him a first-class funeral, just
in th' shape he'd 'a' fixed things up for himself. But I guess what
we've been at would have everlastin'ly shook up these dead fellows here,
if they could have come t' life for about five minutes while it was
goin' on!"

There was an element of grim humor in this suggestion of Young's that
tickled my fancy; and it was, indeed, allowing for the quaintness of his
phrasing of it, but an expression of my own thoughts. But my reflection
was upon the curious incongruity of it all, and upon the way in which
religious faiths supplant each other; even as the different races of men
who formulate them and believe in them supplant each other upon the face
of the earth. Together in this same cave were now the dead of two faiths
and two races. Who could tell what dead of other faiths and races yet
unborn would lie here also before the end of time should come?

When all was ended we were glad enough to lie down to give our battered
bodies rest in sleep. We felt sure that no attack would be made upon us;
yet we rolled some fragments of rock into the narrow entrance to the
cave, arranging them in such a way that they would fall with a crash
should any attempt be made to move them from outside. And, this
precaution having been taken, we lay down upon our blankets thankfully,
and never troubled ourselves to keep any watch at all.

It was brilliantly light when we awoke, for the rays of the just-risen
sun were striking strongly into the cave through its entrance-way; and
much light came also through a crevice higher up, and through a great
hole in the vastly high roof. Viewed in this clearer light, there was a
horrible ghastliness about the mummies ranged in their orderly rows, and
presided over by the coarsely carved, coarsely conceived stone figure
that in life they had worshipped as their god. On this image the
sunshine fell full, and we perceived that its position evidently had
been chosen carefully, so that the very first ray of light from the
rising sun would strike upon it. No doubt, in ancient times, this cave
had been a temple as well as a place of sepulchre.

We were well rested by our long and sound sleep; but the pain which was
everywhere in our bodies, from our many bruises, and from our wounds,
and from the aching stiffness of our muscles, made life for a time
almost intolerable. Moreover, the languorous reaction following the
undue exaltation that came of our battling and escape was upon us