came the eunuch, and he also
stood in the passage. Then, having taken counsel of the plan of the
passage that I had brought with me, and which, in signs that none but
the initiated can read, was copied from those ancient writings that had
come down to me through one-and-forty generations of my predecessors,
the Priests of this Pyramid of _Her_, and of the worship of the Temple
of the Divine Menkau-ra, the Osirian, I led the way through that
darksome place towards the utter silence of the tomb. Guided by the
feeble light of our lamps, we passed down the steep incline, gasping in
the heat and the thick, stagnated air. Presently we had left the region
of the masonry and were slipping down a gallery hewn in the living rock.
For twenty paces or more it ran steeply. Then its slope lessened and
shortly we found ourselves in a chamber painted white, so low that I,
being tall, had scarcely room to stand; but in length four paces, and
in breadth three, and cased throughout with sculptured panels. Here
Cleopatra sank upon the floor and rested awhile, overcome by the heat
and the utter darkness.

"Rise!" I said. "We must not linger here, or we faint."

So she rose, and passing hand in hand through that chamber, we found
ourselves face to face with a mighty door of granite, let down from the
roof in grooves. Once more I took counsel of the plan, pressed with my
foot upon a certain stone, and waited. Then, suddenly and softly, I know
not by what means, the mass heaved itself from its bed of living rock.
We passed beneath, and found ourselves face to face with a second door
of granite. Again I pressed on a certain spot, and this door swung wide
of itself, and we went through, to find ourselves face to face with a
third door, yet more mighty than the two through which we had won our
way. Following the secret plan, I struck this door with my foot upon a
certain spot, and it sank slowly as though at a word of magic till its
head was level with the floor of rock. We crossed and gained another
passage which, descending gently for a length of fourteen paces, led
us into a great chamber, paved with black marble, more than nine cubits
high, by nine cubits broad, and thirty cubits long. In this marble floor
was sunk a great sarcophagus of granite, and on its lid were graved the
name and titles of the Queen of Menkau-ra. In this chamber, too, the air
was purer, though I know not by what means it came thither.

"Is the treasure here?" gasped C