the cold stamp of death,
and not the slow flight of three thousand years, had found power to mar
the dignity of those shrunken features. We gazed on them, and then, made
bold with fear, stripped the covering from the body. There at last it
lay before us, stiff, yellow, and dread to see; and on the left side,
above the thigh, was the cut through which the embalmers had done their
work, but it was sewn up so deftly that we could scarcely find the mark.

"The gems are within," I whispered, for I felt that the body was very
heavy. "Now, if thy heart fail thee not, thou must make an entry to
this poor house of clay that once was Pharaoh," and I gave her the
dagger--the same dagger which had drunk the life of Paulus.

"It is too late to doubt," she answered, lifting her white beauteous
face and fixing her blue eyes all big with terror upon my own. She took
the dagger, and with set teeth the Queen of this day plunged it into the
dead breast of the Pharaoh of three thousand years ago. And even as she
did so there came a groaning sound from the opening to the shaft where
we had left the eunuch! We leapt to our feet, but heard no more, and the
lamp-light still streamed down through the opening.

"It is nothing," I said. "Let us make an end."

Then with much toil we hacked and rent the hard flesh open, and as we
did so I heard the knife point grate upon the gems within.

Cleopatra plunged her hand into the dead breast and drew forth somewhat.
She held it to the light, and gave a little cry, for from the darkness
of Pharaoh's heart there flashed into light and life the most beauteous
emerald that ever man beheld. It was perfect in colour, very large,
without a flaw, and fashioned to a scarabaeus form, and on the under side
was an oval, inscribed with the divine name of Menkau-ra, Son of the
Sun.

Again, again, and yet again, she plunged in her hand and drew emeralds
from Pharaoh's breast bedded there in spices. Some were fashioned and
some were not; but all were perfect in colour without a flaw, and in
value priceless. Again and again she plunged her white hand into that
dread breast, till at length all were found, and there were one hundred
and forty and eight of such gems as are not known in the world. The last
time that she searched she brought forth not emeralds, indeed, but two
great pearls, wrapped in linen, such as never have been seen. And of
these pearls more hereafter.

So it was done, and all the mighty treasure