the next thing was to break the news gently and convincingly to the family. kit figured it out from all sides, and finally decided to walk right up to the horns of the dilemma in a fearless attack. writing back a long, chatty letter to the mother bird, she simply tacked on the postscript:
"don't be at all surprised to see me arrive with the other christmas packages, and have a fire laid in the guest room."
at first she had thought only the dean would accompany her, but when miss daphne heard of the plan, she declared she would not be left out of it.
"why, brother, i haven't seen any of the folks down east in years and years, and it would hearten me up wonderfully to visit them. i think i'd like to be with roxy as much as possible, because we were girl friends together."
whether it was the prospect of going home or the longing to leave a good record behind her, no one could say, not even kit herself, but she took her midwinter examinations with full speed up and colors flying, as billie would say.
the girls took her coming departure with many objections, but they proceeded to give her various send-offs. charity and anne decided on a formal tea, up in the former's room, but the solemnity of the occasion was banished when peggy rose to read some farewell poesy, concocted by herself and the "jinx."
"she hoped to be the hope of hope
alas, how soon she flew,
to bleak new england's rock-ribbed hills,
ere she her virgil knew."
"and we her comrades tried and true,
no laurel crowns may weave.
the magic circle broken is,
for kathleen fair we grieve."
after which, amy led a procession of solemn-visaged, sombre-clad academic maidens, who approached the divan where kit sat, and each presented her with some sage advice, in couplets. amy explained later that she got the idea from sargent's "gifts of the hours."
"although, if it had been summer time, we would have tried to make it more like tennyson's 'princess,' but i think this carries the idea all right. norma wrote the couplets, and they almost have a prophetic note. don't you think so, kit?"
kit agreed that they did, and long afterwards, up in the old cupola council room, she read them aloud to helen and some of the gilead girls. one in particular rather hit her fancy, because kit hated early rising.
"rise, sweet maid, when the cock is crowing,
if fortune's bugles you'd be blowing."
the saturday before they left was kit's day for entertaining. miss daphne took the keenest delight in making it a success. there was a luncheon at one, followed by a whole afternoon of entertaining. even the dean emerged from his sanctum to mingle a little, and the "jinx" declared she had never seen him so human before. he brought out the royal statuette of annui and even the sacred memorial urn to show the girls. as miss daphne said afterwards, this showed what a friendly, benign mood he was in.
kit was standing on the outskirts of the group around the old grand piano, where he had placed both antiques, when she suddenly saw, through the long french windows, marcelle beaubien coming up the drive. the dean was deep in a happy, explanatory speech and she slipped away unnoticed by the rest.
"it was awfully nice of you to come, marcelle," she exclaimed. "i've been watching for you ever since lunch. why didn't you come earlier?"
"but i am early," smiled marcelle. "it is only about three o'clock. generally, i have to stay in all day saturday, and give the boys a chance to go out. will you write to me when you are away?"
"i'd love to. you know it's a queer thing, marcelle, but really and truly, out of all the girls i have met here i feel better acquainted with you than with any of them."
kit said this rather slowly, as if it were a sort of self-revelation which she had just discovered that minute. and yet it was true. she had enjoyed the class friendships at hope immensely, but marcelle had seemed to stand out from the rest of the girls as such a distinctly interesting personality. in a way, she was like billie, because she loved nature and all the romance of adventure. there was in her nature the mingling of the three races, the french, the indian, and the scotch, and besides, kit felt personally responsible for her success up at hope. the girls had played absolutely fair and square, once they had decided to bury the hatchet, and given the chance, marcelle herself had justified the opening of doors to her. as amy said:
"it doth not behoove us to say a blessed word against marcelle when she is racing ahead in all our classes, and plucking honors right and left."
marcelle smiled at kit's remark.
"i have heard my grandmother say that in her girlhood her people of the northern forests pledged their friendships by saying, 'while the grass grows and the waters run, so long shall we be friends.'" she turned and smiled at kit her grave-eyed slow smile. "i will say that to you now, before you go."
kit laid one arm around her shoulders.
"me too," she answered, heartily. "sounds like the blood brother vow they used to take."
they went up the steps together and into the long double parlors. the girls were singing at the piano while amy played one class song after another, and the dean hung broodingly over the urn. kit thought she had never seen the house so full of life and happiness, and the look on miss daphne's face was one of positive radiance.
"you know," she said, confidentially to kit, in a low voice, "after we return from the east, i have undertaken something that i know will do me good and the dean, too. i've just been appointed head of the junior red cross in delphi, and the girls will meet here every saturday. we shall miss you, kit, but if it gives you any pleasure, my dear, to know it, i want to tell you it was your coming which opened my eyes to the folly of sitting with empty hands while there was work to be done. i don't think i can ever belong to what the dean calls 'the rocking-chair squad' again, without a guilty conscience."
kit hugged her fervently.
"oh, but you're a dear, aunt daphne, to say such things. i only wish i could stay right here and be in two places at once. i'll tell you what i've learned here, organization." kit said this very firmly and earnestly. "back home they always said that i knew just what i wanted to do, but i didn't know how to do it. well, i know what i want to do now. i want to go back home and organize."
miss daphne laughed and shook her head.
"oh, kit, child, do go easy," she said. "organize yourself all you like, but be terribly careful how you start organizing other people's lives."
the girls had to leave early, as the shakespearian entertainment was to happen that night up at assembly hall.
"your very last chance to mingle, kit," norma called, as they all trooped out of the lower hall. "don't lose your presence of mind to-night, when you find yourself in doublet and hose."
kit stood on the veranda steps waving to them until they turned the corner of maple avenue.
"oh, dear," she sighed, "i do wish that friendships lasted longer. i mean, i wish i could have all my friends here down in gilead. you see, there us girls are all so scattered around on adjacent hilltops that it's hard to get together regularly. we've only got our hiking club. i think when i go back i'm going to start some more."
"the dean wanted to have a little talk with you before dinner, dear. i think you'd better go in now, because we want to reach the hall in good time for you to dress, and i'm going to have an early dinner. don't talk too long. you know how he is when he gets absorbed in anything."
kit promised and joined the dean. he had carried back the statue of annui and stood before it regarding it with perplexity. kit slipped her arm through his. it seemed as though there had sprung up a new comradeship and understanding between them since their last talk.
"won't he tell you his secrets, uncle cassius?" she asked. "he has such an aggravating smile, just as if he were amused at baffling you."
"i am baffled," the dean conceded, genially. "i've reached a certain point and there there is a blank which no historic record seems to fill. i thought when i had restored the inscription on the urn that it would tell me several of the missing points, but it seems to be merely a sort of sacred invocation. i am amazed at the urn being hollow. every other memorial urn which i found during our excavations in egypt was sealed, and upon being opened we always found rolls of papyrii within. i am disappointed."
kit went into the back parlor and lifted the urn from the piano very carefully, carrying it out to its customary place on the dean's desk. then she stood staring at it, reflectively. it certainly was not exactly a thing of beauty, although, as the dean had pointed out to her, one saw the influence of grecian art in its graceful lines. it always reminded kit of indian pottery down among the zunis and mexicans.
"what does the inscription say?" kit leaned forward anxiously.
"it merely traces the origin of king amenotaph to the god thoth," said the dean, thoughtfully; "that is, the egyptian hermes, or mercury, as we know him, and it is extremely vague, being a curious mixture of the coptic and the ancient aramaic."
"but what does it say?" asked kit again.
the dean followed the curious markings on the urn with his finger-tip, bending forward and peering over the rims of his tortoise-shell glasses.
"it says, 'amenotaph, born of thoth, shall reign in wisdom. kings shall serve at his footstool. ra shall shine upon him. he shall lie in peace, encompassed by ra.'"
"is that all?"
"that is all," sighed the dean. "it seems merely a laudatory sentiment."
"who was ra?" asked kit, curiously, running her hand around the top of the urn.
"the sun god. his symbol was the circle. you see it here."
kit repeated again, slowly:
"'he shall lie in peace, encompassed by ra,' that means surrounded by ra, doesn't it, uncle cassius?" she picked up the um in both hands and shook it close to her ear.
"my dear child, do be careful," cried the dean; "it is priceless."
but kit put it under one arm as though it had been a milk pail and tapped around the inside with her knuckles, listening.
"that's a perfectly good hollow jug," she said, solemnly. "just you tap it, and listen, uncle. i'll bet a cookie they've hidden something inside the outside and that ra has guarded it all these years."
"just a moment, just a moment, my dear," exclaimed the dean, smiling like a happy boy. "you've given me an idea. this may be a cryptogram, or an ideographic cypher. just a moment, now; don't speak to me."
he sat down at the desk and figured laboriously for nearly twenty minutes, working out the inscription in cypher, while kit stared at him delightedly. after all, it was rather gratifying, she thought, to have somebody in the family who could take a little remark made thousands of years ago in old egypt and make sense out of it to-day. she waited patiently until he had finished. his hands were trembling as he reached for the urn.
"the circle," he repeated, "the circle. 'ra in his circle shall guard amenotaph.' the secret lies in the circle, kit. do you suppose it could mean the rim of the urn?"
kit knelt beside him, following the inscription on the outside of the urn carefully with her finger-tip, the same as the dean had done, and stopping when she came to a small circle in black and red outline.
"do you suppose ra lives here, uncle cassius?" she asked, poking at it thoughtfully. she peered on the inner side at the corresponding spot to the circle, and gave a little cry of excitement. there was the faintest sign of a circle here also, like one of the age cracks on cousin roxy's antique china. "see," she cried. "when you push on this side, the other gives a little bit."
the dean could not speak. he took the urn from her over to the window and carefully examined the inner circle through a microscope.
"yes," he said, fervently, "you are perfectly right, my dear. the circle moves. i think i shall have to take it to washington on our way east. i would not take the responsibility of trying to remove it myself."
"oh, dear, it seems awful to have to wait so long," kit exclaimed, regretfully. "you know it seemed to me as if you could just press it through with your thumb, like this."
she had not intended pressing so hard, but merely to show him what she meant, and lo, as cousin roxy would have said, under the pressure of kit's strong, young, capable thumb, the circle of ra depressed and pushed slowly through, just exactly as kit told the girls long afterwards, like when you plug a watermelon. the dean looked on in utter amazement, as kit lifted the urn and tested the inner section by shaking it. then she peered into the circular hole, about the size of a quarter. the urn was fully two inches thick, and by inserting her finger into the space she found that it was made in two sections, with enough room between for a place of concealment.
"there's something in here like asbestos, uncle cassius," she began, and turning the urn upside down, she tried shaking it, using a little pressure on the circle to separate the two rims. slowly they gave, while the dean hovered over her, cautioning and directing the operation, until two complete urns lay before them. but it was not these which the dean literally snatched at. it was the curious cap-shaped mass which fell out in the form of a cone. to kit it appeared to be of no significance whatever, but the dean handled it as tenderly as a new-born infant, and under his deft and tender touch it unrolled in long scrolls of papyrus.
the dean rose to his feet solemnly, and his voice was hushed, as he said:
"kit, you do not know what you have done. some day the significance of this occasion will recur to you. all i can say is that you have lifted the veil of the past, and revealed the secret of amenotaph."
