"As Sethenes gazed upon the three shades, the shade of Nepher-kaphtha spake: 'What wouldst thou, mortal?'
" 'I have come for the Book of Thôth,' quoth Sethenes.
" 'Thou shalt not have it,' said Nepher-kaphtha. 'It is mine, bought with my life and the lives of my family, and here by all the gods shall it stay!'
" 'It will do thee no good to bluster,' said Sethenes, 'for I am stronger than all of you and will take the book for all that ye can do.'
"Then spake the shade of Aoura, the wife of Nepher-kaphtha: Take not the book, O Sethenes. Its possession brings woe and calamity. Already it hath done us such scathe as it could, and wherefore shouldst thou suffer in thy turn?'
" 'Even so, I will take it,' said Sethenes.
" 'Take it not until thou hast heard our tale,' said Aoura. 'Then, haply, wilt thou be less rash and rapacious.'
" 'Speak, woman,' said Sethenes.
" 'Know,' began Aoura, 'that my noble husband, Nepher-kaphtha, dedicated his life to the study of magic. Wide, vast, and deep were his investigations. He hath read texts so ancient that none but he could grasp their import; he hath taken counsel with hoary sages, haggard mystics, and faceless presences from other planes.
" 'At last, for an hundred pieces of silver and two magnificent sarcophagi, he bought from a priest of Phtha the secret of the hiding place of the Book of Thôth. He learnt that the ibis-headed one, when he had written the book, inclosed it in a golden box. The golden box he placed in a silver box. The silver box he shut up in a box of palm wood. The wooden box he inclosed in a bronzen box. The box of bronze he placed in a box of iron, which he fastened round about with stubborn chains and sank in the Nile. By his magic he surrounded the box by serpents, scorpions, and other vermin, and coiled about the box lay a deathless serpent of gigantic size.
" 'Taking us with him, Nepher-kaphtha proceeded to Koptos. There, after Nepher-kaphtha had offered sacrifice in the temple of Isis and Harpokrates, the high priest of Koptas wrought for Nepher-kaphtha a waxen model of a raft and workmen with their suitable tools. Whenas Nepher-kaphtha recited a cantrip over these things, they came to life and bore him out into the river. After three days and three nights of searching, a spell enabled Nepher-kaphtha to find the box. Another cantrip caused the waters of the Nile to part, so that he could clamber down a ladder to the bottom. A third spell put to flight the venomous vermin—all but the deathless snake, which reared and struck at him.
" 'With his sword of burnished copper Nepher-kaphtha doughtily fought the supernatural serpent. Twice he cut it in twain, but each time the sundered parts clove together and the serpent resumed the conflict. A third time Nepher-kaphtha cut asunder its body. This time he sprinkled sand on the severed ends, so that, though strove they to join again, they could not by reason of the sand. Thus died the deathless serpent.
" 'Then opened Nepher-kaphtha the boxes, took out the golden box, and returned to his raft. There he opened the golden box and drew forth the Book of Thôth. He read the first spell, which revealed to him all the secrets of heaven and earth. He read the second spell, which enabled him to see the sun rising in the heavens with all its company of gods. To make certain his memory of these spells, Nepher-kaphtha wrote out a copy thereof on papyrus, washed the ink off the papyrus with beer, and drank the beer.
" 'But alas! The great god Thôth was wroth with us because of our act sacrilegious. He delated us to the Sun, the great Ammon-Ra, the chief and king of all the gods. Ammon-Ra therefore caused me and our son Meros to fall from the raft as it returned to Koptos and to drown.
" 'Nepher-kaphtha mourned us and buried us at Koptos. Then he set off down the Nile to his home; but, or ever he reached Memphis, his grief became too great for him to bear. So cast he himself into the Nile and was drowned in his turn. His kin recovered his body and buried it, together with the Book of Thôth, in the tomb wherein thou standest. I warn thee, therefore, that nought but disaster dire awaiteth thee if thou take the book.'
" 'I will have the book, for all of that,' said Sethenes.
"Then up spake the shade of Nepher-kaphtha. 'Wilt hazard possession of the book on a game of draughts?' said he.
" 'I will,' said Sethenes.
"So they began to play. Now, Sethenes was a mighty player of draughts, whom none could vanquish save only the great King Rhameses himself. When the shade of Nepher-kaphtha saw that he would surely lose, he essayed to win by cheating. He endeavored to move a piece out of turn when Sethenes was not looking.
"After this had happened twice, Sethenes cried: 'Out upon thee, false shade! This is not to be endured. Brother, fetch me my scroll of spells and cantrips.'
"And when his brother Inaros had fetched the scroll, Sethenes laid upon the shade of Nepher-kaphtha, and upon the shades of his wife and son, such an incantation that they were rendered powerless to let him from taking the book.
"Grasping the book, Sethenes read the two mighty spells and ascended unto heaven with a swiftness wonderful to behold. But as Sethenes departed, the shade of Nepher-kaphtha said to the shade of Aoura his wife: 'Not helpless yet am I, little sister. Yon jackanapes will soon be back with a knife and a rod in his hand and a pot of fire on his head, and glad to be rid of the book, I will warrant you.'
"Sethenes returned to his home at Neth-Ammon and took up again his study of magic. Now, however, came upon Sethenes the doom that Nepher-kaphtha and Aoura had foreseen. For he fell in love with a beautiful and evil woman, Taboubo. Such was the blindness of his passion for her that when she commanded him to slay his own children, he did so.
"When this dreadful deed became noised about, King Rhameses heard of the matter and straightway discovered all that had befallen Sethenes. So the king commanded Sethenes, that he should forthwith take back the Book of Thôth to the shade of Nepher-kaphtha, ere worse befell him. And this Sethenes did, with a knife and a rod in his hand and a pot of fire on his head, as the shade of Nepher-kaphtha had commanded him in a dream.
"When Sethenes came to the tomb of Nepher-kaphtha and descended thereinto, he found the three shades awaiting him. As he placed the book back in the sarcophagus, the shade of Nepher-kaphtha laughed and said: 'What said I erst to thee? Next time be not so hasty to spurn good counsel.' And Sethenes went away, and the tomb closed up again, and for aught any man knoweth the Book of Thôth lieth there yet, illuming the interior of the tomb by its silvery rays. So endeth this tale."
Manethôs rolled up the scroll. "That, my friends, is the story of Sethenes Chamois. As you heard, it speaks portentously of mighty spells but tells not how to cast them. I had heard the tale before and supposed the Book of Thôth to be but a figment of a storyteller's mind. After all, a priest of Thôth and temple scribe should know whether such a thing exists, if anybody does. However, when I heard Tis speak so confidently of possessing this book, I held my peace, wondering if I might not be mistaken and the book exist after all.
"Now, as we can see, Tis merely used a copy of this ancient legend as bait to lure us to his lair where he could set his. bullies upon us. Had we not had some good men of their hands amongst us, our friends and colleagues had known nought of our fate, save that we went up the river to Memphis and there disappeared."
I said: "Let's forget about restoring the robe by magic. The problem remains: what shall we do? I don't think Captain Python will be any more pleased by getting back his robe in this condition than by not getting it back at all." To Onas I said: "Stop blubbering, man! We all commit blunders. If you'd atone for yours, help us think our way out of our plight."