great savant of whom there is record. We knew that, and let it go at that. We didn't try to determine the cause. Well, we found it—when we opened the sarcophagus. We thought it was so large because there were other, fitted casings inside. There weren't. There was just the mummy and a mass of papyri, which it will take years to study. So far we've studied only the one, the Book of the Dead, which was buried with Ramahadin. The reason-—because Ramahadin's followers in their despair decided to bury all knowledge with the master. And the greatest of all that knowledge is the Book of the Dead, the translation of which you hold in your hand!"

  "But this—this purports to tell how to bring Ramahadin back to life, when the world again needs this knowledge."

  "That time is now!" cried Professor Shepard, "and—behold . . .!"

  He suddenly caught hold of the sheet on the table and with a violent jerk swept it off, revealing the object on the table.

  Eric Hanley uttered a low cry and then reeled back.

  On the table, clad in yellow, musty robes lay the body of a man. Hanley took a step forward, stared down at the olive-colored skin, the firm flesh; cold perspiration broke out on his body.

  "I—don't—believe—it—!" he said.

  "Neither did I, at first," cried Professor Blythe. "No mummy was ever found in such a state of preservation, after twenty-four centuries. But—the papyrus tells ihe secret. The embalming of the dead was a closely-guarded secret even in the 18th Dynasty. The art died out completely just a few centuries later and even in the 18th

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  Dynasty it was not what it was a thousand years prior—fifteen hundred. The instructions of the original Book were not carried out. The only explanation is that the Book of the Dead was lost even then, for centuries. Ramahadin probably discovered it, deciphered it and entrusted the translation to one or two of his disciples, who followed its secrets in the preparation of Ramahadin's body—then in honor to him, or tribute, buried the Book with him."

  Eric Hanley blinked and gazed in awe at the immobile features of the man on the table. "He looks as if he were only sleeping."

  "He is sleeping," said Professor Shepard, "now—"

  Hanley looked up sharply. "What do you mean?"

  "I mean, we brought him to life. What do you think we've done here these last two weeks? Read the Book of the Dead?"

  HANLEY put his face down to the head of the man on the table. Yes, he was breathing, slow measured breaths. A frown creased Hanley's forehead. This man was alive. But he couldn't be—unless they were playing a trick on him, perpetrating a hoax.

  He looked again at the faces of the two scientists. And slowly he shook his head. Then he inhaled deeply and appealed to Professor BIythe.

  "You can't do this, Professor. You can't bring a man dead for twenty-four centuries to life, to face the modern world. You don't know what will happen! And you'll be responsible!"'

  "Bah!" snorted Professor Shepard. "I don't know why the devil BIythe asked you here, anyway. The responsibility's ours —and so is the credit. Remember that, Hanley!"

  He caught up a small copper cylinder. "All right, BIythe!"

  "Wait!" cried Professor BIythe. "Per-

  haps we'd better strap him down. You can't tell—"

  "Nonsense," retorted Shepard. "There are three of us here. We've dilly-dallied long enough. Here—"

  He held the copper cylinder to the nostrils of the sleeping man, twisted it and removed the cap. A thin stream of bluish vapor curled out of it.

  Hanley felt the short hair on the back of his neck stand up. He wanted more than anything in the world to run out of that room—but couldn't. He was a scientist as well as BIythe and Shepard.

  He remained, his feet rooted to the floor, head craned forward, his eyes intent on the man on the table.

  For a moment nothing happened and Professor Shepard exclaimed sharply.

  And then . . . then the body twitched and moved. The eyelids flickered up, ex* posing eyes as black as obsidian. They stared straight at the ceiling for a moment, then rolled sideways and fastened themselves upon Eric Hanley.

  The full lips parted and air was sucked into the mouth. The mouth opened and a single word came out—a sharp, guttural word:

  "Dolmacho!"

  Professor BIythe took a step forward. "Dolmachin!" he cried.

  The black eyes left Hanley's face and fixed themselves upon Professor Blythe's taut, white face.

  'Dolmachin — sidi!" he said.

  Professor BIythe whirled upon Eric Hanley and exclaimed. "He understands our debased Egyptian." He turned back to the ancient Egyptian. "Ramahadin. sidi?"

  "Ramahadin, yes! Who are you? Where am I?" The Egyptian sat up suddenly and his eyes shot wildly about the laboratory. Then a groan escaped his lips. "I do not understand," he said in his harsh, ancient Egyptian tongue. "My servants—where are they?"

  WEIRD TALES

  "Dead!" said Professor Shepard. "They have been dead for twenty-four centuries. And you have been dead. We've just brought you back to life."

  For a long moment the Egyptian stared at Professor Shepard, his eyes gradually dulling. "It must be so," he finally conceded, "you would not dare, otherwise. Not to Ramahadin. The experiment— succeeded?"

  "Yes," said Professor Shepard. "You did not die at all. You were merely placed in a state of suspended animation. Your savants prepared your body for death— and you were dead—for twenty-four hundred years, And now you are alive!"

  Ramahadin's eyes continued to roam about the laboratory. "What is all this? Who are you strange-looking creatures? Who is the Pharoah?"

  "A boy is king of Egypt," Professor Blythe said. "A boy named Farouk. This is not Egypt, however. This is America, a land beyond the sea."

  "The barbaric country beyond Sicily?" "Rome? No, Ramahadin. Rome is alive —but almost dead. I forgot. You do not know.

  "The glory that was Greece faded shortly after you died. The Romans became the greatest people of the earth. They conquered Egypt and sent their legions to all parts of the known world. They crushed Carthage and the land of the Jews. And then,.in their turn, they were defeated. The Teutonic tribes of the north over-ran Europe—"

  "And who defeated them?" asked Rama-hadin.

  "They were assimilated. War has ruled the earth ever since you were buried. The world is at war today, the greatest war of all time. Men fly through the skies—"

  "That is a He!" cried Ramahadin. "Men cannot fly, because they cannot grow wings."

  "They built machines. One machine can

  carry fifty people for five thousand miles."

  Ramahadin stared at Professor Blythe, then his eyes shifted to the face of Professor Shepard and in turn to Eric Hanley. AH nodded.

  "Men learned to fly," said Eric Hanley. "So they could drop bombs upon other men—terrible bombs that destroy entire cities. Man conquered the earth, the sky and the water. But he could not conquer man himself."

  "I am hungry!" declared Ramahadin. "Bring me food."

  Professor Blythe went to the house telephone. "Martha," he ordered. "Bring a tray of food to the door. Set it down outside and then leave—no, only for one."

  HE HUNG up and turned back, just as Ramahadin put his feet upon the floor. "America," he said, "this must then be the country of Atlantis—the unknown land."

  "Yes, I guess you could call it Atlantis," Hanley said. "But it is today the greatest country in the world. The richest and the most powerful—"

  "And it is at war?"

  "No. But we are aiding the Britons in their war against the Teutons and the Romans. We are sending them ships and airplanes—"

  "The Romans, bah!" snapped Ramahadin. "They have always been at war. One tribe always fought the other and when neither had anything to fi
ght about they went to sea in their galleys and became pirates. There is no civilization but Egypt's. Greece is too young—ah, but I forget! What kind of civilization do you have in this America?"

  "The greatest the world has even known," said Hanley. "We have conquered disease and pestilence. We have built machines that fly through the air. We have invented instruments by which we can talk to men in Egypt five thousand

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  miles away. We can talk through the very air itself—thousands of miles!"

  "But you are still fighting other men? Bah!"

  There was a knock at the door and Professor Blythe opened it cautiously. He reached out and, bringing in a tray, closed the door again.

  The Egyptian came forward eagerly. He looked at the food upon the tray, grunted and reached for it with both hands. He ate ravenously. When he had finished he belched.

  "Now, I would see your world."

  Hanky's lips tightened. He looked at Professor Blythe. The scientist's mouth twitched. "I am afraid—"

  "Why not?" interrupted Professor Shepard. "Didn't we bring him back to life to see how he would react to our modern civilization . . . ?"

  "No!" cried Hanley. "Not yet. He must see it gradually—"

  "Pah!" snorted Ramahadin. "I will see it all, at once. Lead the way."

  "You can't," protested Hanley.

  RAMAHADIN gave him a cold look. "Who is this stripling?" he demanded. "Who is tin's youngster who dares to question Ramahadin?"

  "He is a very able scientist," Professor Blythe said. "He is—"

  "I am Ramahadin!" declared the Egyptian. "AH scientists bow to me—**

  Professor Shepard snickered. "You're a mummy, Ramahadin, a mummy we brought to life. The world doesn't even know you exist."

  "You dog!" cried Ramahadin. "Down on your knees." He scooped up an empty plate and suddenly hurled it at Shepard. The professor ducked and the plate missed him by less than an inch.

  Ramahadin snarled and picked up a chair. Hanley stepped forward and caught his arm. Ramahadin jerked himself free

  and whirled upon Hanley with the raised chair.

  Hanley sidestepped and smashed his fist against the Egyptian's jaw. Ramahadin reeled back. The chair crashed to the floor and he stared at Hanley.

  "You dare to strike Ramahadin?" he cried in a tone of awe. "You dog, you dare—*'

  "Please!" interrupted Professor Biythc. "Listen to me. Ramahadin, it is true. This is a new world. You have been dead twenty-four hundred years. Things have changed. We don't want to shock you by showing you too much at once!"

  "I am Ramahadin," the Egyptian said, persistently. "I have the knowledge of the ages. There is nothing you could show me or tell me, that would shock me. I have meditated on it all. Your flying machines —pah! They do not frighten me. Your clothing is bizarre, that is all—"

  "And speaking of clothes," said Hanley. "You've got to put some on. You can no longer go in public without suitable apparel."

  "Fetch me clothing then. I will make that concession."^

  Professor Blythe, frowning, went to a closet. He brought out one of his own suits, a somewhat soiled shirt and socks and shoes. With his assistance, Ramahadin was able to dress. He looked then like any swarthy man, whose counterpart could have been seen by the hundreds in any large city.

  "New, show me your America, Ramahadin said, when he was dressed.

  "I wouldn't," Hanley said, quickly.

  "You can't keep him in here, a prisoner!" Professor Shepard exclaimed.

  Blythe's forehead creased. Then he shrugged and moved to the door. Ramahadin brushed past him. Hanley overtook him in the hall, leading to the living room.

  He was too late, however. Susan Blythe rose from an armchair and looked in sur-

  WEIRD TALES

  prise at Ramahadin. Hanley said, quickly: "Susan, this is an acquaintance of your father's. He speaks only Egyptian. His name is Ramahadin."

  Susan bowed to the Egyptian. She said to Hanley. "When did he get here? I didn't see anyone come up today—"

  "He was here all night," Professor BIythe said, hurriedly. "He arrived last night after you had retired. He's—an Egyptian scientist. Professor Shepard and I are consulting with him."

  "Whose woman is this?" Ramahadin said suddenly, in Egyptian.

  "She is my daughter," Professor BIythe said.

  "What strange clothes she wears." Ramahadin grunted. "She is too thin, but I will accept her."

  Cold wind seemed to blow upon the back of Eric Hanley"s neck. He saw the glitter in the ancient Egyptian's eyes and he said, softly, "This is a different civilization, Ramahadin. Women are no longer sold—or given away—by their fathers."

  "Pah!" snorted Ramahadin. "Women are cheap."

  "Not in this world,'' chuckled Professor Shepard. "I was married to one—once. She kept me poor, buying clothes for her."

  "Then you were a fool. A purple Phoenician robe is the best any woman can want. How do men acquire women in this new world?"

  "They marry them, with the woman's consent," Hanley replied, curtly.

  "Very well, then, tell this woman I will marry her.

  Eric Hanley started to speak, but Professor BIythe was ahead of him.

  "That, too, must wait until you know more of the world you've come into," he said, and it was very apparent that his words carried weight with the Egyptian; possibly Ramahadin recognized knowledge as power, one scholar to another.

  "Anyway," went on Susan's father—

  who was blessed with a sense of humor, which was beginning to assert itself now that the first shock of the success of his experiment was wearing off—"I can't imagine where one would shop for a Phoenician robe, purple or otherwise."

  This last remark being in English puzzled Susan, but, being a scientist's daughter, she shrugged her shoulders, and gave Eric a look as if to say that she had told him she feared for her father's sanity in uhe midst of such extraordinary experiments.

  II

  LATER it was all explained to her, and although Eric had expected her to view the whole miracle with horror, she seemed to take it in her stride—although both she and Hanley regarded Professor Shepard's association with her father as one of evil. BIythe seemed to have forgotten his disagreement with Eric Hanley and accepted him as one of the circle responsible for the bringing of Ramahadin into a modem world.

  The scientists contended that their primary interest was in seeing how the ancient Egyptian reacted to that world—once they had satisfied themselves that the unholy formula from the Book of the Dead would actually work. Also, its possibilities were boundless. Professor Shepard would have started for Egypt at once to unearth, steal, borrow or buy other sarcophagi to experiment with their contents, but world conditions forbade. Men seemed intent on destroying civilization, not on studying the secrets of its origins.

  There remained to them Ramahadin himself, and the Egyptian presented a phenomenon extraordinary past all telling. He went about the modern world with a sort of calm superciliousness which pleased Shepard, but annoyed BIythe, and they all were startled when some three days after

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  his resuscitation—or reincarnation—he appeared able to speak perfect English.

  "Of course," he said when Professor BIythe's astounded comments on this was made, "have I not the knowledge of all the ages—including yours? 7 '

  Susan, he still regarded as about to become his property, but the girl's way of meeting this astonished and amused both her father and Eric. She treated the powerful High Priest of All Knowledge as a callow youth who might make love to her, but who couldn't possibly be old enough to know his own mind. This attitude at once puzzled and annoyed Ramahadin, but served its purpose—that of keeping the Egyptian at the distance Susan desired.

  Tney all treated him as a guest and took, turns showing him the world to which he had returned after twenty-four hundred years. Eric Hanley had some fears of government
intervention—a check up of all aliens in the country was being made—but Professor Shepard poo-poohed this. "He is a visitor staying with us," he said, "and that will be enough in the meantime. We can certainly fix it up with the authorities later."

  "One thing I have already observed in this country," said Ramahadin, "is that you go to a great deal of trouble to enact laws, then to just as much trouble to ignore them, or get around them or to know some way of fixing the authorities."

  "Of course," said Professor Shepard, "that's the way we get along."

  "I don't agree,'' replied Professor BIythe. "Some of our citizens may get along that way, but it's not the way a democracy such as ours has become great."

  "Wait till you understand us a bit better," said Eric Hanley.

  That understanding in itself was interesting, since two distinct forces were at work promoting it. Shepard's idea was to * use the Egyptian's great powers to bring to culmination vast schemes of his own;

  to help him gain fame, money and authority. This authority was to be in the world of science, but was to dominate— as the others soon realized—the underworld. He and Ramahadin spent many hours in a laboratory which Shepard maintained in a secret place away from the Blythes, and he tried more and more to disassociate himself from the older man. One result of this was to restore Eric Hanley entirely to BIythe's good graces, and fear for the future of Ramahadin and their astounding experiment with the Book of the Dead made this bond even tighter. It included Susan, who wasn't a scientist's daughter for nothing and who realized the profound effect Ramahadin's appearance might have on the world.

  Professor BIythe tried to remonstrate with Shepard.

  "You must not seek from Ramahadin secrets not shared by all of us," he said. "Our knowledge of the forgotten lore of ancient peoples must be pooled; it must be given out by us gradually and—yes, reverently."

  Shepard only laughed; "I know much now," he said, "that could control the fate of our country and the world."

  AS SHEPARD seemed able to win more and more of Ramahadin's confidence Eric Hanley began to have profound fears, and he and Susan formed a dangerous plan. It was to attract Ramahadin to their way of thinking, to keep him more and more in their company, to show him more and more of the every day vital life of the great new world around him. And to do this they both realized it would be Susan who must pit herself against Shepard's influence. She would have to put aside her distaste for the swarthy stranger—and the risk was great that the price she would have to pay would be high.