e
machinery, he had lost all idea of direction and even of time, and he
began to be anxious lest darkness should overtake him before he had
regained his course. But guessing that the area of the storm was of
small extent, he hoped to run out of it, and increased his speed,
expecting in a few minutes to discover the Euphrates again, when all
would be well.

Unhappily, though the wind had dropped, the sky became blacker than
ever, and another deluge of rain fell, so densely that at a distance
of a few yards it seemed to be an opaque wall. Coming to the
conclusion that he had better take shelter until he could at least see
his way, he planed downwards, calling to Rodier to keep a sharp
look-out for a landing place. Suddenly, in the midst of the downpour,
a huge dark shape loomed up ahead, appearing to rise almost
perpendicularly above the plain. For a few seconds it seemed to Smith
that he was dashing into a solid wall of rock. Luckily he had checked
the speed of the engine. He now stopped it altogether, but the
aeroplane glided on by its impetus, and he felt, with a sinking of the
heart, that nothing could save it.

All at once the mass in front seemed to open. Instinctively Smith
touched his steering lever; the aeroplane glided into the fissure; in
two or three seconds there was a bump and a jolt; it had come to a
stop, and was resting on an apparently solid bottom.

Monsieur Alphonse Marie de Montause, a distinguished member of the
Academy of Inscriptions, a pillar of the Societe d'Histoire
diplomatique, and a foreign member of the Royal Society, had been for
nearly a year engaged at Nimrud in the work nearest to his heart, the
work of excavation. It was a labour of love for which he was very
jealous. He believed it was his mission to reveal to an astonished
world the long-buried secrets of ancient civilizations; he could not
bear a rival near the throne of archaeological eminence; and in this
exclusive attitude of mind he had undertaken this expedition without
the companionship of a fellow-countryman, or even of any white man,
devoting himself to his patient and laborious toil, assisted only by
an Egyptian cook, a number of Arab labourers, and such natives of
Babylonia as he had attracted to his service by the promise,
faithfully kept, of good and regular pay.

His excavations had been, on the whole, disappointing. He had
unearthed specimens of pottery and metal-work, tradesmen's tablets of
accounts, seals, bas-r