ike him to hang me!"

"He's as close as a clam. What's your notion?"

"Nothing serious, but--between us three, then--you and I are both
foreigners in this place, Major Grim, although I have made it my
home for fifteen years. You have no more interest in this
government and its ridiculous rules than I have. What do you
say--shall we find the Tomb of the Kings together?"

Grim wrinkled into smiles again and glanced down at his uniform.

"Yes, exactly!" agreed Scharnhoff. "That is the whole point.
They call me an enemy alien. I am to all intents and purposes a
prisoner. You are a British officer--can do what you like--go
where you like. You wear red tabs; you are on the staff;
nobody will dare to question you. These English have stopped all
exploration until they get their mandate. After that they will
take good care that only English societies have the exploration
privilege. But what if we--you and I, that is to say--between
us extract the best plum from the pudding before those miscalled
statesmen sign the mandate--eh? It can be done! It can be done!"

Grim chuckled:

"I suppose you already see a picture of you and me with an
ancient tomb in our trunks--say a few tons of the more artistic
parts--beating it for the frontier and hawking the stuff
afterward to second-hand furniture dealers? Pour me another
whiskey, prof, and then we'll go steal the Mosque of Omar!"

"Ach! You laugh at me--you jest--you mock--you sneer. But I
know what I propose. Do you know what will be found in that Tomb
of the Kings of Judah when we discover it?"

"Bones. Dry bones. A few gold ornaments perhaps. A stale
smell certainly."

"The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel! Think of it!
A parchment roll--perhaps two or three rolls--not too big to go
into a valise--worth more than all the other ancient manuscripts
in the world all put together! Himmel! What a find that would
be! What a record! What a refutation of all the historians and
the fools who set themselves up for authorities nowadays! What a
price it would bring! What would your Metropolitan Museum in New
York not pay for it! What would the Jews not pay for it! They
would raise millions among them and pay any price we cared
to ask! The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel--
only think!"

"But why the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel in the tomb of the
Kings of Judah?" Grim asked, more by way of keeping up the
conversation, I th