e apparent
desecration of the tomb.

After they had looked at all that Freddy could show them until more
work had been accomplished, at the two figures which occupied the tomb,
the one so abject and distressing the other so magnificent and
romantic, and at the furniture which appeared to Meg to have been made
only the day before, in spite of Freddy's warning that a breath of cold
air would disperse it before their eyes, he told them that "time was
up."

Meg's astonishment had increased with the examination of every
object--the carved wooden armchair, which appeared to belong to the
best Empire period; the exquisite wedding-chest, of lacquer, the blues
and greens of its floral decorations still daringly brilliant and
vivid--they were far brighter and more perfect than any decorations
which a faker of antiquities would dare to perpetrate.

"But, surely," she said at last, when they had come to the end, "this
furniture's just pure Empire? Look at it, Mike." She pointed to the
exquisite armchair, an object too beautiful and rare for mere human
forms to rest in; then she made him examine the couch. A portion of
its fine cane seating had given way. Had a ghostly form sat on it? "I
thought the French copied their Empire furniture from ancient Greek
models?" she said.

"Well, if they did, here we have it in all its perfection," Freddy
said. "In Egypt you'll find the originals of more than Empire
furniture. The thing is, where did the Egyptians get their models
from? None of the Louis's ever gave their Pompadours, nor Napoleon his
Josephine, anything as beautiful as that." He pointed to the casket.

"And the very air which keeps us alive will destroy these," said Meg.
"It's odd, the way which things that have existed intact for three
thousand years without air will be killed by it!"

"Have you any definite ideas about that figure?" Mike referred to the
mummy. "Whose is it?"

"The whole thing is very bewildering. The tomb obviously hasn't been
plundered, for nothing of any value is missing, and yet, as you can
see, some of the gold wrappings have been torn from the mummy, certain
things have been defaced on the walls--the tomb is not as it was when
the body was first laid here."

"No," Mike said. "Obviously not. The entrance has been tampered with
and those outer walls built; and look at all that debris in the shaft.
Yet, as you say, the obvious things of intrinsic value have not been
removed."

Meg poi