
PREFACE. - BEING A LETTER FROM SIR WILLIAM BETFORD, OF BAMPTON ST. MARY, IN DORSETSHIRE, TO GEORGE TREVELYAN, OF LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, LONDON.
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
A letter from a modest English gentleman sets the stage for an extraordinary tale. Sir William Betford writes to his old friend, describing the unsettling circumstances surrounding their mutual acquaintance—a man whose father was a celebrated Egyptologist and whose own mind is drawn to the uncanny. The correspondence hints at a delicate balance between rational curiosity and a morbid fascination with the supernatural, framing a mystery that feels both scholarly and deeply personal.
The narrative then shifts to a late‑night encounter at Betford’s country home. A dark‑skinned stranger named Silver arrives unannounced, demanding an audience despite the hour. His cryptic presence and the urgency of his departure to catch a train to London raise more questions than answers, suggesting that ancient secrets may be about to surface. Listeners are invited into a world where Victorian propriety meets enigmatic Egyptian lore, promising a blend of intrigue, subtle romance, and the lingering echo of a bygone civilization.
Language
en
Duration
~9 hours (535K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Release date
2010-09-03
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1867–1905
An Australian novelist and short-story writer, he became wildly popular in the 1890s for fast-moving adventure tales and for creating the sinister master criminal Dr. Nikola. His fiction mixed imperial intrigue, mystery, and romance in a way that made him a favorite of magazine and railway-bookstall readers.
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