Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-01-29

| A2&3Nlp cnleny remark 4 D e
VII for having given me
my young bride. We
were spending our honeymoon in
the lotus-eating land and had taken
up our quarters at that admirable hos
telery known as 'Mcna house." which
stands at the foot of the plateau where
the great pyramids of Gizeh are SO ma
| jestically enthroned. 1t was in truth
a haicyon time, to be marked in our
memories with the whitest of stones.
| One slight drawback there was GER
tainly, but it was a mere crumple in
our rose leaf. The Bedouins would
never leave us alone. Wherever we
went they insisted on accompanying
us; it was impossible to get rid of them,
but they We're withal so polite and
| good tempered that we could not find
it in our hearts to be angry The only
way to avoid the pests was to carry out
our wanderings by moonlight. The
Arabs believe firmly that "El-Ahram'
are haunted, and will not on any &C.
count venture near the ruins after
| nightfall. In this way we had the
whole place to ourselves but that. for
US, was ample society. We revealed in
our freedom, and soon became thor
oughly acquainted with the entire
plateau from the sphinx on the south
to the dilapidated temple on the north
ern verge.
One lovely night, before the moon
was quite full, my wife proposed visit
10 int of =.
and having procured candles we clam
bsred up the well-worn track leading
to the entrance, and speedily made our
way down the sloping shaft to the cen
trail chamber. Outside the air was
slightly chilly, and the warmth of the
great tomb was very agreeable, in
in spite of the closeness of the air. Sit
ting ourselves down on the edge
of the lidless sarcophagus, we be-
gan one of those conversations so dear
to young lovers, during which the
hours glide away like minutes, or rath-
er when all sense of time is lost.
Our candles were burning brightly
and steadily beside us, when suddenly
without the slightest warning-a
gust of wind descended from above,
and in the twinl1ling Of an eye we
were in darkness. The expected tran
sition was startling 10 a degree. My
wife clung to me ccnvulsively, trem-
bling in every limb, and | freely con-
fess too was not free from that sign
of discomposure. Hurricdly | exam
ined all my pockets, one after the
other, in a vain search for my match
box. 1t was not to be found. | raust
have dropped it somewhere en- route.
This was terrible; and | was still
carefully examining every receptacle
| possessed, when Il dull, grinding
noise made itself audible through the
obscurity. There is something dread
full in noise that one cannot account
tor, no matter when or where one
hears it. Out in the open my sterious
sound is bad enough, but situated as
we were, inside a narrow, confined
space amidst total darkness, it was
simply appalling
Shrinking toward each other we
listened intcntly, not knowing what to
do, for the noise, however caused,
seemed to come from a direction be-
tween where we were and the door of
the chamber. At last il ceased, and
although half dead with a mixture of
awe and terror we were obliged to
muster up enough courage to try to
find our way out. Gradually we crept
along hand in hand, feeling the smooth
surface of the wall with our disengaged
hands as we went. The chamber is
not spacious, but our progress was
necessarily very slow, and after what
appeared to be an interminable time,
| actually stumbled up against an OBJ
stacle.
What could it be? STOPPING, / tried
TO make ont by sense of touch what it
was that impeded our progress. A
very slight investigation satisfied me.
There could be no doubt that this
barrier in our way was the sarcopha-
Gus. We must have made the entire
circuit of the chamber without finding
the door!
Concluding we had missed the en-
trance through some stupid mistake or
other we set out afresh, tracing with
the utmost care every inch of the pol
ished wall. Again the distance seemed
and again we accom-
plishod the round of the accursed place,
and found ourselves back at the origi-
nal starting point.
1t was most astounding thing
Either the door had vanished or we
were losing our senses. The silence
now was terrible and the darkness was
truly Egyptian-it could be felt! The
heavy, close air was SO thick and clam
INV that we could hardly breathe; our
hearts were beating at railway speed
and the perspiration dripped from
every pore The circumstances were, |
in sooth, as desperate as they were in
explicable, but since no good could !
come of sitting still we arose once |
more and recommended our search for
the vanished opening.
Twas all in vain. The granite was
as smooth and unbroken as though it 4
had been fashioned ont of one enor- /
nous block Not fissure or crack 4
could be found large enough to admit /
even the point of q knife. Whether we
tried from right to left or from left to