d for the exterior air to penetrate and displace the
poisonous vapours which had accumulated in the chambers during the many
years that they had remained hermetically sealed.

At length, however, after the process of ventilation had been permitted
to proceed for nearly a week, the air in the subterranean passages was
found to be fresh enough to be breathed without much difficulty, and to
allow of the torches burning in it with scarcely diminished luminosity,
and the search for the treasure chamber was resumed. And now it was
discovered that the labyrinth of passages and chambers extended far
beyond the area covered by the superstructure, many of the chambers
having evidently been used as prison cells, in some at least of which
the unhappy prisoners had been interned and apparently left to perish of
hunger and thirst; for, upon being broken open, they were found to still
contain the mummified bodies of the unfortunate wretches; while others
seemed to have been used by the priests as places of retirement and
meditation. One exceptionally large chamber, too, had been used as the
place of interment for the successive chief priests of the temple; for
their bodies also, withered and shrunken in the dry atmosphere of the
place, were found ranged round the walls of the mausoleum, clad in their
sacerdotal vestments, and enthroned in bronze chairs of very beautiful
and elaborate workmanship.

Finally, after the two Englishmen had been exploring this elaborate
system of underground chambers for nearly three hours, they came upon
the object of their search--and stood for awhile breathless and dumb in
the presence of apparently incalculable wealth!

The chamber was by far the largest that the pair had thus far entered;
so large indeed was it that the light of the torches which they carried
was not nearly powerful enough to illuminate the entire chamber. But
even what they beheld at the first glance was enough to take their
breath away; for upon forcing open the door they found themselves
confronted by an enormous mass of dull white, frosty-looking metal
which, upon closer inspection, proved to be composed entirely of
bricks--hundreds, thousands of them--of pure silver, each brick weighing
about thirty pounds, or just as much as a man could conveniently lift
with one hand. For several minutes the pair stood gazing enraptured at
this enormous mass of precious metal, experiencing such sensations as it
is given to few men to feel-