--the manner
in which the man's words had come true. Neither Meg nor Michael made
any remark; they held their tongues in patience.

"There is certainly plenty of gold," Freddy said, "and jewels and much
fine apparel. I hope we shan't encounter the great difficulty he
expects, as regards the historical problems and arguments it may open
up. He predicts that the opinions of the learned Egyptologists will be
cast out; their judgments will be at fault. What at first will appear
obvious and clear will not be the lasting truth."

"How odd!" Mike said. "Was he very pleased to hear of the correctness
of his predictions so far?"

"I haven't told him."

"Not told him?"

"No, it's wiser not. I've done my best to keep the astonishing
richness of the tomb from the ears of the natives. No one has been
inside it but the Chief Inspector and the photographer and you two. No
words have been spoken--you must not talk."

Meg's heart bounded. It was delightful to be one of the privileged
few, to be trusted and accepted as one of the school. She felt like a
great explorer who had set foot in untravelled country.

"If we stand here, without moving," she said; "quite, quite still,
mayn't we stay for a little bit longer? I'm so full of wonder and
amazement, Freddy. I can't begin to think intelligently or see things
separately--everything is a blurred mass of white and gold and blue and
priceless objects."

"No, Meg, I'm sorry--I can't let you stay. You see, I must take this
light with me and get on with picking up those small objects. You'll
see all of them to-night. And with out the light you would be in total
darkness--real Egyptian darkness."

"That's the thing that beats me. Freddy, how do you solve the
problem?--had they electric torches, or were these tombs only built for
supernatural eyes to enjoy?"

"They certainly didn't use flares or torches in tombs, as the early
Christians did in the Roman catacombs, for there's no trace on the
walls of dirt or smoke as there is on the low walls of the catacombs.
There is absolutely nothing to tell us how they lighted these vast
buildings up, how they even introduced sufficient light to paint them
by or to build them. Look at the minuteness of these figures."

"Surely they never built all these wonderful tombs and took the trouble
to paint them with the brightest colours if they were never again to be
seen with mortal eyes? I can't believe it."

"So far we don't kno