w as the grave."

"A marvel!" returned young Ryder smoothly. "And was she also of
charm--a charm that could kindle fires--?"

It appeared to McLean that he caught the flaunting implications of
the taunt.

He wished to heaven that Ryder would hold his reckless tongue.

Ryder was turning now to the official in charge of the police.

"If you have satisfied yourselves that this place is empty--"

The man, a rather apologetic, pleasant fellow, shrugged and smiled.
"We have examined all--"

There was a moment in which the searchers regarded one another
through the gloom in the inquiring embarrassment of the
discountenanced and considered departure. But Hamdi Bey had more
insistent eyes.

He was circling the place again like a wolf for the scent, flashing
his search light over the carved walls, the dancing gleam picking
out now a relief of Osiris, now a fishing boat upon the Nile, now
the judgment hall of Maat. Suddenly he stopped and began examining a
limestone slab.

"These stones--these have been merely piled here," he cried
excitedly. "This is a hole--an entrance. Dig them out, men. There is
a door there, I tell you."

Hastily Ryder addressed the police. "It is simply the burial vault,"
he told them. "The sarcophagi are there, ready for transportation.
Mr. Thatcher will tell you--"

"I assure you it is merely the actual tomb," said Thatcher
nervously. "I have myself assisted my colleague with the
preparation."

The slabs had been displaced now, disclosing the small door, with
its fine wrought stele. Hamdi flashed a look of triumph upon the man
who had obviously tried to conceal that door from them, a look which
Ryder ignored as he turned to McLean.

"That is the door which is sealed forever upon the dead, and upon
the Ka, the spiritual double," he said in a low conversational
tone. "It has some remarkable representations of the jackal
Anubis--"

It seemed to McLean a most extraordinary time for a disquisition
upon Anubis. If Ryder was attempting to prove himself at his ease he
had certainly misjudged his manner.

"Damn Anubis," McLean gave back under his breath. "He's not the only
jackal--What the devil's the meaning of this?"

Ryder made no reply. The stone had been pushed back and the
searchers were stooping beneath the narrow entrance. Then as
McLean's head bent at the door he heard his friend whispering, "I
say--you haven't a gun you could slip me--?"

Mutely he shook his head. And that agitate