London or
Amsterdam. But Mr. Trelawny never faltered in his belief. We had many
things to distract our minds from belief or disbelief. This was soon
after Arabi Pasha, and Egypt was so safe place for travellers,
especially if they were English. But Mr. Trelawny is a fearless man;
and I almost come to think at times that I am not a coward myself. We
got together a band of Arabs whom one or other of us had known in
former trips to the desert, and whom we could trust; that is, we did
not distrust them as much as others. We were numerous enough to
protect ourselves from chance marauding bands, and we took with us
large impedimenta. We had secured the consent and passive co-operation
of the officials still friendly to Britain; in the acquiring of which
consent I need hardly say that Mr. Trelawny's riches were of chief
importance. We found our way in dhahabiyehs to Aswan; whence, having
got some Arabs from the Sheik and having given our usual backsheesh, we
set out on our journey through the desert.

"Well, after much wandering and trying every winding in the
interminable jumble of hills, we came at last at nightfall on just such
a valley as Van Huyn had described. A valley with high, steep cliffs;
narrowing in the centre, and widening out to the eastern and western
ends. At daylight we were opposite the cliff and could easily note the
opening high up in the rock, and the hieroglyphic figures which were
evidently intended originally to conceal it.

"But the signs which had baffled Van Huyn and those of his time--and
later, were no secrets to us. The host of scholars who have given
their brains and their lives to this work, had wrested open the
mysterious prison-house of Egyptian language. On the hewn face of the
rocky cliff we, who had learned the secrets, could read what the Theban
priesthood had had there inscribed nearly fifty centuries before.

"For that the external inscription was the work of the priesthood--and
a hostile priesthood at that--there could be no living doubt. The
inscription on the rock, written in hieroglyphic, ran thus:

"'Hither the Gods come not at any summons. The "Nameless One" has
insulted them and is for ever alone. Go not nigh, lest their vengeance
wither you away!'

"The warning must have been a terribly potent one at the time it was
written and for thousands of years afterwards; even when the language
in which it was given had become a dead mystery to the people of the
land.