He repeated the same instructions to Ali Mohammed, to the evident surprise of the latter.
"I don't understand at all," muttered Sime, "but as I presume you have a good reason for what you do, let it be as you propose. Can you give me any idea respecting what we may hope to find inside this place? I only entered once, and I am not anxious to repeat the experiment. The air is unbreathable, the descent to the level passage below is stiff work, and, apart from the inconvenience of navigating the latter passage, which as you probably know is only sixteen inches high, the climb up the vertical shaft into the tomb is not a particularly safe one. I exclude the possibility of snakes," he added ironically.
"You have also omitted the possibility of Antony Ferrara," said Dr. Cairn.
"Pardon my scepticism, doctor, but I cannot imagine any man voluntarily remaining in that awful place."
"Yet I am greatly mistaken if he is not there!"
"Then he is trapped!" said Sime grimly, examining a Browning pistol which he carried. "Unless—"
He stopped, and an expression, almost of fear, crept over his stoical features.
"That sixteen-inch passage," he muttered—"with Antony Ferrara at the further end!"
"Exactly!" said Dr. Cairn. "But I consider it my duty to the world to proceed. I warn you that you are about to face the greatest peril, probably, which you will ever be called upon to encounter. I do not ask you to do this. I am quite prepared to go alone."
"That remark was wholly unnecessary, doctor," said Sime rather truculently. "Suppose the other two proceed to their post."