t men were placed to dig out this chamber, and the excavator--it
was many years ago--went about his work with the weight of fame upon his
shoulders and an expression of intense mystery upon his sorely
sun-scorched face. How clearly memory recalls the letter home that week,
"We are on the eve of a great discovery"; and how vividly rises the
picture of the baking desert sand into which the sweating workmen were
slowly digging their way! But our hopes were short-lived, for it very
soon became apparent that there was no tomb entrance in this part of the
enclosure. There remained the north end of the area, and on to this all
the available men were turned. Deeper and deeper they dug their way,
until the mounds of sand thrown out formed, as it were, the lip of a
great crater. At last, some forty or fifty feet down, the underlying
rock was struck, and presently the mouth of a great shaft was exposed
leading down into the bowels of the earth. The royal tomb had at last
been discovered, and it only remained to effect an entrance. The days
were now filled with excitement, and, the thoughts being concentrated on
the question of the identity of the royal occupant of the tomb, it was
soon fixed in our minds that we were about to enter the burial-place of
no less a personage than the great Pharaoh Senusert III. (Sesostris),
the same king whose jewels were found at Dachour.

One evening, just after I had left the work, the men came down to the
distant camp to say that the last barrier was now reached and that an
entrance could be effected at once. In the pale light of the moon,
therefore, I hastened back to the desert with a few trusted men. As we
walked along, one of these natives very cheerfully remarked that we
should all probably get our throats cut, as the brigands of the
neighbourhood got wind of the discovery, and were sure to attempt to
enter the tomb that night. With this pleasing prospect before us we
walked with caution over the silent desert. Reaching the mound of sand
which surrounded our excavation, we crept to the top and peeped over
into the crater. At once we observed a dim light below us, and almost
immediately an agitated but polite voice from the opposite mound called
out in Arabic, "Go away, mister. We have all got guns." This remark was
followed by a shot which whistled past me; and therewith I slid down the
hill once more, and heartily wished myself safe in my bed. Our party
then spread round the crater, and at a