“With the greatest of pleasure,” assented Professor Bruce, while the captain nodded his head in vigorous agreement. “Your knowledge of the place will be invaluable to us, to say nothing of the pleasure we will have from your company.”
Phalos inclined his head in courteous acknowledgment.
“But I thought,” said the captain, “that practically all of the tombs of the great rulers of Egypt had been discovered and explored.”
The Egyptian shook his head.
“Not all,” he said. “A great many have been opened by scientists and their treasures lie now in the great museums and libraries of the old world. Others have been broken into by thieves and the tombs despoiled of gold and gems which were sold secretly to whoever would buy. But great treasures still await the excavators, as is proved by the recent discovery of the tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen.”
“Ah, yes,” broke in the professor, “that is the greatest of them all. I am counting on examining that when we get to Luxor.”
“The greatest of them all so far,” qualified Phalos. “But if I am not mistaken, a still greater remains to be discovered. Great heaps of gold and jewels that have dazzled the eyes and the imaginations of the world have been found in Tut-ankh-Amen’s tomb. But they will be surpassed, I think, if we ever discover the Tombs of Gold.”
“The Tombs of Gold!” ejaculated the professor, while Don and Teddy looked at each other significantly. “Isn’t that rather an extravagant description? Do you really mean of gold?”
“Just that,” replied Phalos soberly. “Not the tombs themselves, perhaps, but the coffins and pillars and implements placed there for the use of the dead.”
“Just what monarch was buried there?” asked the professor, with just the faintest tinge of skepticism in his tone.