ent.

Gods! Should I be too late to see the untombing of my love? Would she be
laid there bare to the public gaze when presently the people swarmed out
into the open spaces through fear at what the great earth tremor might
cause to fall? I could see, in fancy, their rude, cruel hands thrust
upon her as she lay there helpless, and my inwards dried up at the
thought.

I ran madly down and down the narrow winding streets with the one
thought of coming to the square which lay in front of the royal pyramid
before these things came to pass. With exquisite cruelty I had been
forced with my own hands to place her alive in her burying-place beneath
the granite throne, and if thews and speed could do it, I would not miss
my reward of taking her forth again with the same strong hands.

Few disturbed that furious hurry. At first here and there some wretch
who harboured in the gutter cried: "A thief! Throw a share or I pursue."
But if any of these followed, I do not know. At any rate, my speed then
must have out-distanced anyone. Presently, too, as the swing of the
earth underfoot became more keen, and the stonework of the buildings by
the street side began to grate and groan and grit, and sent forth little
showers of dust, people began to run with scared cries from out of their
doors. But none of these had a mind to stop the ragged, shaggy, savage
man who ran so swiftly past, and flung the mud from his naked feet.

And so in time I came to the great square, and was there none too soon.
The place was filling with people who flocked away from the narrow
streets, and it was full of darkness, and noise, and dust, and sickness.
Beneath us the ground rippled in undulations like a sea, which with
terrifying slowness grew more and more intense.

Ever and again a house crashed down unseen in the gloom, and added to
the tumult. But the great pyramid had been planned by its old builders
to stand rude shocks. Its stones were dovetailed into one another with a
marvellous cleverness, and were further clamped and joined by ponderous
tongues of metal. It was a boast that one-half the foundations could be
dug from beneath it, and still the pyramid would stand four-square under
heaven, more enduring than the hills.

Flickering torches showed that its great stone doors lay open, and ever
and again I saw some frightened inmate scurry out and then be lost to
sight in the gloom. But with the royal pyramid and its ultimate fate
I had little concern