“We are not very familiar with Egyptian history, Professor; but I think we catch the drift of your story. Pay out the cable, sir, and we’ll grasp what we can of it.”
He seemed relieved, saying:
“Very well, my boy. Egyptian history is very fascinating, but this is neither the time nor the place for me to instruct you in it. Still, it is necessary that you understand something of the importance of the proposition I am going to make you, and I will be as clear as possible in my descriptions. The arch, or pylon, referred to in the picture, had three square towers, to distinguish it from many others, and after searching long among the ruins of Karnak, which cover many acres, Lovelace Pasha and I found one which, though partly demolished, still had one of the characteristic towers left, with traces of the others. Taking these as our guide we drew an imaginary line from corner to corner, as in the diagram, and taking our compass we started out to follow this imaginary line across the desert. Three miles away we found, to our great joy, the group of palms, very ancient, without doubt, but still standing, and near to these was a small oasis watered by a tiny spring.
“The question now remaining was, how far beyond the three palms was the point marked on the diagram by the cross—the point where the treasure had been buried? We were obliged to work very cautiously, for at this oasis lived a small but fierce tribe of desert Arabs having for their sheik, or ruler, one Abdul Hashim—the same devil who nearly murdered me last night. The Arabs were curious to know what we were after, for they are great thieves and often steal the contents of an ancient tomb after some lucky excavator has discovered it. So we kept our secret from them, until finally they became so angry that they would have driven us away from their neighborhood had not Professor Lovelace secured an order from the Khedive granting him the privilege of excavating and exploring in certain sections of the desert for relics of Egypt’s ancient civilization. The Khedive will always grant these licenses, permitting the explorer to work at his own expense in the interests of science; but when a discovery has been made the laws oblige us to give or sell everything to the National Museum at Cairo, where they pay only the most insignificant prices because there is no other legal way in which one may dispose of ancient treasure or relics.
“But that absurd law did not concern us at the time; what we were eager for was to discover the hidden treasure of Karnak, and to avoid the hostile Arabs we worked mostly during the clear moonlit nights, when all the tribe were asleep. We had sand-augers made, with which we burrowed into the sand to the foundation of rock underneath, striving to find some obstruction to indicate where the treasure was buried. By means of our compass we were enabled to follow a straight line, and we worked slowly and carefully for a distance of five miles beyond the oasis, and then back again, without any definite result. Sometimes we would strike an obstruction and dig down only to find a point of rock or a loose boulder, and the task seemed to me, after a few months, to be endless and impracticable. But Lovelace would not give up. He was positive he was on the right track, and when I declared I had had enough of the job and was going back to Cairo, he became suspicious of me, and threatened to kill me if I deserted him.
“This was my first suspicion that his mind had become unbalanced.
“‘You know too much, Van Dorn, to be permitted to go away and blab my secrets to others,’ he said. I assured him I should keep a closed mouth, but the fellow was so crazy over his idea that he would not trust me. He was a big man, determined and masterful, and I had to obey him whether I wanted to or not. I stuck to the search, though I became afraid of my companion.
“Well, sirs, not to bother you with details which are to you unimportant, I will say that finally, after more than two years of patient search, we chanced upon the treasure. My auger one day stuck in the sand and could not be withdrawn. Digging down we found that the point had plunged into a bronze ring and become fast. Lovelace gave a howl of joy at sight of the ring, for he knew then that our search was ended.
“It was after midnight, with bright stars shining down to light us as we worked. We cleared away the sand to the depth of more than four feet, and found the ring, duly attached to a large block of granite that rested on the rock foundation.”
“Is there a layer of rock under the desert sands, then?” I inquired.