But it is time that I returned to our hero, Dr. Wallis Budge.
Although Budge is a golfer of world-wide experience, having
"conducted excavations in Egypt, the Island of Meroe, Nineveh and
Mesopotamia," it is upon his mental rather than his athletic
abilities that the author dwells most lovingly. The fact that in
1886 he wrote a pamphlet upon The Coptic History of Elijah the
Tishbite, and followed it up in 1888 with one on The Coptic
Martyrdom of George of Cappadocia (which is, of course, in every
drawing-room) may not seem at first to have much bearing upon the
tremendous events which followed later. But the author is
artistically right in drawing our attention to them; for it is
probable that, had these popular works not been written, our hero
would never have been encouraged to proceed with his Magical
Texts of Za-Walda-Hawaryat, Tasfa Maryam, Sebhat-Le'ab, Gabra
Shelase Tezasu, Aheta-Mikael, which had such a startling effect
on the lives of all the other characters, and led indirectly to
the finding of the blood-stain on the bath-mat. My own suspicions
fell immediately upon Thomas Rooke, of whom we are told nothing
more than "R.W.S.," which is obviously the cabbalistic sign of
some secret society.
One of the author's weaknesses is a certain carelessness in the
naming of his characters. For instance, no fewer than two hundred
and forty-one of them are called Smith.
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