a tool mark was to be seen. Already the
men were going, when the same strange instinct which had drawn him to
the spot caused him to take a spade from one of them and begin to shovel
away the sand from the face of the cliff--for here, for some unexplained
reason, were no boulders or _debris_. Seeing their master, to whom they
were attached, at work, they began to work too, and for twenty minutes
or more dug on cheerfully enough, just to humour him, since all were
sure that here there was no tomb. At length Smith ordered them to
desist, for, although now they were six feet down, the rock remained of
the same virgin character.

With an exclamation of disgust he threw out a last shovelful of sand.
The edge of his spade struck on something that projected. He cleared
away a little more sand, and there appeared a rounded ledge which seemed
to be a cornice. Calling back the men, he pointed to it, and without a
word all of them began to dig again. Five minutes more of work made it
clear that it was a cornice, and half an hour later there appeared the
top of the doorway of a tomb.

"Old people wall him up," said Mahomet, pointing to the flat stones set
in mud for mortar with which the doorway had been closed, and to the
undecipherable impress upon the mud of the scarab seals of the officials
whose duty it had been to close the last resting-place of the royal dead
for ever.

"Perhaps queen all right inside," he went on, receiving no answer to his
remark.

"Perhaps," replied Smith, briefly. "Dig, man, dig! Don't waste time in
talking."

So they dug on furiously till at length Smith saw something which caused
him to groan aloud. There was a hole in the masonry--the tomb had been
broken into. Mahomet saw it too, and examined the top of the aperture
with his skilled eye.

"Very old thief," he said. "Look, he try build up wall again, but run
away before he have time finish." And he pointed to certain flat stones
which had been roughly and hurriedly replaced.

"Dig--dig!" said Smith.

Ten minutes more and the aperture was cleared. It was only just big
enough to admit the body of a man.

By now the sun was setting. Swiftly, swiftly it seemed to tumble down
the sky. One minute it was above the rough crests of the western hills
behind them; the next, a great ball of glowing fire, it rested on their
topmost ridge. Then it was gone. For an instant a kind of green spark
shone where it had been. This too went out, and the sudden E