Mr. Price was non-plussed. “And who is this gentleman, Fan? Do we know him?”

“Indeed, sir.” Fanny could hardly gather words. “This is—this is Lord Eastwind, a—dear friend of the Bertram family.”

“Oh, is he, then? Well, then sir, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. How’d you do? All the way to Portsmouth are you come, is it?”

“Oh! Father! Oh! Fanny!” Susan was meanwhile pointing at the approaching mummies. “Oh! Oh! Oh!”

“The pleasure is all mine,” replied Eastwind with an equally polite bow to Mr. Price.

“Taking a walk, Eastwind?” said Mr. Crawford in a subtly sarcastic tone which only Fanny discerned.

“Oh! Mr. Crawford! Oh! OH!” Susan was going into minor conniptions. One nearest mummy had literally pulled off her bonnet and was trying to chew it while Susan was beating back at it with her packages; two others were reaching for Crawford and Fanny.

“A walk that lead me here. To see if I can be of assistance,” said the raven-haired gentleman. “And it appears I am just in time.”

He raised his walking stick. With a single sweep that cleared about five feet nearest him, he turned around, and started walking before them out of the dockyard, while mummies scattered like old fallen leaves before a storm.

“Upon my word!” said Mr. Price, “how jolly fine of you! And look, the ruffians are falling back! Hah! That oughta teach yah to mess with the likes of us! Hah!”

Without a word they walked between the parted ranks of the mummies, and emerged in a clearing that led to the rest of town.

Behind them, the mummies seemed to have stilled, all to a creature, and stood in odd frozen ranks, somehow even more menacing in perfect motionless silence than when they were moving.

In one manner or another, Lord Eastwind placed himself at Fanny’s side, and whispered: “My dear Miss Price—forgive me, but I could not come to your aid any earlier. It takes great will and life force for me to materialize and put on proper flesh, and now it is only by your will alone that I may do so. And you had not willed me to come until that last moment.”

“What do you mean?” Fanny whispered back.

“If you must know, I no longer rule them . . . I have given up my will over them, and now there is no turning back. They obey me only as their former lord and Pharaoh. And as such, it will not last. But—for the moment it had sufficed.” And then, leaning in closer, so that she could almost feel his warm gentle gust of breath upon her cheek, he added: “I ask that you stay clear of places such as this, and that you take good care for your safety. I—might not always be there to protect you.”