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June 3, 1929

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The Delian Dreamer

General Astredis is requireing every member of the League, from lowest to highest to take the oath. In order to captain a tireme I must give the pledge

"I will not desert the plethos [common people] of Athens nor the Allies of the Athenians."

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Since coming to work on this project I have had the opprotunity to make claim to much needed rest and relaxation. I sleep well having worked hard all day. I keep dreaming about the sphinx that was found here. I wake up to the sound of voices calling the name Leander. It is strange I have never known anyone with this name.

HOTEL CAIRO

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN Mysteries & Thrillers_______

Dr. Javier Cabera was a local physician. He was a well respected man of his community and a collector of the stones. He also may well have been one of the last persons to see Miss Morningstar alive. I am eager to interview him. When the opprotunity does arrive I learn that Miss Morningstar told him much that she should have told me. Her name was a stage name, and the name on her passport was, Lulu Marie Montez born in Gudalahara in May 1900. Her occupation was only listed as 'entertainer'. She was a singer, dancer, and a musician. Cabera said that she told him she had been abducted many times all durring her very short life. Often she was removed from her bed durring the night and always she was frozen in fear. She felt that her body was floating in air and she never had a good look at her captors. Always a new mark would appear on her body, but gradually the marks dissapeard. She dreaded these encounters, for she did not go of her own free will and volition. Then when she saw an aticle in a newspaper about the Plains of Nazca, she was able to associate her markings with them.

Ricardo, her lover, never really belived her story. He was convinced that she had many men friends and used this as an excuse to cheat on him. Her purse was always full of money and it was more than she earned working as a caberet entertainer. Often the door to her bedroom would be locked and no one could break in or open it. There was no way she could leave the hacienda without him knowing it. Ricardo was obsessed by this woman, but knew she was beneath him. He was from a good family and she would never be acceptable to them. Now after the young woman's death this young man was nowhere to be found. Cabera was the last person to see them both after he had examined the songbird known as the "yellow canary."

Serra da Capivara is our destination. Here we have come to the home of our patron Don Jose. We have flown via sea-plane to this isoalted place in the middle of the rain forrest. Now we will discovery what it is we have come so many miles to find.

My government has ordered me to make this jouney to the Amazon Rain Forrest because of a vast collection of mysterious stones have been brought to our attention. These stones have been collected from all over the south and north American continents. They are tied to ancient Egypt because they carry Egyptian markings and inscriptions. They tell a story of a renegade Egyptian ruler who built his own pyramid here and inspired later pyramids to be built by the meso-american cultures.

Just as we are making a major archeological discovery of major importance a mysterious young woman is found murdered and my tusted assistant Najia Baket mysteriously dissapears. There is something very sinister afoot. Nothing is ever as it seems to be. Here there are many unanswered questions? If only I had talked more to the young woman who was so desperate to find me. I was eager to begin my own search and found her to distracting and thus dismissed her to soon.

What was the cause of Miss Morningstars premature death? Who was she really? Why did she need me?

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Days and days at sea...

At long last here is a chance to catch up on the writtings of my journal. Here I sit on the deck of a luxury liner when deep in my heart I know...I know I should be on the desert. There is so much waiting discovery in Egypt and the ministry sends me and my assistant, Miss Najia Baket to Rio De Janerio. I do not even know how to spell it. Someone is paying for this trip. It is not me. I am just doing my duty to my country, but with great reservation. An eccentric billionair insists that there is an Egyptian Pyramid buried in the mist of the Amazon jungle. So who is it who is sent to find it? It is a reward for good work they tell me. Beans and rice, we are eating nothing but beans and rice, and drinking plenty of coffee. They have a lot of coffee here. Soon we will be in a strange new land, and they will say, what is an Egyptian scholar doing here? Well I am considered an expert on the pyramids, and if this is a real pyramid I am the one to identify it.

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We no sooner return to the Cairo Hotel and tragedy strikes again. Why Krammer would be set free to kill again I do not know? Everyone seems to want to leave Cairo. I can not blame them. The Hotel does seem to be cursed.

At last we are high in the clouds in flight to Cairo. Somehow Allard managed to rescue us. Now Krammer is the one who is bound and gaged. My head is still swimming from it all. Allard is totaly exhausted, and appears to be out cold. Najia tells me he parachuted out of Krammer's plane. How did he get in it I want to know? To tired to even be in fear of flying. It is still a long flight to Cairo and nothing is over till the end of it all.

We arrived safely in Kashmir for fuel. Not long after, another plane crash landed on the runway. The odious Krammer has managed by brute force to tie and gag myself and Reylari. I have no idea what happened to Najia, but hope she has found a safe place to hide? The man is ruthless and will sacrifice any one or anything. He knocked me out with a crowbar when I attemnpted to go the aid of Amelia Trueheart Ariston, our pilot. Why he didn't shoot me right then I do not know? He has Amelia working on the plane. He wants us to take off. She keeps stalling him, telling him it is to dangerous to leave with out a new fan belt. He seems to be buying it.

The evolution of the PRIVAT EYE

Destination Cairo I hope. It is all up to our pilot Amelia Trueheart Ariston. This is a long and dangerous flight. Krammer is also heading toward Cairo in another plane. No matter what the Lady Reylari wants to get back to the welcoming arms of her husband, author Shane MacRoth. We can only pray that our companion in the adventure, Kent Allard, was able to leave Singapore safely. I have great confidence in his resourcefulness. How people are able to sleep on planes I will never know? It is such a business of exhiliration this flying. One never knows what might happen next!

03/08/21

There is still no contact established with this Kramer. Allard was able to find positive proof that Lady R was here and quite recently. Where she is now we do not know. We continue to search.

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Now making preparations to depart by plane for Sri Lanka. We have a lead that Reylari MacRoth might be found there. It is a slim lead, but it is all we have to go on. MacRoth is sending an old war buddy to go in his stead. He has great confidence in him. Sounds like a soldier of fortune. I wonder about taking two ladies on such an expedition. Sometimes they can get more information than we chaps can. I wonder if this Greta Aristedes can be trusted? I think that Miss Baket is haveing second thoughts about her.

Now Dr. Venetti's wife Rose has been shot. Who knows what might happen next?

ART & ARCHEOLOGY

The Shadow

Must charter a plane to get down to Port Said to check out a tip. MacRoth says check out all leads money is no object. Does he realize his wife is no longer an heiress.

My injuries have prevented me from recording much of what has transpired. We are back in Cairo, but the search goes on.Major discoveries are being made. Against all odds, I have great hopes.

Could she be hypnotised in to believing that she is someone that she is not? If the musical pseudo Queen is really Delia Rameses, as the mother Gloria Godwins thinks, then what has become of Reylari Ramases MacRoth? She can not have disappeared with out a trace? I am having every port searched. El-Qaisi Pasha has offered me the assistance of the Ministry of Public Security. I am all for having all of Narmer's cohorts questioned. This would be all six of his half brothers and the dwarf El-Quaisi Muffta. All of them hang around the Blue Lotus Bar at odd hours. I still suspect Namer of the forgery of pricless art objects. After viewing the calaber of his original work, I am convinced, but have not one shed of evidence against him. There have always been the suspicious goings and comings from the house.

At least there seems to be no connection with the sinister Ibrahim El-Gharbi? My greatest dread is that this monster may have something to do with this case.

Miss Najia Baket has proved to be a most worthy assistant. It was she who discovered that Miss Reylari Siamen had booked passage to Liverpool England. Why, I now wonder, and if so, did she arrive?

Gloria Godwins had retained me to get more information on Reylari Siamen aka Alura Ahh. She thinks the girl is her long lost daughter Delia. Now both Miss Ahh and the Lady Reylari, [Mrs. Shane MacRoth] are missing.

MacRoth himself nearly escaped death. The honey-moon for the both of them is over. They were parted in the most dasterdly manner!

I hope the opprotunity to visit Nesime Narmer's residence will bear fruit. I highly suspect him of being beind both abductions.

The worst possible scenario is that either woman could be the victim of a notorious white slavery ring opperating out of Cairo. There now is a strong local movement to put a stop to such things. It may prove to be to late for the ones I am determined to protect. This is what I have long dreaded. Now it seems to have come to pass.

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RAIAY built his tomb for his wife as well as himself. But no one was laid to rest here. This is the passage to an unfinished burial chamber.

July 15, 1922

Where in the world is the 'Lady Reylari? Our search party has been forced to return to Cairo. I am sure the Lady is far more valuble alive than dead. Deep in my heart I know that she is somewhere out there. N ow I am certain that the ancient cult of Aten is alive and well. The existence of the Lady as a direct desendant of the great Rameses makes her vital to the still practicing sun worshippers. I am convinced they will do all they can to protect her. To this end they have stolen her freedom to live as she herself wants. They believe that her free-will is not important. "The end justifies the means." This is a play for power.

_____PLOTINUS, in the Enneads (V. 8 5-6)

For the time being the Castel is going to have to run it'self. Duty returns me to Cairo and the impending nuptial festivities of my employer, the Lady Reylari.

The intrigue continues at the 'Hotel Cairo', and I am delighted to have been appointed a membership in the illustrious 'Antiquities Society'. I was most suprised to find my old nemisis Narmer to be a member there, but it should not really be such a suprise as I am sure his mentor the Aga Khan got him in.

There are some fellows who no matter what they do always end up smelling like a rose.

Alexandria After Dark

I have traced the notorious El Shiek here, but he somehow manages to continue to elude me with his clever disguises. It is a game of cat and mouse, but I am the cat, and it is time to call my pack of hounds.

Now it has come to my attention that an increase in white slavery has infested this city manifold since the turn of the century. There are to many that are missing.

A woman is no longer safe on the streets, nor is many a man. Even women of good family can be easily taken and disapear into oblivion. Some have vanished from this very hotel.

I am having Narmer's home watched round the clock. I know that he is up to something, but I do not know what? The man has been an enigma to me ever since childhood.

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Today I learned that the Cicero's after leaving the 'Hotel Cairo' headed by train and ship to Italy. Mr. Cicero is now in a Milan hospital there. It is expected the singer will soon announce his retierment from the stage. My inquiery leads me to belive his condition is considered grave.

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This is the hero of a dime store novel. Perhaps I should take some lessons from him.

Both Cicero's checked out of the hotel together, much the same as they both ch ecked in. Nevertheless, at this point in time they have not been seen by anyone. I have advised Lady Reylari to offer a reward for information leading to their where-abouts. They could collect it themselves, if they would so desire. But to leave so abrubtly without a single adieu, it is something to ponder.

This is still a topic of conversation and speculation.

AMELIA EDWARDS

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Both Cicero's are gone. They are now both missing. I am trying to get the hotel to organize a search. Mrs. Cicero vanished only this evening right under our noses. Could they possibly have left of their own volition? I suspect foul play.

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Again I find myself back in Cairo in search for them both. Somehow I think if I could locate the elusive 'El Sheikh' I might solve the entire mystery. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Things keep getting more complicated. At last I have landed a really good job, but this case looks like it could turn out to be older than the pyramids.

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Namer is brazenly showing his face around town again. He is in the company of two of his thugs. His older brother Seth, who is often refered to as the black Macocco, and a citizen of the Cairo underworld called El Quazi. Both are notorious theives and smugglers. Namer has them all dressed up like somehow they have been reformed. Who is he trying to fool? He seems to be getting away with murder, yet there is no way to pin anything on him. Sleek and slick, that's Narmer. I remember him from the old days.

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THE MESSENGER

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My assignment was to keep an eye on heiress Lady Reylari Ramesses. Now the lady has vanished, right under my eyes, and although I have a good idea who has her, the question is, how do I get her back safe and unharmed in body and in reputation?

I wonder if it is not already to late? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After spending many years abroad; I have just returned to Cairo, the city of my birth, and have opened a detective agency. I hope to gain many clients among my numerous contacts with the international set.

My first assignment is to keep an eye, on the Lady Reylari Rameses, and see that she comes to no harm.

THE HOTEL CAIRO

History of Art Forggery

FAKES & FORGERIES