The Mummy MEGAPACK®. Lafcadio Hearn

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The Mummy MEGAPACK® - Lafcadio Hearn


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Cthulhu Mythos Megapack

      The Ghost Story Megapack

      The Second Ghost Story Megapack

      The Third Ghost Story Megapack

      The Horror Megapack

      The M.R. James Megapack

      The Macabre Megapack

      The Second Macabre Megapack

      The Mummy Megapack

      The Vampire Megapack

      The Werewolf Megapack

      WESTERNS

      The B.M. Bower Megapack

      The Max Brand Megapack

      The Buffalo Bill Megapack

      The Cowboy Megapack

      The Zane Grey Megapack

      The Western Megapack

      The Second Western Megapack

      The Wizard of Oz Megapack

      YOUNG ADULT

      The Boys’ Adventure Megapack

      The Dan Carter, Cub Scout Megapack

      The G.A. Henty Megapack

      The Penny Parker Megapack

      The Pinocchio Megapack

      The Rover Boys Megapack

      The Tom Corbett, Space Cadet Megapack

      The Tom Swift Megapack

      AUTHOR MEGAPACKS

      The Achmed Abdullah Megapack

      The Edward Bellamy Megapack

      The B.M. Bower Megapack

      The E.F. Benson Megapack

      The Second E.F. Benson Megapack

      The Max Brand Megapack

      The First Reginald Bretnor Megapack

      The Wilkie Collins Megapack

      The Ray Cummings Megapack

      The Guy de Maupassant Megapack

      The Philip K. Dick Megapack

      The Jacques Futrelle Megapack

      The Randall Garrett Megapack

      The Second Randall Garrett Megapack

      The Anna Katharine Green Megapack

      The Zane Grey Megapack

      The Dashiell Hammett Megapack

      The M.R. James Megapack

      The Murray Leinster Megapack

      The Second Murray Leinster Megapack

      The Talbot Mundy Megapack

      The Andre Norton Megapack

      The H. Beam Piper Megapack

      The Mack Reynolds Megapack

      The Rafael Sabatini Megapack

      The Saki Megapack

      The Robert Sheckley Megapack

      OTHER COLLECTIONS YOU MAY ENJOY

      The Great Book of Wonder, by Lord Dunsany (it should have been called “The Lord Dunsany Megapack”)

      The Wildside Book of Fantasy

      The Wildside Book of Science Fiction

      Yondering: The First Borgo Press Book of Science Fiction Stories

      To the Stars—And Beyond! The Second Borgo Press Book of Science Fiction Stories

      Once Upon a Future: The Third Borgo Press Book of Science Fiction Stories

      Whodunit?—The First Borgo Press Book of Crime and Mystery Stories

      More Whodunits—The Second Borgo Press Book of Crime and Mystery Stories

      X is for Xmas: Christmas Mysteries

      SYMPATHY FOR MUMMIES, by John Gregory Betancourt

      I brushed dust from my eyes, then zippered the tent’s flap shut. The wind was coming up again, sighing through our camp. It was a sound I had grown used to over the last two months.

      “Everything locked up?” asked Linda, my wife.

      “Yep,” I said. As director of the excavation, I had to make sure everything was put away before I turned in. Stretching sore muscles, I peeled off my dust-and-sweat-impregnated shirt, then washed up in a basin. “We’re getting close,” I said.

      We were excavating the tomb of Atenkham, a court official in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. Tomorrow we would reach his burial chamber. There was little chance of riches; Atenkham hadn’t been a king. But artifacts were gold, metaphorically, to archaeologists.

      “Still not worried about the curse?” Linda asked.

      “What Egyptian tomb doesn’t carry a curse?” I asked with a laugh. I toweled off, then leaned over and planted a kiss on her full red lips. “Besides, curses only apply to big rich tombs when the moon is full and you haven’t said your prayers by night.”

      “Mmm.”

      “So I get my movies mixed up.” I crawled into my sleeping bag, exhausted. It was nearly midnight. I’d be up in five hours.

      “Besides,” I muttered, “what kind of curse could a bureaucrat muster?”

      * * * *

      At dawn the next morning, I was ready for work. Although this was my seventh tomb, I still felt a mounting sense of excitement.

      I had dreamed of Atenkham’s mummy. I saw priests removing his organs and preserving them in jars. I saw them filling his veins with embalming fluids and carefully wrapping his body in layers of white cotton swathing. But mostly I had seen papyrus scrolls, thousands of them, the life’s work of this ancient Egyptian bureaucrat. Those scrolls were the sort of treasure I sought.

      Now I would see what truth lay in my dream.

      My grad students were sitting our breakfast table with someone. I sighed when I recognized Mr. Abdul from the Department of Antiquity. He was in charge of excavation permits.

      “Mr. Abdul,” I said to him, “what brings you here?”

      “Paperwork, Mr. Jones,” he said in his succinct British accent. He passed me a sheaf of papers.

      “What’s this?”

      “New regulations go into effect this morning,” he said. “First of the month. I told you last week, as you may recall.”

      “Yes, yes,” I said. He had mentioned something of the sort.

      “If you would fill it out, please.”

      I stared at the forms. None were in English, of course.

      “This will take me hours,” I said. I glanced over at the tomb. We were so close —

      “Paperwork,” he said, “must be done properly. I shall leave you to it.” He crossed to his Jeep, got in, and drove off in a cloud of dust.

      “Shall we start anyway, professor?” Neal Jameson asked me. He was a young, eager, promising grad student.

      “No,” I said, imaginary bandages tightening around my chest and throat. “Mr. Abdul doesn’t like me. If we begin without the paperwork, we’ll be shut down.”

      “He can’t —”

      “He can,” I said.

      * * * *

      My Arabic was lousy, and making sense of the application was a dense process, even with an interpreter. This, I thought at one point, is the


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