i was hard at work in my tent. i had almost completed translating the inscription of a small stele of amen-hotep iii, dated b. c., 1382, which with my own efforts i had discovered, and i was feeling wonderfully self-satisfied in consequence, when of a sudden i heard a great commotion without. almost immediately the tent flap was lifted, and migdal abu's black face appeared. he looked vastly excited for an arab, and he rolled his eyes horribly. "what do you want?" i demanded irritably. "did i not tell you i was not to be disturbed?"
he bent almost double. "excellency—a white sheik has come riding on an ass, and with him a shameless female, also white."
"the dickens!" i exclaimed, for i had not seen a european for nine weeks.
migdal abu advanced with hand outstretched. "excellency, he would have me give you this."
i took "this," and swore softly underbreath at[pg 2] the humourless pomposity of my unknown countryman. it was a pasteboard carte-de-visite. and we—in the heart of the libyan desert!
with a laugh i looked at the thing and read his name—"sir robert ottley."
"what!" i said, then sprang a-foot. ottley the great egyptologist. ottley the famous explorer. ottley the eminent decipherer of cuneiform inscriptions. ottley the millionaire whose prodigality in the cause of learning had in ten short years more than doubled the common stock of knowledge of the history of the shepherd kings of the nile. i had been longing since a lad to meet him, and now he had come unasked to see me out on the burning sands of yatibiri.
trembling with excitement, i caught up a jacket, and hardly waiting to thrust my arms into the sleeves, rushed out of the tent.
before me, sitting on an ass that was already sound asleep, despite a plague of flies that played about its eyes, was a little bronze-faced, grizzled old man attired from head to foot in glistening white duck and wearing on his head an enormous pith helmet. my arabs, glad of an excuse to cease work, squatted round him in a semi-circle.
"sir robert ottley!" i cried. "a thousand welcomes."
"you are very good," he drawled. "i presume you are dr. pinsent."
"at your service."
[pg 3]
he stooped a little forward and offered me his hand.
"will you not dismount?" i asked.
"thank you, no. i have come to ask a favour." then he glanced round him and began deliberately to count my arabs.
i surveyed him in blank astonishment. he possessed a large hawk-like nose, a small thin-lipped mouth and little eyes twinkling under brows that beetled.
"twelve, and two of them are good for nothing; mere weeds," said sir robert.
then he turned to me with a smile. "you will forgive me?" he asked, adding quickly, "but then arabs are cattle. there was no personal reflection."
"a cup of coffee," i suggested. "the sun is dreadful. it would refresh you."
"the sun is nothing," he replied, "and i have work to do. i am camped on the southern slope of the hill of rakh. it is twelve miles. i have found the tomb for which i have been searching seven years. i thought i had enough arabs. i was mistaken."
"you may have the use of mine and welcome," i observed.
he gave a queer little bow. "he gives twice who gives quickly. the sarcophagus is in a rock hole forty feet beneath the level of the desert. i simply must have it up to-night."
[pg 4]
"they shall start at once, and i shall go with them; i am as strong as six," i replied. then i shouted some orders to migdal abu. when i turned it was to gasp. a woman had materialised from the sunbeams. i had completely forgotten that sir robert had a female companion. all my eyes had been for him. i swung off my hat and stammered some tardy words of welcome and invitation.
sir robert interrupted me. "my daughter—dr. pinsent," he drawled in slow, passionless tones. "my daughter does not require any refreshment, thank you, doctor."
"i am too excited," said a singularly sweet voice. "father's discovery has put me into a fever. i really could not eat, and coffee would choke me. but if you could give me a little water."
i rushed into my tent and returned with a brimming metal cup. "the arabs have broken all my glass ware," i said apologetically.
she lifted her veil and our eyes met. she was lovely. she smiled and showed a set of dazzling teeth. the incisors were inlaid with gold. i remarked the fact in a sort of self-defensive panic, for the truth is i am a shy idiot with pretty women. thank goodness she was thirsty and did not notice my confusion. two minutes afterwards i was mounted on my donkey, and we were off on the long tramp to the hill of rakh, the arabs trailing behind us in a thin ill-humoured line. we [pg 5]maintained the silence of bad temper and excessive heat until the sun sank into the sand. then, however, we wiped our foreheads, said a cheerful good-bye to the flies that had been tormenting us, and woke up.
"i am immensely obliged to you, dr. pinsent," said sir robert.
"so am i," said miss ottley.
"the boot is on the other foot," i replied. "it's kind of you to permit me to be present at your triumph. is it a king?"
"no," said miss ottley, "a priest of amen of the eighteenth dynasty."
"oh, a priest."
miss ottley bridled at my tone. "no king was ever half as interesting as our priest," she declared. "he was a wonderful man in every way, a prophet, a magician, and enormously powerful. besides, he is believed to have committed suicide for the sake of principle, and he predicted his own resurrection after a sleep of two thousand years."
"he has been dead 3285 years," sighed sir robert.
"is that his fault?" cried the girl.
"it falsifies his prophecy."
she shrugged her shoulders.
"ptahmes was his name," said sir robert, turning to me. "he was the right-hand man of amen-hotep iv; but when that king changed his religion and his name and became akhenaten and a devotee[pg 6] of the old worship of heliopolis, ptahmes apparently killed himself as a protest against the deposition of amen, his particular divinity."
"read that," said miss ottley.
she handed me a page of type-written manuscript.
it ran as follows:
"hearken to the orders which are put upon you by ptahmes, named tahutimes, son of mery, son of hap.
"all my ways were regulated even as the pace of an ibis. the hawk-headed horus was my protector like amulets upon my body. i trained the troops of my lord. i made his pylon 60 cubits long in the noble rock of quartzite, most great in height and firm as heaven. i did not imitate what had been done before. i was the royal scribe of the recruits. mustering was done under me. i was appointed judge of the palace; overseer of all the prophets of the south and of the north. i was appointed high priest of amen in the capital—king of all the gods. i was made the eyes and ears of the king: keeper of my lord's heart and fan-bearer at the king's right hand. great men have come from afar to bow themselves before me, bringing presents of ivory and gold, copper, silver and emery, lazuli, malachite, green felspar and vases of mern wood inlaid with white precious stones sometimes bearing gold at one time 1000 deben (200 pounds weight). for my fame was carried abroad[pg 7] even as the fame of the king, 'lord of the sweet wind.' and there was spoken of me by the son of paapis that my wisdom was of a divine nature, because of my knowledge of futurities. yet on the sixth day of the month of pakhons in the 18th year i desire to rest. my lord, at the solicitation of the great royal wife and mother nefertiti, has put off the worship of his predecessors. the name of amen is proscribed from the country. ra is proscribed from the country. horus is proscribed from the country. aten is set up in their place and worshipped in the land. my lord has even changed his name. apiy is the high priest of the new god that is from the mesopotamian wilderness. amen, king of the gods, dandled my lord and is forsaken and proscribed. i am an old man and would rest: although my lord has not forsaken me. he has appointed me overseer of all his works. therefore, shall you carry me to the temple of kak, and give my body to the hands of the priests of amen who will wrap me in the linen sheets of horus without removing my heart, my entrails or my lungs. then you shall carry me to khizebh and enclose me in the place prepared for me; and cover my tomb to a depth of five fathoms with the sand of the desert at that hour when no man looks or listens. do this even as i command, and as royal scribe i trace the order with my pen. but you shall place my papyri and the sign by which i shall be known, and the stele of ivory engraved with the directions to the[pg 8] priests of amen who are to wake me from my sleep at the distant hour, in the tomb that is prepared for my body in the temple of merenptah and in such manner that i shall there appear to sleep. and all these things you shall do, or my curse shall pursue you and your children and their children for the space of four hundred lives. nor shall you remove the endowment of my gifts nor touch them where they lie under a penalty of great moment."
i strained my eyes to catch the last words, for the darkness was already setting down upon the desert; and i was profoundly interested.
"wonderful!" i said, as i returned her the document. "a papyrus, of course?"
"yes, one of several. father found it seven years ago at dier el batiri."
"i had not heard."
sir robert coughed. "no," said he, "nor anyone else. i have never published it. it did not come to me in the usual way. i bought it from an arab who had rifled the tomb in which it was discovered."
"and the other papyri and the ivory stele?" i questioned.
"they are in my possession, too."
"they enabled you doubtless to locate the real tomb that holds the body?"
"they helped."
then silence supervened. to me it was filled with wonder. i could not help asking myself what[pg 9] circumstances could possibly have induced ottley to withhold so valuable an historic treasure for so many years from the world. such a course of action was utterly opposed to all practice, and the unwritten but immutable laws of scientific research. it seemed strangely at odds, too, with the man's reputed character. it would have covered him with glory to have placed his discovery before the society to which we both belonged. and a dozen incidents related of him far and wide, proved that he was not indifferent to praise and fame. he read my thoughts probably, for at length he cleared his throat and spoke.
"there were reasons why i should not blazon the find abroad," he said.
"no doubt," i observed, with unintentioned dryness.
"one papyrus speaks of a golden treasure," he went on quietly. "if published, it would have set thousands looking for the tomb. in that case the chances are that the body of ptahmes would have been destroyed by some vandal intent solely on pillage."
"you assumed a great responsibility," i remarked. i simply had to say it, for i was angry, and his explanation appeared puerile to me.
"do you dispute my right?" he demanded coldly.
i shrugged my shoulders. "it is not for me to say, sir robert. doubtless when the time comes you[pg 10] will be able to satisfy the society and the world that you have acted rightly."
"i admit no responsibility," he answered; "and permit me to observe that you are talking nonsense. i owe no duty to communicate the results of my purchases or discoveries to any society or to the world."
"true, sir robert. an action for damages could not lie against you."
"sir!" he cried.
"father," said miss ottley, "how can dr. pinsent's foolish sarcasm affect you? besides, we need his arabs."
"quite so," said sir robert. "we need his arabs. how brightly the stars shine to-night, dr. pinsent."
the cool impudence of the pair struck me dumb. i shook with passion. for a moment i thought of calling a halt and returning the way we had come to my own camp with my arabs. but for my curiosity to see the tomb of ptahmes very probably i should have done so. in a few seconds, however, my rage cooled, and my uppermost feeling was admiration mixed with mirth. i had never been treated with such open and absurd contempt before. it was a refreshing experience. i burst of a sudden into a peal of laughter. miss ottley joined me in the exercise. but sir robert rode on like a hook-nosed sphinx.
"i knew i could not be mistaken," said miss [pg 11]ottley. "you should thank god for your sense of humour, dr. pinsent."
"and who is benefiting from it at this moment, i should like to know?" i retorted. "the thanks are due from you, i fancy."
"deo gratias!" she flashed. "in sober truth, we need your arabs sadly."
"i repeat, i am glad to be of use."
"we shall use you, but not necessarily in the cause of your society. understand that fully."
"you mean?"
"that you must not expect to share our secrets."
"in plain words, you will not let me help you open the sarcophagus."
"your penetration is remarkable."
"and if——"
"and if," she interrupted quickly, "you require a reward for the courtesy we asked and you accorded or have promised to accord, you have but to name a sum in cash to have it paid."
"or——" said i, stung to the quick.
"or," she flashed, "return! you are at liberty to make your choice. yours are not the only arabs in egypt. at a pinch we can wait a day or two. it is for you to say."
i tore off my hat. "miss ottley—my arabs are yours for as long as you require them!" i furiously announced. "good day to you. sir robert, good day!"
then i dragged the head of my ass round and set[pg 12] his face to my camp. the beast, however, would hardly budge, and i had to belabour him unmercifully to induce him to trot. never did man make a more undignified exit from circumstances of indignity. and it did not need miss ottley's mocking laughter to assure me that i looked ridiculous. i could have strangled her with all the cheerfulness in life; and from that moment i have cherished an ineradicable hatred of donkeys. sir robert did not open his lips. he did not even return my angry salute. almost choking with rage, i finally got out of range of miss ottley's laughter. then i dismounted and told the desert just what i thought of her and her father. it was almost midnight when i reached my camp, for, to crown all, i neglected the stars in my passion, and for two hours lost my way.
