and corner of the hall, tapping the ground. At
last, not far from the third pillar a dull resonance struck on the
practised ear of the Greek. He threw himself on his knees to examine the
spot, brushing away with the ragged burnouse one of his Arabs had thrown
him the impalpable dust of thirty-five centuries. A black, narrow, sharp
line showed, and, carefully followed out, marked out on the ground an
oblong slab.

"Did I not tell you," cried the enthusiastic doctor, "that the passage
could not end in this way?"

"I am really troubled," said Lord Evandale, in his quaint, phlegmatic
British fashion, "at disturbing the last sleep of the poor unknown body
which did expect to rest in peace until the end of the world. The
dweller below would willingly dispense with our visit."

"The more so that a third party is lacking to make the presentation
formal," replied the doctor. "But do not be anxious, my lord, I have
lived long enough in the days of the Pharaohs to present you to the
illustrious personage who inhabits this subterranean passage."

Crow-bars were applied to the narrow fissure, and after a short time the
stone moved and was raised. A staircase with high, steep steps, sinking
into darkness, awaited the impatient travellers, who rushed down
pell-mell. A sloping gallery painted on both walls with figures and
hieroglyphs came next, then at the end of the gallery some more steps
leading to a short corridor, a sort of vestibule to a hall in the same
style as the first one, but larger and upborne by six pillars cut out of
the living rock. The ornamentation was richer, and the usual motives of
funeral paintings were multiplied on a yellow background. To the right
and to the left opened in the rock two small crypts or chambers filled
with funeral statuettes of enamelled ware, bronze, and sycamore wood.

"We are in the antechamber of the hall where the sarcophagus is bound to
be!" cried Rumphius, his clear gray eyes flashing with joy from below
his spectacles, which he had pushed back over his forehead.

"Up to the present," said Lord Evandale, "the Greek has kept his word.
We are the first living men who have penetrated so far since the dead,
whoever he may be, was left with eternity and the unknown in this tomb."

"Oh, he must be some great personage," replied the doctor; "a king or a
king's son, at the very least. I shall tell you later when I have
deciphered his cartouche. But first let us enter this hall, the finest,