“Well, not exactly,” admitted Don. “The fact is, I remembered the way King Cheops concealed the opening into his tomb in the Great Pyramid. I thought the same thing might have been worked here, so I tried to feel for it. But it was just luck I thought of it.”
“Luck!” snorted the captain. “I call it brain. And about the finest specimen of brain I know of is in the headpiece of a certain young fellow named Don Sturdy!”
CHAPTER XXIV
The Sleepwalker
Naturally, there was one subject above all others discussed that night as the explorers ate their meal and later, when they lay about and relaxed from the strain of the day.
But even more important than that was one that the captain had with Don’s father, as he drew the latter a little apart from the group later in the evening.
“How are things shaping, Richard?” asked the captain, laying his hand on his brother’s arm with an affectionate gesture.
“I think I’m beginning to get matters in their true relations,” replied Mr. Sturdy. “The discovery to-day has done a lot toward clearing things up. I don’t recall a thing as yet about my voyage from Brazil to Egypt. But I am beginning to remember some of the things that have occurred since my reaching here. I can dimly recall the faces of some of the workmen I employed. It’s still rather dreamlike, but it’s coming.”
“That’s great!” exclaimed the captain. “It won’t be long at this rate before the last haziness will have vanished. But there is one thing especially that I wish you would try to remember. It’s a thing on which the lives of all of us may depend. How did you get in here?”
Richard Sturdy closed his eyes and tried to remember. But after a prolonged effort, he opened his eyes and shook his head wearily.
“I can’t do it, Frank,” he said. “The sudden blending of the recollections of Brazil with those of Egypt has left me confused on some points. I don’t yet remember anything of what passed just before I found myself on the bank of the stream.”