pened them at
hearing a well-known shout,--such a shout as only one of the Peterkin
family could give,--one of the little boys!

Yes, he stood before her, and Agamemnon was behind; they had met on top
of the pyramid.

The sight was indeed a welcome one to Mrs. Peterkin, and revived her so
that she even began to ask questions: "Where had he come from? Where
were the other little boys? Where was Mr. Peterkin?" No one could tell
where the other little boys were. And the sloping side of the pyramid,
with a fresh party waiting to pass up and the guides eager to go down,
was not just the place to explain the long, confused story. All that
Mrs. Peterkin could understand was that Mr. Peterkin was now, probably,
inside the pyramid, beneath her very feet! Agamemnon had found this
solitary "little boy" on top of the pyramid, accompanied by a guide and
one of the party that he and his father had joined on leaving Venice. At
the foot of the pyramid there had been some dispute in the party as to
whether they should first go up the pyramid, or down inside, and in the
altercation the party was divided; the little boy had been sure that his
father meant to go up first, and so he had joined the guide who went up.
But where was Mr. Peterkin? Probably in the innermost depths of the
pyramid below. As soon as Mrs. Peterkin understood this, she was eager
to go down, in spite of her late faintness; even to tumble down would
help her to meet Mr. Peterkin the sooner. She was lifted from stone to
stone by the careful Nubians. Agamemnon had already emptied his pocket
of coins, in supplying backsheesh to his guide, and all were anxious to
reach the foot of the pyramid and find the dragoman, who could answer
the demands of the others.

Breathless as she was, as soon as she had descended, Mrs. Peterkin was
anxious to make for the entrance to the inside. Before, she had declared
that nothing would induce her to go into the pyramid. She was afraid of
being lost in its stairways and shut up forever as a mummy. But now she
forgot all her terrors; she must find Mr. Peterkin at once!

She was the first to plunge down the narrow stairway after the guide,
and was grateful to find the steps so easy to descend. But they
presently came out into a large, open room, where no stairway was to be
seen. On the contrary, she was invited to mount the shoulders of a burly
Nubian, to reach a large hole half-way up the side-wall (higher than any
mantelpiece), and to c