Khaemuas raised his wand and, holding it towards the boat where Smith
was hidden, said:

"Draw near, Vile One, bringing with thee that thou hast stolen."

Smith tried hard to remain where he was. He sat himself down and set
his heels against the floor. As the reader knows, he was always shy and
retiring by disposition, and never had these weaknesses oppressed him
more than they did just then. When a child his favourite nightmare had
been that the foreman of a jury was in the act of proclaiming him
guilty of some dreadful but unstated crime. Now he understood what that
nightmare foreshadowed. He was about to be convicted in a court of
which all the kings and queens of Egypt were the jury, Menes was
Chief Justice, and the magician Khaemuas played the _role_ of
Attorney-General.

In vain did he sit down and hold fast. Some power took possession of him
which forced him first to stretch out his arm and pick up the cigar-box
containing the hand of Ma-Mee, and next drew him from the friendly
shelter of the deal boards that were about the boat.

Now he was on his feet and walking down the flight of steps opposite to
those on which Menes stood far away. Now he was among all that throng
of ghosts, which parted to let him pass, looking at him as he went with
cold and wondering eyes. They were very majestic ghosts; the ages that
had gone by since they laid down their sceptres had taken nothing from
their royal dignity. Moreover, save one, none of them seemed to have any
pity for his plight. She was a little princess who stood by her mother,
that same little princess whose mummy he had seen and pitied in the