call me at the museum at once."
  
  "But, Samir, I never expected you to believe-"
  
  "Julie, curses are rare in Egypt,"  he said quickly." And the admonitions written on 
this mummy case are most severe. The story of the creature's immortality, there are more 
details in this little book,"
  
  "But you don't think Father really succumbed to a curse, Samir."
  
  "No. But the things found in the tomb defy explanation. Except if one believes ... But 
then that is absurd. I ask only that you take nothing for granted. That you call me if 
you need me at once."  He took his leave of her abruptly, and went back into the library. 
She could hear him speaking Arabic to one of the workmen. She watched them uneasily 
through the open doors.
  
  Grief, she thought. It's a strange and a misunderstood emotion. He grieves for Father 
as I do, and so the whole discovery is ruined for him. How difficult all this must be.
  
  And he would have so enjoyed all of it if only ... Well, she understood. It was not so 
with her. She wanted nothing so much as to be alone with Ramses the Great and his 
Cleopatra. But she understood. And the pain of Father's loss would be there forever. She 
didn't really want it to go away. She looked at Alex, poor lost boy staring at her with 
such concern.
  
  "I love you,"  he whispered suddenly.
  
  "Why, what on earth has come over you!"  She laughed softly.
  
  He looked baffled, childlike. Her handsome fiance was really suffering suddenly. She 
couldn't bear it.
  
  "I don't know,"  he said." Maybe I'm having a presentiment. Is that what he called it? 
I only know I want to remind you-I love you."
  
  "Oh, Alex, dear Alex."  She bent forward and kissed him, and felt his sudden desperate 
clasp of her hand.
  
  The gaudy little clock on Daisy's dressing table rang six.
  
  Henry sat back, stretched, then reached for the champagne again, filling his glass, 
then hers.
  
  She looked drowsy still, the thin satin strap of her nightgown fallen down over one 
rounded arm.
  
  "Drink, darling,"  he said.
  
  "Not me, lovey. Singing tonight,"  she said with an arrogant lift of her chin." I can't 
drink all day like some I know."  She tore off a bit of meat from the roasted fowl on her 
plate, and put it in her mouth crudely. Beautiful mouth." But this cousin of yours! She's 
not afraid of the bloody mummy! Putting it right there in her own house!"
  
  Big stupid blue eyes fixed on him; just the kind he liked. Though he missed Malenka, 
his Egyptian beauty; he really did. The thing about an Eastern woman was she didn't have 
to be stupid; she could be clever, and just as easy to manage. With a girl like Daisy, 
the stupidity was essential; and then you had to talk to her-and talk to her and talk to 
her.
  
  "Why the hell should she be afraid of the damned mummy!"  he said irritably." The daft 
part is giving the whole treasure to
  
  a museum. She doesn't know what money is, my cousin. She has too much of it to know. He 
increased my trust fund by a pittance and he leaves her a shipping empire. He's the one 
who was ..."
  
  He stopped. The little chamber; the sunlight falling in shafts on that thing. He saw it 
again. Saw what he had done! No. Not right. Died of a heart attack or a stroke, he 
did-the man lying sprawled on the sandy floor, I didn't do it. And that thing, it hadn't 
been staring through the wrappings, that was absurd!
  
  He drank the champagne too quickly. Ah, but it was good, He filled his glass again.
  
  "But a bleeding mummy in the very house with her,"  Daisy said.
  
  And suddenly, violently, he saw those eyes again, beneath rotted bandages, staring at 
him. Yes, staring. Stop it, you fool, you did what you had to do! Stop it or you will go 
mad.
  
  He rose from the table a bit clumsily and put on his jacket, and straightened his silk 
tie.
  
  "But where are you going?"  Daisy asked." You're a bit too drunk to be going out now, 
if you ask me."
  
  "But I didn't,"  he answered. She knew where he was going. He had the hundred pounds 
he'd managed to squeeze out of Randolph, and the casino was open. It had opened at dark.
  
  He wanted to be there alone now, so that he could truly concentrate. Merely thinking of 
it, of the green baize under the lamps and the sound of the dice and roulette wheel, 
engendered a deep excitement in him. One good win, and he'd quit, he promised himself. 
And with a hundred pounds to start. No, he couldn't wait...
  
  Of course he'd run into Sharpies, and he owed Sharpies too much money, but how the hell 
was he supposed to pay it back if he didn't get to the tables, and though he didn't feel 
lucky-no, not lucky at all tonight-well, he had to give it a try.
  
  "Just wait now, sir. Sit down, sir,"  Daisy said, coming after him." Have another glass 
with me and then a little nap. It's barely six o'clock."