naturedly put up with from the fellow-excavators
who had been to visit the camp were likely to be turned the other way.
He had little or no doubt left that he had struck an important tomb,
probably the tomb of the Pharaoh for whom he was looking.

In a few days the big shaft which led to the mouth of the tomb would be
cleared. Tons upon tons of debris had been thrown out of it; the work
had been stupendous. The two hundred native workers and the other more
experienced diggers had worked unremittingly. Freddy was living in a
high state of nervous tension. The news had spread far and wide that
"Mistrr Lampton" had discovered a new tomb and one which presumably had
never been entered. Freddy knew that this news would spread, would be
carried on the wings of the morning in a manner which no European can
ever discover. Means of transmitting news is one of the secrets which
no native in Africa, North or South, has ever divulged to an European.
There are hundreds of theories on the subject. Do pigeons act as
carriers? Some people suggest this theory. Or is it by some wireless
method which has been known to all primitive races and only lately
discovered by scientific scholars of the West?

So far no one has fathomed the mystery. But Freddy knew that the news
would be sent far and wide, and that every seeker after "antikas" would
be prowling round the opened site. Directly the tomb was opened, it
would be the Mecca of every tomb-plunderer. He had sent word for a
guard of police to be ready to come when he summoned them.

When the tomb was opened he would have to prevent anyone from going
into it until a photographer had arrived from Cairo to photograph it
and until after the Supervisor-General of the Monuments of Upper Egypt
had arrived on the spot and inspected it.

He could feel the excitement of the natives, who have absolutely no
sense of honour where "antikas" are concerned. It has proved almost an
impossible work to convince them that the excavators and the scholars
who are engaged in the work of archaeology in Egypt, or the wealthy man
who has paid for the expenses of a camp, are not one and all "out on
the make." They are convinced that these eager, enthusiastic scholars
are just the same as they are, interested in it from a pecuniary point
of view. The curios and wonders which they dig out of the bowels of
the earth put gold into their pockets.

Freddy's _Ras_, or native overseer, was a highly intelli