here is a well, master," said the fellah, addressing himself to
Argyropoulos; "what am I to do?"

The Greek took the torch, shook it to make it blaze up, and threw it
into the small mouth of the well, bending cautiously over the opening.
The torch fell, twisting and hissing. Soon a dull sound was heard,
followed by a burst of sparks and a cloud of smoke, then the flame
burned up bright and clear, and the opening of the well shone in the
shadow like the bloodshot eye of a Cyclops.

"Most ingenious!" said the young nobleman. "This labyrinth, interrupted
by oubliettes, must have cooled the zeal of robbers and scholars."

"Not at all," replied the doctor. "Those seek gold, these truth, which
are the two most precious things in the world."

"Bring the knotted rope!" cried Argyropoulos to his Arabs. "We shall
explore and sound the walls of the well, for the passage no doubt runs
far beyond it."

Eight or ten men hung on to the rope, the end of which was let fall into
the well. With the agility of a monkey or of an athlete, Argyropoulos
caught hold of the swinging rope and let himself down some fifteen feet,
holding on with his hands and striking with his heels the walls of the
well. Wherever he struck the rock it gave out a dead, dull sound. Then
Argyropoulos let himself fall to the bottom of the well and struck the
ground with the hilt of his kandjar, but the compact rock did not
resound. Lord Evandale and the doctor, burning with eager curiosity,
bent over the edge at the risk of falling in headlong, and watched with
intense interest the search undertaken by the Greek.

"Hold hard!" cried he at last, annoyed at finding nothing; and he seized
the rope with his two hands to ascend.

The shadow of Argyropoulos, lighted from below by the torch which was
still burning at the bottom of the well, was projected against the
ceiling and cast on it a silhouette like that of a monstrous bird. His
sunburned face expressed the liveliest disappointment, and under his
moustache he was biting his lips.

"There is not a trace of a passage!" he cried; "and yet the excavation
cannot stop here."

"Unless," said Rumphius, "the Egyptian who ordered this tomb died in
some distant nome, on a voyage, or in battle, the work being then
abandoned, as is known to have been the case occasionally."

"Let us hope that by dint of searching we shall find some secret issue,"
returned Lord Evandale; "otherwise we shall try to drive a transverse
sha