"How now? That is the way we are to go, if we go any farther. We will have to obey the curse the Lord put upon the devil for tempting mother Eve, and go upon our bellies, as snakes and lizards do."
"It wasn't half so bad to crawl that way among the flowers of Paradise as through such a hole as this," replied his comrade.
"Let's go in, one close after the other, so that in case one gets stuck, the other can pull him back."
The opening was wider than it appeared. Pushing the lantern ahead, the men made good progress, and at length emerged into another large chamber.
"The devil snake ate dust. I wish he could have had the mouthful I just got. He would never have risked tempting any of the children of Eve afterwards," said the foremost man, wiping the clots of filth from his face. "But let us sit and blow awhile; for, if I am not mistaken, we are a good bow-shot off our mark yet. I wish you could do what the Tyrians think you did—change yourself into a ghost and vanish through these walls."
"I wouldn't do that if I could," replied his comrade, laughing; "for I would have to leave you alone in this hole. And, by Hercules! as the Greeks say, if I hadn't pulled you a while ago, you would have been as snugly buried as King David is in his stone coffin somewhere about here."
"Not far from here, either. I think I smell something as old. Do you know the flavor of mummy skin, Marduk?"
"Right well, Manasseh! and if my eyes are as good as your nose, there lies the mummy."
A dark object wrapped in cloths was close beside them. The men moved away a few paces, and turned the light of the lantern upon it. A bat cut through the light.
"We've startled his ghost," said Marduk, with a slight tremor in his voice, for all that he attempted to be jocose.