g up your wares, but
you know better than any one that nothing of the sort is found in
Egyptian tombs."

Argyropoulos, understanding that he had to do with clever men, ceased to
boast, and turning to Lord Evandale, he said to him, "Well, my lord,
does the price suit you?"

"I will give a thousand guineas," replied the young nobleman, "if the
tomb has not been opened; but I shall give nothing if a single stone has
been touched by the crow-bar of the diggers."

"With the additional proviso," added Rumphius the prudent, "that we
carry off everything we shall find in the tomb."

"Agreed!" said Argyropoulos, with a look of complete confidence. "Your
lordship may get ready your bank-notes and gold beforehand."

"Dr. Rumphius," said Lord Evandale to his acolyte, "it strikes me that
the wish you uttered just now is about to be realised. This man seems
sure of what he says."

"Heaven will it may be so!" replied the scholar, shaking his head
somewhat doubtfully; "but the Greeks are most barefaced liars, _Cretae
mendaces_, says the proverb."

"No doubt this one comes from the mainland," answered Lord Evandale,
"and I think that for once he has told the truth."

The Greek walked a few steps ahead of the nobleman and the scholar like
a well-bred man who knows what is proper. He walked lightly and firmly,
like a man who feels that he is on his own ground.

The narrow defile which forms the entrance to the valley of Biban el
Moluk was soon reached. It had more the appearance of the work of man
than of a natural opening in the mighty wall of the mountain, as if the
Genius of Solitude had desired to make this realm of death inaccessible.
On the perpendicular rocky walls were faintly discernible shapeless
vestiges of weather-worn sculptures which might have been mistaken for
the asperities of the stone imitating the worn figures of a half-effaced
_basso-relievo_. Beyond the opening, the valley, which here widened
somewhat, presented the most desolate sight. On either side rose steep
slopes formed of huge masses of calcareous rock, rough, leprous-looking,
worn, cracked, ground to sand, in a complete state of decomposition
under the pitiless sun. They resembled bones calcined in the fire, and
yawned with the weariness of eternity out of their deep crevices,
imploring by their thousand cracks the drop of water which never fell.
The walls rose almost vertically to a great height, and their dentelated
crests stood out grayish-white