However, I rose to
follow him, and as I did so I caught sight of something bright lying on
the floor, which I picked up. Perhaps the reader will remember that with
the potsherd in the casket was a composition scarabaeus marked with a
round O, a goose, and another curious hieroglyphic, the meaning of which
is "Suten se Ra," or "Royal Son of the Sun." The scarab, which is a very
small one, Leo had insisted upon having set in a massive gold ring, such
as is generally used for signets, and it was this very ring that I now
picked up. He had pulled it off in the paroxysm of his fever, at least
I suppose so, and flung it down upon the rock-floor. Thinking that if I
left it about it might get lost, I slipped it on my own little finger,
and then followed Billali, leaving Job and Ustane with Leo.
We passed down the passage, crossed the great aisle-like cave, and came
to the corresponding passage on the other side, at the mouth of which
the guards stood like two statues. As we came they bowed their heads in
salutation, and then lifting their long spears placed them transversely
across their foreheads, as the leaders of the troop that had met us
had done with their ivory wands.
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