They traversed the Valley of the Kings, stopping at every place where excavations were going on to make inquiries of the foremen in charge. But always the answer was in the negative, until a doubt began to creep into Don’s mind whether his father had ever reached the spot that had possessed so strong a fascination for his deranged mind. When two days had thus been passed fruitlessly, this doubt became almost a conviction.
In the course of their journeying, they passed the cliff from which Phalos had copied the inscription. It was at a dizzy height, and increased their respect for the man who had dared its perils.
The captain unslung his field glasses and passed them around, so that all could have a look at the curious writing that had withstood the centuries. They studied it with interest, Don far more acutely than that of any other member of the party, because of his belief that his father had also risked his life in securing a copy of those queer hieroglyphics.
“How on earth could any one read such writings?” asked Teddy.
“They couldn’t up to a little more than a hundred years ago,” replied Zeta Phalos, with a smile. “The knowledge of it had passed utterly out of the mind of man for nearly two thousand years.
“Then, at the time Napoleon was in Egypt, one of his engineers in digging a fort uncovered a stone, not much bigger than you could carry in your hands, that had on it three different kinds of writing. One was Greek, another was in the writing of the common people of old Egypt, and the third was in the writing used by the Egyptian priesthood similar to what you see up there. The stone was called the Rosetta stone, and is now in the British Museum.
“Of course, the Greek could be read, and scholars were struck by the idea that the other inscriptions referred to the same thing. So they compared the Greek with the other characters and so learned what the symbols meant. That was the beginning, and before long they had an old Egyptian grammar and dictionary. That little stone proved to be the key that unlocked the whole vast storehouse of Egyptian history.”
As they moved on the surroundings gradually assumed a desert character. The cliffs grew lower and were in many places replaced by sand dunes.
Don’s attention was attracted by the countless little heaps of stones they passed, each consisting of a little upright slab of rock, held in place by others on each side.
“What are those, Uncle Amos?” he asked.