PRINCE MENES
THE MAN FROM EVERYWHERE

Prince Menes is the reincarnation of the High Priest of the Order of Ra, who lived ten thousand years ago.

The character was created by George Hamilton Teed.

Prince Menes is a little over medium height, with a torso and limbs modelled in magnificent proportion. His features, while dark, are handsome in a way that has nothing sinister about them, while his brow has a sweep that is almost noble.

At first glance, one might feel that there's something peculiar in his face, for his eyes, to match his faintly olive skin, black hair, and small upturned moustache, should be brown but, in fact, are a deep, luminous blue, which gives him a distinguished and arresting expression.

However hard one might try, though, it is almost impossible to guess the man's nationality. Likewise, his age, for it might range anywhere between thirty and forty.

The Order of Ra has awaited the birth of this man since long before recorded history, for he is the reincarnation of Prince Menes, his namesake, who was the chief of the Order of Ra and the twin brother of the Pharaoh who exiled him and banished the Order, setting back the will of Isis and Osiris by ten thousand years.

Nor had the spirit of that first Prince Menes remained in Egypt during those ten thousand years. Throughout the ages it had had its being; it had been reincarnated in every land and among every people, until the appointed time this young man had been born.

And what a strange birth it had been! His father, a Russian Grand Duke, had been in China many years before, and while there had seen and fallen in love with a Chinese princess. With him she had fled to his summer home on the Crimean Peninsula, and there had Menes been born.

Until the age of ten his education had been in the hands of his father and mother, the result being that when only ten he could read, write, and speak both Chinese and Russian fluently.

Then he had been placed in charge of a priest of the Greek Church, which is when the Fate that directed his destiny stepped in.

This priest had renounced his former faith, and had embraced the ancient beliefs of Egypt — the worship of Ra and Amen-Ra — the reverence of Isis and Osiris.

Taking his little charge with him, he had fled from the Crimea, and, passing through Constantinople, had become lost in the desert heart of Egypt. There, in a lost and forgotten spot, he had lived a cloistered life until the boy grew to manhood, and during those years he had taught him, or caused him to be taught, every language, every art, and the literature of all countries.

Patiently, persistently, they had worked through those years, and then had begun the young man's odyssey, but not before he had been initiated into the mysteries of the Order of Ra — that secret Order which had its headquarters in a forgotten pyramid tomb, which lay almost buried under the desert sands. Into this mystic circle the young man, pure and unsullied by contact with the world, had been taken, and, under the teachings of the priests of the Order — the teachings which were identically the same as they had been ten thousand years before — he had studied the theory of reincarnation, and then had became an ascetic and Adept.

It was soon discovered that he was spiritually attuned in a marvellous degree, and, under the influence of the magnetic force of the science, he was soon able to throw himself into those strange trances which are practised by certain religious orders in India, China, and Tibet.

He was what would be vulgarly called a good clairvoyant subject, but, above all, he had, to a remarkable degree the hypnotic power which was so well known and practised in the past, which was lost and forgotten in the Dark Ages, and which was only rediscovered and studied intelligently during the Renaissance.

Now, acknowledged as the reincarnation of the first Prince Menes, he must undertake a mission of vengeance, for the ten priests and priestesses of the Order who betrayed him are now, for the first time in ten thousand years, all reincarnated at the same time.

Once they have paid the price for their perfidy, Prince Menes must then see to it that Egypt will once again rise, guided by the British, the nation in which its soul now resides.

Chronology:

1. The Case of Reincarnation (UNION JACK issue 722, 1917)
Prince Menes identifies Lord Roncote, a shipping magnate, as one of the reincarnated priests, and so sets out to ruin him. Roncote hires Sexton Blake to investigate the leaking of his company's secrets but the detective doesn't trust him. When Menes causes the collapse of his company, Roncote commits a crime to try to save it. For the sake of the shareholders, Blake nullifies Menes's manipulations. However, he forces Roncote to retire.

2. The Secret Hand (UNION JACK issue 723, 1917)
Baroness Lamaine, who secretly murdered her first husband, is now married to a politician named Vickers Matheson. Prince Menes identifies her as the reincarnation of one of his betrayers. He bribes her into stealing documents from her husband. They give Menes the power to influence British policy in Egypt. Vickers commissions Blake to investigate the theft. Identifying the baroness as the culprit, the detective has her followed to the house where Menes is staying. The prince threatens to expose her past crime and the baroness loses her sanity. Blake confronts Menes and demands the return of the documents. The prince agrees on the condition that certain items of information contained in them will never be used. He warns Blake not to meddle in his affairs.

3. The Case of the Crimson Terror (UNION JACK issue 728, 1917)
Menes torments another of the reincarnated priests who'd betrayed the original prince — a French Egyptologist, the Comte de Mirlemont — by causing the appearance and disappearance of crimson squares. They represent the pyramid of Zagwa, the temple of the Order of Ra, which de Mirlemont had years before discovered. Sexton Blake exposes the method and Menes flees.

4. The Invisible Ray (UNION JACK issue 731, 1917)
Prince Menes seeks to disgrace the distinguished surgeon, Sir James Smith Rogers — a reincarnation of one of the priests who betrayed him in a former existence. Employing a device that shoots an "N ray," he repeatedly paralyses the hand of the surgeon at the crucial moment during brain operations. Sir James seeks help from Sexton Blake, who — after recognising Menes in the operating theatre audience — tells Tinker to watch the Egyptian's house. Menes spots the youngster and runs him down with his car, causing a serious brain injury. Blake then spies on the prince and, for the first time, gains knowledge of his mission. When Sir James operates on Tinker and Menes again uses his N Ray device, Scotland Yard men swoop on him. He is not, however, charged with any crime.

5. The Mummy's Twin (UNION JACK issue 1,067, 1924)

6. The Great Canal Plot (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY second series, issue 19, 1925)
Prince Menes joins with Madam Goupolis, the Black Eagle, Mathew Cardolak and the Three Musketeers, Prince Wu Ling, and George Marsden Plummer to carry out a great coup against Britain: the destruction of the Suez Canal! Sexton Blake defeats the plot but the Egyptian authorities dare not prosecute Menes, so he gets away without punishment.

7. The Adventure of the Blue Bowl (UNION JACK issue 1,112, 1925)

8. The House on the Cliff (UNION JACK issue 1,113, 1925)

9. The Case of the Mummified Hand (THE SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY second series, issue 35, 1926)
The team of crooks that planned to destroy the Suez Canal have joined forces again, this time with various acts of political sabotage in mind. Menes employs hypnosis to take Mademoiselle Yvonne prisoner as insurance against Blake's interference. However, when Menes falls out with and shoots Dr Huxton Rymer, the latter warns Blake of the forces that have gathered. The detective gets to work and, with the crooks all falling out with each other, Menes finds himself cornered. He commits suicide.

Thus ends the career of Prince Menes, the Man from Everywhere.