ought by rodents, cobwebs and the cast-off
chrysalides of insects. In one corner was a bronze jar, Kenkenes
examined it and found it contained cocoanut-oil for burning.

"Of a truth this is intervention of the gods," he commented, a little
dazed, but filling his lamp nevertheless.

Ahead of him was a black opening leading into the second chamber. He
stooped, and entering, held the lamp above his head. He cried out, and
Rachel came to his side.

In the center of the room was a stone sarcophagus of the early, broad,
flat-topped pattern. In one corner was a two-seated bari, in another a
mattress of woven reeds. Leaning against the sarcophagus was a wooden
rack containing several earthenware amphorae; on the floor about it was
a touseled litter of waxed outer cerements torn from mummies. All
these things they observed later. Now their wide eyes were fixed on
the top of the coffin. At one time there had been a dozen linen sacks
set there, but the mice and insects had gnawed most of them away. The
bottoms and lower halves yet remained, forming calyxes, out of which
tumbled heaps of gold and silver rings, zones, bracelets, collars and
masks from sarcophagi--all of gold; images of Isis in lapis lazuli and
amethyst; scarabs in garnets and hematite, Khem in obsidian, Bast in
carnelian, Besa in serpentine, signets in jasper, and ropes of diamonds
which had been Babylonian gems of spoil.

"The plunder of Khafra and Sigur, by my mummy!" Kenkenes ejaculated.

"Will they return?" Rachel asked, in a voice full of fear.

"They are gathered to Amenti for their misdeeds many months agone," he
explained. "See how thickly the dust lies here without a print upon
it. They were tomb-robbers. None of the authorities could discover
their hiding-place, and lo! here it is."

He walked round the sarcophagus and found at the head, on the floor,
several bronze cases sealed with pitch. He opened one of them with
some difficulty. Flat packages wrapped with linen lay within.

"Dried gazelle-meat,--and I venture there is wine in those amphorae.
They lived here, I am convinced, and fed upon the food offerings they
filched from the tombs. Was there ever such intrepid lawlessness?"

"Here is a snare and net," Rachel reported.

"Did they not profit by superstition? As long as they were here they
were safe. They did not fear the spirit."

"The spirit?" Deborah, still in the outer chamber, repeated with
interest.

"The spirit of